Let The Character Assassination Begin
I told you about the moronic lawyer trying to sue after the Aurora shooting. Now comes the media and the world trying to put blame on the psychiatrist who was seeing this criminal. This article is entitled Details emerge on psychiatrist of Colorado massacre gunman and they quickly try to go on to destroy her credibility:
- Lynne Fenton has faced some trouble in her career.
- She was disciplined by the Colorado Medical Board in 2004 for prescribing herself Xanax while her mother was dying, state records show.
- She also was disciplined for prescribing the sleep aid Ambien and the allergy medicine Claritin for her husband, and painkillers for an employee who suffered from chronic headaches.
It looks like she make a couple of mild slip ups for prescribing some drugs. Heck, her mother was dying. Claritin is OTC. Ambien is a sleeping pill used all the tim. The painkiller Rx for the employee is even mildly controversial. It doesn’t matter. I know what they are getting at. They are going to try and ruin her and then blame her. Forget the fact that the infamous notebook that the shooter sent had never reached her. The point is that unless she knew he was a threat to the public, there is NOTHING she can do to stop him. She cannot make him take his meds. She cannot stop him from taking painkillers. Doctors are consultants and nothing more. We shouldn’t get credit for as much of what we do nor should we get the blame.
Of course Dr. Fenton had the ability to stop the shooting. MD stands for Medical Deity and DO stands for Doctor of Omnipotence. I know this for a fact because I am a Registered Nuisance (RN) to patients.
Two main media trends in response to Aurora — gun control and lets get these guys dealt with by psychiatry. The former won’t change, not enough political will (how about “Doctors Without Guns”?)
But the mental health angle is ripe fodder for society to find a fall guy. Never mind that psychiatry has long been the “poor relation” in medicine, it has also been negatively regarded by society in general for decades if not centuries. Putting Dr. Fenton in the stocks will be promoted by right wing whack jobs, liberal do gooders and just about everyone in between. She will need a good shrink herself not to mention a great lawyers just to get through the lawsuits that will be coming down on her head for “failing” to predict what is unpredictable. The science and facts of this case will be ignored by juries and the public. I hope she can survive.
Amen bubba – then again, would joined “Doctor’s WITH Guns”. Come to think of it …
The video reminds me why I can’t stand cable news including FOX News. They are already trying the case on TV with out having all the facts. They take 1 small piece of info “the perpurtrator (don’t want to use his name) mailed a package to the psychiatrist” and turns it into an hour long diatribe about nothing.
And short of a specific threat, by law, ethics, and professional standards, she could NOT have alerted anyone, in violation of doctor-patient confidentiality. Again, our society fronted by our media sets up a physician as the fall guy. This is one of the cases that should be considered by anyone contemplating this line of work.