Dr. Sharad Shripadrao Pandit in Birmingham, England was accused in Coroner’s Court this week in an extraordinary case of alleged malpractice. The parents of Alina Sarag reportedly called the GP more than 50 times about her ailing over four-and-a-half months. They testified that Pandit accused them of mollycoddling the girl and said that her symptoms were the result of being “lovesick.” She then died for tuberculosis.
As the girl got worse and worse the doctor reportedly told the parents to take her to a faith-healer or psychiatrist. Even though the girl was vomiting ten times a day and had to be carried around the house because she was too weak to walk, her father says that Pandit refused to test for TB and said that the pain was entirely in the girl’s head or lovesick heart.
What is really amazing is that Alina contracted TB in 2009 after a girl at her school was diagnosed with the illness, so there was a confirmed case of TB in her school but no test was ordered. A simple phlegm test would have been enough to diagnose the condition.
Even when at the hospital, after she collapsed, no test was performed an x-ray reportedly found a chest infection. Nevertheless, she was sent to see a clinical psychologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital but was too ill to complete the assessment.
These cases should be raised with those politicians who continue to push for caps on malpractice (often a ridiculous $250,000) in Congress and state legislatures. Would $250,000 repay this family for the long agonizing death of this child?
Source: Telegraph
OS,
As sorry as I am to hear you’ve been sick, I am twice as glad to hear you are on the mend and avoiding the snake oil salesmen.
I have been scarce the past few days due to flu and what I think was either acute bronchitis or viral pneumonia. Maybe all three. I am damn glad that I did not consult this doctor.
Mike Spindell:
I, for one, am extremely glad that you made it through the medical minefield. Do stay well.
Shano:
I too, think rather highly of Joe Mercola, MD. and believe his newsletter provides important counterpoints to the zeitgeist of modern medicine. Folks need a broader perspective of health care than they normally get. I also encourage folks to pay at least some attention to the things Dr. Sidney Wolfe has to say.
CLH:
Hard to beat a family expert.
And thanks to each of you for your comments.
“Hemp was made illegal due to lobbying by the timber folks who didn’t like the competition.”
In part, but don’t forget DuPont’s role in the matter too. They didn’t want hemp rope and canvas to compete with nylon rope and canvas for Navy contracts. And I’m with you on the milk issue too. I literally cannot drink anything other than organic milk. It makes me sick. I feel bad for days if I get some of the hormone laden junk.
Shano,
The free market isn’t for real. It’s a stacked deck. But you know that. How about fair market? Yes, it costs more but what is more important than good food?
The big chemical companies (Monsanto, Archer-Daniel Midland) are the ones to create the non-organic food market by pushing (lying about) their chemicals. They participate in the revolving door of the regulatory agencies. They’ve killed the soil and the crops can’t get good nutrition out of the soil if it isn’t there to begin with. All those creepy crawlies in the living soil are there for a reason. No creepy crawlies means the soil is dead and not capable of providing what the crops need to be healthy.
Hemp was made illegal due to lobbying by the timber folks who didn’t like the competition. The THC content was also used for medicinal purposes but it’s popularity as a recreational drug made it an easy target.
I, too, drink coconut milk (cereal, cooking) and coconut water (instead of soft drinks) and use coconut oil (cooking, oiling, skin lotion). Rarely cows milk but when I do, it’s hormone free.
bettykath: I use Coconut milk as a milk alternative. I would use Hemp milk since it is so nutritious, but it is twice the price of coconut milk. How is that free market working?
Not so well when it comes to food. Imagine a product that COULD be grown all over the US- a low maintenance crop that could be grown in mass quantities while it improves our top soil in crop rotation- costs more than a product that is only grown in tropical climates.
I do have a good story to tell about drs. My nephew was born with a defective heart valve. He had a stent? put in immediately after birth. By 2 he had his first open heart surgery, and his second. The first procedure left his blood pressure too high. They put him back on the heart lung machine and did a second procedure with a donor valve that did the job for next 10 years. He was in the OR all day. His 3rd procedure should be his last. He’s in HS now and doing quite well. Many thanks to the drs who did the job and those who monitored him for 12 years.
NUTRITION!
Drink sufficient water, preferably distilled. (64 ozs/day)
Buy organic fruits and vegetables, preferably those grown close to home. Cut down on all meat, especially pork and shellfish. (They use more energy to digest than they give you.) The 4-digit PLU code on fruit tells the store elves what it is. If it is a 5-digit code beginning with a 9 it is organic. But it may be organic even if it doesn’t have the code. If it is labeled organic, it should be.
Stay out of the center of the grocery store! The stuff in there has been processed to nothingness where nutrition is concerned.
There are many alternatives to cows milks that are quite good. But if you really want cow’s milk, find a producer that has a “no BST” or “no rBGH” on the carton. You’ll have to look for it. I get mine from a small store down the road, the big stores don’t have it.
