One of the areas I’m passionate about is the fact that
medical care should be available to all. This is the only area I see socialism
working to the total benefit of the people. I think it’s obvious from what gets
posted here and on the Facebook
Page that I’m a Democrat who believes in an America for all.
A place where the American Dream still exists and where people don’t have to
die because of lack of medical insurance or medical
care. It should be a right for everyone.
But let’s sidestep that issue for a moment here
because let’s face it, the bottom line in this country is money in the form of
profit and loss. The medical establishment has stepped away from their oath and
made it all about making it big on some new drug or piece of medical equipment.
This essay is about one specific piece of equipment and the greed of the
company who made it.
First, let’s step back a bit and look at something
that has been around since Greek times. It’s called the Hippocratic Oath, and every doctor is required to abide by
that covenant as he joins the medical establishment. Here’s the modern version
that is employed by many medical schools:
I swear to fulfill,
to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the
hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly
share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for
the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin
traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember
that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy,
and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be
ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues
when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the
privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the
world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and
death. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember
that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose
illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My
responsibility includes these related problems,
if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent
disease whenever I can but I will always
look for a path to a cure for all diseases.
I will remember
that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow
human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I
enjoy life and art, respected while I live
and remembered with affection thereafter.
May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may
I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
In that oath, there is not a mention of compensation
at all. When treating a person, it states that you treat their whole life,
including the financial burden it may propose on a person’s family. To me, this
speaks directly to the Affordable Care Act,
and the fact medicine should be everyone’s right. But that argument is for a
different day.
The part I’m particularly interested in is the scientific gains
of physicians and what happens when the medical establishment isn’t honest with
their patients. This is what happened to Dr. Amy Reed when she went into the
hospital for a hysterectomy. Had all the information been given to her, she might be alive today, but sadly, she isn’t. Here’s an article that pretty well
sums it up: https://cancerletter.com/articles/20170526_1/
Now, I don’t know Amy personally,
but I feel that I do because when her petition came around on Change.org, I
signed it. And every other petition she
sent me. Why? Because it was the right thing to do. Each of the items coming
across my desk told of how the FDA wasn’t regulating things like they should.
How the company who made the power morcellator had known since 2006 the actions
done by their equipment and that it could spread undiagnosed cancer throughout a woman’s body. Doctors kept touting
the facts of how wonderful less invasive
surgery was. They all forgot one thing in this equation: the patient and the negative effect of the equipment.
Too many hospitals and physicians had taken the
company at their word that the risk was no greater than 1 in 10,000. Actually,
the risk was more like 1 in 273 women who were at serious risk of cancer. The
medical establishment tried to gloss it over and blame Amy along with her husband when they should have been doing the
right thing by starting a fact-finding
mission to seek the truth.
But profit and greed won the day, but Amy wouldn’t give up. The FDA was shocked to find that
this particular piece of equipment was causing any trouble. Dr. Reed filed her
own FDA report concerning the equipment.
After her report, they did some research on their own, and their numbers were at least 1 in 300 women had cancer
spread throughout their bodies because of this machine. Eventually, the FDA restricted
the use of this piece of equipment. Once that happened, the use of the power
morcellator went down 80% and under restrictive conditions.
Until that time, Dr. Reed and her husband, also a
doctor, were called names and treated like pariahs.
Yet, they took their oath seriously and knew they had an obligation to the
women of the world. Since then, study after study has come out saying how dangerous the use of this equipment can be to a
woman.
Read the article yourself, do the research and I think
that you’ll come to the same conclusion I have: this issue was driven by greed.
After all, the more doctors who used a power morcellator, the more money the
company made. I’m sure that each time it was used, a fee had to be paid to the company. Only one person came to see the issue
for what it really was, and that person
was Dr. Amy Reed.
All she wanted was to be a doctor and help people. She
has helped point out a serious problem that is not uncommon in the medical
field. If a piece of equipment or a drug or anything medical is killing people,
it needs to be stopped being used. It costs each and every one of us something
when bad things happen because of big
medicine as we all pay for it in different areas such as insurance, increased
doctors’ fees and on and on.
For Amy, it cost her life, yet even as her condition deteriorated,
she did the right thing.
Rest in peace, Amy, I for one will never forget you.
