I was googling about the Diane Kruger thing (her younger brother has Lyme and she spoke about it in a magazine interview), and for some reason this article about Dr. J popped up. It is from a CT newspaper and dated yesterday.
On the site that linked me to the CT site, it said this story was published 14 hours ago, which would have been 7 PM Thursday night.
It says this decision was made on Tuesday, but that Dr. J is appealing it.
I am really brain-fogged right now, can anyone explain what this article is saying?
It's making it sound like this is an official "decision"...but then it says Dr. J is appealing. I'm so confused. So can he still practice for now until this appeals process is over?
Posts: 4590 | From Midwest | Registered: Jun 2008
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Hoosiers51
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posted
Bump....
What do you guys think? This is really bothering me. I have other stuff I have to do this morning, but I just can't get my mind off this...
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map1131
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posted
I just find this whole Dr J thing so sad. So sad. I wonder what the 4 yrs suspended license truly means. I know he must have another MD watch over his practice?
When is they lyme attack going to stop?
Pam
-------------------- "Never, never, never, never, never give up" Winston Churchill Posts: 6478 | From Louisville, Ky | Registered: Jan 2002
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Starfall1969
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posted
It'll stop when every one of the powers that be who are against it actually contract lyme--chronic lyme--and have to deal with it firsthand.
When it it hits you or someone you love and you see how real it is, then you can't deny it anymore.
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seekhelp
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They want this man's head on a stake. Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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daisyrlb
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posted
The battle is raging and lives are at stake. Continue to pray!
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gwb
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Starfall1969: It'll stop when every one of the powers that be who are against it actually contract lyme--chronic lyme--and have to deal with it firsthand.
When it it hits you or someone you love and you see how real it is, then you can't deny it anymore.
What Starfall1969 said--so true. No other way. Sad.
Hoosiers51
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Member # 15759
posted
This upsets me on so many levels.
I know I'm going to sound whiny here. But I just gotta get this off my chest.
First of all, of course we wouldn't have this problem if it wasn't for the IDSA guidelines. That goes without saying.
Secondly, I wish more LLMD's would treat children. Why did it have to get to this point, where Dr. J became the only one doing this, and thus he has a huge target on his back?
And also, didn't he know treating patients sight unseen could result in legal issues? I realize he is very busy and elderly....so couldn't someone on his staff have said, "hey, this might open you up to a lawsuit."
For example, my parents own a business and property that many people use. My husband gets on them all the time about potential lawsuits, saying, "hey, if someone trips on that, you guys could get sued and get shut down" etc. So I am sympathethic to the whole issue. But I just feel like someone should have been watching Dr. J's back like that, so that this situation wouldn't have come about. In a way, it makes me angry.
Honestly, I feel bad for him. He is just so over-worked, without enough support.
I'm not trying to blame anyone specifically, it's just that I'm so upset with how things are, so devastated that there are so many children that might not get treatment. The whole thing is stupid and sad, the lawsuits, the witch hunt, etc.
Maybe I'm just having a bad day. Maybe I'm looking at the negative. I know how many people have come together to raise money for his legal defense. I'm sure his lawyers are doing everything they can.
It is a bad situation to be in, first off. I guess I was thinking that all the support from our community and all the money donated could just make this problem go away. With the appeal, maybe that will still happen. Let's hope.
In the meantime, my heart is just breaking for him, and for the children. I'm sure he was only trying to help people that needed it. Dr. J is definitely a victim of having too big of a heart.
A part of me worries though that this isn't just about chronic Lyme. I worry that he actually did break rules he shouldn't have broken (treating patients over the phone without an exam). But I'm not saying it's HIS fault! I'm just saying that if we had more doctors that treated these children, he wouldn't be in that situation, where he had to choose between breaking rules and giving children treatment.
I'm just upset about the bigger picture here, and that Dr. J has ended up as the victim of this problem.
Posts: 4590 | From Midwest | Registered: Jun 2008
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sometimesdilly
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posted
Hi Hoose-
I doubt this will make you feel better about what's happening to Dr. J, but maybe it'll help ease your mind a bit about his actual situation.
If you read through even just the summaries of what has happened before the Board, you will see for yourself that Dr. J has not and does not break the "rules" of professional and ethical practice of medicine.
