Since going on break, several readers have inquired as to my whereabouts . . . and have wondered, given all that's been going on, if I am "okay".
Please be assured that I'm perfectly fine . . . just concentrating on work and upcoming projects . . . not to mention preparing to testify in the cyberstalking case on Monday, May 3 (Special Session, 10 AM, Courtroom 1A, Randolph County Courthouse).
If you haven't heard, "someone needs to take Mary Johnson down" and Greensboro's Jeff Martin (aka Fecund Stench) is just "the guy" to do it.
I actually met with prosecutors in the Randolph County DA's office last week. It was very strange/surreal walking into the lair of law enforcement officials who have treated me so horribly in the past.
Of course, last week I did NOT meet with (or cross the path of) any of the "big guns" (Yates/Gregson/Dozier) who have done me dirty and/or pretended I/my situation does not exist since 2003.
It's all so absurdly ironic. I can literally call in a misdemeanor complaint against a Greensboro blogger-turned-cyberstalker to a deputy over the phone . . . and it's in Court in a matter of months.
But two VIP/Teflon-coated "non-profit" hospital executives in Asheboro can commit multiple felonies (the kind with with no statute of limitations), and brazenly defraud a physician/the government(s) that brought her home . . . yet for all of SEVEN YEARS, a magistrate won't take the complaint, neither the Randolph County Sheriff's nor Asheboro Police Departments will investigate, and the DA has not returned correspondence or my calls.
Friends have advised me that even as I once again surrender to the legal system for (based on previous experience) God knows what kind of outcome, I cannot lower my guard or forget who I'm dealing with. And they worry that I might be getting set-up in some fashion. After all, it IS the pandering-to-Asheboro's-big-wallets & methodical/determined neglect of the Randolph County DA's office that constitutes the REASON I'm in the blogosphere at all . . . for people-who-fancy-themselves-smelly to abuse/annoy/threaten/harass/terrify/embarrass AND libel.
In short, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that "Mr. Stench" isn't the only player in this little local legal drama that would like to take me down.
But right now, all I can do is stick to the facts and the statute and go with the flow.
And/so I'm still on a blogging break (and will be for at least another week or so). And I'm enjoying it very much, thank you very much.
Sure, things like the Courier's story on (Randolph Hospital CEO) Bob Morrison and Brooke Schmidly encouraging Asheboro's general populace to drink more water . . . after working so hard to sell alcohol on every corner . . . BEG for biting critical commentary.
And the Greensboro News & Record harping on increased water rates after treating Mike Baron/his story-of-woe like a disease, is yet another shining example of the journalistic hypocrisy practiced in Randolph & Guilford Counties.
Maybe, just maybe Mike Baron wasn't "criminally insane" after all;)
Oh, and then there's the Courier's "new & improved", more "interactive" website . . . billed by the new publisher as having "a lot more local content and really shows what’s going on in Asheboro and Randolph County".
It's a nice theory anyway. But (as all of "the wrong people" in Asheboro know) actual journalistic practice here is a different thing entirely. You cannot say anything bad about the "right people" or their pet plans/projects (especially now that they're trying to bring the town they killed back to life). And excepting the glitzy bells & whistles on the Courier's website (which were light-years coming compared to every other newspaper in the area), I've yet to see any evidence that the new publisher is really any diffferent than the old one.
Of course, even as Housecalls sleeps, I have been busy reading and commenting elsewhere. It seems that, in the wake of the passage of Obamacare, the medical blogosphere is finally waking up.
I've elected to briefly dive back into the ether a little earlier than I'd planned because I really cannot resist commenting on the departure of Mike Miller from First National Bank.
The Courier's story last week pretty much says it all (Note to Readers: You must register at the Courier Tribune in order to read/access a story more than 7 days old - and as of this writing, despite registering yesterday, my "application" has yet to be approved). I may be an ignorant (no MBA/no law degree), back-woods "wrong person" from Randolph County, but reading between those lines does not require an interpreter or corporate consultant.
I was very glad to hear that Miller didn't get a phat parachute.
Of course, there's background. A good portion of my youth was spent in a house literally a hop, skip & jump from the Miller family home. While Mike was much older than I, my brother and his brother were the same age and best friends. And I was very fond of Mike's Mother, who I remember as a classic piece-of-work in all of the good ways.
When I first came back home to Asheboro, my home-mortgage was with First National (no, it was not one of the non-performing "zero percent interest" loans that I've heard the bank has lately doled out to some doctors if they'll just relocate to Randolph County). When the crap hit the fan at RMA, I begged Mike Miller and his compatriots on the hospital's Board-of-Directors & Corporate Membership (you know, the fine-upstanding/fair-mined people who NEVER gave me the opportunity to defend myself BEFORE I was fired) for help.
But these community "leaders" were far too busy being way too important to speak to a lowly no-longer-employed/"disgruntled" Pediatrician . . . not-to-mention diving under the hospital's fancy Boardroom table trying to avoid culpability (and more importantly, liability) for what their CEO, Bob Morrison, and his left-hand-man, Steven Eblin, had done to a public-servant-brought-home-with-taxpayer-dollars right under their up-turned noses.
I was so disgusted that I moved my mortgage to another local bank during what I now call "the lawsuit period" . . . resolving never to do business with First National again. You see, for all of Miller's indignant huffing & puffing about confidentiality and privacy, the relationship between his bank and Randolph Hospital was just way too close for my comfort.
A good friend-also-raised-in-Asheboro-who-came-back-as-an-adult-professional-only-to-be-treated-very-badly and I had lunch in Greensboro last Saturday (at McAllister's Deli off New Garden because I love the iced-tea), and it's for sure that Mike Miller's ears were burning.
Despite his own bad experience in our "hometown", my friend (whose heart in these matters is not nearly as scarred-down or "Grinchy" as mine) actually felt sorry for some of the Board members and major shareholders of FNB/Community One/Whatever-The-Hell-It-Calls-Itself Now. But I wasn't what you would call sympathetic.
I don't feel the least bit sorry for any of FNB's Board members. Because, at one time or another, a good many of them sat on the Randolph Hospital and/or Randolph Medical Associates boards as well . . . as masters of Asheboro's domain.
And EVERY SINGLE ONE of those "honorables" sat around around deaf/dumb/blind (Mike Miller included) while I was crucified for standing up to threats and doing the right thing by a patient of their precious hospital - where their prominent family names adorned the bricks and doors.
Then, adding insult to injury, these prominent folk decided to SLAPP-sue me (using/wasting MORE tax-payer dollars) . . . humiliating me in front of my mortified parents, in the place I called "home".
At the time, I was told that several of these Board members thought that the "libel" lawsuit was hysterically funny . . . Randolph Hospital was going to teach Dr. Mary Johnson a lesson . . . the up-side being that this lesson would discourage other doctors from talking back.
You see, we more "ordinary" folk simply could not question these people . . . or the despicable/amoral/unethical/illegal actions of the "non-profit" executives they were supposed to oversee.
Board members were not responsible for the actions of these administrators - even when they were/are. They just held "honorary" positions.
It was CLASSIC (what my Mom calls) "mill-town mentality". After busting your ass your entire adult life to become a really-good Pediatrician . . . after coming home to give something back to the "community" where you were raised . . . after taking all the critical-care call and covering everybody's butt and sticking your neck out and defying threats and going above and beyond . . . you were STILL a NOBODY and a NOTHING compared to the Mike Millers of this world . . .
. . . not worthy of a second thought.
Your life and your hopes and your dreams could be destroyed . . . you and your family could be embarrassed and humiliated . . . you could stay in & live out of crappy hotels on the road (where these people would not be caught dead) . . . you could barely scrape by (your life enslaved to the lawyers and exiled FOR YEARS) because of their apathy and/or pure vindictive, career-killing MALICE . . . but as long as the well-named VIP's and their first families of Asheboro were happy and thriving and still able to do the ritzy retreats on the public's dime, and pay the expensive consultants to do their critical thinking for them, all was well.
And/so, there has always been a dark side to "Mayberry". From those-with-nothing who crossed our far-southern borders in to order staff the mills, to the young medical/educational/business professionals who bought into the myth and came to Asheboro - entrusting their futures to people who turned out to be common liars and cheats, some of us in Mike Miller's "community" were just there for others to use, abuse and throw away. We were cogs in somebody else's wheel to a fast buck . . .
. . . "a dime a dozen".
