"I believe that more than 90% of Modern
Medicine could disappear from the face of the
earth- doctors, hospitals, drugs and equipment-
and the health of the nation would immediately
and dramatically improve." -Robert S.
Mendelsohn, M.D., excerpted from "Male
Practice", Contemporary Books, 1981.
"The medical establishment will only get
off its pedestal when we get off our knees."
-John Robbins, The
Dark Side of Modern Medicine
A Named
Violation and Ecstasy A renaming of processes
and procedures in birth, to take away the
bland enabling that comes along with the use
of soft-sounding names. So the story begins-
"Enter Sarah, a first time mother whose
sanctity is crucial, into the Birthing in
Captivity Institution." She goes on to
get three c-sections, but this ends in Sarah's
discovery of freebirth- the "inviolable
releasing of sweet life".
Sad for
the Hopeless, Cruel Ways of the World
Cytotec has been re-labeled; it certainly
doesn't make it less dangerous! Why do doctors
use it anyway?- and why do women keep trusting
their births to people who care so little
about them? Included: quotes from a doctor
who really does care about the cruelty of
obstetricians and medicalized birth.
Overcoming
the Dark Gods of Modern Medicine Hysterectomy,
labor induction, cesarean section, episiotomy,
hormone replacement therapy- all these procedures
are cornerstones of OB/GYN practice yet are
overwhelmingly bad medicine. Read this column
and be informed.
Many Young
Docs Repair Incision Without Supervision
"Sixty percent [of young doctors] said
they had not received any academic teaching
on the repair of episiotomies. Another 60% said
they had received no formal instruction regarding
the anatomy of the pelvic floor muscles."
Yet these are among the untrained doctors who
repair the 40% of women (at least) who still
get this cruel, barbaric cut.
It
is Time to Learn the Hippocratic Oath Indeed
A letter to the British Medical Journal about
a self-congratulatory paper published therein.
Included: the foulness and uselessness of episiotomy,
and how many people needlessly die a year from
medical error.
Childbirth
Tear More Likely Certain Hours: StudyExcerpted:
"Mothers who gave birth during regular
hours were 43% more likely to have an instrumentally-assisted
delivery, 10% more likely to have an episiotomy,
86% more likely to have drug-induced labor,
and 30% more likely to experience severe tearing."
Doctors
at Top WA Women's Hospital Under Investigation
A doctor (the former head of obstetrics) and
his students have been found to be grossly incompetent
in treating mothers and babies at the top women's
hospital in Western Australia. (Let it be a
warning to us all.)
Maternity
Shortages Harm Patients British women and
their babies are "suffering and dying"
due to lack of adequate hospital care. Note
that article this is not an indictment of the
safety of natural birth; but one of the harm
that inadequately trained junior physicians
can cause.
More
Hospitals Report Sterilization Problems
"The list of hospitals in Ontario that
have used improperly sterilized equipment in
medical procedures has grown to seven. The number
of people affected is more than 1,350."
It is hard to believe that only Ontraio has
this problem!
Medical
Horror Shows A CBC columnist discusses the
tragedy a woman's 72 yr-old mother met when
she went to the hospital after fainting while
shopping: after medical neglect and error, she
died.
Patients
are at risk because of nurses' long hours, says
report Nurses are crucial, yet are in short
supply in too many institutions- at the peril
of patients. Excerpted: "Studies show that
increased infections, bleeding, and cardiac
and respiratory failure are associated with
inadequate numbers of nurses...Nurses also defend
against medical errors. For example, a study
in two hospitals found that nurses intercepted
86 percent of medication errors before they
reached patients."
"The American Hospital Association lists
these as some common types of medication errors:
incomplete patient information (not knowing
about patients' allergies, other medicines
they are taking, previous diagnoses, and lab
results, for example)
unavailable drug information (such as lack
of up-to-date warnings)
miscommunication of drug orders, which
can involve poor handwriting, confusion between
drugs with similar names, misuse of zeroes
and decimal points, confusion of metric and
other dosing units, and inappropriate abbreviations
lack of appropriate labeling as a drug is
prepared and repackaged into smaller units
environmental factors, such as lighting,
heat, noise, and interruptions, that can distract
health professionals from their medical tasks."
Hospital
germs kill thousands, research finds A study
shows that as many as 12,000 Canadians are dying
from hospital-acquired infections a year, yet
fewer than one-quarter of hospitals have adequate
measures in place to prevent patients and staff
from acquiring potentially deadly infections.
This includes ways hospitals can reduce infection,
and- "Hospital horror". Excerpted:
"Disregard of these figures, and failure
to utilize the inexpensive measures that can
reduce this rate of infection would be tantamount
to criminal neglect."
Drug
Companies Use Brazen Tactics to Exert Influence
Sucking up to doctors, publishing only research
that makes their products look good, manipulating
doctors into over-prescribing, skewing data
to encourage diagnoses- drug companies have
a lot to be accountable for, and correct! A
BMJ press release.
The
Dark Side of Modern Medicine An interview
with John Robbins. Includes discussion of how
poorly the medical establishment "treats"
cancer, schoolchildren, and birthing women.
