Category Archives: medical

The Failure of Our Medical System

Access Denied

A woman with uncontrollable whole body shakes, arms flailing, legs jerking, stomach muscles folding her in half goes into the emergency room in a small town hospital. (Eufaula) The doctor does a CT scan, takes history, and can’t figure out why this is happening. He sees a possible stroke on the CT but that may be old. Over the next 12 hours he figures out that they can suppress the symptoms using a Parkinson’s medication, but still has no answers as to the underlying cause.

Community Hospital

He calls the state’s most prestigious and well known hospital system(UAB) to have the woman transferred. They won’t take the patient, no available beds and no option for a later admit. Unable to do more than keep the woman medicated and barely comfortable, the small town hospital just sends her home with medication, no solution, no diagnosis. That capability is beyond the resources of the small town.

It is now up to the patient to find a neurologist/specialist before either her medications run out or she returns to an emergency room with another acute event. She has a primary care doctor in Birmingham at UAB but that doctor retired. A referral from that practice would get her seen. They will see her, in 45 days well past the end of the medications that control the tremors. It’s an emergency only held back by medication.

The absolute indifference to the plight of the patient by UAB and I am sure, a multitude of other institutional medical centers has become the trend not the exception. The primary care has its processes, and won’t budge, the specialists use this as a shield against seeing new patients and the result is patient lives are at risk. The time to diagnosis and treatment is extended and maybe the patient survives until they can find the right resource, and perhaps the patient dies while waiting.

This certainly seems to be the approach at UAB where the wearing of flimsy paper masks is still required even though there is no medical evidence that the masks prevent any disease, Covid-19 or otherwise. The patient is left with calling every neurologist across the state in hopes of finding one that will look at her case.

Medicine has become more focused on the process of limiting access, even to fully insured patients, than making any attempt to resolve the most serious cases as soon as possible. Is it equity that ties up the resources now, not the need to treat the most serious cases first? Do serious cases no longer matter? What ever happened to the oath physician’s take?

Life expectancy has fallen precipitately over the last two years. While therapeutics for Covid were discouraged, critical patient needs ignored, cancer screenings delayed and fear promoted, the result has been increased death. There has to be a point where doctors stand up and say that this is not acceptable. Still, I see few signs that in the face of increased administrative burdens, the push for more expensive pharmaceuticals, greater interference by insurance companies that the doctors, the people most invested in this system other that the patient are willing to say anything.

Doctor’s and nurses have gone from being perceived as heroes, fighters for their patients, champions of good health, to being perceived in large part as bureaucrats, too scared to take up for their patients, too frightened of consequences to state even the obvious. Science now means less than personal security. Of course there are a few that stand up to the pressures put on them and they pay a high price for stating the obvious. There are far too few champions to change this trajectory.

In the meantime, the case of the woman above remains unresolved and it is only a matter of time before things become life threatening again.

Therapeutic Nihilism

The HIV/AIDS epidemic caused fear and panic in the 1980s. Yet physicians stepped up, set new protocols, and continued to treat patients without requiring HIV tests before seeing them At the time this disease was 100% fatal and they did not fully know how it was transmitted. Today, COVID-19 if you are under 60 the crude mortality rate is less than .4% and if you are under 30 this rate is less that .2%. Yet even with known precautions, patients with severe NON-COVID disease are being put off, sent to the ER or ignored. It’s an embarrassment to the medical community. Most of the heroes of the HIV era are gone, replaced by physicians that would rather cower behind overblown fear than take care of their patients.

A part of the modern hippocratic oath as taken by physicians today says:

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

John Smith, (not his real name) waited weeks for an appointment to meet with the orthopedic surgeon to remove infected bone from his hip. He had already been diagnosed with osteomyelitis (an infection in the bone) in his hip. After waiting two weeks as his infection raged in his hip he developed a fever but was finally able to come to Birmingham for his appointment and leg and life saving surgery. Upon arriving at his doctor’s office they took his temperature. Then sent him away.

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9gO6sCzcnc

It does not take much intelligence to figure out why he had a fever. Instead the doctor puts his patient at risk by refusing to see him. He will now have to go through an emergency room and will likely lose his leg or his life.

