Why Is It ...

… that people don’t understand that I am taking part in The May Challenge and so I may give a fuck, or I may not.

… that I had a thirty minute conversation with a co-worker about her weekend and when she finished, I said I was billing her for time wasted.

… that when I went to the doctor with a suspicious looking mole, he said, “They all look that way so you should put him back in the garden.”

… that when my boss said to me, “This is the third time this week we’ve had complaints about your attitude, so you know what that means?” and I said, “It’s Wednesday?”

… that when Carlos made my coffee this morning he handed me the cup and then winked at me; I’ve never been more afraid of a drink in my life!

… that people who say they don’t have time for my bullshit need to wake up earlier.

… that while I was getting gas this morning I noticed the girl on Pump #3 was getting $10. Where the hell was she going, Pump #4?

… that my Serenity Prayer goes like this: God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change; the courage to change direction when I see them coming; and the wisdom not to try to smack some sense into them when I can’t avoid them.

… that the coworker who called me a psychopath doesn’t realize that at least I’m on a path while she is still trying to sort out her life. Right, Melissa?

… that I used to party in fields with people I didn’t know but these days too may people in Aisle 5 is a hard no?

Doctor Suggests 'Colored' People Don't Wash As Much

Just to show that racism isn’t a stupid man’s disease, there’s ER doctor and Ohio state Senator … and a Republican, because, of course … . Steve Huffman. Huffman was recently fired from his position at TeamHealth, a firm that outsources health care providers to medical facilities, after suggesting that “the colored population” don’t wash their hands as well as others.

In 2020. A doctor. Colored population.

The racist Republican lawmaker—and why is he still in office—made that comment during a hearing on whether racism ought to be declared a public health crisis in Ohio, during which he asked Ohio Commission on Minority Health executive director Angela Dawson, a black woman, why there were higher rates of COVID-19 infections among black Americans, and said:

“Could it just be that African Americans—the colored population—do not wash their hands as well as other groups?”

After being fired, and saying some word salad garbage about his question being  asked in an “unintentionally awkward way that was perceived as hurtful” Huffman issued a fuller apology via Facebook:

“At a legislative committee hearing on Tuesday, I used an insensitive and offensive term while asking a question. I had absolutely no malicious intent, but I recognize that my choice of words was unacceptable and hurtful. I apologize, and I make no excuses.”

No malicious intent in suggesting that colored people don’t wash their hands because, well, colored. In 2020.

I think the Ohio Senate needs to ask someone to pack his racism and go.

The Funny Papers

Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Marc Murphy, Darrin Bell, Rick McKee, Dave Whamond, RJ Matson, Deb Milbrath, Kevin Siers, Michael de Adder, Jack Ohman, David Fitzsimmons, Bob Gorrell, John Cole

NRA Tells Doctors To 'Stay In Their Own Lane'

The anti-gun movement has a new set of allies as people in the medical field are now finding themselves in the crosshairs of the National Rifle Association [NRA].

Doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and others in the medical profession began posting photos of blood-stained scrubs, graphic X-rays and images of bloodstained operating rooms in response to a Twitter post from the NRA promoting a news release which took aim at medical professionals calling for gun restrictions; that NRA post read:

"Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

Forensic pathologist Judy Melinek saw that NRA Tweet as she was preparing to perform an autopsy on a victim who died from a gunshot wound and she fired off a reply as she headed to the morgue:

Dr Melinek has seen more carnage and trauma than most during her career, having spent months examining remains from the 9/11 World Trade Centre attack, and she was also called to the wreckage of American Airlines flight 587, which crashed shortly after taking off in New York in November 2001 with all 260 people aboard killed, so she knows of what she Tweets; by the time she finished her shift, the tweet had gone viral.

During the two years she worked in the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Dr Melinek was also clinical instructor in forensic medicine at New York University and has written a book about her experiences.

Other doctors around the country also took to Twitter to vent about the NRA's stance:

In an opinion piece for Vox, Dr Melinek said medical professionals had a responsibility to speak up about gun regulations, pointing out the push for tobacco regulations in response to the lung cancer epidemic caused by cigarettes.

"As scientists and caregivers, we doctors are in a unique position to understand the scale of human suffering caused by guns. We have to do something. We didn't choose this fight, but we if we have to, we can take on the NRA."

Bravo to the men and women who try to save lives ruined, or taken, from gun violence; and for standing up to the NRA who doesn’t give a rat’s behind about gun violence as long as they are making their blood money.

It’s time for the NRA to get out of our lane and let us begin protecting Americans from death by guns.

source

The GOP In Texas Paases A Bill Allowing Doctors To Lie To Pregnant Women

There are times when I play the devil’s Advocate in political discussions, saying that it isn’t just the GOP that’s horrid, there are awful Democrats, too.

