Found this excellent letter written to the IDSA by the park ranger who was in the documentary, "Under Our Skin".
Jordan Fisher Smith�s Open Letter To The IDSA
Posted on May 17, 2011 by Danielle
For those of you who have seen the documentary on Lyme disease, �Under Our Skin�, you will recall the heroic park ranger, Jordan Fisher Smith, who was featured in it. This is a letter he wrote last year to the IDSA, and as it gets right to the heart of things in all its pithy elegance, I had to share it with you.
Jordan Fisher Smith, the eloquent park ranger featured in UNDER OUR SKIN and the author of the acclaimed naturalist book �Nature Noir,� has written this open letter to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), in response to the society�s decision to make no changes to their controversial 2006 IDSA Lyme Disease guidelines.
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To the Infectious Diseases Society of America:
Almost twelve years ago, I was bitten by a tick at work, and contracted Lyme Disease and Babesiosis. Because of the job you�ve done at diminishing the perception of danger about tick-borne disease and pressuring doctors who treat it aggressively out of business, it took a year and a half and a nationwide search to find a doctor who would treat me.
By then I was dreadfully ill, and as a result I lost my job and my 21-year career. In my first year of antibiotic treatment I got worse. I pursued aggressive treatment for another six years, during which time I got steadily, if slowly better. During this time one of my two doctors was forced out of practice as a result of your work. Thanks to my heroic physicians, I am recovered after a nine-year battle with tick-borne disease. And I am now contributing to society, working, and raising my kids.
Your ineffectiveness and the extent of your compromise with the insurance and HMO businesses are noted. You and your work will be forgotten eventually, as we have forgotten the names of the opponents of Copernicus. Shame on you for the suffering you are causing on the way to your eventual obscurity as prideful scientists who called it tragically wrong. The monument to your life�s work is an unchecked epidemic.
�Jordan Fisher Smith, recovered victim of tick-borne disease
I think it might be worthwhile if everyone took a few moments to send a brief letter like this to the IDSA. I've sent them several emails in the past few weeks giving them a "piece of my mind". Not sure it does any good, but it makes me feel better writing it.
I get seething mad when I think of all the blood they have on their hands. It makes no sense that an organization like this spends their time and money going after good LLMD's who are trying to help people with this disease get better. They spend time and money denying the facts instead of investing time and money trying to find a cure for this disease.
It aggravates me to no end, and gives me much grief and sadness when I read about the many young children who suffer with this dastardly disease. It's hard enough for an adult to cope with this, imagine the thousands of little kids having to live with this evil disease.
Because of IDSA, people have gotten sicker, committed suicide, and many have died from lyme related complications. They have a LOT of blood on their hands. Someday they're going to give account for it. They need to be put out of business!
Thanks for letting me vent.
Gary
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
I love this part:
"You and your work will be forgotten eventually, as we have forgotten the names of the opponents of Copernicus. Shame on you for the suffering you are causing on the way to your eventual obscurity as prideful scientists who called it tragically wrong. The monument to your life�s work is an unchecked epidemic."
Good idea for us all to send them letters. Send one every few months... just change it up (or not).
Posted by Hambone (Member # 29535) on :
I haves me a wittle crush on the park ranger Posted by ukcarry (Member # 18147) on :
Very telling indeed.
Posted by METALLlC BLUE (Member # 6628) on :
I've already written something almost identical. They don't care.
Posted by LSG Scott (Member # 21624) on :
if only they gave a sh-t
Posted by onbam (Member # 23758) on :
Nice. Way to bring the shame!
Posted by chiquita incognita (Member # 30381) on :
Here is what I suggest.
A) Class action lawsuits---groups have a power where single suits fail. Group lawsuits are publicized so the cause would have publicity, an important strategy to getting it better known in the public.
B) Letters to the editor: Shaming them wiht letters like this IN PUBLIC.
C) Open letters posted to the Internet.
D) On anything you write, give written reprint permission and ask readers to spread it around the web, send it out in chain emails, etc. People want to help but they don't know how. When you give them this permission, they will help and spread your letters around the web.
Healthcare dictatorship has no place in a "free" society.
Doctors should be free to practice medicine given their own judgements, based on individual patient needs, and not based on remote control entities who themselves are doing harm.
"First, do no harm" is a medical school oath.
Those docs who are treating their lyme patients are fulfilling that oath. To chase after those docs and require that they fulfill certain cookie cutter standards is to enforce medical dictatorship.
This talking point MUST be spread around. Medical dictatorship does not belong in The Land of the Free.
[ 06-07-2011, 09:34 PM: Message edited by: chiquita incognita ]
Posted by Hambone (Member # 29535) on :
Is there a Facebook page this can be posted, and then others follow suit with their own stories in comments?
We can get as many friends to "like" the page as possible.
It would be nice to see thousands and thousands of people who "like" that page.
Posted by chiquita incognita (Member # 30381) on :
I want to add that their over-regulation of medical practice does *not* make me feel safer.
How about any of you here?
Please let us discuss this in open format.
This needs to be a publicly debated point.
Thank you all, CI ps and this is an example of where government over regulation causes problems instead of being a help. We all need to be aware and alert to this, it is happening in other areas too.
Posted by gwb (Member # 7273) on :
Hambone (and others here), there is this FB page called "Lyme Disease Class Action Litigation" . There's nearly 600 people who recently joined this page.
Some interesting discussions and links over there. Check it out.
Gary
Posted by Hambone (Member # 29535) on :
I'd like to see the parties responsible be sued for eliminating bands 31 and 34 from standard testing, and causing people like me to fall through the cracks and then left to suffer.
It's not fair.
It's it exactly like saying YOUR LIFE DOESN'T MATTER.
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