MD Whistleblower

The Marvelettes in 1963 Patients are cool.   I did a colonoscopy on a hospitalized man who was saddled with the ravages of obesity, diabetes, sleep apnea and respiratory disease.  My partner had performed the initial consultation, and it was my task to bring light into a dark place by performing a colonoscopy.  I engaged in some conversation prior to the procedure, not simply to acquire relevant medical facts, but also to establish some rapport with a man I hadn’t met before, who I was poised to violate.  I learned that he was a navy SEAL decades ago during the Vietnam war, and enjoyed some leisure time in Cambodia then.  He mentioned that he was waterboarded during his training repeatedly and described it as a routine exercise.  Yikes.  When I was his age, I was dissecting a cadaver in medical school.  The most risk I faced was crossing a New York City street. Fast food workers are cool.  I stop often in the morning at a M...

I read an interesting piece this morning about a medical renegade who turned his back on one of the most powerful health care systems in the world.  It’s not easy to push back against a leviathan.  If I give you an oar, I doubt that you could change the direction of a cruise ship.  But sometimes, a single person can make a wall fall down.  Remember, the brave Chinese man who faced down an approaching tank in Tiananmen Square, which was captured on an iconic video?  On a lesser scale, an orthopedist, formerly employed by The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, decided that his Clinic bosses were preventing him from offering his patient’s the best medical care possible.  He fired them. "Let's blow this joint!" The Clinic, in a cost cutting move, restricted orthopedists to using artificial joints from only two device companies.  The surgeon had been using artificial joints from another company for nearly 3 decades, and he reported excellent results....

Don’t expect this humble blogger to explain Donald Trump’s broad and sustained GOP support, if our most seasoned political pundits are flummoxed.   Why is this man with no prior political or governmental experience trumping all of his competitors? Is he ahead because he is right on, or is he leading because the competitors are way off? Like most folks, the conventional politicians are by and large an uninspiring lot who offer scripted screeds that are canned and calculated.  Indeed, most political junkees like me can almost orate their stump speeches, since they vary little from speech to speech. Trump Appears to have no 'Special Interests' The conventional candidates often rail against ‘special interests’, a pejorative term that conjures up an evil group that is possessed by greed that tramples over the public good to serve themselves.  I challenge you to identify a candidate who has not spewed vitriol against these nefarious ‘special interests’....

It’s Labor Day tomorrow when we pause to honor those whose labor has laid down the scaffolding of this nation.  Are we all in agreement who the honoree is on this federal holiday?  Labor Day - A Sad Day for Cows Originally, the holiday was to honor the labor unions, organizations that emerged over a century ago as a response to unfair and unsafe labor practices.  I certainly honor the working man for their contributions. There are carpenters and electricians who work for themselves, not for  labor unions.  Is the holiday for them also? What about the rest of us?  I’m a physician.  I work hard and hope that I am making some contribution toward the public good.  Is this holiday for me also? Business owners and management work long hours, often beyond traditional shifts, to maintain the success of their companies.  Is this holiday for them? Artists labor long hours coloring canvases or sculpting provocative creations...