There's little doubt in this particular nobody's mind that it's exactly this kind of philosophy which played heavily into the business practices that brought FNB stock to near-penny status and Mike Miller to an early retirement.
Yet STILL, the powers-that-be in Asheboro cannot figure out why the town found itself on lists like this.
(I'm almost glad that, because of what Randolph Hospital did to me, I had NOTHING to invest.)
Meanwhile, those of us who were thrown under the Beemers and Benz's (while the local newspaper slept) are not supposed to be angry or bitter . . . we're supposed to just "get over it" and "move on".
So, as I told my good buddy sipping the iced-tea with me at McAlister's, SCREW THEM ALL. These people DID NOT CARE about me and mine even when they were CHARGED TO DO SO. They FORGOT about the basics of right and wrong . . . of accountability and responsibility and fair-play. And the "small-town values" that we were once taught in our churches and schools . . . the noble notions that our "leaders" love to talk about (yet the last two years have proven so few of them apparently practice) meant NOTHING to them.
Motivated by pure greed, and instead of standing up in the community for what was right and just, these community leaders followed the crowd and the trends (no matter how poorly thought-through or reckless). Forgive me if I don't tear my clothes and wring my hands for any of them now.
In a very real sense, what Mike Miller & his high & mighty kind allowed to be done to me twelve years ago (while never having the GUTS to face me or hear my side of the ugly story they just had to cover up), has now been done to hoards of people - shareholders and customers alike.
I'm finding no particular joy in the fact that I'm not so alone anymore in the "you got screwed in Asheboro" department. But there is some small satisfaction in being able to say, "I told you-all so".
Mike Miller, previously untouchable, has fallen . . . as I read it (in the Courier of all places) for poor performance on the job. It just goes to show that money talks louder than anything else - even in small towns. And/so, I think it's way-past-the-time for Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin to go under the same kind of microscope . . . for lying to the community they were supposed to serve about WHAT they did to a good/homegrown doctor-who-cared-more-than-this-"community"-ever-deserved, and WHY they did it.
IN SHORT, CLEAN THIS HOUSE.
And/so I trust folks/readers will understand when I say that it would serve this crowd of "right people" right if every single one of them lost their underwear on Mikey's watch and have to file Chapter 13.
What goes around.
It's called reaping what you sow.
Back on break.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
"A Strongly Assertive Post On The Clash Of Medicine And Law"
The flag here remains at half-mast.
But this past Sunday's Housecalls post was featured on this week's edition of the medical blogosphere's Grand Rounds . . . styled (by Dr. Emer) in this fashion: Here's a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy post on a medical oversight case in North Carolina. Did I say it's a long post? Dr. Mary Johnson also gives us a fair warning, but do not let that discourage you. It is a strongly assertive post on the clash of medicine and the law.
What can I say? It's so refreshing after five years of the abuse and/or indifference dished out by Mr. Cone & our local so-called journalists.
Meanwhile, (remembering the parent phone-call from HELL) the Pediatric Insider hits one out of the park. And this morning, DRUDGE is featuring a Wall Street Journal article offering yet another ominous warning to the country: Very shortly, the United States is going to be 150,000 doctors down.
Well yeah, DUH. We were NEVER exactly "a dime a dozen", eh?
So maybe YOU Ed, maybe YOU JR, maybe YOU Diane, need to can the excuses. Maybe ordinary citizens need to be enlightened as to what has been going on right under their noses FOR YEARS . . . maybe, just maybe, third-rate, lying suits should not find it quite so easy to drive good doctors out of their mill towns . . . and maybe, just maybe, North Carolina officials and/or oversight agencies should STOP taking things for granted that should NEVER have been taken for granted in the first place?
And now, a demonstration of why Housecalls will remain at half-mast:
Friends have lately joked that there are parallels to be made between Mary Johnson's efforts/approach to educate a largely-kept-in-the-dark public about what has really been going on locally in medicine, and Julia Sugarbaker's to set straight an ignorant beauty queen:
"I'm sorry I didn't know."
"Well, now you do."
But this past Sunday's Housecalls post was featured on this week's edition of the medical blogosphere's Grand Rounds . . . styled (by Dr. Emer) in this fashion: Here's a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy post on a medical oversight case in North Carolina. Did I say it's a long post? Dr. Mary Johnson also gives us a fair warning, but do not let that discourage you. It is a strongly assertive post on the clash of medicine and the law.
What can I say? It's so refreshing after five years of the abuse and/or indifference dished out by Mr. Cone & our local so-called journalists.
Meanwhile, (remembering the parent phone-call from HELL) the Pediatric Insider hits one out of the park. And this morning, DRUDGE is featuring a Wall Street Journal article offering yet another ominous warning to the country: Very shortly, the United States is going to be 150,000 doctors down.
Well yeah, DUH. We were NEVER exactly "a dime a dozen", eh?
So maybe YOU Ed, maybe YOU JR, maybe YOU Diane, need to can the excuses. Maybe ordinary citizens need to be enlightened as to what has been going on right under their noses FOR YEARS . . . maybe, just maybe, third-rate, lying suits should not find it quite so easy to drive good doctors out of their mill towns . . . and maybe, just maybe, North Carolina officials and/or oversight agencies should STOP taking things for granted that should NEVER have been taken for granted in the first place?
And now, a demonstration of why Housecalls will remain at half-mast:
Friends have lately joked that there are parallels to be made between Mary Johnson's efforts/approach to educate a largely-kept-in-the-dark public about what has really been going on locally in medicine, and Julia Sugarbaker's to set straight an ignorant beauty queen:
"I'm sorry I didn't know."
"Well, now you do."
The question is, what do YOU do about it?
4/14 Update:
The Greensboro N&R continues to post self-serving NC Medical Board press releases as "news". And I've had all I can take of the soundbites that don't begin to tell the real story.
It shows in the comments I posted.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Miss Dixie: Life Was A Cabaret
Slept late this morning after getting today's planned post up. Woke up to learn that Dixie Carter is dead (of endometrial cancer at the age of 70). She was one of the last grand Southern dames (she played the liberal firebrand, Julia Sugarbaker, so well that most people did not know she was a Republican). IMHO, the flags should be at half-mast today in the Capital of every Southern state (and the lights out in Georgia tonight;)
Back in 2007, I blogged about a Designing Women episode that struck a deep personal chord with me. I dedicated the post to my Mother. I link it today for Miss Dixie.
The flag here at Housecalls will remain at half-mast, and there will be no more posts for several weeks. Please take that time to digest the preceeding post. And thanks for reading.
Back in 2007, I blogged about a Designing Women episode that struck a deep personal chord with me. I dedicated the post to my Mother. I link it today for Miss Dixie.
The flag here at Housecalls will remain at half-mast, and there will be no more posts for several weeks. Please take that time to digest the preceeding post. And thanks for reading.
An Lesson On Medical Oversight In North Carolina: Courtesy Of Ed Cone (Blogging On Mary Johnson) & Orac The Magnificent (Blogging on Rashid Buttar)
I'm supposed to be on a blogging break. But there were two posts in other places this week . . . one local and one in the Respectfully-Insolent medical blogosphere . . . that present a stark study in contrasts . . . and drive home the ABJECT LUNACY of what is going on in North Carolina medicine (and law) these days.
And since the last few days have underscored just how much I HATE lawyers . . . especially the oily corporate ones (but even those not quite as much as the really malignantly narcissistic ones who fancy themselves better than the rest of us and slither on over to politics) . . . for what they have done to this country, to my profession, and to me personally over the years . . . I thought I'd go ahead and blog about the posts and then fade back into my break.
Fair warning: This is a post that has lots of WORDS (something that seems to bother some of Greensboro's blogging set), and moves way beyond the easy sound bite. So before you get started, you might want to pour yourself some coffee, Pepsi-Cola (it is North Carolina after all) or iced tea . . . or even pop-the-top on a cold one (if you live in Asheboro, it's much easier to do that now - even on Sundays).
First, we had a blogging bone thrown my way by Edward Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-System-Cones, referencing this "investigative" piece on NPR. I don't regularly read Ed anymore - I was alerted to the post by a few hits from StatCounter.
From the "On the Media" intro:
One of the least known and most lethal threats to free speech is a kind of lawsuit known as a SLAPP. It's an acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and it's used by free speech advocates to describe meritless lawsuits intended to spend critics into silence.
