Finally, a talk about ethics

I called the ethics department at Memorial Health in Savannah the day after Michael died to talk to them about how he was neglected there. No one called me back so I called again two weeks later. Two days after that, an executive assistant called me back to say the director had been out of town and would talk to me at 2 this afternoon.

2 o'clock came and went and no one called, so I called her and got voicemail. I called the office of the CEO to complain that I was being ignored, and a few minutes later, the ethics director called and apoligized for being late.

OK, so can we talk?

I told her about how Mike had been at risk of colon cancer and all I found in the records for the first year he was in Savanah was, "Patient can not afford a colonoscopy."

I told her about how he went to the doctor a number of times with early warning signs of colon cancer and was blown off. Each time in the records, there was the mention that he couldn't afford a colonoscopy.

Finally, when the symptoms became serious, the doctor did a colonoscopy, but he couldn't even finish the procedure because the colon was blocked. He sent Michael home without a word about the blockage. The records say, "Patient's wife had stepped out for a moment." He never made any effort to contact Mike or Janet; he just left.

I told her how he was admitted three weeks later in renal failure and vomiting fecal matter.

I told her how they let him get down to 105 pounds when the radiation caused another blockage. They knew about that one for three or four weeks, too, but took a "wait-and-see" approach until he was near death.

I told her about how the doctor made it clear he had given up on Mike and then failed to treat a massive infection, and how Herb Hurwitz at Duke adopted Mike and gave him two more years.

She seemed horrified and offered to pull the records if I would send her an e-mail with some of the dates these things happened.

I don't have all the records, just those of the surgeon. But I'll send her the dates and she can get the rest of the records.

I think poor people are treated as throw-away people all too often. A lot of them don't have the energy, the kowledge or the wherewithal to fight. A certain percentage of people will go away and die quietly and their families will grieve and nothing will ever happen. Some will sue, but few have the resources to spend years fighting, and that's what it takes. With so-called tort reform, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies are pretty well protected from any consequences to their immoral actions when they fail to treat someone who is obviously ill.

But I make noise. I won't sue, but I will generate some really bad publicity for them. I have a very big mouth.

All I want is to see them put a policy in place that says failure to treat someone with an obvious serious medical condition is an actionable offense that can lead to suspension or revocation of priveleges at the hospital.

I'd love to see failure to treat as a criminal offense.

Michael wouldn't have died if he had been here in Asheville. The Medical Society here developed a program called Project Access that gets treatment from specialists for people who need it.

What we really need, though, is access to quality medical care for everyone, everywhere. My son wasn't a throw-away person. Not to me, not to the rest of his family and friends, not to the people whose lives he saved with his work helping people get into and stay in recovery.

Every person matters. Until we as a society realize that, we will continue to turn our backs on and lose good, kind, loving people.

I have a big mouth. I plan to use it.