How's That Deep Blue Koolaid Going Down Now?

For anyone who did not drink the deep-deep blue Koolaid in this blogosphere over the last few years, and has been pummeled for it, it just gets better and better.

Of course, if they do put Sleazely under Oath, and he lies, so what?

I mean, it hasn't mattered AT ALL that Randolph Hospital's senior executives did it.

I loved the quote from the Politico article on John Edwards's relationship with his "butt-boy"-turned-future-best-selling-author (wanna bet he out-sells Liz?), Andrew Young:

"(the) relationship tapped into the worst of both sides: Young’s boundless attraction to power — and the Edwardses’ ease in using him."

Using him. Well, duh. That's all those two know how to do.

“ . . . there would always be a place for him (Young) as long as John and Elizabeth didn’t want to get their hands dirty and deal with the painters and yard people and get their own groceries.”

Or lie about the paternity of John's love-child.

I expect some people are choking on their KoolAid now. And I absolutelyfricking love it.

The Raleigh N&O: Let's Ask The Student Who Wants To Be A Kid Doctor - Not An Actual Kid Doctor

This fall, the Raleigh News & Observer is talking to people about the nation's health-care system, what works, what doesn't and what should be done to fix it.

Today, one of the articles in that series featured a fourth year medical student at (you guessed it) UNC-Chapel Hill who wants to be a children's doctor.

She enjoys working with kids.

Well, I hope so. But she is in for a rude awakening if she thinks that's all its about.

As a child, she spent months in the hospital after being diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder. In later years, she switched doctors as her family switched insurance companies, something she keeps in mind as she thinks of reforming the nation's health-care system.

Yeah, I know the feeling. When I was five, I had a tonsillectomy at Randolph Hospital. The job was botched so badly that I had to have reconstructive surgery years later (while in college). My family, ordinary folk, never even considered suing.

Part of my motivation for (1) choosing Pediatrics, and (2) ultimately coming home, was to prevent something like that from happening to another child.

In fact, years later, employed as a Pediatrician by the non-profit hospital's "controlled affiliate", suffering from recurrent sinus infections and severe facial pain, I elected to have sinus surgery at Randolph. Part of the motivation to have the surgery at Randolph was to encourage parents to consider staying in Asheboro for their ENT procedures. If I trusted the hospital, why shouldn't they?

The job was botched. A diagnosis was missed. I had to have corrective surgery again.

With Randolph Hospital, it seems no good deed goes unpunished.

Although sorely tempted, I didn't sue then either.

The article goes on to offer the future Dr. Chasnovitz's opinion on what reform needs to be.

In addition to an optional government-run insurance program, she hopes the government spends more money on basic, clinical research. She thinks the implementation of electronic medical records, with some guidelines and oversight from the federal government, could improve efficiency among care providers.

I have news for her. The government is not going to have any money left for basic clinical research if President Obama (someone who has no clue what he's talking about a good portion of the time) has his way. EMR is already here - and not exactly the panacea it was cracked up to be. And the bit about government oversight was just the pure naivete of a newbie.

I dropped a comment (modified slightly here) on the thread:

Instead of interviewing a medical student with next-to-no "real world" experience in the "reforms" she advocates ("for the children"), maybe the N&O should be talking to a Board-certified Pediatrician who got burned in public service - one who had to go on the road to make ends meet while she fought a legal battle that she NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE FOUGHT had ANYONE in an OVERSIGHT position done what they were supposed to do . . . one who has worked all over this state and can speak to the good/bad/ugly reality of "access" and "accountability" and "transparency" in medicine.

Really, at this point, the cold shoulder is not just a journalistic cop-out.

It's stupid, short-sighted, irresponsible and dangerous.

I absolutely LOVED "ThoughtCrimes" comment (which preceded mine):

Editor's note: As always, The N&O is presenting semi-fictitious stories from carefully selected people to promote a Natzional Socialist health-care system . . . Ignoring what works, promoting what doesn't and what should be done to f-it up. (I'm The Obama, and I approved this propaganda . . . And soon, I'll natzionalize this failing paper.)

Honestly, when are these damned journalists at their dying newspapers (not to mention the medical educators holding the "forums") going to wake up and start talking to (and writing about) the people who are in the trenches NOW?

I intend no disrespect to the future Dr. Chasnovitz - she's earned her hood and I wish her well even as I believe the system she's entering into is shortly going to crumble down around her naive and trusting head. But this was the biggest "non-story" I've ever seen.

Sayeth the N&O: Let's not talk to a doctor with considerable way-beyond-bad experience in the very systems we're talking about expanding - a doctor who has been blogging about it for six years - a doctor who has been pleading for help . . . and real reform.

Let's ask a medical student with NO experience what she thinks.

Fluff.

A Dog Named Ella - Lost And Found

My family had dogs when my brother and I were kids . . . the most infamous one being a gigantic, smelly, incredibly-loyal-to-his-people German Shepard named Hobo.

I grew up to be a cat person.

But this piece by Steve Hartman tonight on the CBS News - about a lost and found Rottweiler named Ella - almost broke my heart.

It didn't break my heart because it had a happy ending. Hartman tells the story masterfully. If you don't cry watching the video, then I don't know what it would take.

Overpaid, Under-Performing CEO's

I wish they did this for "non-profit" hospitals.

Elizabeth Edwards As "Cherubim": Angels With Four Faces

According to the Encyclopedia Mythica, in Jewish and Christian religion Cherubim are second in the order of angels, directly after the seraphim. They were usually depicted as angels with four wings and four faces (human, lion, bull and eagle). Artists in later times made them appear as the chubby, rosy-faced, winged infants of which they are known today.

Four Faces. Hummmmmmm . . .

Every time my blog-battle-hardened heart softens and I give serious thought to cutting Elizabeth Edwards some blogger-slack (partly because I genuninely feel sorry for her, but mostly because I'm just tired of all the baby-mama drama), something happens to give me pause.

This morning it was this article in the NYDaily News. It is alleged (and the allegation is refuted in the comment thread) that Mrs. Edwards has been blogging anonymously under the pseudonym of "Cherubim" . . . spewing vitriol & scorn upon Reille Hunter and all enemies of John.

I would not be surprised if this is so. I seem to recall encountering this Edwards-loving persona in some blog-battle somewhere before (can't remember where).

Timing is everything. Having given up on the local newspapers, I spend a fair amount of time over on the Raleigh News & Observer's story boards . . . where it has recently been alleged that the persona, "NSimms", is actually Elizabeth's sister, Nancy Anania (Anania is their maiden name).

NSimms' modus operandi is to enter a thread and zero in on one of the commenters criticizing Elizabeth or John . . . usually provoking an exchange in which any substance that the thread may have had (these days such threads are over-whelmingly and scathingly critical of Edwards and his two-faced shenanigans) quickly deteriorates into an ad-hominem-filled pissing-match. I myself, have been so ensnared. As a result, the entire thread is deleted by the N&O's comment police.

It's called strategy.

For all of the rhetoric employed by the Edwards web-based machine during the never-ending Presidential campaigns (not to mention the fawning of Sue & company at Converge South), I've never had much use for the notion of Elizabeth Edwards as a real blogger. I mean, where is the blog?

Of course, Elizabeth was never a fool. Why bother blogging, when you have the platform and can sell your story as a lesson in resilience? Tragedy and pathos sell - and she's had plenty of both.

As for the blogging bit, Mrs. Edwards played a lot of people for fools back in the day. Those of us who were skeptical were called "wack-jobs". And maybe I was a little wacky - for now it seems I may have underestimated her and some of her inner circle.