There are alternatives to refined sugar and corn syrup. Pick a different sweetener: rice syrup, blue algae syrup, unrefined sugar, molasses, real maple sugar, honey. Get more than one; alternate them. Read the labels.
Stay away from anything labeled “diet” or similar. Check the label for aspertame, NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspertame was developed as a rat poison. When heated it turns to formaldehyde (I’m not a chemist so don’t shoot me if I’ve oversimplified.) If you have enough of it, it can give you symptoms of MS, Lupus, and other neurologic disorders.
I use homeopathic remedies for a number of things that keep me from seeing a doctor. (homeopathic remedies kick my colds before they get a chance to develop, keep swelling and bruising from physical trauma to a minimum, and keep an allergic reaction from disabling me.) The email class by Sheri is excellent.
Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA
Vaccines – http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com
Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy Online/email courses – next classes start May 10
Hmmm… methinks articles like these tend to botch my own arguments and preconceptions regarding quality of healthcare in the US. Hate it when that happens. Of course, I’m blessed to have a mother who is a heart surgeon, and a good one. And she knows all the best of the medical profession in our area. She also advocates strongly for malpractice tort reform in Texas- upwards. She wants all caps extended upwards, and all legal bills the responsibility of the defendant when the claimant is successful (which I think is allowed, but not always obligatory), and legal bills paid by the litigant in frivolous cases. Great comment patricparamedic.
JCthe bigtree: you have to know your own body well enough to understand what can work for you. It is NOT easy.
You have to stop eating all commercially processed foods. Just say ‘NO’ to CAFO meat, HFCS and GMOs. Severely limit any sugars in your diet. Nutrition really is the key to avoiding any contact with this highly flawed medical system.
I like Dr. Mercola- many people think he is a quack- but he has a very important aggregation of information online. For example, a new study on High Fructose Corn Syrup
http://earthsky.org/science-wire/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar-ucla-study-shows-high-fructose-diet-sabotages-learning-memory
You have to develop a exercise program that fits your needs, age and lifestyle. You have to keep up on the latest testing from independent labs. I also use really top medical facilities like the Mayo clinic as a search for any health problems.
Send that schmuck back to where he came from! Oh, he came from England to begin with. I see. Tell the parents they cant have more children. They dont have the sense to take the kid to the ER.
Shano… Where does one effectively start exploring? There is so much information out there on ‘alternative health care’ that certainly a good portion of it is contradictory to the other portion. It is simply hard to determine what you are and are not supposed to be doing for yourself.
wow, thanks for that patricparamedic. Really confirmed all my experiences with main stream medical.
Anyone who does not explore effective alternatives, avoiding toxic food and chemicals and lifestyle changes to improve their health can become a victim.
My overall health improved once I no longer had excellent employer provided insurance. It took years and multiple drs. to get a correct diagnosis from an 80 year old dr who charged $20/visit. Aunt died of heart failure due to prescription drug. Uncle died due to complications from failure to properly set broken hip and accelerated directions to walk on it. Neighbor currently suffering due to non-setting of severely broken leg, accelerated directions to walk on it, dr finally “resigned”, no other dr will touch the botched work, ……….
Best health advice seems to come from nurses. Bless them.
It is a popular fantasy that Americans enjoy the highest quality of medical care on the planet. In fact, this has been proven false by at least four public heath assessments over the past decade.
One of the earliest, and probably the most eye-opening, was the JAMA study by Barbara Starfield, an MD in 2000, who also happened to hold a Master’s in Public Health. That scathing review of the status quo, exposed our extremely poor comparisons, to other industrialized countries – Japan, Sweden, Canada, France, Australia, Spain, Finland, Holland, Britain, Denmark, Belgium and Germany).
I get no joy whatsoever in the fact that the medical system of which I’ve been a player for 32 years, is ranked last or nearly last, in well over a dozen significant categories. Here are but a few:
■13th (last) for low-birth-weight percentages
■13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall
■11th for post-neonatal mortality
■13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes)
■12th for life expectancy at 1 year for males, 11th for females
■12th for life expectancy at 15 years for males, 10th for females
The area of which I personally have been involved in, is that of iatrogenic suffering & death, defined as adverse effects as a direct result of medical treatment.
Why? Because as nearly as can be determined, U.S. ‘health care’ is the third leading cause of citizen death.
Trust me: you’d be safer in a bunker in the war zone.
In other words, were it not for cardiovascular disease and cancer, availing yourself to ‘the finest health care in the world’ for any malady whatsoever, would be the very best way to get yourself killed.
Let me pause while you take that in.
What this means is that physician treatment plans and hospitals are responsible for more deaths each year than heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, car crashes, gunshots, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, pneumonia, shark attacks & big bad coke machine tip-overs.
And these are the lab coat pros who can get really professionally pissy, at the mere mention of those deadly pills called vitamins.
So just how might my colleagues & I end your life before Christmas?
■1,000 of you each month will succumb to unnecessary surgery
■ 30 of you will die everyday from medication errors in hospitals
■ 400 of you each week will die from hospital treatment errors
And now, with a drum roll, are you ready for the biggies?
