I was actually terrified that she would be convicted. You see, after my own experience in the good-ole hometown, I've got no faith left in the "small town values" espoused by those who live in them. I've never understood the ability of some people to abandon what they know to be right and true for the dubious privilege of going along to get along. I've seen people in Asheboro do this my entire life, but I still don't get it.
I used to attribute it to fear. But that's letting them off way too easy, I think.
Anne Mitchell is a true whistle-blower. This nurse did what she was supposed to do - what her duty required. The law should have protected her. Just like it should have protected me. Instead it was used as a battering ram.
Anyone with "real credentials" in the whistle-blower arena would have felt Mitchell's pain and not have supported the Sheriff's/DA's actions in this case . . . indeed, they would have railed against them.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of disciplined doctors out there that blame nurses for bringing them down . . .
. . . as opposed to blaming their own stupidity or ineptitude or greed (the stupid, it burns).
And doctors like this were very quick to jump on the prosecutorial band-wagon: By "many" accounts, Anne Mitchell was a horribly abusive/disruptive bitch with a baseless vendetta against the poor, put-upon doctor with buddies in convenient places . . .
. . . never mind that the doctor already had restrictions on his license, and Mitchell's methods (not to mention the complaint itself) were found to have merit by the Texas Medical Board and state investigators.
I don't suppose any of this is sounding familiar yet?
Now do not get me wrong. There is no question that "bad-faith" or "sham" peer review (i.e. doctors targeted for discipline or "diagnosed" as "disruptive" for less-than-noble reasons) exists. The most common less-than-noble reasons are professional jealousy and/or simple economic greed. And it is a problem that is way past the point of needing to be addressed. Good doctors have been destroyed.
Of course, that's why it's not being addressed at all in current healthcare "reform" legislation. We have a President thinks Pediatricians perform needless tonsillectomies for the money.
But, as I said in my recent post on Congressman Brad Miller's recent embarrassing faux-pax championing an out-of-state wack-job trying to hide her embarrassing job history behind the facade of medical martyrdom, not every doctor done-in has been done wrong:
A lot of terminated doctors these days are wrapping themselves in the the mantle of the "whistle-blower", never mind that they were not fired/disciplined for puckering up to blow.
I have no more use for these practitioners of "woo" and cranktitude than Orac does.
But because our system of medico-legal oversight is so fundamentally incestuous and broken (especially in smaller hospitals/small towns/rural areas) . . . because bad & good faith are not well-defined . . . and because due process for doctors in employment matters and/or peer review is oftentimes fundamentally non-existent (for instance, I am not a fan of anonymous complaints carrying any weight in a disciplinary proceeding) . . . it is often very hard to sort out the difference between the genuine "who's" living in Whistle-blower Hell and the "woos" who want you to think they are.
And/so even though there is strength to be found in numbers, you cannot sell your soul. That's the reason I cut all ties with the Semmelweis Society, and took the time to scold the AAPS on its position in the Mitchell case:
Honestly, the comments on this blog from doctors calling for this nurse’s head bring shame down upon physicians who have sacrificed and suffered much for doing the same things Anne Mitchell did:
I am appalled by this AAPS article and its lack of due diligence.
YES, hospitals and insurance companies use the legal system like a battering ram. YES, there should be accountability for bad faith and malice. And YES the reform measures currently proposed in Washington are a JOKE. But if you really want to change the things that are clearly wrong with medico-legal oversight (like giving anonymous complaints credence and piss-poor whistle-blower protection), this case is THE LAST case upon which you should plant your flag. You’ve set your cause back YEARS with this behavior.
This nurse did not deserve to be legally crucified by a bunch of good-ole-boys abusing their power.
Twice in the last few days, I've linked an N&O article on former NCDHHS spokeswoman, Debbie Crane, the unfortunate young woman who found herself targeted for character assassination by our former Governor, Mike Sleazely . . . for the horrible sin of trying to comply with public records law.
Ms. Crane was recently vindicated. As it turns out, it's our former Governor who is "dishonest and untruthful". And I loved her quote to the news media that once reported her to be a liar:
Being called a liar by Mike Easley is a badge of honor.
That's EXACTLY how I felt after sending Randolph Hospital packing on its despicable "libel" lawsuit (never mind that David Renfro buried my vindication in a second-page "short-take" in his third-rate newspaper).
The N&O article on Ms. Crane tugged mightily at my heartstrings . . . and reopened some very old wounds. From the Ruth Sheehan article (in blue - with commentary related to my own ordeal interspersed):
On the day Debbie Crane was fired for doing her job, and doing it well, she called a friend and asked for help getting in to see a psychiatrist. Immediately.
"I needed to talk to someone," the deposed Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said. "I couldn't have made it home to Hillsborough."
Immediately after Mike Bridges served notice of termination, for doing my job and doing it well, and I threw the back-stabbing weasel out of what would be my office for only five more days, I called Billie Vuncannon (then-Director of Hospice, and a dear friend since the days I volunteered for her as a teenager). She was disgusted but (sadly) not surprised. Unprintables were uttered.
I had called my Mom first. She said it would be all right.