And somehow, disguising as an angel with four faces seem apropos.

Burned Citizen Journalism Redux: The Death Of A Citizen Journalist And The Birth Of A Blogger

I went back last night, after lamenting the sad/sorry excuse for a local newspaper called the News & Record, and re-read my April 2006 post entitled "Burned Citizen Journalism".

Over three years later, in the wake of all that's happened and mindful of what is happening now (from the battle over healthcare reform, to the corruption scandals literally pouring out of Raleigh, to the ugly meltdowns of John Edwards & Mike Sleazely, to Asheboro being pronounced "dead") . . . and still sulking in a bit of the "I told you people fricking so," mood . . . I think an excerpt from that post (way ahead of its time, if I do say so myself) deserves a reprint:

In the matter of Dr. Mary Johnson v. Randolph Hospital, the facts have been ignored in deference to the continued well-being of people who control (or have “cooperative relationships” with others who control) large advertising budgets.

Despite the new “momentum” for “ethics” and public/fiscal accountability in government and government-sponsored programs/institutions (i.e. “non-profits”), the N&R will not even have an “off-the-record” conversation to look at the evidence (in the form of public records and sworn court documents) . . . evidence that screams perjury, contempt and fraud.

This story cannot be viewed through the prism of race, so the N&R doesn’t think the crimes committed are “relevant”.

As for being “local”, the N&R says it covers Randolph County, but it hasn’t really been back to Asheboro since Jerry Bledsoe handed them their hat over the SCV debacle. We’re relegated to the High Point section now. And neither the patient nor the doctor caught up in this mess is JR’s daughter.

So the N&R does not care that "non-profit" hospital officials, entrusted with the public good, betrayed the mission of a federal program, stabbed a physician & public servant in the back, called her a liar for telling the truth, and then lied under Oath to cover their tails & save some money when they tucked them.

The N&R does not care that a local DA, abusing his discretion, can kill (before it starts) an independent SBI investigation of the “non-profit” hospital’s unfair business & legal tactics against a medical whistleblower & potential private-sector competitor.

Once again, the whole truth does not matter. The REAL story doesn’t get told at all.

Result: A good Pediatrician, with strong ties to Greensboro - recruited back to her hometown with federal money . . . a doctor forced one night to make a choice no physician should have to make . . . has been driven of her home out by community “leaders” who abused their power, repeatedly lied, and stuffed their own pockets on the public dime.

It may not be 100 words or less, but it's a damned good summary (links help).

Since that time, bruised and battered and banned and burned in the trenches, this doctor gave up on citizen journalism (at least as it's practiced by the N&R) and became a blogger.

And guess what? Because NO ONE is EVER going to put her into a room with no windows and no good options again . . . because NO ONE is EVER going to frighten her or bully her or intimidate her or steal her voice again . . . she signs her own name. Because, ultimately, that's the only way things are going to really change . . . if more doctors get mad at these people who have no clue as to who and what we are, and sign their names.

No regrets. And I still have hope.

P.S. Please don't even get me started on that worthless rag known as the Courier Tribune.

When Wolves Cry: The GPD Saga

Given the admittedly bitter, bad-tasting "I told you so" feeling I've been harboring since this story broke, I was trying to work up the energy to do a post.

Sam beat me to it - and he did it well.

I don't think this city . . . the city where my Father was born & raised . . . the city where my brother and I were born . . . the city where my Mother and I got our undergraduate educations . . . can truly move ahead until the Greensboro News & Record can say, "We got it wrong".

It's not the first time. Yet they cannot figure out why they are dying.

There needs to a cleaning of the house . . . a pruning at the top . . . a reorganization . . . a buy-out . . . something.

This newspaper and its editorial board have not served the citizenry well.

I am scratching my head over one thing. I don't know how Jerry Bledsoe could do a book that's more "in depth" than what he's already published in the Rhino (how many installments are we on?).

But if he writes the book, I'll put it in my library - right beside Death By Journalism.

Truth does matter.

"You Write Real Good"

One of the staff I wrote about last week - in my "Coupon Commandos" post - chased me down this morning and asked if she could read the post.

She's the original Commando - not the one who is so going to hell. And yes, she finally got her tuna.

Now, my blog is considered "contraband" by the computer system at the hospital, and I cannot access Housecalls on a desktop (ergo, I don't compose blog posts at the hospital). But they recently installed wireless for patients & their families.

And/so last week, Dr. Mary bought herself an Acer One netbook (10.1). I've been looking at one for a while - as, to me, a phone is simply a phone, and I do not fancy myself a Blackberry person (although I do salivate over them). I still won't be composing Housecalls posts at the hospital, but I wanted something I could whip out and check other "contrabanded" sites/blogs . . . and to use on short trips and vacations . . . something not as heavy/huge/complicated as my 15-pound, 21.1-inch HP Pavillion HDX laptop - which I still transport (with its printer) in a modified garment bag - because they don't make good cases for it.

I even bought the Acer from a local vendor (contributing to the economy that supports me). It fits in my purse!

(I have a big purse;)

I promptly whipped out my new-best-toy and quickly pulled up the blog. As the Acer One is very small, it was easier to read it to her.

She loved the post . . . and said she wanted a copy the next time I pull out my printer. She started to leave and then turned around and (very seriously) asked a question . . .

. . . "that came from inside you . . . all of a sudden-like?"

Puzzled, I raised an eyebrow.

She repeated herself, "You wrote that . . . it came from you?"

"From deep down in my very toes", I responded.

Smiling, she said, "Well, you write real good." And she went on her way.

It's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.

Jesus At A TruckStop

YaYa Ka's Father (the indomitable "Mr. T" - whose straight-up, snowy-white crew-cut was like the ninth wonder of the world), was a trucker. He was such a character. He made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

I miss him. So do all the folks at the local Waffle House.

My uncle Jack (Mama's brother) is a trucker. Almost 70, he has been everywhere and done everything.

And my Daddy's youngest brother is also a trucker. He drives for Roadway (which recently merged with Yellow Freight to become YRC - a move that did not turn out so well for many employees). The corporate transition has been anything but "seamless" and we've all got our fingers crossed that he can make retirement before the company does anything else stupid.

One time my dear, dear uncle got me into BIG trouble when I was driving home from UNG-Greensboro . . . because he passed me on 220 South (aka Interstate 73) in his truck (I was turtling along in the slow lane at a-speed-I'm-not-normally-known-for), and saw a Biology textbook propped-up on the wheel . . . and my nose buried in it.

He told Pops (I miss him too). And I subsequently had a "come-to-Jesus" discussion with my WAY-BEYOND-LIVID Father. Railroad Tom spitting nails into his daughter's tires was something to see.

Needless to say, I don't do that anymore.

So I loved this story on CNN.

Lake Norman Bath: To Be Or Not To Be?

Just got the notice. There's a long-term Locums job in Lincolnton.

Now, that could be great fun. Or not, given the evil proclivities of the Sheriff's Department. I daresay Dr. Johnson, as a scum-of-the-earth-blogger, wouldn't want to get pulled over there.

Alas, I'm booked.

Keith Crisco: "The Governor Gets It In Economic Development"

Yeah, we know, Keith. And you-all want to pass out the incentive money up front.

No questions asked . . . just like you and the boys at the Courier Tribune have covered the tails of your lying buddies at Randolph Hospital for so long.

Economic development at any cost. Never mind morals, ethics or your soul.

You make me sick.