Another friend of mine, call her Jill, has been diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia. She has tested negative for COVID. The pneumonia is getting slowly worse. Her doctor refused to see her for two weeks. This too will most likely result in an ER visit at the point her life is in danger.

Where are the physicians, those heroes that took the Hippocratic Oath, the one’s who swore to do something to help the sick and injured, who swore not to do nothing. Yet, doctor after doctor is letting their patients get sicker and sicker, even die rather than take the chance a patient might be infected with COVID. Even when they know their patient does not have COVID from testing, they are turning them away, or delaying seeing them.

This used to mean something.

I have been unable to see my cardiologist for 3 months past when they told me I needed to be checked. If I had a problem, they would let me go to the ER or have a heart attack before I was treated. No heroes there, and I have tested COVID negative.

These few examples are being repeated millions of times across the country. Yet physicians have gone along with this approach to healthcare, intentionally putting their patients at risk rather than seeing any patient that might carry the disease. The patient and the doctor can wear masks and limit the time of exposure yet fear rules these former heroes.

Since when was being a physician supposed to be risk free? Each one signs on to treat sick people. Healthy people have no need for doctors. With the advent of COVID, they are violating, en mass their commitment to patients. Is this why they are so highly paid, so they can cower behind policies that keep patients away. It’s like a roofer that won’t go up high because he might fall. But the roofer is at much greater risk and has far more fortitude than those that are not caring for their patients.

From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-real-estate-hiring-a-roofer-story.html

No one is measuring the deaths that could have been prevented with normal care. So if a patient waiting to see his physician gets COVID he or she is more likely to die or to be sicker than if they had been treated properly.

We should call it the hypocritical oath instead. These former heroes took an oath they refuse to uphold. It is a shameful response to a virus that seldom kills anyone without underlying disease. If they had not taken such an oath I would not hold these physicians responsible, but they did take the oath. History is full of physicians that took much greater risks in order to treat infectious patients. Yet, even knowing a patient does not have COVID many of these doctors are still not seeing their patients or are delaying treatment.

No wonder our ERs are full, everyone with an issue, or fever, or cough is being sent to the ER, even if the cause is known. This exposes these patients to COVID when it is completely unnecessary. Even if they did not have COVID, by the time they leave the hospital or ER, they will have it. Where are the doctors that took the Hippocratic oath? Why don’t they speak up against this crime against their patients? This approach to personal safety is putting every patient at risk. It is killing many of them.

Censorship and Free Speech

Why would Twitter remove a video by physicians that suggested, based on science and facts that hydroxychloroquine was both a safe and effective treatment for those with COVID-19? That is it! Just prevent the truth and debate while Americans die. Such behavior causes death. Yes, Twitter you are helping to kill Americans that would not otherwise succumb to COVID-19? By not letting the public see the range of research and anecdotal evidence Twitter endangers the lives of those who get information from Twitter.

From 1984

Search engine results from Google have dropped conservative sites like Breitbart down to a point they hardly exist. Such tactics are designed to get Joe Biden elected. But more than that they are designed to herd Americans into following the whims of tech companies and what ever the mini oligarchs working for those companies want you to believe.

Uigurs in China’s Concentration Camps

Overwhelmingly liberal these tech company cultures are promoting socialist and marxist views. No matter the evidence that such views generate poverty, violence and death. Just look at the history. Russia, China, Venezuela, Laos, North Korea)

The woke movement and cancel culture is destroying those who may have said something that could be construed as racist, conservative, religious, sexist or just said something that supports views that they don’t like. Justice Kavanaugh was tormented by someone just claimed something happened when he was in high school. No evidence, no facts, just smear. The media did not research the claims, it looked for others who could make claims. Even less valid. He kept his job, 100s of others are losing their jobs based on something they might have said 10, 20 or more years ago. Eventually it could be you.

Twitter allows tweets calling for genocide by the Ayatollah Khomeini but censors tweets by doctors that might support Trump. Twitter further censors any tweet they feel might benefit Donald Trump. Does Twitter actually support the destruction of the Jews? Is Twitter anti-semetic? They support the Ayatollah’s rants, so that must be the conclusion.