And here's what Greensboro's premier blogging-journalist said (I had to blink several times):
"This is the kind of lawsuit used unsuccessfully against Dr. Mary Johnson in Asheboro."
(I took the liberty here of inserting the link to the recent Housecalls post that details the experience into Cone's comment - as Edward only linked the blog - which I thought kind of odd - IF he really wanted to drive his point home.)
Like I said, when I saw the post at Word-Up, I had to blink. I didn't quite know how to take the "link-love" or Cone's trite characterization of what happened . . . "unsuccessfully" in this case being technically true, but a grossly inaccurate portrayal of what REALLY happened.
In short, Ed was being just like those lawyers I hate.
And given our past history, I had to wonder . . . what exactly was Ed's game?
I mean, the biggest reason that SLAPP suits are "one of the least known and most lethal threats to free speech" (especially locally) is because journalists like John Robinson (the Greensboro N&R) and David Renfro (Asheboro's Courier Tribune) and Edward Cone have not examined them more closely as they were going down . . . or troubled themselves to identify/expose these lawsuits to the largely ignorant masses for what they are.
It was my biggest frustration way back when.
You see, by definition, these lawsuits are filed by the people/organizations with the money and the power, with the sole intent of financially bullying & emotionally battering a lesser-being/"nobody" they have already wronged into submission and silence. In my case, it was a counter-suit . . . to the lawsuit I had filed the year before against Randolph Medical Associates.
Insult following injury and all that.
Unfortunately, in their reporting, our oh-so-noble-truth-seeking-newspapers, tend to play to the economic best interests of the First Amendment evil-doers (aka "rich dochebags" or "hosebags", or, in my case, the "non-profiteers" totally cushioned and insultated by taxpayer dollars) trying to apply the gag and suppress the speech.
(You cannot say anything bad about our local hospitals. People need to completely trust them. Or they'll move to another "market" down-the-road-apiece. One of the nice things about central & Piedmont, North Carolina is that you DO have a lot of choices.)
And playing to the "rich douchebags" is EXACTLY what our local mainstream media did to me. Randolph Hospital's lawsuit - alleging that I was "a liar" was front-page-above-the-fold news in my hometown newspaper when it was filed.
My Mother and Father got to read that. My friends too . . . not to mention, ALL of my ex-patients/parents and anyone who might have helped finance a new practice (or patronize it) had I ever been able to get one back up off the ground.
But the settlement in my favor TWO YEARS later . . . completely debunking Randolph's slur . . . was reported as a second-page "shortake".
David (and Bonnie) Renfro were covering the tracks of the big guns bigtime.
(The Courier has a new Editor and a glitzy new website. But nothing has really changed.)
Now all of that was bad enough. But it has been NOTHING compared to my turn in the local blogosphere - after being invited here by the Editor of the Greensboro N&R (John Robinson) who had teamed up with area bloggers (like occasional columnist Edward Cone) to promote something called "citizen journalism".
They talked a good game, but the same "routine brusque web style" that Ed (with his keen analytical eye) and his pals at Word Up so "objectively" and liberally used to pound me and my already-pummeled psyche & self-esteem into the ground has NEVER, EVER been directed at ANY of the players-that-I've-so-openly-accused-of-wrongdoing at Randolph or Cone Hospitals.
The ultimate delicious irony in this particular "unsuccessful" SLAPP suit being that Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin, officers of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital REPEATEDLY LIED UNDER OATH in the discovery phase of their own "libel" lawsuit - a ploy to minimize the damages they ultimately paid out.
But Bob Morrison & Steven Eblin still run Randolph . . . this after driving two excellent Pediatricians (recruited to Asheboro with Federal money) out of town under totally false pretenses (AGAIN, to cover up a mess made by a Cone-owned doctor). They still collect their phat salaries and benefit packages. They still plot and hob-nob and scheme with the Cone system to boost their market share. And the obviously ethically-challenged, toothless Randolph Hospital Board of Directors that stood by and let them do what they did, has been under no pressure whatsoever to fire these jerks or own up . . . because every MSM journalist in the area turned a blind eye to what these non-profiteers did and why they did it . . . mostly because it was in the economic best interests of the hospitals involved (not to mention their own advertising budgets) to do so.
Is he serious?
So I really did have to ask myself: Was Cone's post some kind of prelude to a bait & switch?
We do, after all, have the cyberstalker case coming up soon. Will Edward Cone/Roch Smith, Jr./Jeff Martin (Fecund Stench)/et. al. be trying to discredit the "doctor-they-would-LOVE-for-you-to-think-is-crazy", by likening a legitimate criminal (misdemeanor) complaint over Martin's threatening e-mails (which then progressed to abusive/brazenly libelous posts on his blog . . . and then creepy/menacing anonymous comments that have served to effectively shut down ALL comments and the free speech on THIS blog) to these meritless/evil/expensive/soul-sucking SLAPPS?
Or is Ed trying to tickle a little recent history and embarrass his uber-critic, conservative local lawyer Sam Spagnola (not that Sam doesn't deserve it for the stunt he pulled) as an election approaches?
Perusing Ed's post was kind of like reading a school history textbook that's been recently revised & edited to be politically correct.
So I posted a response that more accurately put into perspective the effect Randolph Hospital's despicable "libel-that-wasn't" suit has had on my life and career (a point that seems to have been thoroughly lost on Edward Cone . . . what with the rumored trust-fund and stable job and the happy family untouched by the colder, harsher realities that some of the rest of we less-well-named, much harder-working "ordinary" types have endured):
Oh please, Ed. Randolph's SLAPP was VERY successful. Let's review:
(1) My reputation locally as a physician was trashed from the day it was filed. The filing of the suit - branding me a "liar" - made all the headlines. The settling of it (in my favor) notsomuch.
(2) I spent many thousands (money I did not have) defending it - and was not reimbursed for attorney's fees.
(3) I've not been able to get ANYONE ANYWHERE (especially any champions of justice or healthcare reform or free speech) to CARE that the "non-profit" executives who used the legal system as a battering ram to SHUT ME UP lied repeatedly UNDER OATH in the discovery phase of their own BOGUS "libel" lawsuit - defrauding me at settlement and completely destroying ANY CHANCE I had to come back home and re-establish my practice.
(4) We're going on twelve years of medico-legal crap - and every dream I ever had trashed. I get to work four hours from my home and my family, because (after a black-ball) no one within the sphere & influence of Cone will even look at my CV. I'm "disruptive", you see . . . first for intervening to stop/then reporting malpractice . . . then for fighting back.
(5) And OBTW, because I've fought so hard and for so long, I get to be excoriated online by local journalists and bloggers who've smugly told me that what I've been through is "not relevant" to anything . . . not to mention cyber-stalkers who think its hysterical to threaten to report me to the authorities (for being "crazy"), and libel me on their blog. Everybody thinks that's a real hoot.
And DO NOT even get me started on the legal opinions of Sam Spagnola - or his temperament & qualifications for public office.
I'd say Randolph Hospital was VERY successful. LETHAL is actually a really good word.
Moving on along . . . but NOT EVER getting over it . . .
Of course, Ed could not concede that point gracefully. And it's his pithy, deliberately misleading response that REALLY pissed me off . . . using the bone he'd thrown to back-handed slap me in the face . . . with a comment that obviously was designed to negate every second pf my five years in this blogosphere:
"Unsuccessful" in that the suit was dropped and Dr. Johnson was awarded a cash settlement.
But as the article and Dr. Johnson make clear, the toll of these suits can be heavy no matter what.
Ah yes. Edward's faux "gotcha". The "cash settlement" that I "accepted" . . . (watching my language) the totally-fricking-inadequate-negotiated-in-bad-faith-on-a-pack-of-lies "cash" settlement that left me with very little to show for six humiliating/lost-in-a-deep-dark-hole years of my life.
Yeah right Ed, less than one year's salary (and no reimbursement for the attorney's fees) should cover all that.
You see, Edward KNOWS that if you mention that the "rich" doctor got a "cash settlement", you'll throw the dogs off the scent. No matter how hard a doctor may have studied and worked to earn it . . . or how badly he/she may have been crapped upon by the suits-with the taxpayer-funded-PR-machines . . . people naturally resent doctors their "success".
Even the dumber lawyers told me that.
Moreover, since we're not talking about Ed's life, his career or his "cash", it's okay for Mary to have been legally-battered like a baby seal.