9/23 Evening Update: Here's the Carolina Journal's take on the upcoming trip to China (and the incentives Crisco likes to tout). It seems they think that neither Perdue nor her Commerce Secretary get it:

The problem lies with targeted tax breaks and other incentives used as bait to entice companies to the Tar Heel state, Coletti said. "Here's an example: The governor meets with a company executive who expresses interest in North Carolina," he explained. "In an effort to 'do something,' state leaders slap together some sort of tax break to convince the executive to invest in North Carolina. Then Gov. Perdue, Commerce Department officials, and the legislators who end up approving the deal hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and slap themselves on the back for a job well done."

Those officials lose sight of the costs tied to their actions, Coletti said. "Any time the state is willing to give a new taxpayer a break, that means existing taxpayers are left holding the bag," he said. "Other businesses and individuals in North Carolina are forced to pay higher tax bills so government leaders can feel good about their economic development schemes.

Yep. That sounds like classic/innept/ineffectual status quo to me. It sure ain't change.

I Imagine A World Where Medical Students Can Be Who/What They Are And Say What They Think

I saw this story (on the "bad behavior" of medical students online) earlier this evening:

Of 78 U.S. medical schools that responded to a survey (there are 130 schools that bestow an MD and 28 that grant a DO), 60% reported incidents of students posting unprofessional content online, including material that was classified as profane (52% of the respondents), discriminatory (48%), sexually suggestive (38%), or violated patient confidentiality (13%), according to a report in the Sept. 23 Journal of the American Medical Association.

The AMA is well known for eating its young. And I wonder. Who is making the decisions about what is or is not appropriate . . . or dare I say it . . . "disruptive"?

I've posted thoughts on my own use of flowery verbiage before. I'm trying to reign it in a little (mostly to appease Mama). But honestly, do patients really expect a doctor not to say (under his or her breath), "Oh Shit!", when the clinical caca hits the fan?

(I guess that's two more for the digital footprint.)

I mean come on, GET REAL!

Looking at the issue from another angle, eleven years ago, as a young/naive physician, I faced down threats and blew the whistle on bad care. The "institution" that I worked for (you know - the kind that worries about appearances) did not like it and fired me.

What I had done was "embarrassing".

It would have been more embarrassing if the baby had died, but I suppose that's neither here nor there for this crowd.

Ultimately the case wound up in Court - because there was NO FRICKING WAY I was going to allow it to stand. And, as part of the institution's legal strategy, I was counter-sued for "libel" . . . because I had the unmitigated gall to provide requested feedback (in what was supposed to be a confidential & protected forum) to the government I served. To this day, it remains the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to me.

But I had told the truth. I resolved not to roll over or slink away, and ultimately that despicable act of (so-far government-sanctioned) retaliation/intimidation didn't turn out so well for the nimrods/institution suing me . . . for all that I was swindled of fair restitution at settlement (and so far can't get state/Federal law enforcment to care).

My point is this: Free speech and expression is a precious thing . . .

. . . especially when you are fighting back against liars and institutional sloth/neglect. I wish I had found my voice and a footing much earlier in this game.

I wish I had not been so afraid of what others thought.

Speaking of that, a lifetime and a world ago, one of my two very best friends at Bowman Gray happened to be gay. He did not "come out" to anyone (although we knew anyway) until we graduated. For four years he pretended to be something he wasn't. And for three years after that (during his residency training), he still played it very close to the vest. I can't think of anything sader than that. But he was afraid.

Facebook and social media outlets did not exist back then (at least I wasn't aware of them). But what if they had?

I was going to hold off on posting on this subject, but a post at Kevin's (essentially regurgitating the story with a little more detail) prompted me to comment:

In terms of developing a “professionalism curriculum” or even just very basic guidelines for online behavior, this is just another example of the medical profession being 20 years behind the times.

Of course, a huge frustration with the state of medicine is part of the reason I have used the occasional four-letter word on my blog. In fact Kevin (as you well know), many “anonymous” medical bloggers (i.e. “the adults”) use “colorful” language.

I, for one, am not the least bit ashamed or apologetic for my “digital footprint”. I’m here for a reason.

Moreover, if institutions don’t like what some doctors are saying, perhaps many of them should clean up their own acts.

Patient info is most certainly off limits. And posting some things online is just stupid. But when one becomes a doctor, one does not park one’s voice or one’s opinions at the door.

Or maybe they do and maybe that’s our problem.

These kids are human. They have private lives and it’s a free country with free speech.

And consequences.

Perhaps, with a little gentle guidance (as opposed to the heavy-handed & punitive), these students could lead the way into a future where more of us were comfortable speaking our minds . . . and being ourselves . . . instead of getting locked in a posture of what we think someone else wants.

Who knows? It might just be good for this profession. . . what if patients had a better understanding that we’ve human too?

The Irony Of A Doctor Appealing To Lying Lawyers For Help With Perjury

I must tip my hat to Overlawyered. It's classic Walter:

A book proposal by former John Edwards aide Andrew Young is sensationally said to allege “that Edwards asked [the late asbestos-suit impresario] Baron if he could find a doctor who would falsify a DNA report.”

Now where would anyone have gotten the impression that Baron was a good person to talk to if you wanted to misrepresent medical facts about someone?

You really should read the link in emboldened red if you want know the low-down on perjury and lawyers getting away with suborning perjury. And to think I was once foolish enough to appeal to this liar (Edwards) for help prosecuting "non-profit" liars.

Hi Bob. Hi Steve. Welcome to Housecalls. (Randolph Hospital has lately been all over this blog.) That means you.

Pediatric Emergency Care In The United States: One Of Those DUH Moments

Fifteen years ago, I came out of training wanting to save the world (or at least the small part of it I lived in) for Pediatrics. I actually considered a Pediatric ED Fellowship after residency . . . and thought about it very hard as I did the Locums thing in the year between finishing at NCBH/Brenners and taking the job in Asheboro.

But I decided that coming home was the better, more noble, more meaningful, more fulfilling choice.

I might have pursued a fellowship after Asheboro if (1) my separation from RMA had been handled with ANY administrative consideration, grace or dignity (you see, I had NO CHANCE-IN-HELL of getting a fellowship immediately after that cluster-screw); and (2) I had not gotten tied up in litigation trying (misguidedly, it now appears) to right a series of wrongs.

This is the point where I would like to pause and thank all of my WORTHLESS medical "collegues" in Asheboro (a number of whom were charged with physician representation and/or "oversight" - ala Kinlaw and Stout and West and Helsabeck) for their empathy, kindness and concern . . . standing by deaf, dumb and mute as my guts were splattered all over their White Wall . . . knowing full well that what Morrison & Eblin had done was ethically and morally wrong.

If I saw one of them right now, I'd probably spit on them - if it were not a waste of good spit.

For you see, no matter what I do, the rage over what these fine, upstanding Asheboro physicians allowed to be done to one of their own - because she did the right thing - is still white hot . . . still burning like it all happened yesterday.

Once I got back to a place where I might consider picking up the ED gauntlet again (it took years of very hard work), it was simply too late to start over with another dream.

This was in my Inbox today - in a "Smart Brief" from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Out of almost 4,000 EDs in the U.S., only 6 percent are fully prepared to properly care for pediatric patients, according to a new joint policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), published today in the journal Pediatrics.

Yeah, tell me something I didn't already know. But hey, good Pediatricians who care about these things . . . and one Asheboro Pediatrician who cared enough to come home . . . are "a dime a dozen".

Sometimes the world cannot be saved.

Soaked In Corruption

Remember last summer, when all the "pro's" in Asheboro's alcohol face-off were telling us how great oversight by local and state officials would be?

I wonder how/if the Courier will spin this?

