Eric Gluck, MD: Maybe Bob (Dole), We DO Need A Witch Hunt

Yesterday, as I contemplated a front-page photo in the April 11th Courier Tribune . . . that featured Randolph Hospital CEO Bob Morrison and Congressman Howard Coble gazing approvingly at mock-ups of the hospital's proposed new outpatient building (never mind what Bob did to good doctors in his old building) . . . I came across a CNN article where Former Senator Bob Dole "promised" there would be "no witch hunts" in the federal investigation swirling around deplorable conditions in the nation's military and veteran's hospitals.

At their first public hearing, members pledged to work quickly to find solutions rather than assign blame.

"This is not going to be a witch hunt," said former GOP Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, one of the heads of the Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.

Well, that would be nice. If I believed, for one second, that this was not a case where witches exist and need to be hunted down and burned at the stake.

One of my Semmelweis buds e-mailed me Friday night. His name is Eric Gluck and he is a surgeon . . . a former Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy. He is a physician whistle-blower.

His assets were apparently frozen last week . . . the latest step taken against him by a civilian Connecticut attorney who at one point represented him in his case against William W. Backus Hospital. The attorney, of course, did not accomplish anything of value or merit to him . . . but she did manage to wrack up and ungodly number of billable hours in a very short period of time. My understanding is that the lawyer thought (or was given the impression that) she would ultimately be able to send the bill for his defense to the Federal government. But when Eric fell through every crack of oversight and due process, and the military did not pay the bill, she turned on him.

Eric's life and military career was destroyed by what the hospital did to him . . . he alleges, in retaliation for bringing quality of care concerns to light.

As if that were not enough, the beyond-corrupt Connecticut court system decided to have its fun . . . as it made him fight off his own attorney. Living off his meager savings, Eric has had to resort to representing himself . . . writing letters and filing briefs on his own.

Letters that never get answers. Filings that are routinely squelched without hearings.

There are colleagues in the military who can back up his allegations. One of them was ordered not to say anything that might support/defend Eric. To date, they have not been provided a forum to be heard. They had hoped that the current scandal would give cases like Eric's a much-needed boost.

But Bob Dole's statements make it clear, this "investigation" is going to be a white-wash. After all, the careers of commanders and generals are at stake.

And check this out: Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary under President Clinton, said the commission planned a report by late July that would be pragmatic and "solution-driven."

"Our time line for action is very short," she said. As a result, she said commissioners may not be able to visit every military hospital and Veterans Affairs Department clinic to examine conditions.

Ladies and gentlemen, that translates into, "we going to work fast to sweep it all under the rug". And, "We're not going to visit these hospitals because we don't want to know."

I know a lot about Ms. Shalala's peculiar brand of oversight.

Like I did, Eric naively tried to play by the rules . . . going up the chain of command (kind of hard when the chain of command includes those you accuse) . . . and dealing with a legal system that is geared towards covering the tails and padding the pocketbooks of its own. Lawyers have suddenly dumped him with no explanation (right before critical hearings). Witnesses are literally dead . . . under suspicious circumstances. Judges have ignored him and dismissed his efforts to achieve due process. Politicians (including, "Mr. Independent" Joe Liberman) have blown him off. Door after door has been slammed in his face. He has been treated like a disease.

And people wonder why I don't just file another lawsuit over Bob Morrison's perjury, contempt and fraud? Please.

Eric's story (like mine) is very complicated, and it cannot be summarized in the "one-hundred-word" blurb that most journalists and politicians require to pay it any attention.

But here's an excerpt from his website:

In December 2002 I was terminated involuntarily against public policy as a result of officially submitting evidence of civil and criminal wrongdoing by Naval Ambulatory Care Center Groton officers and Backus Hospital officials/staff members that resulted in physical and psychological harm to patients. I have provided this evidence to my immediate chain of command, the Department of Defense Inspector General, and to other government agencies and officials. Subsequently, there have been no investigations or accounting of / or by the individuals and officials who caused harm to patients. Recently, the surfacing of another independent whistle-blower account chronicling preventable deaths at the William W. Backus Hospital (See articles by New London Day’s Kenton Robinson starting in October 2003) documented that other patients are needlessly being placed at high risk for serious harm. Therefore an investigation for the purpose of holding wrongdoers accountable is necessary in the pursuit of public and patient safety.

I think of all the time and money and effort that went into the making of one military surgeon. Eric could be in Iraq right now . . . doing what he was trained to do . . . helping wounded soldiers.

Instead, he is sitting on the sidelines . . . assailed by lawyers . . . about to lose everything.

Because he did the right thing. Because somebody in that "chain of command" wants him to be down and stay down.

I wonder what Howard Coble would think about that . . . as he pals around with Bob Morrison . . . who did the same thing to an NHSC physician.

As I have blogged before, I wonder how different things might have been for returning soldiers if their doctors felt free to speak out about problems . . . without putting their careers in jeopardy. Because if you think that physicians in the military do not know about the cases like Eric's (and do not use it as a gage of their own behavior) you are smoking something.

Most people-in-the-know that I know sneer at the notion that "bipartisan commissions" will accomplish anything to substantially clean up military/public service medicine.

I would submit to Bob Dole that we DO need a witch-hunt. We need a kick-ass, in-your-face, eradication of the witches in our bloated governmental bureaucracies who would abandon good doctors to the wolves.

And if I were President Bush, I would tell Ms. Donna Shalala to get out her &#*^%$ running shoes and actually do some work for a change . . . by visiting EVERY veterans/military hospital and hearing EVERY claim.

STARTING WITH ERIC'S!