Category: health

Thank yous

From the care I received at Grove City Medical Center’s Emergency Room to the heart care and recovery at Butler (PA) Health System, I have a lot of people to thank for my current positive recovery from open heart surgery.

Small town ERs sometimes get criticism but, in my case, the GCMC team performed extremely well. Then, my primary care physician and friend Ed Smith bypassed the  oft-recommended stress test and went right to the heart catheterization. I was then transferred to Butler Health Systems for that procedure. Dr. Sunder Rao performed the test and found three blockages of 80-90%. There is no fixing such a problem other than triple bypass surgery. The surgical team of Dr. Antonio Sortino did the procedure. I am now being followed by Dr. Samer Azouz’s who has a well earned reputation as a fine cardiologist.  The care I received at the Butler hospital was outstanding. I am thankful for all of these physicians, nurses, therapists, aides, etc.

There is more commentary I could make on health care in the U.S. but I will save that for later. I still need some distance and time to reflect on the situation.  It has only been two weeks since the ordeal began.

I am so indebted to my friends and family. If I can do it, I want to write something more about my family in a future post. I will just say that I have been thinking a lot about what the term “pro-family” means. As I look at my family, I can’t think of a bunch who is more pro-family than the Throckmorton clan, even though some of us would not be considered pro-family by culture warriors.

And again to those who read about my situation, thanks for your prayers and good thoughts.

The American College of Pediatricians versus the American Academy of Pediatrics: Who leads and who follows?

Just for fun, let’s compare the American College of Pediatricians with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In August, David Barton and Rick Green at Wallbuilders said the ACP is the leading association of pediatricians in the nation. Even after their error was pointed out by the AAP and a reader of this blog, Rick Green said yesterday on air that the AAP “has more members and has been around a little longer” but both Barton and Green stuck by the story that the ACP was the leading group. However, ACP’s own comparison demonstrates significant differences between the two organizations. The following chart comes from the ACP website:

Note that the ACP does not provide Continuing Medical Education or a professional journal. Access to other professional programs (Red Book, Prep program) is offered via higher fees, but the AAP or affiliated groups actually provide the services. In other words, if there was no AAP, there would be no continuing education or professional publications.
A hallmark of a profession is the provision of training, certification, and continuing education. The ACP does not none of this independently. The ACP has been around since 2002 and the AAP since 1937. Annually, the AAP spends millions on professional publications and continuing education; the ACP receipts in 2008 were less than $60,000.  The AAP has over 60,000 members, the ACP about 200.
Specialty groups have a long history in the professions and they can have a place, but it is not in the lead. If the ACP disappeared, members of the group would probably miss it, but nothing would change about pediatrics as a medical specialty. The ACP relies on the AAP for the CMEs and research information required to stay in practice.
Who is leading and who is following?
Additional information about gender identity issues and ACPed:
ACPed leaves out crucial information on gender dysphoria
Interview with Kenneth Zucker on gender identity issues
Common sense on gender identity dysphoria
Interview with mother of child with gender dysphoria
ACPed removes member who called for gender disorder treatment

Chronic mental illness requires policy changes

Read this article, just out on the USA Today website for some insight into why the nation’s mental health policy is broken.

As we have seen, such concerns are not solely health related but security related as well. Sadly, “pro-family” organizations opposed efforts, eventually successful, to require health insurance coverage to include rational benefits for mental health care. We need to do much more to secure a safe and reasonable national policy.

Some folks just shouldn’t have guns

This Reuters’ analysis raises some excellent policy questions regarding gun posession and schizophrenia.

There are complications of course in the implementation of any policy, but I would like to see public policy reflect public safety over individual rights to own a firearm. 

Passage of that bill to strengthen the background check system was prompted when a deranged gunman killed himself and 32 others in April 2007 at Virginia Tech University — the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

It turned out that the Virginia Tech shooter, university student Seung-Hui Cho, had been judged an “imminent danger” to himself and others. But that court finding was not submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Since the 2008 measure to bolster the system became law, the number of records entered in the FBI registry of people deemed by courts to be dangerously mentally ill has more than doubled to about 1 million.

But that tally is still less than half of the total number of people — over 2 million — estimated to have been so adjudicated in the United States, the Brady Campaign says.

Arizona, for example, has submitted more than 4,400 names of persons ineligible to buy guns due to mental illness since 2008, a fraction of the nearly 122,000 estimated to have been officially judged dangerously mentally ill in the state since 1989, according to figures compiled by the Brady Campaign.

Fallout from the Arizona shooting

Most people commenting on the Arizona shooting are speculating about motive, the role of public discourse on the shooter, and the shooter’s mental health.  I confess my bias from the start – from what I have read, the shooter Jared Loughner sounds like he is paranoid schizophrenic. Of course, I am not engaging in a formal diagnosis since I have no direct data. However, the signs are certainly suggestive.

What is bound to happen for some time to come is the blaming of the event on ideology. The left seems to be pulling out Sarah Palin’s use of bullseyes on Giffords district and the right is doing the same – apparently some disgruntled far left people also know how to use bullseyes. For some reason, The Daily Kos removed a post which had some very disturbing things to say about Rep. Giffords.

In any case, my personal view is that efforts to locate this horrible act in ideology is a mistake. As with other shootings, I think mental illness is underestimated by policy makers. Apparently there were warning signs which were “handled” but were not addressed in any meaningful way. The curent laws do not allow for a long term response to signs of instability, but rather on short term detention for people who might seem to be a danger to themselves or others.

The right and left will blame each side for the tragedy, but I hope at some point we will come together and look at the need for a more comprehensive policy relating to the treatment of severe mental illness and the long term treatment needs of those afflicted.