9/23 Author's Note: The re-vamp of the Raleigh N&O website has apparently destroyed all of its old story links. It's vexing and I'm sorry. I will correct a few links, in recent posts, but O/W it's just not worth the effort.

56:11

Not so long ago, I blogged about my fitness and weight-loss goals using the Concept II Rower (a simply wondrous machine).

Alas, within a month of that post, I had once again torn a right ankle ligament and was forced off the rower. Shortly after that, I developed a stress fracture of the left tibia just below the knee - probably a stress fracture from wearing a walking boot for the ankle. Vexed, my Orthopod forbade me from using the rower. Sidelined for months, I've been miserable.

The fracture has healed. However, after much drama surrounding the ankle (several rounds of boots and even casting), the ligament has not completely healed. We have decided I will have to live with it or have surgery. I decided to live with it until I can't, and get back on the rower.

Today, I got back on for the first time . . . deciding to go all-out and hang on. My time for the 10,000 meters was 56 minutes and 11 seconds. Amazingly (at least to me), that ranks me #62 in the world (for my age and build) in online rankings. Not where I'd be by now if I had not been injured. But very respectable.

And oh baby, it felt good.

Once Upon A Time, Before Katrina . . .

. . . before New Orleans was almost wiped off the map . . . a giant, nasty, lingering hurricane named "Floyd" brought death and devastation to North Carolina's fragile shores (and its inland waterways & rivers) . . . already soaked just a week or so before by an erratic and temperamental "baby" hurricane-turned-subtropical-cylcone named Dennis.

I remember it well. What locals still call "The Flood" hit in the late summer of 1999 . . . the summer that "team Randolph" (Hospital) sued me . . . ultimately unsuccessfully . . . for "libel".

On a break between locums assignments . . . wanting to run far-far-away from the medical cesspool that was my hometown . . . and with nothing to do . . . just a few days after the storm, I set off on a road odyssey through areas that can only be described as wasteland . . . ultimately winding up in a graveyard in Little Washington, where I re-dug the hole that my Grandmother's footstone had floated up out of - and put it back.

This past week, the Raleigh News & Observer has published some very good follow-up pieces on the aftermath of the storm . . . ten years later.

While our barrier shores can be mercurial and delicate, the people with the "high tide" accents are definitely not fragile. Nonetheless, some of the memories are heart-breaking to anyone . . . and certainly the stuff of nightmares for those of us with strong ties to (and a deep love of) the eastern part of the state.

There's even what I like to call "a Morrison memory" that clings to this stroll through memory lane. Only this time it's not about (Randolph's CEO) Bob, but his wife, Peggy . . . who used to head up the local United Way.

She doesn't anymore.

In the Courier Tribune (which loves to quote them both), Peggy lamented that local residents were diverting their charitable contributions to the victims of Floyd . . . people, many of them dirt-poor to start with, who had lost everything.

It was hurting her own coffers.

You could say it wasn't of one of Peggy's finer moments.

And it was just another reason (at the time, those reasons were mounting up) to be ashamed to hail from Asheboro. Once a "team player" and pseudo-big donor (something I had to stop after I was fired . . . simple survival math forced me to retract a pledge), I vowed I would never again give money to the United Way.

Ahhhhhhh . . . the memories.

9/23 Author's Note: The re-vamp of the N&O website has destroyed all previous story links. Moreover, new "archived" links want a $2.95 charge to even view the old story. It's vexing and I apologize to readers. I've fixed a few links as best I can. Otherwise, it's so not worth the effort.

Hell Has Officially Frozen Over: Roch And I Agree On Something

There is a most excellent post up at Roch 101. I may have to re-evaluate my opinion;)

The News & Record gave its imprimatur to fabrications, then declined to dispel the myths when new information was revealed.

Of course, it's my opinion that John Robinson, Alan Johnson and the N&R have missed/mucked-up more than one story . . . and emboldened/enabled more than one pile of lies.

Update: The future of journalism is so dreary, you can take off the shades. Forget Nazis. Think Pravda.

On Michelle Obama's "Bondage Belt"

I'm trying to stay away from the TV today (well, except for the History Channel - they're going all medieval this weekend on Dan Brown, the Catholic Church, the Holy Grail (whatever and wherever it may be), the Knights Templar and even Nostradamus. You see, I'm suffering from acute Obama over-exposure.

It's going to be a medical diagnosis that will need a ICD-9 code if he keeps it up. I'm not kidding. Drooling, glassy-eyed people are going to flood emergency rooms everywhere if Axelrod doesn't reign his boss in (of course, this blitz is probably his idea). Then we'll really have a crisis.

It's the Letterman appearance scheduled for tomorrow night that's putting me over the edge. I always figured Dave would get some sweet payback from the White House for being a total jerk towards McCain & Palin during the campaign. '

That appearance TOTALLY SMELLS, and yes, it does diminish the office.

Meanwhile, I've taken a day or two to digest this.

Let this Pediatrician-burned-in-public-service get this straight: Michelle Obama, the $317,000/year hospital administrator well-versed in the art-of-the-dump, is going to be the administration's "secret weapon" in the healthcare debate?

And she's going to do it by arguing that women are being “crushed by the current structure of our health care” . . . because they often are responsible for taking care of family illnesses, arranging checkups and monitoring follow-up care?

These would be the same women who have been "empowered" ("enabled" if you're cynical) by free birth control and the near-absolute right to abortion at any stage of pregnancy . . . or, in the alternative, the right to sleep with whoever they like (married or not) with no thought to consequences because Medicaid can pick up the bill for the babies if they can't and the "daddies" won't?

Well, I gotta say, that's "bondage" all right. No freedom, no choices there.

And OBTW, the ugly symbolism of the "bondage belt" . . . and the rhetoric of "victimhood" employed in the speech . . . fell especially flat in the face of her husband's rejection of doddering Jimmy Carter's blatantly racist notion that all of the anger boiling at the teaparties is about race.

Obama says one thing. His wife sends ugly subliminal messages with her (ugly) belt.

These two make my head hurt.

Michelle's job, according to the pundits, is that of the "soft sell" . . . in other words, to put a "human face" on the healthcare debate. Now, this takes a page from the multi-volume playbook of John Edward's never-ending campaign . . . his "secret weapon" being the cancer-stricken Elizabeth (an ambulance-chaser for a husband and inoperable cancer making Liz a Teflon-coated expert on all things pertaining to healthcare . . . the cancer morphing into the ulitmate cover/excuse for all of the secrets and lies).

I digress. In her own blitz, Mrs. Obama will talk about the time one of her girls was ruled-out for meningitis as a baby . . . or her Father's battle with multiple sclerosis.

What if, they had not had insurance?

Well, I can tell you right now that her daughter would have been well taken care of with or without insurance . . . in any hospital anywhere in this country. The bill would have been worked out . . . or "written off"/reduced . . . later.

But the baby would have gotten good care.

Wait, I forgot. On second thought, without insurance, Michelle's daughter might not have gotten good care at EVERY hospital . . . for that care might have been slightly delayed and "dumped" on another institution. And/so, I would advise the First Lady not to dwell too much on those "what ifs", given the way she, herself dealt with poor patients as a hospital executive.

So humanize all you like, Michelle. But let's be clear about what we're talking about.

Money. Re-distributing wealth and resources from one segment of the population (the one that has always paid the bills that kill) to another. Something you know a great deal about from your stint in Chicago.