Dr. J is not being persecuted because he ever broke any such rule.
He is being persecuted because he refuses to allow the CT Board or the IDSA to dictate to him the type of treatment and the length of treatment he is allowed to provide his patients. Period. That's it.
The reason Dr. J. can't agree, in case its not already crystal clear, is that for him to to agree to limit treatment is to condemn the babies and children who come to him to life-destroying chronic Lyme and co-infections.
I imagine most doctors, especially if they had practiced beyond normal retirement age, would have simply closed down their practices and walked away, and who could blame them?
Dr. J can't. I have spoken with him face to face many times about just this and I can tell you for a fact that he can't walk away because he knows that too many children will suffer if he did.
No matter what the personal cost is to him at every level, he will not allow that suffering to happen simply to save himself. .
If you've read anything about Dr. J's past you know that his decision to stay and fight is entirely consistent with how he has always led his life: with enormous courage, heart, compassion, and a willingness to take a stand against what is wrong, no matter what.
The ceaseless campaign to destroy Dr. J is vicious, morally repugnant and plain old fashioned wrong. Dr. J is not a "victim," though, if that word is being used to suggest he has no control over any part of what is happening.
It is precisely Dr. J's willingness to continue fighting that makes him so unusual and admirable, and it is because he keeps fighting that so many of our children continue to be treated, including my own, THANK GOD.
Feel bad, then get MAD and help him in any way you can, even if that is simply sending him a card to tell him he is appreciated.
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Never Never Never Give Up! Why is that plaque on Dr. Jones' desk? Why does he continue to fight these ridiculous charges,costing him thous & thous of dollars? Why has he chosen to continuing treating kids when he could have retired many years ago? Why, because Dr. Jones' is a man of character. A man who once marched with MLK believes in standing up for what is right. He knows he is helping these kids while a few powerful IDSA docs with conflict of interest and have been investigated by the Attorney General have convinced the mainstream doctors that long term antibiotics are not recommended.Well, Dr. Jones has seen and helped the sick children from those recommendations. Does your child's ped has enough time to research every disease? No, they will look up the generally accepted guidelines or send you to an Infections Disease Doc, who will look them up, the guidelines written by the IDSA and follow them. They don't know that the screening test recommended is > 40 years old, was know to be unreliable when first introduced, but was used because at the time there weren't any other tests. This is the test the IDSA insists your doctor use first and if your child tests negative, they don't get the second test, which is a bit more reliable. Screening tests are supposed to be at least 95% reliable.
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Tincup
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posted
Hooz said... "And also, didn't he know treating patients sight unseen could result in legal issues?"
A hiker was coming around a winding path and happened on a lake.
There in the middle was a child who was floundering around and calling for help.
To get to the child to save him, the hiker had to pass by a HUGE official government sign that said...
posted
The treating kids with ABX sight unseen thing............Oh pa-leezzzzz...........z half of all pediatricians should be hauled up in front of a board. I can't count the times our doc called in a script for abx on a friday afternoon to ward off a Mom (that's me) diagnosed ear infection for a toddler. It happens all the time.
Posts: 554 | From Naples, Italy | Registered: Jun 2006
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sometimesdilly
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posted
amen, sojourner.
Adding that what does NOT happen all the time is charges being brought against a doc who looks at a patient's history and consults with that patient's existing docs before writing any such script and who sees the patient and subsequently gets him/her WELL.
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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sparkle7
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posted
They are just using him to make an example to other doctors...
For whatever reason - some people who are in control want people ill with Lyme to be sick. There is very little awareness about the whole situation of Lyme - not to mention the co-infections. Everything from testing to drugs to insurance to disability to awareness, etc. with Lyme is a big joke.
Not for us who are suffering, though... It's an outrage but what can be done about it? The protests, petitions, websites, non-profits, etc. don't seem to do much... Most of the doctors don't know what to do, either.
Someone once said to me - "the fish stinks from the head". Something is not right when it comes to Lyme disease.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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-------------------- Mom to a 5 year old lymie.... Taking it one day at a time. Posts: 182 | From Ipswich, MA | Registered: Jul 2008
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sometimesdilly
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posted
Song-
Please tell the good doctor when you see him that many LNetters are thinking about him and wishing him well.
