Docs Gone Wild #4 by Pat Conrad MD
Pamela Williamson, a “62-year-old Van Buren County woman died after more than two gallons of liquid was removed from her body, according to the suit.”
And that is how you know it’s going to be fun. Before you get offended at me laughing at a patient’s death, understand, I think it’s funny when people die in elective, utterly avoidable ways, like shooting rockets out of their butts, so I’m striving for consistency.
Last month Michigan suspended Dr. Bradley Bastow’s osteopathic license “after concluding that he was operating under unsanitary conditions” by performing liposuction…in a pole barn.
A different patient how had fluctuating levels of consciousness – later taken to a hospital – had family present for the 10-hour (what??!) procedure, “and they reported seeing Bastow dump fat down a sink drain instead of disposing of the biological waste in proper fashion.”
The state also charged Bastow with “improperly comingling human and animal drugs” and taking a controlled substance from the facility for personal use.” Apparently, the barn had also failed multiple inspections.
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“The woman was sent home with antibiotics, pain pills and the husband was told to get his wife a vanilla shake from McDonald’s on the way home. The next morning, she died. Her autopsy listed her cause of death as ‘acute lidocaine toxicity.'” And any compassionate lawyer worth his dagger will sue McDonald’s for an obviously dangerous shake.
Bastow also spent a week in jail and was charged with perjury and evidence tampering, those charges being later dismissed. He is obviously a scumbag, and one doesn’t wonder if he knew what he was doing – obviously not – as much as wonder how he thought he could get away with it. His is more ammunition for my belief that we should not have state medical licenses, and let any adult patient patronize any shaman, witch doctor, family expert, nurse midwife, or new age healer they want for anything they want. Let the more discerning patient purse actual quality, as they value it.
Now we’ve heard truly sad stories of crazy people said to have attempted “suicide-by-cop” – well Pamela Williamson died from suicide-by-idiocy, a sleazy doctor’s idiocy that she made her own. But like the death of my personal hero, Tommy Woodward, it is no less funny.
Of course, the quality fascists will pick up on this and discover the need for more regulation and quality management. If doctors are left to their own devices, the quality quacks insist, they’ll be clogging up the septic tank with people lard.
What is missing from today’s debate is – how do you imbue a sense of professionalism and skill that would make such behavior inconceivable? Answer: 180 degrees away from the corporate assembly line approach to medicine, that separates and impugns professionalism and skill, and rewards the end beyond the means.