Now in terms of "bondage", this woman (that would be me), who after getting the education and doing the years of scut and indentured servitude (i.e. the loan repayment-for-service-program that all good Democrats salivate over as a solution to "access" problems) . . . this Pediatrician, who was professionally crushed by a medico-legal system of oversight that does not work . . . this tax-paying citizen, who for ELEVEN YEARS has pleaded with every regulatory body & law enforcement agency under the sun to help her hold a "non-profit" hospital accountable for its amoral/unethical/illegal actions . . . the woman who never had time to have her own daughters because she had to immerse herself totally in the care of other women's children in order to make the mortgage payment and pay the damned lying lawyers . . . really isn't buying the argument.

I wasn't at home as my Father floundered through (and my Mother coped with) the early stages of Alzheimer's . . . or when he died (less-than-a-month after an automobile accident). And I wasn't at home because I was driven out of my hometown by liars and thieves - for doing the right thing by another woman's baby.

I was "disruptive", you see.

NOT! (Still waiting, Mr. Mansfield.)

Alzheimer's is not multiple-sclerosis. But there you go.

Back to the speech and the "secret weapon" business and the art of the "soft serve", NO SHE DIDN'T go and use the word "disproportionate"!?!

Oh, and I'm supposed to be placated by her husband's DHHS "pilot programs" on malpractice "tort" reform?

That's just to fake out the doctors-who-don't-know-any-better while Obama's notions of reform are rammed down their throats in the back-room deals yet-to-be-cut by mostly rich white men scrambling for power.

For the reader's information, "pilot programs" at DHHS are where good ideas go to die . . . suffocated by bureaucracy and institutional sloth.

And/so I have news for Michelle Obama. As a woman-who-happens-to-be-a-physician-on-the-front-lines-and-in-the-trenches, I know quite a bit about "bondage" and I don't need a butt-ugly belt to put a human face on the healthcare debate.

My story is no less valid than hers - or Elizabeth's.

And my human face is decidedly unhappy.

On John Edwards: Best Blog Comment Ever

In the past, Ed Cone-of-the-Cones (yes, I'm still lamenting) has admonished me to "keep it short". The average Joe and Jane, you see, has a ten-second attention span. Only sound bites will do.

It's my theory, of course, that's why this country is in the mess it's in.

At the N&O this morning, "PhantomLord" wins the prize for pithy and short:

"Its official I guess. Edwards has one family for each of his two Americas."

The Hat

Michelle Obama has her "bondage belts" (that is so going to become a post, baby). I myself am a connoisseur of hats.

In my much younger days, when I attended church on a regular basis, I rather liked dressing up on Sundays with a hat. We girls don't have to take them off inside - as The Lord God does not mind a little style in His House.

(These days, black women still wear some mighty sassy hats to church. White women notsomuch. It's too bad.)

I inherited the hat gene from my Aunt Helen. I have a modest collection, mostly in the cloche style, but there are a few special/unusual numbers - including a vintage black velvet veiled cap I inherited from my Great-Grandmother Blanche.

As I left the hospital this morning, after rounds, the nurses laughingly teased me to have a good Saturday afternoon (translation, "good luck with finding something to do in the sticks").

I had almost decided to go to the local Walmart and buy a copy of the movie "300" . . . for although I had seen an apparently-highly-edited version on TNT last week, several of the nurses assured me that I really, Really, REALLY NEEDED to see the uncut version (insert winks and knowing laughter and imaginary swooning and hand gesticulations and fake hot flashes and oohs & ahhhs over a certain smokin-hot scene between King Leonidas and Queen Gorgo).

Of course, it's a purely historical interest on my part. After all, one of my majors at UNC-G was classical civilization;););)

But first I had to have lunch. On the way back to the apartment, I saw an auction. Traffic slowed to a crawl as necks turned to rubber. Everything in a small stone house on the main highway into town - as well as the house itself - was being autioned off.

The owners had died and everything they owned . . . furniture . . . appliances . . . boxes filled with every kind of imaginable and unimaginable thing . . . was stacked out in the front yard . . . under overcast/threatening skies.

People holding numbers were winking and waving and nodding as an old auctioneer honed his craft.

My apartment complex was just a few houses down, so I parked the car and walked back to take a look. I've never, ever been to an auction before.

The house was a lovely little stone cottage. But once past the front door the charm faded. The inside was dreary and smelled of must and mold and rust and sickness. The carpets were 1970's green and brown shag (I so wanted to rip it all up and examine the unappreciated hardwoods that I knew languished underneath). The walls were thickly-painted in garrsih un-natural colors. The bathrooms had clearly seen better days (and perhaps much of the sickness).

On the up side, the kitchen was very small but quaint and quite functional. It had a nice/large side porch and a lovely yard. But anyone who bought the house would need to put some money and work and love into it.

I walked back out into the yard and started perusing boxes - careful not to look at the auctioneer or so much as scratch my nose (as things were being sold by the box). I was about to leave when I made a magnificent find.

It was a huge old-timey hat box, encrusted in dust and mold on the outside. But inside the hat box were four or five vintage women's hats.

And one of those beauties was a sculpted, black-scrunched-velvet pancake-style hat with a perfect/unmarred netted veil. It had a tiny bow on one side - accented with a rhinestone decoration. The thing was in damned-near perfect condition for its age.

I buried the gorgeous creation back in the box and vowed to come back after the auction, to see if I could buy it all by its lonesome.

Three hours later I came back. The auction was over, pick-up trucks were loading furniture and appliances, and the remaining/unsold boxes were being stacked back inside the living room of the house (which had not sold) pending transfer to an auction house a few towns away. I asked about the hats. The lady running the show told me that she had sold a few, but not many, and if I could find the one I wanted I could have it for no less than five dollars.

It was easy to find - as it was still in the old hat box (perched on a pile of larger boxes) - and on the bottom of the pile of hats - right where I had left it.

And the hat is mine now.

I took it to the hospital and showed it to the girls.

Now, nurses trapped in a hospital on a Saturday can be cruel, and they made fun of my hat. But they all took turns trying it on - and I could tell they were jealous.

Just goes to show there is always something to do (or find) in the sticks.

The NYT On John & Elizabeth Edwards: It's Old News, But "Denouement" Is A Good Word

As regular readers know, I have zero use for John Edwards. No useatall. It is a visceral thing . . . born of the former ambulance-chaser declaring that he would be the state's most accessible Senator ever . . . then pretty much abandoning his obligations to we ordinary folk in order to pursue his rabid ambition (which included establishing a Southern-fried version of the Kennedy compound).

Some new drama must be imminently in the works for the NYT (embarrassingly scooped, as was every other MSM outlet, by the National Enquirer) to be dissecting Edwards' "spectacular rise and fall":

According to people familiar with the grand jury investigation, prosecutors are considering a complicated and novel legal issue: whether payments to a candidate’s mistress to ensure her silence (and thus maintain the candidate’s viability) should be considered campaign donations and thus whether they should be reported. When Mr. Edwards was running for president, and even later when he still held out hope of a senior cabinet position in the Obama administration, two of his wealthy patrons, through a once-trusted Edwards aide, quietly provided Ms. Hunter with large financial benefits, including a new BMW and lodging, that were used to keep her out of public view.

Elizabeth has "yet to be brought around" to the notion that her husband should own up to "it's" paternity.

That's all old news. Yet we have another story on these two taking up newsprint that could go to something else.

On the other hand, "denouement" was a word I actually had to look up (cudos to the NYT because that does not happen often).

And it's a really good word. It kinda describes what I've been looking for too . . . something that neither North Carolina's "favorite son" (not) nor his blogging (not) wife (Wow! A quadruple negative!) . . . could be bothered to help this daughter-of-a-teacher-burned-by-a-mill-town-hospital with . . . for all of their high & mighty prattle on public service and healthcare reform.