Hoping for better health soon for your precious child--
hugs, dilly
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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Hoosiers51
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posted
Thanks guys.
Can anyone clarify about the article I posted though? Is he still able to practice, just with restrictions? The article sounded very dire, and I don't understand what they were saying the immediate consequences of the decision from Tuesday are, if any.
Just to clarify, of course I think it's a MORAL IMPERATIVE to treat ANY child that needs help, whether over the phone or not. TC, I hope you don't think I'm confused about the concept of breaking a rule to save a child's life!
The point I am trying to make (if any) is that I'm upset it has come to this kind of a situation. I think we all are.
Posts: 4590 | From Midwest | Registered: Jun 2008
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sometimesdilly
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posted
Hoose- yes, he can still practice.
BTW, I don't agree with TC;s analogy, precisely because of the inevitable conclusion you drew from it, which is that Dr. J. is under attack because he broke a "rule," however justifiably so.
Sorry, but no, nothing I have read or heard directly from him or anyone else supports that view.
A more accurate analogy would be that a hiker saw a drowning child and dove into save her despite a large sign, paid for by deep-pocketed private interests, which said:
"ANYONE DIVING INTO THIS WATER FOR ANY PURPOSE-- INCLUDING TO SAVE THE LIFE OF ONE CHILD OR OF MANY CHILDREN-- WILL BE PROSECUTED BY THOSE OF US WHO BELIEVE THAT DIVING INTO THIS WATER SHOULD BE PROHIBITED IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, JUST BECAUSE WE SAY SO."
the hiker who dives in anyway isn't breaking a rule, he is ignoring threats by bullies and doing what is right.
three cheers for the hiker.
Posts: 2507 | From lost in the maze | Registered: Aug 2006
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Tincup
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Hooze said.. "TC, I hope you don't think I'm confused about the concept of breaking a rule to save a child's life!"
Oh no, absolutely not. I wouldn't think that. I don't believe I know of anyone who would let the child drown.
In MY opinion, Dr. Jones did what was needed to help a child... many children in fact... despite the IDSA and CT DOH garbage, and he did the right thing (the ONLY choice) and he is taking heat for it.
In MY opinion, he is not sorry for doing what he does ... nor would I be if I were in his shoes. I applaud him for his efforts to put a child's welfare above the insanity inflicted on us all by the IDSA.
If needed, I would do what needed to be done again and again, just like he does. And if it were me I would NOT stop because of those butt heads at the CT DOH and the IDSA... and in my opinion, he won't either.
Bless him Lord, for he is taking a stand against the wrongs in the world.
Wrong is wrong is wrong.
You do NOT allow children or any humans to suffer if you can help it.
Where would we be as a nation if we didn't have activists and people doing what was right back in the days of slavery and the Underground Railroad?
Eventually the laws and rules were changed and today we no longer need to smuggle slaves north from home to home to escape brutality.
The IDSA is, in my opinion, responsible for some horrid work resulting in some horrid policies that promote a decline in a person's health that can lead to disability and death.
The CT DOH, in partnership with the IDSA, is guilty of purposely inflicting a brutal punishment on those who do not abide by those horrid policies/recommendations.
The laws/rules will change some day if we all work to make them change... just like what happened with slavery.
Till then we should be thankful we have folks who will open their hearts and arms to help others and who would break rules if needed to prevent suffering ... like Dr. Jones would do.
To note- I am NOT saying Dr. Jones did anything wrong. He is accused of it and that is what I am addressing here.
Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
Even having the IDSA guideline writers come down with Chronic Lyme wouldn't change their minds. (Although I've often said that someone needs to plant ticks on their chairs!).
But they, meaning Steere, Wormser, et al, know the truth perfectly well about the persistence of Lyme. Their own prior research shows it repeatedly. Their research is right there for all to see on PubMed. They aren't interested in the truth or the well-being of other people. They are interested in their owm bottom line.
That is, their Lyme vaccines they are working on, their patented Lyme tests, and their work for insurance companies. It's not that they are ignorant. Oh, no. Wish it were that simple even.
Go to LymeCryme.org (I think it's .org). It's all listed there. Dr. P has often listed all their research showing the persistence of Lyme.
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I have other stuff I have to do this morning, but I just can't get my mind off this...
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