A threefold problem:

1. A likely need for surgery for a probable inguinal hernia
2. No health insurance (for the 1st time ever)
3. Apprehension about having surgery at a teaching hospital

     A friend has just been diagnosed by a local university hospital's
ER staff this evening as having a probable inguinal hernia and was given
a prescription for Tylenol #3 and advised to contact the hospital's
elective surgery clinic in the morning to schedule an appointment for a
confirmation and to schedule surgery if it is necessary.

     This friend has had health insurance all his life, but due to an
unfortunate lack of foresight he is temporarily lacking health insurance
at this time and while he is employed with the same company he has been
with for ten years he may not be able to get back on the company's group
insurance plan for some time (possibly 3 to 5 years).

     My friend is quite apprehensive about having to have his very first
surgery (other than tonsils) done by a "university"  (i.e., teaching)
hospital and he wants to know if his fears are justified or if he should
try to put off the operation in hope that it will resolve of its own
accord?

     I have read enough that I know with a hernia there are risks of
strangulation, incarceration, infection, gangrene, and death, but
lacking a medical education I have no idea of the probability of such
possibilities (but suspect they are minimal since they released my
friend rather than admit him for observation). I also know full well
that I am not qualified to even venture a guess about the urgency of my
friend's need for surgery -- thus the reason I am writing now is
probably twofold -- first, I am hoping to learn something about the
overall competency of a teaching hospital's staff to successfully treat
an inguinal hernia, and I am also wondering what the urgency is for this
type of surgery?

     All I can add is that my friend first suspected a hernia about May
10th, 1994 and he waited until he began to have referred pain to the
left lumbar quadrant before he sought treatment in the ER today.  He
adds that pain increases ten-fold whenever travel by car is necessary
(in his words, in the position he has to sit in the car, "everything
gets all scrunched -up down there.").  ;)

     ANY ADVICE AT ALL WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.  :)

     Thanks!