Quote:
> At a time when Dr. Burrascano is being tried by the OPMC,
with "evidence" from
Quote:
> the records of SATISFIED and HEALTHIER patients, isn't it time that
we start to
> complain against those doctors that have nearly destroyed our lives
by denying
> our Borreliosis (Lyme) and/or treatment?
> As many know, there are now quite a few complaints against Allen
Steere, MD in
> Mass.
> What about others?
> I urge patients everywhere, who have been hurt by New York doctors to
complain
> to the OPMC. If insurers can complain, why don't we?
> For example, has anyone been hurt by the likes of:
> Ray Dattwyler, MD?
> Peter Welsh, MD?
> Tom Rush, MD?
> Just to name a few....
> If these outspoken doctors have hurt you, it is your right to
complain.
> Take a moment...it just may make a difference.
I hope that you understand that I am not against filing legitimate
complaints against steere. It is the spurious ones that I think are
wrong--whether against steere or DR BURRASCANO.
I gave one Lyme activist some advice on how I would proceed without
subjecting myself to liability. HE actually made some of the changes I
suggested--limiting the call for complaints in the more recent action
alerts about the investigations of steere to people who had direct
contact with him and his clinic--eliminating the call for complaints
from those who had experienced doctors 'under the expressed influence
of dr steere.'
Here is the advice cut n pasted from my correspondence on this topic:
Ideally I would create a website with links to each state's medical
board (for convenience) and under each state I would include what is
grounds for discipline (and I will bet ten billion dollars that no
state provides that the 'influence of dr steere's ideas on other
doctors or medical centers' is grounds for discipline. Not in the
United States. Not yet. Thank god!!!!)
People are so prepared to throw the baby of FREEDOM out with the
bathwater of their personal grudges. They don't realize that by making
the same type of complaints about dr steere that they automatically
validate the claims against dr burrascano (IF any ccomplaints actually
exist what with all the claimed secrecy and lack of details provided to
us as we are asked to BLINDLY support the guy).
This is very dangerous.
No problem with making it easy for people to make complaints, by
providing links and sample forms. No problem with helping those with
LEGITIMATE AND SUBSTANTIAL complaints against any doctor to
substantiate and document their claims. But I don't think it is at all
helpful to encourage spurious complaints. In fact, it is both morally
and legally wrong AND likely to be counterproductive.
And it is just foolish to call for complaints BY NAME against any
doctor since that opens one up to liability (defamation actions) and
the defense costs alone could bankrupt Lyme groups or worse
individuals!!! And you pay for your own lawyer win or lose in most
cases in most jurisdictions in the US!!!!
So with a bit of guile, it is possible to respond as my rough letter
suggests by with a wink and a nod and for those smart enough to read
between the lines, accomplish the same thing and shield oneself and/or
one's group from liability.
It is ABSURD to call for complaints about 'dr steere's expressed
influence on other doctors and medical centers' for one thing. This
will result in MANY spurious complaints.
It is also WRONG that what is needed is 'many complaints.' What is
needed is one (or more) LEGITIMATE complaints! Complaints about other
people believing dr steere's bad ideas are ridiculous!
Also: I think it is a HUGE mistake to conduct this 'campaign' this way.
I told John that I would have written a letter saying something like
(this is a very rough draft off the top of my head):
"As you know LLMDs are under attack. (insert link to FAIM website and
Cheryl's activism site etc). We believe that NO doctor should be
prosecuted for treating Lyme according to one legitimate school of
thought instead of another.
We recognize that there is a sharp division of opinion about the
diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. We also recognize that there
is evidence to support the viewpoints of both 'schools of thought,'
call them the Burrascano school and the Steere school. We insist that
it is our right to decide with our doctors what treatment we receive.
The precedent set by such prosecutions could serve to limit treatment
choices for other diseases and to invade an area of medical decision
making traditionally reserved to the doctor and the patient, without
interference by the STATE. The precedent of STATE mandated courses of
treatment is dangerous and frightening!
Almost any illness that one can think of has been treated differently
by different practioners. Singling out Lyme treatment for selective
prosecution smacks more of politics than medicine. We don't want our
health care politicized.