The mainstream media filters out the violence and rioting destroying our cities because they think showing that will help Donald Trump. They don’t show the 1000+ cops injured by rocks and fireworks, or the 36 people killed in these ‘peaceful’ riots. They create the lies that they want the public to believe.

The threat to our freedoms from these big tech and media companies is existential. Growing up in a world that was anti-semetic I learned that even unpopular, despicable speech , whether neo-nazi or racist was to be tolerated because that protected counter arguments, that the free exchange of ideas was more important and created an environment where the best ideas could emerge. Censorship creates the world of China and 1,000,000 plus in concentration camps. Where is that outrage?

If you examine history, this is where we are headed. The world of prosperity will look like Minneapolis unless action is taken now. I would urge each and every one of those who feel they are being censored to speak up. Inundate these platforms with videos, and posts supporting their ideas. They should also vote where they can with their wallets. If you do not need google to reach your market, don’t pay Google. The same with the other platforms. The violence and lies are spreading faster than COVID-19. You are the cure, but not if it is too late.

Scarier than COVID-19: No Freedom

FOOD BANKS ARE OVERRUN

The United States is a country with a history of overcoming huge problems when the people are left to be inventive, innovative, and free.  We have forgotten that basic fact, to our great detriment.

In the name of health and security the government has denied millions their right to feed their families.   In Texas,  Shelly Luther was jailed for opening up her beauty shop.  In Birmingham you can be fined for not wearing a mask. The Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas says Churches must keep a register of names of people attending in-person services for possible future contact tracing.  Why is that?  Are Christians to be tracked?  Across the country meetings of more than 10 people are banned. Tech companies are filtering and removing information with which they don’t agree,  preventing people’s voices from getting out and hindering even scientific exploration.

The response to COVID-19 is not protecting the most vulnerable, just damaging everyone else.  In New York 66% of the new cases have come from people sheltering in place, yet “Non-Essential workers” can not go to work.    Studies have show that the number of people infected but who never were sick enough to seek treatment is far higher (20%)in New York City than imagined.  The virus has been here and the shelter in place orders may have flattened the peak and kept the hospitals from being overwhelmed, but at this point all these orders are are draconian steps demonstrating the arbitrary execution of power by government.  There is no science to it. 

The government has arbitrarily decided who is “Essential”.  It is not just healthcare workers, delivery drivers,  grocery workers.  Every person who has to feed a family is essential to that family.  Every business with customers is essential to those customers. Daycare is essential to working parents.   To a near sighted person eye doctors are essential, to the sick the availability of emergency rooms is essential even if they do not have COVID-19.

go away

Instead we have run patients with milder problems away from our medical facilities, so when they do return, those problems will be severe.  We have cut off those who are sick from any disease from their loved ones and advocates.  Patients that could not speak for themselves now have no one to speak for them.

What makes sense, is that instead of locking up everyone, denying even the most basic rights of free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to assemble, and the freedom to worship, is that we protect the people that are most vulnerable.  Clearly the elderly, those in nursing homes or those who have significant co-morbidities are most at risk.  The vast majority of everyone else is at minor risk of serious infection.

Those at risk need personal protective gear or need to limit their exposure to others who have known COVID-19 statuses.  In New York City 20% of the people tested for antibodies showed exposure.  That is millions. They have already been exposed, had the disease, mostly without symptoms and so have no need to shelter.  They do not need to be protected.

We have let the media scare us into terrible and horribly destructive policy decisions.  These decisions have failed to protect the most vulnerable while scaring everyone into giving up their inalienable rights.  The media have tried to scare us at every turn, they have dismissed the proven effectiveness of Hydroxy-Chloro-quinine although the drug has been around for 50+ years.  They have helped fuel bad decisions at every turn.  Much of the media took China’s propaganda and repeated it slowing recognition of the true threat from this virus.

Google has said they will only allow posts that agree with World Health Organization guidelines.  This is the same WHO that told us that the virus was not human to human transmittable, and who’s ties to China are more than questionable.   Science is about putting all ideas out there for evaluation, not just those approved by the communist party of China.

