Better Odds in the Casino...

A new study shows that you are more likely to survive a heart attack in a casino than in a hospital. For that matter, you are also safer choosing to have your infarction in an airport than a health care facility.

About half the people who suffer heart attacks in public places with defibrillators around, like airports or casinos, received care within two minutes and recovered. Only about a third of people in hospitals pulled through.

It makes sense, really. I mean, if you clutch your chest and fall over in a casino, it attracts attention. People have to step over you to get to the slot machine, for instance. And you stop losing money, which naturally sets off alarm bells. It's in everyone's interest to get you defibrillated and back up slinging chips as quickly as possible. But in a hospital, that screaming and chest-grabbing sort of thing is pretty mundane. People in hospitals grab their chests every day. Ho hum.

Just more hard evidence to support my policy of staying out of hospitals--especially when even the least bit ill.