Today’s Wall St. Journal’s front page featured a surgeon who has opened his own surgical center in Rapid City, South Dakota. When asked why he opened it, he responded, “Profit, profit, profit.” Dr. Larry Teuber has unabashedly claimed that he performs surgery for profit and not the public good. This neurosurgeon in South Dakota caters to the rich and those able to pay for the center’s lavish procedures. What has become of medicine and the Hippocratic oath when doctors openly proclaim, indeed boast, that they are practicing their profession merely for profit? What about the Hippocratic Oath which states in part, “I will apply for the sick, all measures which are required. . .I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes those related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.” Where did Hippocrates say, “I will only treat the rich and those who can afford my care?”
Monthly Archives: August 2005
Auto Safety Initiatives Part of Latest Transportation Bill
Sweeping auto safety initiatives included in a transportation bill passed by Congress on Friday make it the most comprehensive traffic safety legislation in years. Congress is ordering the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to impose a number of more stringent safety measures, including the first performance standards aimed at decreasing the likelihood of a rollover. Currently, the agency conducts rollover testing, but the results are only used to determine star ratings on cars and light trucks for consumer information. In addition, 15-passenger vans will be subject for the first time to government crash tests.
Vioxx Manufacturer Suffers Setback in Trial
Yesterday, jurors heard videotaped testimony from the pathologist who said that the death Robert Ernst, a 59 year old triathlete taking the painkiller Vioxx was more than likely caused by a heart attack, damaging Merck’s defense in the first Vioxx trial nationwide. The videotaped testimony was shown almost immediately after the Texas Supreme Court denied Merck’s attempt to stop jurors from hearing it. The testimony is crucial because Merck has acknowledged a link between Vioxx and heart attacks and strokes, but has maintained that there is no such link between Vioxx and arrhythimias. The pathologist’s testimony gives a big boost to one of the plaintiff’s biggest challenges, which was making a link between Vioxx and arrhythmia. After a Merck lawyer asked the pathologist whether she was changing her story in the autopsy report, Dr. Araneta replied, “I’m not changing my opinion, I’m just explaining it further. That’s the autopsy report, but it’s not the end of the story.”
Apparently not, although Merck would like it to be.
New England Journal of Medicine: Hospitals Neglecting Lifesaving Treatments
In a report published early last month, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that many hospitals across the country neglected to provide their patients with life saving treatments, even when the treatments were basic. For instance, even though just about everyone in medicine agrees that a patient that arrives in the emergency room with a heart attack should be administered aspirin, many patients don’t get that aspirin or nine other crucial therapies for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. This is in spite of the fact that the aspirin therapy has been proven to cut death rates by nearly 25%.
Church’s Inconsistent Mea Culpa
Last year, Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore and a dozen priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore knelt before 100 parishioners at a Maryland church in a public act of atonement for what some of their fellow priests had done to young parishioners. Yet, in spite of this highly publicized confession, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is unyielding in actually providing real help to victims. In fact, the church’s response throughout the United States has been inconsistent at best and at times cold and calculating. The document the bishops approved “The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” urges dioceses to reach out and “demonstrate a sincere commitment” to the spiritual and emotional well-being of all victims. However, the rhetoric has not been followed up with action. The Charter called for measures and standards to treat victims but glossed over the most important aspect that would promote healing, namely, components of empathy and compassion.