Evening Update: Yep. The sound you hear is the other shoe dropping with a sickening thud. The NYT knows how to set up a story.

The Dave Matthews Band? How lame does it get?

Just waiting for "denouement", I suppose.

"Always, Bud."

Another staple of childhood is gone. Guiding Light went dark today.

I spend all day at the hospital . . . as for the last two days, babies have been non-stop raining down from the sky. I attended two C-Sections and determinedly worked through lunch, finishing my last chart-note in the nursery just before 3 o'clock. I realized I did not have enough time to get home without missing something. So I ducked into an unoccupied backroom on the LDRP unit, turned off the lights, and turned on "my soap" for the last time.

And I was pleasantly surprised by the grand old soap's last twenty minutes on-air.

Cue happy ending. I'm not sure how it happened . . . or what happened . . . in that year-preceding-the-last-twenty-minutes. But it involved two chronically star-crossed lovers meeting at the lighthouse, and H.B. Lewis's old Ford pick-up truck. And it totally worked for me.

"Always, Bud."

Mary Travers: And When I Die

As a child and adolescent, I used to sit in our old den on Shannon Road Extension and listen to Dad's Peter, Paul and Mary "In Concert" album over and over again. That piece of vinyl was worn bare. I learned all the words and harmonies to folk classics like Puff, 500 Miles (my favorite - cuz it's become kind of like a theme song), There Is A Ship and Blowin In The Wind.

If you never heard Mary Travers sing Edna St.Vincent Milay's "Conscientious Objector", you have not heard someone sing a song (alas, I cannot find a link). She had the voice of an angel.

Now she sings with them.

9/17 Update: The links in this post have been updated as PP&M's website was down last night. I still cannot find a link to Conscientious Obector.

When Doctors Screw Up: The Ghosts, They Whisper

Ironically, an ancient episode of "Ghostwhisper" (with several interesting twists) on ION TV . . . about a young woman killed by the mistake of an elderly surgeon with dementia (a mistake his hospital covered up) . . . underscored the content of this post even as I composed it.

Fec would so roll his eyes.

It's been a bad summer for doctors.

A healthcare debate rages in Washington that is ALL about jockeying for power . . . where the lawyers/politicians running our country don't have a real clue about what they're talking about.

A doctor with money problems abandoned all common sense and good medical judgement, and managed to kill one of the most popular recording artists on the planet. The L.A. coroner has ruled it "homicide", but only time will tell if the doctor is actually charged with anything.

This past Saturday morning, a doctor from Asheville ran a red light near RDU airport, and a young man just hours away from being married was killed (a backseat passenger not wearing a seatbelt, the groom-to-be was ejected from his vehicle and then hit by another car). The doctor was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle. He was not drunk. Just careless. People are pretty angry all the same.

And on Friday night in Raleigh, a prominent surgeon, driving drunk (after getting hammered at a local country club) and driving 85 miles an hour in a residential neighborhood, snuffed out the life of a young ballerina. Reports indicate the scene of the accident was about as ugly as it gets. The doctor has been charge with second-degree murder. He is out on bail.

The comment threads at the N&O on the last story have been especially troubling to me in that they reveal (apart from justifiable outrage at senseless death of a gifted young woman) a deep-seeded, obviously long-simmering resentment of "rich", "white" doctors on the part of the general public: Doctors are above the law . . . they are cut deals others do not get . . . they think they are better than the rest of the world.

Despite his professional reputation (as one of only four head & neck surgeons who see the "big-bad" cases in Raleigh), Dr. Cook's stereotypical "bad-boy doctor" behavior has only served to feed the frenzy . . . he apparently got hammered at a Raleigh country club while spending an afternoon playing golf . . . BEFORE he showed up at a bar . . . meeting a woman-not-his-wife for more drinks . . . and then being "cut off" by the management (the woman he was with actually asked for a "to-go" cup).

Early on in the comments on one of the N&O threads, I mused . . .

Did this man have those red eyes in the OR? And if he did, what did his colleagues do about it BEFORE he got behind the wheel of his Benz & mowed down a young girl? That's where whistle-blowers come in.

And in this state, they're out of luck.

In this era of "reform" & accountability & transparency, maybe it's time the NC Medical Board did something beside spew platitudes, quote position statements it does not enforce, and hide behind "NO COMMENT".

Anyone expressing sympathy for the doctor's family (he is married with young children) . . . or suggesting that a little due process (as opposed to a public lynching) might be appropriate . . . has been pretty badly hammered. The mob has been especially hard on the doctor's wife - who (many folks reason) must have known he was a drunk:

To the fools who think we should "support" the Cook family . . . My mother and grandmother thought is was cool to put three little girls in the car with a drunk. Mom placed her grandchildren in the car with a drunk. My my sisters placed their children in the car with a drunk.

A fifth of vodka a day, Dad never missed a day of work. He worked at a major medical center and assisted in surgery.

Who on this forum would put their child in the car with Cook on the night in question? Who would want him to perform surgery on them the morning after a major bender? You wouldn't believe how many doctors drank at our house until 4 or 5 in the morning, went home showered then started rounds at 6:30 am.

You can bet the Cook Family has covered for this fool for years. If someone placed a loaded gun to your head would you want someone to intervene before or after the trigger is pulled? Drunk driving is no different than playing "Trust Me" with a loaded gun. Intervention before murder...ya think?

If truth be told, I mostly sympathize with the public. When it comes to my own profession, I've always felt like an outsider looking in on some of the more snooty/snobbish stuff. I've never joined a Country Club and have never been comfortable the few times I set foot in one. I drive a Camry or an old Ford pick-up. I outgrew alcohol as anything but a rare indulgence with the YaYas a long time ago. And God knows, I'm definitely not "right people" in Asheboro. So while my heart bleeds for the irreparable damage this man has done to his own family (especially his children - who will suffer interminably and who are just as much victims as Elena Shapiro), there is simply no excuse for what he did, and an entire library of legal books should be thrown at him.

In one of the comment threads, I responded to "Agent Pierce" (with whom I am usually muy sympatico) . . . who was a bit testy after being pummeled for trying to be a voice of reason holding back the angry mob (and who had raised the specter of a certain "beloved" U.S. Senator who did exactly the same thing Dr. Cook did and was allowed to atone):

Ah, the ghost of Teddy - who atoned & now sleeps at Arlington. Good one, P.

But I had a problem with that too.

And OBTW, two DWI's in your twenties are a pretty good indicator of a problem (as Teddy more than proved).

If this doctor had not plowed into/killed Elena Shapiro, but had only been pulled over for speeding/DWI, I can guarantee you that this would have been buried. He'd go into the NCMB's approved version of rehab . . . gone on sabbatical from the hospitals where he's privileged . . . probably had his license suspended-but-not-really for 30 days . . . and moved right on with his life. He would have paid off the lawyers by doing nips & tucks for their staff members & wives (that's the way the world works) . . . because what he does - or at least did before this happened, was valuable to society.

He got where he was because he was a smart man. But (he was) not smart enough to realize that a drunk behind the wheel is nothing special - just a drunk - until he/she kills.

A short while later, this comment brought the point I'm trying to make in this post home:

(It's) just another example of the medical community "policing its own". Shame on every one of you doctors who knew this man and could have done something about his addiction to alcohol before he finally killed someone.

It's time for you all to become accountable for the behavior of your own colleagues if you wish to maintain the respect of the public whom you serve.