I'd be lying if I did not admit that I've thought seriously about spending some (more) time in a therapist's chair. But the thing about that is I'd be letting Morrison and Eblin win. It's not crazy to be very angry about being fired for doing your job the way it was supposed to be done. It's not malice - or even remotely unreasonable - to want people who broke the law and hurt you to go to jail.
She was raw that day, raging, injured. Besides being axed, she had been called "dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate" by Gov. Mike Easley through spokesman Seth Effron.Raw raging and injured. Yeah, that about covers it. I lost count of the nights I tossed and turned in the early months of this never-ending nightmare and screamed at God ("Why . . . why is this happening to me . . . and why are you letting it?) . . . crying myself to sleep.
What hurt even more than being tossed out on the street like so much garbage was seeing so many of the doctors I had rescued and helped quickly and totally turn their backs, and act as if I did not exist. I went from being a respected member of the medical staff to town pariah in the course of 24 hours . . . never mind that every single doctor on that staff knew that what was going down REEKED of abuse-of-power and retaliation/revenge.
On top of being fired for saving a baby's life, and black-balled for miles around, I was sued for telling the truth to the government I had served . . . the government that had abandoned me. That lawsuit was all about draining me emotionally and fiscally. For once openly challenged, it was not enough for Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin (and the rubber-stamp Boards of Directors that approved their every move) to destroy my dreams of building a life and a practice to be proud of in my own hometown.
THEY HAD TO DESTROY ME.
Crane and anyone who'd ever worked with her knew the allegations weren't true. Still, she found herself in the strange position of having been publicly maligned by the state's chief executive.
Anyone who had worked with me KNEW that I didn't give a crap about getting rich and all I had EVER cared about was providing good Pediatric care at Randolph Hospital. I was a "team player" and a "fixer-upper" if ever there had been one . . . despite all the back-stabbing, broken promises and stupid turf wars with small-town (often sexist) ego-monsters. But I was not a push-over and I was no one's patsy - or "honey". Orders are not suggestions. Pediatric protocols exist for a reason. "Yes," is not always the answer when people who are not doctors make it up as they go along. Winking and nodding is not an option when patients are being poorly served or are in harm's way.
Alas, getting through the day at RMA/Randolph Hospital was oftentimes like pulling wisdom teeth without anesthesia. The hospital's reputation was awful and parents did not want to go there.
Hell, I even had sinus surgery at Randolph . . . and was housed on the Pediatric ward . . . to prove to my parents that Randolph provided care that could be trusted.
Of course, we know how that turned out.
"My mother out in Brevard was hearing from old friends, saying, 'What is going on with Debbie?'" Crane said.
"What is going on with Mary?" It broke my heart that what happened to me broke my Mother's heart. But she and Daddy stood by me . . . at one point even paying my mortgage when the useless/negligent Steve Schmidly had to be paid first. Mama, who taught in Asheboro for thirty years and learned first hand how incestuous and ugly things could be, wrote scathing letters to the only newspaper that would print them. Daddy stood silent vigil when I protested alone in front of the hospital.
This taught me what family really is, and what love really means.
I will never forget what Mama said to me (with a tear in her eye and a catch in her voice) after we silently packed and unloaded the contents of my office onto the back of Dad's pick-up ("Big Red) . . . after hearing me comfort one of my sobbing nurses (who said over and over, "You are the heart and soul of this practice, Dr. Johnson . . . this is wrong . . . it is so wrong!") on the way out the door:
You reminded me of your Granddaddy Cecil today, Mary.
Higher praise I will not get in this life.
In truth, all Crane had done was follow the law. She'd provided public records to reporters. That those records led to damning stories about the administration's handling of mental health reforms was not her fault.
In truth, all I did was my duty by a very sick baby girl. I've told the truth while others have lied and lied and lied some more in order to cover it all up - and have gotten raises for doing it. I've followed the spirit and the letter of the law while others have ignored and/or spat on it. I've been marginalized and ignored by the local journalists who'd rather make up a fake story than tell a real one. And all the while, I've kept practicing medicine to the best of my ability . . . in places where a lot of doctors won't go . . . even sticking out my neck again to stop a dangerous doctor.
I've also been called every nasty name in the book by cyber-bullies in this oh-so-enlightened blogosphere (this means you Roch Smith, Jr., this means you Jeff Martin) who do not have the slightest clue as to what actually went down at RMA all those years ago . . . angry-white-men-who-just-don't-have-that-much-to-be-angry-about and who cannot possibly conceive (from the smug safety of their keyboards) of what I've been through fighting for right with all of my might . . . pounding my head against what we now know to have been very thick (mostly blue) walls of corruption . . . and with limited means.
So boys. You can take your nasty/childish ad-hominems and your libel and your PATHETIC/sick/warped head games and you can stuff them where the sun doesn't shine. And Fec, seriously, you might want to take your own "friendly" advice. Because, man you crossed a line and if you cannot see that . . . if you've made it my fault . . . then you really do need some help.
I have not been wholly vindicated yet, but I have faith that I will be. People like Anne Mitchell and Debbie Crane give me hope that one day, very soon I think, the truth will set me free too. I am not giving up, and I am not just going away.
I wear the same badge of honor they do and am proud to stand with these women of substance.
On this Valentine's Day, I dedicate this post to my Mother.