So. Nice try, at minimizing the damages, Mr. CONE-OF-THE-CONES. I wonder. Have you been chatting up your family members at Tuggle-Duggins (the law firm that filed the FALSE answers under Oath for Randolph's executives) . . . or perhaps even on the Boards/Foundations of Cone Hospital (the organization that employed the doctor whose actions, in the spirit of "cooperative relationships", Randolph Hospital tried to shield)?
Oh. I forgot. The critically-ill-newborn-infant-who-wasn't-even-my-patient that I went in to help in the middle-of-the-night wasn't your daughter either.
Silly me.
With all of the people-who-in-no-way-deserve-them demanding "apologies" lately, and the heavy professional & personal/emotional "toll" that even Edward Cone now acknowledges Randolph's SLAPP suit took (and continues to take), I'd like to state right here and now that (much like the City of Greensboro and David Wray) there are three local law firms and two "non-profit" hospitals and several (useless/toothless) oversight agencies that owe Dr. Mary Johnson & her family a great big apology . . . and back pay . . . and punitive/compensatory damages.
But the journalists' theory is that it happened too long ago. Dr. Mary needs to just "get over it" and "move on".
Not gonna happen. Hold on tight people. Just hold on tight.
And/so Edward-Cone-of-the-Cones was not going to get away with his "she got a cash settlement and that negates everything else" pith:
As the article and Dr. Johnson make clear, the "cash settlement" (that you and Roch Smith, Jr. and others keep throwing in my face) was NEGOTIATED IN BAD FAITH ON A PACK OF LIES, was GROSSLY INADEQUATE for the damage done, and was HARDLY "awarded".
It's why I'm in the blogosphere, Ed. NO ONE should have to go through something like this.
IF it were so "clear" to everyone the "heavy toll" that all this has taken (and since our local newspaper Editors don't think my story is "relevant" to anything, making that clear to the kept-in-the-dark masses hasn't happened), the "non-profiteeers" who did this to a doctor in public service would have been investigated and UNDER INDICTMENT for PERJURY, CONTEMPT and FRAUD.
Randolph would have been SANCTIONED . . . by NC & USDHHS and/or JCAHO.
The lawyers involved (including my own) would be answering to the State Bar.
But tell me again that Governor Dumpling & the progressive blues touting healthcare reform in Raleigh & Washington care about "ethics".
In a very real sense, Randolph Hospital did not even pay out "the award". The taxpayer paid for this party . . . from the wasted Federal funds that brought Dr. Anderson and I to Asheboro (courtesy of ZERO oversight from DHHS & the NHSC), to the legal fees paid out to the crafty/creative/lying hospital lawyers (at Smith-Moore & Tuggle-Duggins).
Moreover, the well-connected, Teflon-coated executives who did this are still running Randolph, and still "cooperating" with Cone Hospital - getting their phat salaries and bonuses.
So again, I'd say I got SLAPPED down pretty hard (not just by Randolph) - and the lawsuit was VERY SUCCESSFUL.
I'm not in this ether for my health. But hey, thanks for the crumb thrown from Greensboro's ivory tower of citizen journalism & blogging.
How many years has it been?
Now, at that point, I was bracing myself for what we here in Blogsboro call a good "Coning". But then, Connie Mack Berry, Jr. (aka "Brother Hood" and husband to former judicial candidate Rachel Hunter) rode in to take my back.
(If you really wanna talk about uber-omnious threats to political free speech - whether you agree with it or not, Rachel's appeal of the N.C. State Bar's BOGUS/un-Constitutional disciplinary action should be due soon.)
And Connie, God bless him, NAILED it on the head (I've corrected for spelling):
In the HOOD Doc, it's called being bitch-slapped by the rich establishment dudes who couldn't care less about you or who was paying for it (and hey, that's not relevant) . . . Just as long it was not them personally, nor them going to the slammer for lying out of their cotton-picking rich asses!
On that note, with "holding on tight" still in mind, I move on to the mighty Orac's never-ending battle against all things of a medically-wooish nature (including apparently, my innocent fondness for magical magnetic Jesus bracelets).
This week, Orac gave the North Carolina Medical Board a spanking. And I must say, I enjoyed someone else giving them hell for a change.
This time, Orac railed against a consent order that the NCMB entered into with Dr. Rashid Buttar, DO . . . after almost a decade of "investigation" . . . entering a formal reprimand into the doctor's professional record . . . yet effectively putting an end to any substantive oversight of his "unconventional" and unorthodox" treatments of cancer and children with autism/developmental delay.
One of those "treatments" involving taking an autistic child's urine, filtering it and injecting it back into the child.
I mean, really people. That's just fricking child abuse. But this man is on the streets of North Carolina and still practicing medicine. Meanwhile the Medical Board stood by (and still stands by) deaf, dumb and blind, while Randolph Hospital did everything it could to DESTROY ME because I don't play on "teams" that let newborn babies die?
Instead of being sent to the sideshow carnival where (IMHO) he belongs, the man has made millions . . . bringing in patients to his "clinic" from "42 states and 37 countries". In newspaper write-ups he has complained that the Board's investigation is the equivalent of a "witch hunt" and has likened Thom Mansfield & company to "a rabid dog".
Now, I expect that taxing the millions Dr. Buttar has made, and servicing the patients who have come to his clinic has made the good-ole-boys running Huntersville, North Carolina very happy . . . an economic bright light in otherwise bad times. It's much like the argument Schmidly and company used to bring alcohol to Asheboro: "That firewater will make us rich . . . nevermind the unintended consequences".
It's all good. Nevermind what your economy is based on. So much for "sunshine".
In turn, those good-ole-boys running Huntersville no doubt helped lobby the good-ole-boys in Raleigh to modify the Medical Practice Act last year in such a fashion that accommodates "alternative medicine" to the point that it allows the good Dr. Buttar to continue employing treatments that "have not been proven effective by "randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies" . . . treatments whose value and effectiveness patients "may have undue expectations" of.
I actually blogged about the changes to the Medical Practice Act as they went down last year (NC Senate Bill 958). But at the time, I had other concerns . . . being a real doctor (as opposed to a Butthead practitioner of woo) who has actually been on the wrong end of a real witch hunt (for intervening to stop, and then reporting malpractice in a mill-town hospital run by rich white men who just wanted the "arrogant & cliquish/dime-a-dozen" girl-doctor to shut up and roll with EVERY sucker-punch they threw). In short, I still have a HUGE problem with the North Carolina Medical Board requiring duties of physicians that it does not protect or defend . . . and giving people who will not sign their names credence (so much for due process), and hospitals blanket legal immunities . . . thus selling medical whistleblowers out.
As Orac points out, in this particular case, the Board's consent order with Dr. Battar amounts to a whole lot of nothing . . . much like the joke-of-a-resolution that ended the Melvin Levine case (at least in North Carolina).
Dr. Buttar is essentially free to practice his woo and quackery (under Thom Mansfield's watchful eye - oooooooh, I'm scared) . . . offering false hope to desperate and very sick people . . . playing on their fear . . . bilking them of their money . . . and unimpeded by a Medical Board whose JOB it is to protect patients from those who would sell them snake oil.
I dropped a comment at Orac's fairly early on in the thread (citing the astute observation of another reader):
"Everything is legal unless there's substantial evidence that it's more harmful than beneficial."
Yep, DC. You got that right. And PUHLEASE don't get me started on the NC Board's deep sense of ethics or morality. They fancy themselves one of the most "progressive" medical boards in the nation, but EVERYTHING is political. And when it comes to bad medicine, between Thom Mansfield and Roy Cooper, both doctors and patients in NC are SCREWED.
The man has brought in MILLIONS with this woo. That makes him an ECONOMIC ASSET to the state. And that is the ONLY thing that matters.
OBTW, take it from me, the VERY LAST THING ON EARTH that the North Carolina Medical Board can be likened to is "a RABID DOG".
Only if the dog is blind, deaf, dumb, missing ALL of its teeth, post-ictal and comatose/at the brink of death.
And there you have it, dear readers. Rashid Battar, practitioner of woo, preying on the medically-desperate for their money, has smooth sailing and blue skies in North Carolina from now on thanks to the North Carolina Medical Board.