Remember your oath? "First, do no harm." By your tacit silence about the known behaviors of one of your own physician cohort, each of you carries the responsibility for this young woman's tragic death as certainly as if you had committed the act yourself.

It's kind of the noble notion I was dumb enough to believe would be my protection & shield eleven years ago - when I intervened answered a call for help and intervened in a neonatal case being mis-managed by someone else very much in over his head.

I reasoned that I had a duty and responsibility and I answered it in the only way I could and sleep at night.

And it's the notion I still have as I spit in the eye of the N.C. Medical Board, N.C. & U.S. DHHS and JCAHO that, despite all of their pontifications on "duty", stood by . . . deaf, dumb and mute . . . and let me be professionally raped, robbed and left for dead.

The doctor I rescued and later reported to the Medical Board, Dr. Mick Irwin, does not have a public file. He went on to become Chief of Staff at Randolph Hospital.

The "non-profit" hospital administrators who threatened and legally bullied me . . . who destroyed my practice and irrevocably sullied my reputation in my own hometown . . . went on to lie repeatedly under Oath during subsequent litigation - and then negotiate a deal on the lies.

So far they've gotten away with it because, in the North Carolina Attorney General's eyes, they are "right people" and I am not.

(I'm still waiting on that meeting with the NCAG Mr. Mansfield.)

The wink and nod routine is old hat and it speaks volumes. And it's foolish/stupid to believe that the public is not paying attention.

Indeed, the fury in these comment threads prove the public could not be more awake . . . or more angry about it.

The image the general public has of doctors . . . the image that Dr. Cook & others that I've crossed paths with embody . . . does little to help our cause in matters of reform. And the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of our "advocacy" organizations and leadership . . . ala the AMA, NCMS, and Medical Boards . . . who have not done nearly enough to ensure that we can effectively and fairly police our own.

But they/we want tort reform. We want to be appreciated for our learning and our years of training and our sacrifice. We want not to be indentured servants to the government. We want to be trusted.

We don't want to be branded by our bad apples.

So tell me again mighty-bleeding-hearts-of-the-local-leftosphere . . . Ed Cone - Roch Smith, Jr. - Sue Polinsky - John Robinson . . . that my case is not relevant . . . or that I should just get over it and move on.

It's not going to happen.

The medical & legal establishment in North Carolina needs to get its head out of its butt.

And in the case of Dr. Mary Johnson vs. Randolph Hospital, I'm prepared to pry if out if they can't shortly do it on their own.

Coupon Commandos

The nurses I work with are a scream.

This morning, on the LDRP unit, they were cracking jokes about tuna. At first, walking into the middle of the conversation . . . all the laughter and hilarity sailing right over my head . . . I thought they were talking about something nasty (you really have to know one of them - she is so going to Hell;).

But it actually was about what I like to call the coupon wars.

Someone (in this case, a group of someones) had gotten to the tuna aisle first.

And all that the last one in the store (the one who actually started the madness) saw was an empty bin.

She knew who had been there . . . she even imagined those who had foiled her mission waving and laughing at her from the black nothingness in the space where piles of tuna cans were supposed to be.

And she silently cursed them. Because she had taught them all she knew.

And they used it against her.

You see, as this recession turns everyone into penny-pinchers, as husbands are laid off work or hours are cut back, and children still need to be fed, the nurses I work with have become coupon commandos. They scour the local newspapers (sometimes buying stacks of them) and grocery store bulletin boards for coupons.

Then they stage raids on unsuspecting local grocery stores.

Entire groups of them will pile into one SUV and drive 30-40 miles to the nearest Farm Fresh (we are, after all, in the sticks), attack the aisles like rabid cats, and leave the store with a basket full of groceries for five dollars.

The grocery store staff - especially the managers - are not often amused. And drama sometimes ensues. It can make for an interesting show of force.

In this case, I would not place any money on the managers.

It's gotten to the point that the girls are talking about wearing disguises - like the guy in that granola bar commercial.

A Reggae look would work well on the one who is so going to Hell;). We discussed particulars this morning.

When these women are done with their raid at the Farm Fresh, the one doing the driving will get free gas (I think it about points awarded for imaginary dollars spent in the store).

It's fricking amazing what these women can do.

I'd join them on one of their raids, but they scare me.

If we sent them to Iraq, the war would be over in two days.

Side Effects

My upper arm is very sore, and I was very tired last night - went to bed early and slept like a baby.

I got my (regular) flu shot yesterday.

"Special Doctors, Special Care"

The lawyer of a Raleigh plastic surgeon who was driving drunk and plowed into the car of an aspiring ballerina early Friday night at 85 miles an hour (killing her), says that the doctor is "devastated".

(Author's 12:31 pm Update: Dr. Cook has been charged with second degree murder - and the N&O's original story link - with its smorgasbord of comments - has disappeared. Here is the new link.)

While that might work for old people suffering from dementia, it doesn't quite cut it for 42 year-old UNC/Duke-trained, Benz-driving specialty surgeons (married, with children) who should know better.

Of course, if it had happened in Asheboro, based on what happened to me (I got fired, Mick Irwin was promoted to Chief of Staff at Randolph Hospital), Cook might get a medal.

The North Carolina Medical Board, of course, has no comment on any investigation that might ensue (never mind that it should be condemning the behavior in no uncertain terms). Due process is fine - and this doctor will get it. But the Board is doing itself no favors with the "no comment" number.

I labor under no such restriction (it didn't help the doctor's cause that the marketing tag he practiced under sounds a lot like "Care You Can Trust"):

There goes his NC medical license . . . two years from now.

(Yes, that was dripping with sarcasm.)

My deepest sympathy is extended to the Shapiro family. But I'd warn them not to expect much satisfaction from the NC Medical Board.

Speaking of nonexistent investigations: Hey Ms. Fisher-Brinkley . . . I might as well ask here because I know this story is really bad PR for the Medical Board (what with you-all bestowing an unrestricted medical license on a guy with a DWI in GA) . . . and I know you're reading . . . and e-mails don't seem to be doing the trick:

As you might remember, I met with the Board's President back in June (it being my duty to blow the whistle on bad care and all) about my situation in Asheboro (fired for blowing the whistle/saving a life - and swindled by perjury/contempt/fraud when I took it to Court).

But I'm still waiting on that meeting with the Attorney General's office.

Any chance you could chat up Thomas Mansfield and light that fire?

Afternoon Update: It is just fricking AMAZING how quickly things happen when the press is paying attention!

Dr. Cook surrendered his medical license today. And, as of today, he has a public file, with the North Carolina Medical Board.

Elena Shapiro's family could not be in court to see him arraigned/bail set on murder charges. You see, they were burying her.

"Abortion Is Legal", Part 2

Sometimes you've just had it with people . . . as I've had it with holier-than-thou Brian Clarey at Joe's . . . on this thread - and on a topic I've already featured once before this week. I HATE a smart-butt (especially a liberal one) dishing snark.

Here's Brian (he's in blue because he's so progressive):

Turning this into a visceral argument obscures the reality of the entire issue.

Nobody likes dead babies.

Maybe a death penalty analogy would be more fitting for all the doctors in the house. You okay with driving home the needle loaded with a lethal injection paid for with taxpayer dollars?

One more for Dr. Mary: Are you against using taxpayer dollars for "legitimate" abortions, like the current Medicaid system allows -- that is, rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother?

Under the current healthcare system, many, if not most, insurance providers cover abortions for any woman who can pay her monthly premiums. With a "public option," it seems to me, the procedure would no longer be covered because of sentiments just like the ones you've expressed here.