Then I hear stories like this one ...

If you’re a woman and you live in Texas and you think you’re pregnant and you go to the doctor, the GOP-controlled Texas Senate just passed a bill that would ... wait for it, it’s truly disgusting ... would allow your doctor to withhold that information—that you’re pregnant—if the doctor believes you might choose to have an abortion.

Yes, thanks to the GOP, it’s gonna be legal for doctors to lie to their patients, thereby forcing the patient to do what the doctor thinks is best.

Even more disgusting, Texas Republicans are pretending that this is a “wrongful birth” bill meant to prevent doctors from being sued by their pregnant patients.

This wrongful birth bill—Senate Bill 25 ... on its way to the Texas House—prevents parents from suing their doctor if their baby is born with disabilities, even if that doctor discovered the condition during routine prenatal testing and failed to inform the parents.

So, then, what’s to stop an anti-choice doctor from keeping a pregnancy a secret, forcing a woman to carry a child to term, not because she chose it, but because her doctor chose it?

But, hey, it’s Texas and it’s the GOP, so we know a woman doesn’t have a voice.

Or a choice.

Especially when Republicans and doctors are allowed to lie.

Daily Kos

Photo Credit: Bill Day

Doctor Refuses To Give Man His HIV Medications

The Hippocratic Oath is historically taken by physicians, physician assistants' and other healthcare professionals swearing to practice medicine ethically. It is widely believed to have been written by Hippocrates, often regarded as the father of western medicine. 

This is the widely used modern version of the oath, as written by Dr. Louis Lasagna in 1964:

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not", nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

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 these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, be respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Keep that oath in mind......

Joao Simoes is a gay man; he is also HIV+. And he is suing the Trinitas Medical Center in New Jersey because, he says, the hospital denied him treatment and a visit from his sister, and that a doctor, upon learning that Simoes was HIV+, said, "This is what he gets for going against God's will."

Simoes says Dr. Susan Borga approached him while he was confined to the hospital's mental health wing. He watched as she spoke nonchalantly with one man who told her that he'd just gotten out of prison after serving time for murder, but her reaction to him was entirely different. Simoes told her of his HIV status, and Dr. Borga asked how he contracted HIV.

Simoes said, simply, "I got it from unprotected sex."

It was then, that Joao Simoes says Dr. Borga closed his file, put it down and looked at plaintiff with disgust on her face and asked, coldly, "Is that from sex with men?"

When he said 'Yes' Dr. Borga left the room.

After that, no nurse or doctor came to see Simoes, even though he needed to take his HIV medication. It wasn't until the third day of his stay that Simoes was allowed to call his personal physician, and it was then that he learned that Dr. Borga had already spoken to his doctor.

When Simoes' doctor told Borga about his HIV medications, she allegedly said: "You must be gay, too, if you're his doctor."

In court documents, Simoes' doctor says that, when Borga realized he had an accent, she said, "What, do you need a translator?"

He quietly responded, again, that Joao Simoes needed his HIV medications, and that's when Borga said, "This is what he gets for going against God's will" and hung up on him.
Let me say this: I don't smoke. Never have. I cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke. But, if I were a doctor, would I tell a patient with lung cancer that they got what they deserve?

Would I tell an alcoholic with cirrhosis of the liver that the disease is all their fault?

Would I tell an obese man I couldn't help him with his heart problems or diabetes because he brought this on himself?

I get that Dr. Borga has a religious viewpoint, but she is also a doctor.

She needs top pick one over the other.

And, from this story, I’d suggest she give up medicine and join a convent.

source

Calling Doctor Cassell, You're In Need Of A Brain Transplant

Doctor Asshat, who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine, has posted a sign on the door of his offices telling patients who voted for Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."

"I'm not turning anybody away--that would be unethical," says Dr. Asshat, er, Jack Cassell, who considers his political party affiliation more important than the practice of medicine. He goes on to say, "...if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

Now, I'm all for Free Speech, but Cassell, as a doctor, is walking a fine line. While doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, apparently political preference is not protected. And Cassell insists he doesn't quiz his patients on their political party affiliation, but has filled his waiting room with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders. On top of his stack of GOP propaganda, he put yet another sign which reads: "This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it."

Interestingly enough, and perhaps why Cassell has a stake in GOP-ism, his wife, attorney Leslie Cassell is a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner. Cassell goes on, to protest too much, to say that just three patients have complained, while most have been "overwhelmingly supportive." Cassell said a patients politics would not affect his care for them, although he said he would prefer not to treat people who support the president.

And he thinks I believe his medical care for an Obama-voting Democrat is the same as that which he gives GOP-goosesteppers?

I ain't that sick, Doc.