There are a whole host of players to blame for the destruction of our economy and the loss of freedom that has resulted.  Now is the time to reverse those errors.  Look at the science, the true numbers, as some of the media have inflated the deaths to sow fear. Look at Sweden as they did not shut down and fared better than us.  Stop state and city oligarchs from exercising petty rules designed to show their power. Be smart about protecting the vulnerable and fully open up the country.

Not opening up the country will extend the depression that is already upon us. If you care for this country for the well being of your family, now is the time to step up and demand the freedoms guaranteed by our constitution.

 

 

 

 

Women’s Health — Planned Parenthood

The chance of getting breast cancer in the overall US population is 12.5% over the course of a woman’s lifetime.  Whether abortion increases the risk of breast cancer is something that is medically disputed. However the impact of abortion on cervical cancer is less so.  Each year 7.5 women per 100,000 will contract cervical cancer.  Cervical-Cancer

Among women who have had one abortion that risk is 2.3 times higher than the risk in the general population.   For those women 17.25 out of every 100,000 will get cervical cancer. Based on the fact that Planned Parenthood performed 300,000 abortions last year 45 women more per year will contract cervical cancer.  Roughly a quarter of those women will not survive.  Some studies suggest an 5 fold increase of cervical cancer among post abortive women which would mean an extra 90 cases per year.  Roughly 20 of those cases will be fatal.

Do you think this information is given to Planned Parenthood’s often young and vulnerable clients?    Beyond the immediate medical risks associated with abortion there are a host of long term life risks.  I would think that this information should be widely distributed and given to clients seeking abortion services.  Even if you believe it is a women’s right to chose, they need to know what they are choosing.  It may well not be what they think.

For many the immediate convenience of not having to try and raise a child outweighs the effort to carry to term and either attempt to raise the child or have it adopted.  The long term consequences to the physical and mental health of the client have long been ignored in this space.   For many those consequences are far worse than having a child that they ultimately love and who loves them.  For some the consequence is an early grave.  There is tremendous research to support this.

For me I would do everything in my power to make abortion unnecessary and undesirable. Learn more at Sav-a-Life Shelby.  Or sponsor me for the walk dedicated to changing women’s minds and helping them succeed in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obamacare – Deathcare

Tens of thousands lost their doctors.  Millions of American lost their insurance. Millions more now pay substantially more out of their own pockets for health insurance for substantially less benefit.  Yet, Obama this week claimed that Obamacare Works.  The only measure that indicates that this program works is that some insurance companies are making a lot more profit than they were before this program was enacted.  The program does not work, has never worked and costs lives, and livelihoods.

Congress has the numbers and the power to abolish this program and override a veto as it remains so unpopular that even senate democrats will vote to abolish it, if they are presented with the bill as a campaign issue.  The insurance companies that are making more lobby to keep Obamacare, often more out of fear than true desire.   ABC, NBC, CBS, and MSNBC all continue to support it because it fits their agenda and provides ad dollars from the insurance companies.  In fact, these outlets are as responsible for this law remaining in effect as is Congress.

Obamacare won’t pay for a head transplant, (we can understand why this is experimental)  but cutting out the best cancer drugs and doctors has already caused the loss of life.  Every time one of these stories is ignored by ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, or FOX News these organizations along with Congress are responsible for murder.   Most of the media ignores the truth and continues to put out false information about these programs.

Whether they do so because they improve their profits, or because of ideology, or because of political pressure does not matter.  They are, by law, supposed to foster the public good.  This is one area among many where they have not only fostered public harm, but continue to do so.  As Obama Praises Obamacare this week, none of them challenged him, or publically excoriated a program that continues to harm Americans by the millions.  By that standard their license to be on the airwaves should be revoked.

Congress needs to cancel this program lock stock and barrel.  Pay for play in this area continues to cost American lives and make millions of Americans poorer and at greater health risk than ever before.  It is almost impossible to boycott every news organization but every Congressman that does not successfully repeal this law needs to be voted out. Period.  Every candidate that does not actively work toward its repeal needs to be not elected.  It is time to take back our lives in this area.