Meanwhile, unless something changes very soon, Mary Johnson, practicing conventional Pediatric medicine, practicing it with some small expertise in a "rural" hospital that obviously needed it, and going above and beyond on night twelve years ago in order to help a mere "nobody's" (i.e. not Ed Cone or John Robinson's) medically-desperate child . . . Mary Johnson, having already been through HELL (that "toll" Edward conceded earlier), is clearly going to have to cozy up to some of those lawyers she hates and sue the crap out of this Medical Board/state- just to get it to protect the duties it requires.
One of those duties ironically being to report quacks (again, my humble opinon) like Rashid Battar.
But BEFORE even trying to concentrate on that, the doctor has to face down a blogger-turned-cyber-stalker who has done everything he possibly could to humiliate, embarass, and libel her . . . because HE got angry (when the doctor, a "friend", challenged him by essentially asking, "Hey, how does what you are doing right now reflect on "the wife" and her business?) . . . because HE did something really stupid/illegal one night last November . . . . and because she's not playing the role he had previously assigned to local journalist & "BlogFather", Ed Cone.
Refering back to NC Senate Bill 958, having lived in fear for my entire blogging "career" of what a vindictive anon can actually REALLY do to a doctor in this state - particularly one blogging under her own name, what Jeff Martin did last November is NOT okay. It's NOT funny. It's NOT blogging. It's NOT "satire". It's NOT even remotely about HIS "free speech".
And since "civility in the blogosphere" is so important to the blogfathers and blogmothers of this ether, Dr. Mary will see Mr. Martin and his lawyer in Court on May 3rd . . . the doctor once again having had to turn her world and call-schedule upside down in order to accomodate all the lawyers . . .
. . . some of the same lawyers who have refused to do the right thing over these past six years and turn over the jurisdiction in her criminal case against Randolph Hospital executives to the North Carolina Attorney General . . . where it should have gone long ago . . . to be properly investigated by those whose interests - political and otherwise - might not be so conflicted and beholding to the local mill-town powers-that-be.
Of course, even that could be ify.
As I see it, we got a couple of weeks before this all blows up in a lot of people's faces . . . particularly the local journalists and bloggers who have sneered and spit and treated me like dirt - in large part because, as an escapee from "Hillary's village", I do not drink their Koolaid.
And yes, I'm VERY scared (of course, that's what Jeff Martin wanted). I'd be a FOOL not to be. For the only lawyers "representing" me (and by extension, the free speech & personal/professional safety of "We the People") in that Courtroom will be those employed by the state who've done me nothing but dirty in the past. But I've been scared before and I don't run. Friends (who've watched me absorb all the hits - with not-a-whole-lot-of-help - mostly because people think it's amusing and/or I can take it) have expressed concern that Martin and his lawyer will want to put me/this blog "on trial" in order to deflect from the crime to which he's already publicly confessed.
But if that is the case, I cannot WAIT to walk into that Courtroom and get on the stand with the black and white EVIDENCE of THE CRIMES I've been blogging about since 2005 . . .
. . . back when I took Edward-Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-System-Cones at his word and dived in.
There endeth the lesson.
Thanks, very much, for reading.
Back on break.
And since the last few days have underscored just how much I HATE lawyers . . . especially the oily corporate ones (but even those not quite as much as the really malignantly narcissistic ones who fancy themselves better than the rest of us and slither on over to politics) . . . for what they have done to this country, to my profession, and to me personally over the years . . . I thought I'd go ahead and blog about the posts and then fade back into my break.
Fair warning: This is a post that has lots of WORDS (something that seems to bother some of Greensboro's blogging set), and moves way beyond the easy sound bite. So before you get started, you might want to pour yourself some coffee, Pepsi-Cola (it is North Carolina after all) or iced tea . . . or even pop-the-top on a cold one (if you live in Asheboro, it's much easier to do that now - even on Sundays).
First, we had a blogging bone thrown my way by Edward Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-System-Cones, referencing this "investigative" piece on NPR. I don't regularly read Ed anymore - I was alerted to the post by a few hits from StatCounter.
From the "On the Media" intro:
One of the least known and most lethal threats to free speech is a kind of lawsuit known as a SLAPP. It's an acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and it's used by free speech advocates to describe meritless lawsuits intended to spend critics into silence.
And here's what Greensboro's premier blogging-journalist said (I had to blink several times):
"This is the kind of lawsuit used unsuccessfully against Dr. Mary Johnson in Asheboro."
(I took the liberty here of inserting the link to the recent Housecalls post that details the experience into Cone's comment - as Edward only linked the blog - which I thought kind of odd - IF he really wanted to drive his point home.)
Like I said, when I saw the post at Word-Up, I had to blink. I didn't quite know how to take the "link-love" or Cone's trite characterization of what happened . . . "unsuccessfully" in this case being technically true, but a grossly inaccurate portrayal of what REALLY happened.
In short, Ed was being just like those lawyers I hate.
And given our past history, I had to wonder . . . what exactly was Ed's game?
I mean, the biggest reason that SLAPP suits are "one of the least known and most lethal threats to free speech" (especially locally) is because journalists like John Robinson (the Greensboro N&R) and David Renfro (Asheboro's Courier Tribune) and Edward Cone have not examined them more closely as they were going down . . . or troubled themselves to identify/expose these lawsuits to the largely ignorant masses for what they are.
It was my biggest frustration way back when.
You see, by definition, these lawsuits are filed by the people/organizations with the money and the power, with the sole intent of financially bullying & emotionally battering a lesser-being/"nobody" they have already wronged into submission and silence. In my case, it was a counter-suit . . . to the lawsuit I had filed the year before against Randolph Medical Associates.
Insult following injury and all that.
Unfortunately, in their reporting, our oh-so-noble-truth-seeking-newspapers, tend to play to the economic best interests of the First Amendment evil-doers (aka "rich dochebags" or "hosebags", or, in my case, the "non-profiteers" totally cushioned and insultated by taxpayer dollars) trying to apply the gag and suppress the speech.
(You cannot say anything bad about our local hospitals. People need to completely trust them. Or they'll move to another "market" down-the-road-apiece. One of the nice things about central & Piedmont, North Carolina is that you DO have a lot of choices.)
And playing to the "rich douchebags" is EXACTLY what our local mainstream media did to me. Randolph Hospital's lawsuit - alleging that I was "a liar" was front-page-above-the-fold news in my hometown newspaper when it was filed.
My Mother and Father got to read that. My friends too . . . not to mention, ALL of my ex-patients/parents and anyone who might have helped finance a new practice (or patronize it) had I ever been able to get one back up off the ground.
But the settlement in my favor TWO YEARS later . . . completely debunking Randolph's slur . . . was reported as a second-page "shortake".
David (and Bonnie) Renfro were covering the tracks of the big guns bigtime.
(The Courier has a new Editor and a glitzy new website. But nothing has really changed.)
Now all of that was bad enough. But it has been NOTHING compared to my turn in the local blogosphere - after being invited here by the Editor of the Greensboro N&R (John Robinson) who had teamed up with area bloggers (like occasional columnist Edward Cone) to promote something called "citizen journalism".
They talked a good game, but the same "routine brusque web style" that Ed (with his keen analytical eye) and his pals at Word Up so "objectively" and liberally used to pound me and my already-pummeled psyche & self-esteem into the ground has NEVER, EVER been directed at ANY of the players-that-I've-so-openly-accused-of-wrongdoing at Randolph or Cone Hospitals.
The ultimate delicious irony in this particular "unsuccessful" SLAPP suit being that Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin, officers of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital REPEATEDLY LIED UNDER OATH in the discovery phase of their own "libel" lawsuit - a ploy to minimize the damages they ultimately paid out.
But Bob Morrison & Steven Eblin still run Randolph . . . this after driving two excellent Pediatricians (recruited to Asheboro with Federal money) out of town under totally false pretenses (AGAIN, to cover up a mess made by a Cone-owned doctor). They still collect their phat salaries and benefit packages. They still plot and hob-nob and scheme with the Cone system to boost their market share. And the obviously ethically-challenged, toothless Randolph Hospital Board of Directors that stood by and let them do what they did, has been under no pressure whatsoever to fire these jerks or own up . . . because every MSM journalist in the area turned a blind eye to what these non-profiteers did and why they did it . . . mostly because it was in the economic best interests of the hospitals involved (not to mention their own advertising budgets) to do so.
Now Ed and JR and the rest of the journalists (who cannot figure out why their readers don't trust them anymore and their "industry" is puttering out like a life-long smoker with COPD) will huff and puff and tell you that my very hard feelings about the way they've done their jobs has no basis in fact (I'm a "disgruntled former employee"). But the facts in this case speak for themselves, and actions much more so than words.