So it seems to me that if you're anti-abortion, you should probably embrace the public option because people under it will have to pay for their own abortions, and statistically speaking there should be fewer of them performed each year.

I've already covered a few of those topics on this blog. And/so hummmmmmm . . . now what would Miss Vida do (this time I did use a spell-checker)?

Abortion is about as "visceral" as it gets, Brian. I recently decided to stop apologizing if the ugly/bloody truth makes people squirm.

As for "nobody likes dead babies", you sure drop the bombs like you do.

With regards to your death penalty analogy, I am okay with capital punishment. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's (you see, in stark contrast to abortion, when a convicted murdered is executed, there's this little thing called due process and trial by jury that has to happen first). One of the things that a civilized society can still demand from its citizens is the penalty of death for the most heinous of crimes.

I am NOT okay, however, with the state making doctors push the juice (as we are the only profession that takes an Oath to "First Do No Harm"). And if Bev Perdue wants to force that issue, maybe she should go back to bullets.

The answer to your last question - about "legitimate" abortions (a good one) is (in theory), no.

For the record, I don't think insurance companies should be covering elective (key word: elective) abortions either . . . for once again, you're taking money out of a pool that other policy-holders contribute to.

I notice you put "legitimate" in quotes. FYI, the current system does not allow us to really differentiate between the serious & life-threatening and the mundane, stupid & self-serving.

On current obstetrical records (at least the ones I've seen in several hospitals over the last few years), you're not allowed to differentiate between "therapeutic" abortions or elective ones. The theory is that the caregiver's opinion of the Mother's previous choices might affect her care (never mind that I, for one, would approve of her keeping her baby).

Moreover, "therapeutic" can be very broadly interpreted (so the doctor can get paid). For instance, if a Mother is depressed, she can elect to kill her unborn child. It's "medically necessary" ("therapeutic"/"legitimate"). Because she's depressed.

As I have explained on my blog and here/there/everywhere over the last five years, the Federal government is NOT adequately policing the programs it already has. Fraud and abuse are rampant. Billions have been wasted in North Carolina alone (yet miraculously, no one is ever fired or goes to jail). There are NO reasonable limits or boundaries for participants - anything goes (especially in Medicaid).

You wanna have a bunch of babies by five or six different "daddies" (not being married to any of them)? Fine. No problem. We don't need Daddies because Medicaid will pay. Are you a raging alcoholic? Do you snort coke? Shoot up heroin? Smoke the happy weed? Fine. DSS will let you take your baby home after they meet with you once and pat you on the hand. You don't have a job and cannot support your babies? Fine. The government will pay for their formula & food. And let's not forget the "anchor babies" of anyone who wants to break our laws for a little opportunity (it's heart-warming).

We've got public education teaching the birds and the bees by the 4th grade. We've had fifty years of the welfare state (originally conceived as a safety net - not a way of life). And birth control is FREE in any health department you might care to walk into. But women still get pregnant and they (and the "daddies") expect their fellow (productive/conscientious/responsible) citizens to pay the bill. Why? Because there's no incentive not to.

In fact, our government ENCOURAGES sloth.

Expectations are what really need to be reformed before we do anything else.

You are not living in the real world if you think that what Obama is offering is "change". It's status quo - on a grander more expensive scale than anything we've ever seen.

The system is broken, but hey, let's dump 20-50 million MORE people who won't pay on top of it.

I am not so naive as to believe that Obama's true goal anything less than universal public healthcare - i.e. totally socialized medicine.

That's about power.

And I'm sorry, Brian. Given my own VERY RELEVANT experience as a wide-eyed newbie in public health . . . professionally robbed, raped and left-for-dead by a "non-profit" hospital in my own hometown . . . under the "oversight" of a government that didn't know its left from its right . . . as things currently stand, it will be A VERY COLD DAY IN HELL before I support a public option.

And OBTW, as a study in situational ethics, the executives of the local hospital that done me wrong stood silently by and looked the other way while their Chief of OB had an affair with an LDRP nurse - and then aborted his own child. They didn't bat an eyelash until the nurse reported him to the Medical Board (after he broke up with her).

Keeping him on staff - even while he was acting like an ass - was all about the money he generated for their coffers.

Meanwhile, the same hospital executives POUNDED a home-grown Pediatrician into the ground after she ignored their threats and did her duty by a very sick baby.

That was about money too. Monopolizing resources. Kicking competition to the curb.

It's all about money.

So don't talk to me about statistics. I am one. And I work amongst them every single day.

Whew! Carol Ann feels better now;)

"Your Approval Is Not Needed"

My favorite line from Miss Vida Bohemme.

A thing of true beauty, she/he made me cry (with some help from Stockard Channing). And laugh.

It was one helluva fight. Rest in peace, Patrick. I think of you as an angel.

It's A Waste Of Taxpayer's Money"

A friend sent me a link to this CNN story . . . on a Florida Obstetrician who gave up.

The story speaks for itself. And Dr. Wah's head is where mine would probably have been at, had I thrown caution and common sense to the wind and immediately dived into private practice in Asheboro - having had the rug pulled out from under me by liars and thieves . . .

. . . liars and thieves that, to this day, remain employed and very well paid (feel free to check out their salaries at Guidestar.com) . . .

. . . liars and thieves that, to this day, have yet to answer to the government I served . . . or the institution (JCAHO) that accredits hospitals . . . or the physician advocacy organizations (like the AMA and NCMS) who'd rather drink the "disruptive physician" Koolaid and knuckle under to hospitals for a seat at the kiddy table in reform talks . . . or a Medical Board that now has the cheek to lecture me on my duty (as if I didn't already know) . . .

. . . liars and thieves that, to this day, have suffered no scrutiny whatsoever from our local press . . . a press that deems stories like mine "irrelevant".

This excerpt hit home:

. . . it's a waste of training, skill, talent and money when a doctor leaves the profession in mid-career.

It takes a minimum of 10 to 12 years of training to become a doctor. In Wah's case, she underwent 10 years of training, including medical school and
residency, before she entered the workforce.

While some enter medicine because they believe it pays well, most choose it as a career because they feel it's their calling.

"For many it's not about the money. They have a passion for it, to take care of people . . . It's not easy to feel that passionately for another career after medicine."

Yeah, it's the reason I'm still hanging on - despite everything I've been through - despite being treated worse than a dog at the pound by the fine, upstanding, "Christan" people running my hometown.

Here's another excerpt from the story that touched a nerve:

It's also a waste of taxpayer money when a physician opts out. "We are all paying out of our pockets to produce doctors . . .

That's because medical residency programs are mostly funded by Medicare to the tune of $9 billion to train about 100,000 residents annually, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission . . .

It's Medicare that funds hospital costs to house residency programs, pay salaries of residents and sometimes pay faculties' salaries."

It's also a waste of the taxpayer's money when physicians who are recruited to "under-served" areas in "loan-repayment-for-service" programs (as I was by the NHSC and N.C. Office of Rural Health) are drummed out of town by greedy "non-profit" executives intent on maintaining their market share.

That's what happened in Asheboro. It's why two Pediatricians (and an Obstetrician for that matter) left town.

The executives put money before good care . . . and taking good care of their doctors.

The general (woefully-uninformed and still under-served) public can send "Thank-You" notes to Bob Morrison (CEO) and/or Steve Eblin (VP of Corporate Planning & Development) at Randolph Hospital, 364 White Oak Street, Asheboro, North Carolina, 27203.

And if I have not said it before, Barack Obama does not have a clue who I am.

Author's note: Courtesy of an off-set click, this post published before it was completed. I apologize to readers.