■ 200 of you will die everyday from hospital-acquired infections
But here’s our pride & joy:
■ 2,000 of you, each & every week, will be buried, as a direct result of taking your very own, legally prescribed, TV advertised, drug cartel-provided, medications.
The bottom-line totals are jaw-dropping: 225,000 dead Americas per year, BECAUSE they could afford health care. And the Starfield study notes that even this number is far too low, because:
■ Most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients only
■ The estimates are for deaths only, and do not include adverse effects associated with “pain & suffering”
■ The estimates of death due to error are lower than those in the Institute of Medicine Report
If these little gems are considered, our death rate due to treatment causes would range from 230,000 to 284,000. That’s per year, folks.
The conclusion? Between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients experience crappy outcomes. which – surprise – generate even more money. In medicine, we call it Bowling for Dollars:
■116 million extra physician visits
■77 million MORE prescriptions
■17 million emergency department visits
■8 million more hospitalizations
■3 million more long-term admissions
■199,000 additional deaths
■$77 billion in extra costs to insurance companies
Now, this is no shotgun condemnation of the thousands of excellent practitioners in our midst. In many ways, our doctors are almost as victimized by this Twi Light Zone health-care system, as patients. With increased patient loads and mandated time-limits for patient visits set by HMOs, most doctors are coping to survive our broken, corrupt -beyond belief, health-care system.
But the fact is, when the typical patient would be safer in a foxhole during the Gulf War, maybe its time we stop all the flag-waving, at least long enough to include this ridiculous mayhem in anything our legislators might so egotistically refer to as ‘health care reform.’
“It is a popular fantasy that Americans enjoy the highest quality of medical care on the planet.”
Patric,
Thank you for that brilliant comment, chock full of pertinent information. I spent about 6 months in the hospital in 2010, underwent 3 dangerous operations, needed 911 help on five occasions. I had perhaps the best transplant surgeon in the country and a cardiologist who is superb. The hospital is top rated for outcomes of their transplant patient. Nevertheless, without exaggeration, my wife’s intervention literally saved my life four times mainly by questioning decisions made by nurses and by floor physicians, who resented my surgeons status within the hospital. There were regular mistakes in medications to be given, as well as botched Pic Line insertions and catheterizations. Having spent time in many a hospital on the Eastern Seaboard I believe that my transplant hospital is an excellent one. The problem has nothing to do with the dedication of the staff, with some exceptions, but with the bureaucratization and monetization of the health care system/industry. Our entire system is as you say broken and has to be completely overhauled, or it will continue to kill people regularly that should have been saved.
Mike S. has it right. The malpractice caps are a sham to protect inept contributors to the causes of those politicians that call for the caps. What happened to the market place correcting itself?
Malpractice caps are an anathema to justice.
Would you like to know what it’s like to know for a fact you have a medical malpractice claim that is legally valid only to be unable to get an attorney because “we can’t make enough money off of it due to the damage caps”?
It sucks.
So to all of you pols out there bucking for malpractice caps, I give you the finger. I hope what happened to me happens to every last single one of you venal bastards. Twice. Just so you get the idea of how badly you harm already harmed people by your actions on behalf of protecting insurance companies. Screw you and the graft horse you rode in on.
I hope that was clear enough for you, Washington.
How could these parents NOT take her to another doctor!? That is almost as unbelievable as the Doctor’s incompetence.
In regards to malpractice, the issue should NOT be how/where to cap malpractice suit awards, but how to limit the amount of malpractice suits in general. Doctors are not always able to perfectly heal a person, even the best and brightest Doctors with state of the art facilities and equipment cannot have 100% cure rate; yet, people are so quick to sue if they aren’t 100% healthy.
I know of one suit in which a Doctor was sued for Malpractice because a diabetes patient had to have his foot amputated…according to the patient and lawyer, the doctor should have been able to save the foot, in reality the patient practiced almost none of the preventative measures that a diabetic needed to in order to stay healthy.
I can only imagine that as our nation grows fatter and fatter, we will see more and more obese individuals suing doctors for things that are their own damn fault.
The cap on malpractice awards is a sham and an injustice, whose rationale, as Frankly points out, is phony. It is a sop to corporate health care/insurance. However, Frankly also aswers the question of why the parents didn’t seek aother opinion. A leswson I leared well during my years suffering from heart disease is that if a medical opinion just doesn’t seem right, get aother one. We are unfortunatelybrought up to give far too much respect to the medical profession in general. Every patient/parent has to be their own best advocate to ensure good health care.
WTF? Why would the parents not take her to a different doctor? The doctor fails the minimum care standard needed to maintain his license. He should be sweeping up some place not practicing medicine. But how could you not take you kid to other doctors when you got nothing from the first one?
Also, note that the AMA has estimated the cost of malpractice, including what they deemed to be malpractice avoidance efforts, as about 1% of the total cost of medical care in the US.