And in Ed Cone's case, given the high-minded hype that lured me to this ether, a "sound-bite" bone thrown from Word-Up now doesn't make up for that.
You see, I've been in this blogosphere for over five years . . . and for all of that time have been played-with like a cat would play with a mouse by Edward Cone (I'm sure local bloggers remember the interview "carrot" Ed dangled not long ago). As they wish me "well", Cone and Robinson have smugly taunted that I have a blog and a forum now, and people can take or leave my story. "Tell it to that other Randolph County miscreant/malcontent, Bledsoe" is their mantra.
But the several hundred hits I might get at Housecalls on a good day in NO WAY compares to the exposure/attention/ACTION this story/blog could've gotten IF someone in the local MSM had reported it - and our local journalism gurus know it.
Mary had to be kept in her little box - and the lid tightly shut.
Edward-Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-System-Cones now has the gall to post pseudo-sympathetically about my ordeal (an ordeal that his high-minded journalistic indifference has contributed mightily to) all the while wringing his hands about the ominous threat to "free speech" . . . and I'm supposed to be grateful? Moreover, he can do it all with a straight face?Is he serious?
So I really did have to ask myself: Was Cone's post some kind of prelude to a bait & switch?
We do, after all, have the cyberstalker case coming up soon. Will Edward Cone/Roch Smith, Jr./Jeff Martin (Fecund Stench)/et. al. be trying to discredit the "doctor-they-would-LOVE-for-you-to-think-is-crazy", by likening a legitimate criminal (misdemeanor) complaint over Martin's threatening e-mails (which then progressed to abusive/brazenly libelous posts on his blog . . . and then creepy/menacing anonymous comments that have served to effectively shut down ALL comments and the free speech on THIS blog) to these meritless/evil/expensive/soul-sucking SLAPPS?
Or is Ed trying to tickle a little recent history and embarrass his uber-critic, conservative local lawyer Sam Spagnola (not that Sam doesn't deserve it for the stunt he pulled) as an election approaches?
Perusing Ed's post was kind of like reading a school history textbook that's been recently revised & edited to be politically correct.
So I posted a response that more accurately put into perspective the effect Randolph Hospital's despicable "libel-that-wasn't" suit has had on my life and career (a point that seems to have been thoroughly lost on Edward Cone . . . what with the rumored trust-fund and stable job and the happy family untouched by the colder, harsher realities that some of the rest of we less-well-named, much harder-working "ordinary" types have endured):
Oh please, Ed. Randolph's SLAPP was VERY successful. Let's review:
(1) My reputation locally as a physician was trashed from the day it was filed. The filing of the suit - branding me a "liar" - made all the headlines. The settling of it (in my favor) notsomuch.
(2) I spent many thousands (money I did not have) defending it - and was not reimbursed for attorney's fees.
(3) I've not been able to get ANYONE ANYWHERE (especially any champions of justice or healthcare reform or free speech) to CARE that the "non-profit" executives who used the legal system as a battering ram to SHUT ME UP lied repeatedly UNDER OATH in the discovery phase of their own BOGUS "libel" lawsuit - defrauding me at settlement and completely destroying ANY CHANCE I had to come back home and re-establish my practice.
(4) We're going on twelve years of medico-legal crap - and every dream I ever had trashed. I get to work four hours from my home and my family, because (after a black-ball) no one within the sphere & influence of Cone will even look at my CV. I'm "disruptive", you see . . . first for intervening to stop/then reporting malpractice . . . then for fighting back.
(5) And OBTW, because I've fought so hard and for so long, I get to be excoriated online by local journalists and bloggers who've smugly told me that what I've been through is "not relevant" to anything . . . not to mention cyber-stalkers who think its hysterical to threaten to report me to the authorities (for being "crazy"), and libel me on their blog. Everybody thinks that's a real hoot.
And DO NOT even get me started on the legal opinions of Sam Spagnola - or his temperament & qualifications for public office.
I'd say Randolph Hospital was VERY successful. LETHAL is actually a really good word.
Moving on along . . . but NOT EVER getting over it . . .
Of course, Ed could not concede that point gracefully. And it's his pithy, deliberately misleading response that REALLY pissed me off . . . using the bone he'd thrown to back-handed slap me in the face . . . with a comment that obviously was designed to negate every second pf my five years in this blogosphere:
"Unsuccessful" in that the suit was dropped and Dr. Johnson was awarded a cash settlement.
But as the article and Dr. Johnson make clear, the toll of these suits can be heavy no matter what.
Ah yes. Edward's faux "gotcha". The "cash settlement" that I "accepted" . . . (watching my language) the totally-fricking-inadequate-negotiated-in-bad-faith-on-a-pack-of-lies "cash" settlement that left me with very little to show for six humiliating/lost-in-a-deep-dark-hole years of my life.
Yeah right Ed, less than one year's salary (and no reimbursement for the attorney's fees) should cover all that.
You see, Edward KNOWS that if you mention that the "rich" doctor got a "cash settlement", you'll throw the dogs off the scent. No matter how hard a doctor may have studied and worked to earn it . . . or how badly he/she may have been crapped upon by the suits-with the taxpayer-funded-PR-machines . . . people naturally resent doctors their "success".
Even the dumber lawyers told me that.
Moreover, since we're not talking about Ed's life, his career or his "cash", it's okay for Mary to have been legally-battered like a baby seal.
So. Nice try, at minimizing the damages, Mr. CONE-OF-THE-CONES. I wonder. Have you been chatting up your family members at Tuggle-Duggins (the law firm that filed the FALSE answers under Oath for Randolph's executives) . . . or perhaps even on the Boards/Foundations of Cone Hospital (the organization that employed the doctor whose actions, in the spirit of "cooperative relationships", Randolph Hospital tried to shield)?
Oh. I forgot. The critically-ill-newborn-infant-who-wasn't-even-my-patient that I went in to help in the middle-of-the-night wasn't your daughter either.
Silly me.
With all of the people-who-in-no-way-deserve-them demanding "apologies" lately, and the heavy professional & personal/emotional "toll" that even Edward Cone now acknowledges Randolph's SLAPP suit took (and continues to take), I'd like to state right here and now that (much like the City of Greensboro and David Wray) there are three local law firms and two "non-profit" hospitals and several (useless/toothless) oversight agencies that owe Dr. Mary Johnson & her family a great big apology . . . and back pay . . . and punitive/compensatory damages.
But the journalists' theory is that it happened too long ago. Dr. Mary needs to just "get over it" and "move on".
Not gonna happen. Hold on tight people. Just hold on tight.
And/so Edward-Cone-of-the-Cones was not going to get away with his "she got a cash settlement and that negates everything else" pith:
As the article and Dr. Johnson make clear, the "cash settlement" (that you and Roch Smith, Jr. and others keep throwing in my face) was NEGOTIATED IN BAD FAITH ON A PACK OF LIES, was GROSSLY INADEQUATE for the damage done, and was HARDLY "awarded".
It's why I'm in the blogosphere, Ed. NO ONE should have to go through something like this.
IF it were so "clear" to everyone the "heavy toll" that all this has taken (and since our local newspaper Editors don't think my story is "relevant" to anything, making that clear to the kept-in-the-dark masses hasn't happened), the "non-profiteeers" who did this to a doctor in public service would have been investigated and UNDER INDICTMENT for PERJURY, CONTEMPT and FRAUD.
Randolph would have been SANCTIONED . . . by NC & USDHHS and/or JCAHO.
The lawyers involved (including my own) would be answering to the State Bar.
But tell me again that Governor Dumpling & the progressive blues touting healthcare reform in Raleigh & Washington care about "ethics".
In a very real sense, Randolph Hospital did not even pay out "the award". The taxpayer paid for this party . . . from the wasted Federal funds that brought Dr. Anderson and I to Asheboro (courtesy of ZERO oversight from DHHS & the NHSC), to the legal fees paid out to the crafty/creative/lying hospital lawyers (at Smith-Moore & Tuggle-Duggins).
Moreover, the well-connected, Teflon-coated executives who did this are still running Randolph, and still "cooperating" with Cone Hospital - getting their phat salaries and bonuses.
So again, I'd say I got SLAPPED down pretty hard (not just by Randolph) - and the lawsuit was VERY SUCCESSFUL.