While we oppose the prosecutions of LLMDs, we do NOT want to eliminate
the system of doctor discipline. If anything, the grounds for
disciplining doctors is TOO NARROW not OVERBROAD. State licensing
boards stand as an important safeguard of doctor competence and
protection for patient rights and interests.
While we stongly OPPOSE the current investigations and prosecutions of
Lyme doctors and feel that they are an abuse of the system, we want to
make people aware of the grounds for disciplining doctors and the
methods for doing so.
State by State Listing of Grounds for Medical Discipline along with
Links for contact information for each state medical board and a sample
complaint package with suggestions."
I would provide links state by state to the proper authorities to make
complaints to, and to make it easy for people. I would also provide on
a state by state basis a summary or copy of the actual grounds for
discipline to deter the filing of spurious complaints.
I would NOT call for complaints about a particular doctor by NAME. I
would NOT call for doctors to be disciplined for non disciplinable
offenses. For example, believe it or not, malpractice (which is tough
to prove) is not always (or even often) a grounds for discipline!!!
Even serial/multiple malpractice is not usually a grounds for
discipline!
Nor are general statements like "Do no Harm."
Dr Steere is correct--he WILL be vindicated, and he IS the victim of
organized harassment. The posters IMHO are WRONG and once again just
don't know what they are talking about! They may feel honestly
aggrieved and I sympathize with them and empathasize with them, and
acknowledge the shoddy treatment they have received.
I too HATE dr steere, dr sigal and consider them the antichrist(s) and
I HATE their minions too at Yale, Stoneybrook, HUP, Mayo, Cleveland
Clinic, Hopkins etc....
However, IF dr steere is smart he will fight the complaints and then
come after the Lyme 'activists' who organized the campaign against him.
At the very least he has grounds for filing for defamation, slander,
libel, tortious interference, {*filter*}, intentional infliction of
emotional distress, etc.
He might not win but he could put lots of groups and individuals out of
business by forcing them to defend. And in the US the rule in most
jurisdictions is that each side pays their own legal costs so even if
we WON, we could all be bankrupted in the process!
And when he beats the complaints this will become more evidence of how
over the line the Lyme community is; how nutsy and radical; how poorly
organized; how hysterical....it will serve as proof of what they accuse
us of!
AND it will serve to get their backs up and may engender a backlash as
was commented on in the posts. [THIS WAS WRITTEN LAST YEAR BEFORE THE
BACKLASH...]
NOW don't get me wrong--I am NOT saying that we shouldn't do this in
some fashion (such as I suggested above). I would try to collect and
document the couple of legitimate complaints against steere--where he
lied to patients about test results, or failed to disclose
contamination in his lab and did not inform patients with unreliable
test results of the problem, where he ignored positive tests, where he
relied exclusively on negative tests...
Cases where he refused to treat for more than 2-4 weeks are not
malpractice (legally) and they are not grounds for discipline!!! That
is THE STANDARD OF CARE that MOST doctors follow and agree on and the
OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of literature supports! Failing to provide more
is NOT grounds for discipline!!!
See part of the problem is that we need to recognize that we are in the
minority when it comes to literature, doctors etc. So we are saying "We
are RIGHT and the rest of the world is crazy!" But do you expect the
rest of the world to respond by saying "Oh yeah, we should discipline
ourselves???"
I also agree that we should NOT sink to their level. How can we say
what I said in my sample letter when we want to abuse the system the
same way? By doing so we are saying not that what they are doing is
wrong, we are endorsing their actions! Instead we are just whining that
they are the majority and are being a tyrannical majority. But if we
were in the majority we would do the same thing?
I don't think the poster, whether Pat(sy) Smith or not, was saying that
the complaints were LIES. I think the poster was saying that the
complaints are complaints in the human sense but not in the legal
sense. Not every wrong has a remedy and this is not the proper remedy
for the wrong in question.
Think for a second: what if Dr Burrascano is WRONG??? Should he be
disciplined for being WRONG? Lots of docs have been wrong about lots of
things--how many thought Epstein-Barr caused chronic fatigue??? or that
ulcers were NOT caused by a bacteria called H pylori?
Dr B has a rational basis in science and medicine for what he is doing
but honestly little to 'prove' that he is right. So for the sake of
argument, what if it turns out that
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Attention New York LD sufferers