Medicine

They're bringing "Quack" back

Brianne Bilyeu, 1,640 Comments

Hahaha – look out, all you medical skeptics: A group in Oregon is taking back “Quack”! 

At the American Quack Association (AQA), Quack stands for QUAlity Care with Kindness.  I sh*t you not.  It appears that all of us of the close-minded perpetually ignorant persuasion are going to have to come up with new ways to torment these serious practitioners of alternative medicine.

As the South Coast QUACK Center website proclaims:

A Quack may be a Doctor, either of medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, or naprapathy, or a nutritionist, massage therapist, light worker, or of some other persuasion.

Ummm…No argument here.  I do have to give them this: I’ve never seen such refreshing honesty in advertising in alternative medicine.

They're bringing "Quack" back
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Winkler Whistleblower Injustice

Brianne Bilyeu, , 237 Comments

I first read about this story at sciencebasedmedicine.org from Dr. David Gorski.  Apparently a dinkus doctor at the Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit, TX was performing questionable medical procedures and hawking herbal treatments – from his personal side business – in the emergency rooms to his patients.  A couple of nurses, Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Gall,  anonymously reported him to the Texas Medical Board.  Yeah!  Go, ladies!

When Dr. Dinkus, excuse me – Dr. Rolando Arafiles – found out that a complaint had been filed against him, he went to extraordinary measures to discover who had placed the complaint, which makes a laughingstock of the idea that one should be able to anonymously report injustices, abuses, and quality violations without fear of retaliation.  After being identified as the complainants, Nurse Mitchell and Nurse Gall were dismissed from their positions.  Gee, I wonder why they filed an anonymous report? 

To add to the outrage: Aside from being unjustly fired, the nurses were threatened with a jail sentence of  up to TEN YEARS and a fine of $10,000!  Charges were dropped for one of the women, Nurse Galle, but Nurse Mitchell’s trial for “misuse of official information,” a third-degree felony in Texas, started yesterday. 

In his defense, Dr. Dinkus – darn it, did it again – Dr. Arafiles says that he is the victim here.  He claims that Nurse Mitchell has a history of making inflammatory statements about him, and that she was trying to damage his career when she filed the complaint.  If this *is* a case of unfair harrassment against Dr. Din…Arafiles, I’m interested in legal route he’s chosen.  There is no way he looks like a sympathetic character here…why isn’t he highlighting previous instances of harrassment, slander, etc? Surely he’s filed complaints against the nurses in the past, and of course the hospital administration can provide adequate reasoning for firing the nurses that have nothing to do with retaliation for reporting a doctor for unsafe medical practices, right?  Riiiight.  Somehow, I think not.

There are ALWAYS good places and causes to which we can send our hard-earned money, but this case has irked me enough to open my wallet.  If you’d like to help support Nurses Mitchell and Galle, the Texas Nurses Association is accepting donations, and matching every dollar donated up to $5000.  Consider giving, and if not with money, then consider spreading the news of this story.  These women’s long careers at Winkler County Memorial Hospital are over, and Nurse Mitchell is being threatened with imprisonment for reporting unsafe medical practices, which is a legal obligation – not harassment. 

Other sources:
Texas Nurses Association
ABCnews.go.com – 2/9/2010
NYTimes.com – 2/6/2010
Advance for Nurses – 2/8/2010

Winkler Whistleblower Injustice

Props to the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Brianne Bilyeu, , 540 Comments

I’ve finally gotten around to reading the weekend papers (well, Saturday’s papers – I’ll catch the Sunday Mpls Tribune later today).  I’m usually a Stribe (that’s Star Tribune, for you non-locals) gal, but I had to pick up a copy of this Saturday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press because it had a front page article that caught my eye:

Vaccine surveys alarming officials

I’m a supporter of childhood vaccination, and a budding anti-anti-vaxer, so this article looked very promising.  Jeremy Olson authored this piece, and he walked a nice line between presenting easily-understood, useful science and presenting a human interest piece.  

He also mentioned Every Child By Two, the pro-vaccination advocacy organization run by Rosalynn Carter and Betty Bumpers, who were instrumental in the development of mandated school-age vaccinations.  Rock on!

A lot of the online comments are rather supportive of the pro-vaccination mindset, and the anti-vax questions are – for the most part – being answered calmly and rationally, which is nice to see. 

All in all, nice article.  Bravo to Jeremy Olson, and to the Pioneer Press for printing the story on the front-page – even above the fold!).

Props to the St. Paul Pioneer Press