I'm not in this ether for my health. But hey, thanks for the crumb thrown from Greensboro's ivory tower of citizen journalism & blogging.
How many years has it been?
Now, at that point, I was bracing myself for what we here in Blogsboro call a good "Coning". But then, Connie Mack Berry, Jr. (aka "Brother Hood" and husband to former judicial candidate Rachel Hunter) rode in to take my back.
(If you really wanna talk about uber-omnious threats to political free speech - whether you agree with it or not, Rachel's appeal of the N.C. State Bar's BOGUS/un-Constitutional disciplinary action should be due soon.)
And Connie, God bless him, NAILED it on the head (I've corrected for spelling):
In the HOOD Doc, it's called being bitch-slapped by the rich establishment dudes who couldn't care less about you or who was paying for it (and hey, that's not relevant) . . . Just as long it was not them personally, nor them going to the slammer for lying out of their cotton-picking rich asses!
On that note, with "holding on tight" still in mind, I move on to the mighty Orac's never-ending battle against all things of a medically-wooish nature (including apparently, my innocent fondness for magical magnetic Jesus bracelets).
This week, Orac gave the North Carolina Medical Board a spanking. And I must say, I enjoyed someone else giving them hell for a change.
This time, Orac railed against a consent order that the NCMB entered into with Dr. Rashid Buttar, DO . . . after almost a decade of "investigation" . . . entering a formal reprimand into the doctor's professional record . . . yet effectively putting an end to any substantive oversight of his "unconventional" and unorthodox" treatments of cancer and children with autism/developmental delay.
One of those "treatments" involving taking an autistic child's urine, filtering it and injecting it back into the child.
I mean, really people. That's just fricking child abuse. But this man is on the streets of North Carolina and still practicing medicine. Meanwhile the Medical Board stood by (and still stands by) deaf, dumb and blind, while Randolph Hospital did everything it could to DESTROY ME because I don't play on "teams" that let newborn babies die?
Instead of being sent to the sideshow carnival where (IMHO) he belongs, the man has made millions . . . bringing in patients to his "clinic" from "42 states and 37 countries". In newspaper write-ups he has complained that the Board's investigation is the equivalent of a "witch hunt" and has likened Thom Mansfield & company to "a rabid dog".
Now, I expect that taxing the millions Dr. Buttar has made, and servicing the patients who have come to his clinic has made the good-ole-boys running Huntersville, North Carolina very happy . . . an economic bright light in otherwise bad times. It's much like the argument Schmidly and company used to bring alcohol to Asheboro: "That firewater will make us rich . . . nevermind the unintended consequences".
It's all good. Nevermind what your economy is based on. So much for "sunshine".
In turn, those good-ole-boys running Huntersville no doubt helped lobby the good-ole-boys in Raleigh to modify the Medical Practice Act last year in such a fashion that accommodates "alternative medicine" to the point that it allows the good Dr. Buttar to continue employing treatments that "have not been proven effective by "randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies" . . . treatments whose value and effectiveness patients "may have undue expectations" of.
I actually blogged about the changes to the Medical Practice Act as they went down last year (NC Senate Bill 958). But at the time, I had other concerns . . . being a real doctor (as opposed to a Butthead practitioner of woo) who has actually been on the wrong end of a real witch hunt (for intervening to stop, and then reporting malpractice in a mill-town hospital run by rich white men who just wanted the "arrogant & cliquish/dime-a-dozen" girl-doctor to shut up and roll with EVERY sucker-punch they threw). In short, I still have a HUGE problem with the North Carolina Medical Board requiring duties of physicians that it does not protect or defend . . . and giving people who will not sign their names credence (so much for due process), and hospitals blanket legal immunities . . . thus selling medical whistleblowers out.
As Orac points out, in this particular case, the Board's consent order with Dr. Battar amounts to a whole lot of nothing . . . much like the joke-of-a-resolution that ended the Melvin Levine case (at least in North Carolina).
Dr. Buttar is essentially free to practice his woo and quackery (under Thom Mansfield's watchful eye - oooooooh, I'm scared) . . . offering false hope to desperate and very sick people . . . playing on their fear . . . bilking them of their money . . . and unimpeded by a Medical Board whose JOB it is to protect patients from those who would sell them snake oil.
I dropped a comment at Orac's fairly early on in the thread (citing the astute observation of another reader):
"Everything is legal unless there's substantial evidence that it's more harmful than beneficial."
Yep, DC. You got that right. And PUHLEASE don't get me started on the NC Board's deep sense of ethics or morality. They fancy themselves one of the most "progressive" medical boards in the nation, but EVERYTHING is political. And when it comes to bad medicine, between Thom Mansfield and Roy Cooper, both doctors and patients in NC are SCREWED.
The man has brought in MILLIONS with this woo. That makes him an ECONOMIC ASSET to the state. And that is the ONLY thing that matters.
OBTW, take it from me, the VERY LAST THING ON EARTH that the North Carolina Medical Board can be likened to is "a RABID DOG".
Only if the dog is blind, deaf, dumb, missing ALL of its teeth, post-ictal and comatose/at the brink of death.
And there you have it, dear readers. Rashid Battar, practitioner of woo, preying on the medically-desperate for their money, has smooth sailing and blue skies in North Carolina from now on thanks to the North Carolina Medical Board.
Meanwhile, unless something changes very soon, Mary Johnson, practicing conventional Pediatric medicine, practicing it with some small expertise in a "rural" hospital that obviously needed it, and going above and beyond on night twelve years ago in order to help a mere "nobody's" (i.e. not Ed Cone or John Robinson's) medically-desperate child . . . Mary Johnson, having already been through HELL (that "toll" Edward conceded earlier), is clearly going to have to cozy up to some of those lawyers she hates and sue the crap out of this Medical Board/state- just to get it to protect the duties it requires.
One of those duties ironically being to report quacks (again, my humble opinon) like Rashid Battar.
But BEFORE even trying to concentrate on that, the doctor has to face down a blogger-turned-cyber-stalker who has done everything he possibly could to humiliate, embarass, and libel her . . . because HE got angry (when the doctor, a "friend", challenged him by essentially asking, "Hey, how does what you are doing right now reflect on "the wife" and her business?) . . . because HE did something really stupid/illegal one night last November . . . . and because she's not playing the role he had previously assigned to local journalist & "BlogFather", Ed Cone.
Refering back to NC Senate Bill 958, having lived in fear for my entire blogging "career" of what a vindictive anon can actually REALLY do to a doctor in this state - particularly one blogging under her own name, what Jeff Martin did last November is NOT okay. It's NOT funny. It's NOT blogging. It's NOT "satire". It's NOT even remotely about HIS "free speech".
And since "civility in the blogosphere" is so important to the blogfathers and blogmothers of this ether, Dr. Mary will see Mr. Martin and his lawyer in Court on May 3rd . . . the doctor once again having had to turn her world and call-schedule upside down in order to accomodate all the lawyers . . .
. . . some of the same lawyers who have refused to do the right thing over these past six years and turn over the jurisdiction in her criminal case against Randolph Hospital executives to the North Carolina Attorney General . . . where it should have gone long ago . . . to be properly investigated by those whose interests - political and otherwise - might not be so conflicted and beholding to the local mill-town powers-that-be.
Of course, even that could be ify.
As I see it, we got a couple of weeks before this all blows up in a lot of people's faces . . . particularly the local journalists and bloggers who have sneered and spit and treated me like dirt - in large part because, as an escapee from "Hillary's village", I do not drink their Koolaid.
And yes, I'm VERY scared (of course, that's what Jeff Martin wanted). I'd be a FOOL not to be. For the only lawyers "representing" me (and by extension, the free speech & personal/professional safety of "We the People") in that Courtroom will be those employed by the state who've done me nothing but dirty in the past. But I've been scared before and I don't run. Friends (who've watched me absorb all the hits - with not-a-whole-lot-of-help - mostly because people think it's amusing and/or I can take it) have expressed concern that Martin and his lawyer will want to put me/this blog "on trial" in order to deflect from the crime to which he's already publicly confessed.
But if that is the case, I cannot WAIT to walk into that Courtroom and get on the stand with the black and white EVIDENCE of THE CRIMES I've been blogging about since 2005 . . .
. . . back when I took Edward-Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-System-Cones at his word and dived in.
There endeth the lesson.
Thanks, very much, for reading.