Also- read about the trial of the twentieth
century:
"In the early 80s, a group of chiropractors
in Chicago...sued the AMA for conspiring to
destroy and eliminate the chiropractic profession...the
AMA was found guilty of intentionally conspiring
to destroy their competition, and the verdict
was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. During
this lengthy and hard-fought case, the AMA
spent over $20 million in legal fees to defend
itself, and still lost. Nearly 1 million pages
of documentation entered the public record,
and many of those documents were from the
AMA's internal files. It was revealed quite
clearly that, for many years, the AMA had
deliberately and systematically conspired
to destroy not only chiropractic, but midwifery,
homeopathy, naturopathy, and herbalism. The
whole collection of what we call wholistic
and alternative medicine had been the AMA's
target for destruction."
Doctors
Exposed Doctors receive "kind"
treatment from their colleagues in disciplinary
actions; a doctor who used an amputated human
foot as crab bait received no action at all.
Doctors
Must Admit Mistakes Many medical errors
are made, but "covering butt" is of
more interest than honesty, this paper reports.
Medication
Errors in United States HospitalsExcerpted:
"The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report
suggested that medical errors accounted for
44,000-98,000 deaths each year.[1-3] These deaths
exceed the eighth leading cause of death in
the United States.[4] It is estimated that the
total cost of medical errors is $17 billion-$29
billion annually.[5,6] Although the percentage
of drug-related medical errors in ambulatory
settings is unknown, drugs are the most common
cause of medical errors in hospitals, affecting
3.7% of patients.[2,3] Clearly, medication errors
are a significant component of medical errors
in U.S. hospitals." link to Medscape
(free with sign-up)
Make
No Mistake: Medical Errors Can Be Deadly SeriousExcerpted: "Based on a recent
report on medical mistakes from the National
Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine...it
is estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans
die each year not from the medical conditions
they checked in with, but from preventable medical
errors...medical errors are the eighth leading
cause of death among Americans, with error-caused
deaths each year in hospitals alone exceeding
those from motor vehicle accidents (43,458),
breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516)."
Insider
speaks out against the FDA A former
insider of the FDA says that the agency
has become a servant of the pharmaceutical
industry.
The
US ranks 72nd in global health analysis
"Comparative efficiency of national
health systems: cross national econometric
analysis" BMJ 2001;323:307-310 ( 11 August ).
A paper published in an August British Medical
Journal compares the health of residents
in the countries of the world. The US scored
relatively poorly in this health analysis-
coming in at 72nd; neighboring Mexico and
Cuba had better levels of health. Oman came
in first place- this is thought because
it has reduced infant mortality from 310 to
18 per 1000 live births over the
past 40 years. Sub-Saharan African
countries had the poorest scores.
Errors
found in half of intravenous drug doses
-half! "Errors occurred in almost
half of the intravenous drug doses. Preparation
errors occurred in 32 doses (7%), administration
errors in 155 doses (36%), and both types
of error in 25 doses (6%). Errors were
potentially harmful in about a third of
cases. The most common errors were giving
concentrated (bolus) doses too quickly
and mistakes in preparing drugs that required
multiple steps....A combination of reducing
the amount of preparation on the ward,
staff training, and technology to administer
slow bolus doses would probably have the
greatest effect on error rates, conclude
the authors."
Medical Students
Medical
Students Receive Unethical Training Patients-
dead and living- are reported to receive inhuman
treatment at the hands of doctors and medical
students in the interest of "science".
Women especially suffer in this- their bodies
are used as teaching fodder: students learn
pelvic and rectal exams on them when they are
under general anesthetic... never are the women
asked for their consent; never are they told
what has been done to them.
Helping
to break the cycle of abused medical students
becoming abusing teachersExcerpted:
"Negative attitudes of medical staff
and poor teaching techniques may affect students'
self esteem, which may influence their academic
progress, personal lives, careers, and, ultimately,
patient care...The literature continues to justify
that abuse, which is sometimes sexual, is a
persistent feature of some medical undergraduate
curricula. Studies have outlined abuse of students
by teaching staff, describing incidents where
students were made to feel small and patronised,
often publicly."
Robert S. Mendelsohn, MD- "MalePractice-
How Doctors Manipulate Women" (Contemporary
Books, Inc. 1981) A shocking and often heartbreaking
exposé of common obstetrical practices
and their true origins: institutionalized chauvinism
and violence against women.
Leslie Laurence and Beth Weinhouse, "Outrageous
Practices" (Fawcett/Columbine, 1994)
The alarming truth about how medicine mistreats
women. This includes references about the surgicalization
of childbirth; it likens OBs preference toward
surgery with the saying: "When you only
have a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
Order them from Kimberley
Hudson and save money: only $15 per
book.
Marsden Wagner, MD- "Pursuing the Birth
Machine" (ACE Graphics,1994) The information
in this book presents a serious indictment against
the rampant use of technology in birth. The
author- a neonatologist, perinatal epidemiologist,
and former Director of Women's and Children's
Health for the World Health Organization- is
a big supporter of midwifery and homebirth.
Questionable
Doctors "Questionable Doctors is
the only comprehensive, publicly available databank
that contains information on doctors who have
been disciplined by state medical boards and
federal agencies in the past ten years. It contains
data on disciplinary actions taken for medical
incompetence, misprescribing drugs, sexual misconduct,
criminal convictions, ethical lapses and other
offenses." Important note about "Questionable
Doctors":"I saw a book under
this title at a bookstore and looked up a local
doctor. He was listed in the book with very
little discription of his offences. I was familiar
his case, his licence was temporarily removed
because he practiced alternative therapies.
So, while some of these doctors on the list
ARE legitimately dangerous, the list also includes
doctors who are brave enough to go against the
American Medical Association." -Lisa
