Hockey Injury Lands Science Writer In Hoboken Hospital: His Take

HOBOKEN, NJ — A longtime science journalist who was treated recently by Hoboken doctors for a hockey injury wrote in Scientific American on Tuesday that his ordeal has given him new perspective on the American health care system.

John Horgan, who's also a journalism professor, wrote, "Americans are overtested, overdiagnosed, and overtreated, I’ve argued, because physicians and hospitals in our capitalist culture care more about profits than patients ... But two episodes, one big and one small, have forced me to reconsider my medicine-bashing."

Horgan shares an ordeal in which he visited physicians in both Hoboken and New York City for an increasingly painful elbow bruise, brought on by a hockey accident, and ultimately landed in Hoboken University Medical Center. You can read his piece, "My Stupid Elbow and the Crisis in Health Care," here.

Want updates on breaking news when it happens? You can sign up for occasional breaking news alerts in Hoboken, or for a daily newsletter at 6 a.m. each morning with local news. Don't miss the stories your neighbors are talking about! Sign up with your preferences here.

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.