Back on break.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Filling In The Blanks For Dr. James Rohack Of The AMA: We The Splintered Nobodies Are Not Buying What You're Selling
It's been nice being on break. It gives one perspective.
But there's a thread at Kevin's that merits attention . . . yet another "guest post" featuring AMA President, J.J. Rohack, spewing platitudes on "Health Reform Victories For Physicians".
Of course, Rohack is playing to a tough crowd. The doctors I know certainly don't feel like we "won" anything (many are talking about getting out and cutting losses as soon as they possibly can) . . . and a lot of us have just had enough of the Obaminator's wealth-re-distributing crap (if you asked me about the Florida urologist saying, "Go away" to Obama supporters, I'd have to say, short of outright abandoning a patient, doctors have the absolute right to accept or discharge patients . . . and patients have the right to go somewhere else).
Every time he features Rohack, Kevin feels the need to post a warning to remain "civil" and "respectful". He reserves the right to delete comments.
In my case he also edits them. I've posted twice on the thread (three times actually - one was deleted). You can read for yourselves. But Kevin cut off my second comment - dropping what I thought was the most important point. So I thought I'd post it here:
So maybe, just maybe, Dr. Rohack SHOULD be picking up that phone and talking to the lesser known/heard voices that have splintered off – like the “Primary Care Internist” – or Dr. Mary Johnson, whose life was turned to crap because she did the right/ethical/moral thing by a patient twelve years ago.
She’s got ZERO assistance from the mighty AMA . . . when she should have been invited by the AMA to testify before Congress – BEFORE it threw even MORE taxpayer money at the NHSC.
There will be one more post this weekend before I go back on break.
But there's a thread at Kevin's that merits attention . . . yet another "guest post" featuring AMA President, J.J. Rohack, spewing platitudes on "Health Reform Victories For Physicians".
Of course, Rohack is playing to a tough crowd. The doctors I know certainly don't feel like we "won" anything (many are talking about getting out and cutting losses as soon as they possibly can) . . . and a lot of us have just had enough of the Obaminator's wealth-re-distributing crap (if you asked me about the Florida urologist saying, "Go away" to Obama supporters, I'd have to say, short of outright abandoning a patient, doctors have the absolute right to accept or discharge patients . . . and patients have the right to go somewhere else).
Every time he features Rohack, Kevin feels the need to post a warning to remain "civil" and "respectful". He reserves the right to delete comments.
In my case he also edits them. I've posted twice on the thread (three times actually - one was deleted). You can read for yourselves. But Kevin cut off my second comment - dropping what I thought was the most important point. So I thought I'd post it here:
So maybe, just maybe, Dr. Rohack SHOULD be picking up that phone and talking to the lesser known/heard voices that have splintered off – like the “Primary Care Internist” – or Dr. Mary Johnson, whose life was turned to crap because she did the right/ethical/moral thing by a patient twelve years ago.
She’s got ZERO assistance from the mighty AMA . . . when she should have been invited by the AMA to testify before Congress – BEFORE it threw even MORE taxpayer money at the NHSC.
There will be one more post this weekend before I go back on break.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
"Atta-girl And Keep It Up!"
Again, Housecalls is officially on break. But I got a very nice message in the Inbox today - from a fellow physician-blogger. And I thought it pertinent to past experience and upcoming events:
Hi Dr. J! I'm Dr. E, and I just wanted to say atta-girl! to you. I enjoy your blog only occasionally and I'm not one to comment much. I used to have quite a nice blog, I think, but it's been down for a long time, because my cyber-stalkers hounded me to the point that well . . . let's just say that it was no longer any fun to blog.
I had wanted to stay relatively anonymous, but they somehow found out who I am, and things really got ugly. I was afraid for myself and my family.
Local law enforcement? What a joke! I was scheduled for a long-distance move, anyway, for a new position, so I didn't pursue it any further. I just quit blogging.
I do admire your moxie, though! Atta-girl and keep it up!
Hi Dr. J! I'm Dr. E, and I just wanted to say atta-girl! to you. I enjoy your blog only occasionally and I'm not one to comment much. I used to have quite a nice blog, I think, but it's been down for a long time, because my cyber-stalkers hounded me to the point that well . . . let's just say that it was no longer any fun to blog.
I had wanted to stay relatively anonymous, but they somehow found out who I am, and things really got ugly. I was afraid for myself and my family.
Local law enforcement? What a joke! I was scheduled for a long-distance move, anyway, for a new position, so I didn't pursue it any further. I just quit blogging.
I do admire your moxie, though! Atta-girl and keep it up!
Friday, April 02, 2010
The N.C. Medical Board In The National News Again: C-Section, No Baby, Doctors Slapped On Hand
Housecalls is officially on break. So just imagine what I might say:
The North Carolina Medical Board Slaps The Hands of OB's Who Induced Labor And Later Performed A C-Section On A Woman Who Was Not Pregnant
It's just so Ashley Abbott/Y&R. I wonder what the Cape Fear Medical Center Peer Review Committe said?
I do think my civil case is getting easier and easier to make;)
The North Carolina Medical Board Slaps The Hands of OB's Who Induced Labor And Later Performed A C-Section On A Woman Who Was Not Pregnant
It's just so Ashley Abbott/Y&R. I wonder what the Cape Fear Medical Center Peer Review Committe said?
I do think my civil case is getting easier and easier to make;)
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Housecalls: Best Of March 2010, Happy Easter, And A Break
The following are the posts I consider the best of March:
Anti-SLAPP Legislation Is In The Works: Slapping "Hosebags" And "Rich DoucheBags" (Like The Ones Running Randolph Hospital) Back
Dr. Mary SLAPPS Back These Days (Candidate) Sam (Spagnola)
On Oprah And Nomvuyo Mzamane And A Defamation Lawsuit In Philly
I Am A Blogging Doctor, Hear Me ROAR (Under My Own Name)!!!
When You Know You've Been Played For a Fool By The North Carolina Attorney General For Nearly 7 Years
Randolph Hospital: A Cold Case of Public Corruption
The Aftermath of Suicide: Choose Another Day
Due to some not-so-minor health issues which came to light late last week, I am taking a break from Housecalls as of today. I will continue to read and comment as I see fit on other local/medical blogs. But it could be May before I resume posting here.
As a good friend said yesterday, "You need to take a (well deserved) break from the crap and focus on you . . . both healthwise, spiritually, whatever makes you happy . . . You cannot change the crap. It will still be here in all of its insanity whenever you decide to return to it."
Oh, one more thing before I go: We've done some swapping and juggling, and a colleague has very graciously agreed to cover hospital call during the time I will need in order to return to Asheboro on May 3 .
Ergo (no April Fools), I will be in Court with bells on. I guess my pal is right. The crap will be right there when I get back.
Happy Easter, everyone. If you have a chance to catch this program on the History Channel, I would strongly recommend it. If you believe, (as Miss Dolly Parton would say) I think you'll get a blessing out of it.
Anti-SLAPP Legislation Is In The Works: Slapping "Hosebags" And "Rich DoucheBags" (Like The Ones Running Randolph Hospital) Back
Dr. Mary SLAPPS Back These Days (Candidate) Sam (Spagnola)
On Oprah And Nomvuyo Mzamane And A Defamation Lawsuit In Philly
I Am A Blogging Doctor, Hear Me ROAR (Under My Own Name)!!!
When You Know You've Been Played For a Fool By The North Carolina Attorney General For Nearly 7 Years
Randolph Hospital: A Cold Case of Public Corruption
The Aftermath of Suicide: Choose Another Day
Due to some not-so-minor health issues which came to light late last week, I am taking a break from Housecalls as of today. I will continue to read and comment as I see fit on other local/medical blogs. But it could be May before I resume posting here.
As a good friend said yesterday, "You need to take a (well deserved) break from the crap and focus on you . . . both healthwise, spiritually, whatever makes you happy . . . You cannot change the crap. It will still be here in all of its insanity whenever you decide to return to it."
Oh, one more thing before I go: We've done some swapping and juggling, and a colleague has very graciously agreed to cover hospital call during the time I will need in order to return to Asheboro on May 3 .
Ergo (no April Fools), I will be in Court with bells on. I guess my pal is right. The crap will be right there when I get back.
Happy Easter, everyone. If you have a chance to catch this program on the History Channel, I would strongly recommend it. If you believe, (as Miss Dolly Parton would say) I think you'll get a blessing out of it.
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