Malpractice

Nurse Operates, Doctor Accused

From Barcelona Spain comes an interesting little story about a nurse who was allowed by a leading ophthalmologist in the city to perform surgeries. The accusations stem mainly from account of the male nurse performing cataract removal surgeries on patients. This story was reported in the British Medical Journal. The author went on to report that this case was similar to one in Britain where a nursing sister was disciplined for taking out a patient's appendix.

"Wait Doctor I'm Still Alive, Don't Kill Me!"

More than 10,000 people of the Netherlands are saying this by carrying what they call "Declaration of Life" cards or anti-euthanasia "passports". It seems the public is becoming scared of over enthusiastic doctors who are increasingly practicing "non-voluntary" euthanasia thus ending seriously ill patient's lives without their approval. This fear is based on good reason, according to the most recent survey of Dutch physicians conducted by their government, 23 percent of the doctors said they had ended a patient's life without his or her explicit request.

More than 60% of orthodox medical treatment not scientific.

In a June 6, 1998 article printed in the British Medical Journal Dr. Iain Chalmers admitted this interesting item as part of an article where he was criticizing what he considered a "double standard" in reviewing procedures of orthodox medicine to what the article called "alternative medicine". Dr. Chalmers was writing about a subject that we chiropractors have known about for some time. Occasionally an article appears that tries to criticize chiropractic by falsely saying it is not scientific. In reality chiropractic has as much, or in some instances more science behind the things we say than does the medical approach to health care treatment by drugs or surgery.

Tragic Story of Child Killed at Birth Raises Questions

(Reader beware, the following story is both tragic and disturbing.) In the Thursday October 10, 1998 issue of the Jerusalem Post appeared a story with the following headline: "Police probe baby's decapitation at birth." This chilling story is about a child who was decapitated during birth while the doctors were using the help of a suction devise now more widely used in the birth process. The death occurred when the child's wide shoulders became stuck and the delivery team pulled hard on the infant's head and caused the head to separate from the body. The Hospital director, Dr. Oscar Embon said the staff was "very experienced". He went on to comment, "The delivery was going as it should and the team saw no reason to perform a Caesarean section before the tragedy occurred."

This chilling story is an extreme example of a situation chiropractors have been warning about for a long time called Traumatic Birth Syndrome, (TBS). Many chiropractors advise parents that children should be check at birth for vertebral subluxations caused from a "normal birth" process. Chiropractors report that they regularly care for children with birth subluxations that would have had a large impact on the child's health and quality of life. Although the tragedy as reported above is rare, according to many chiropractors, trauma from birth causing neurological problems from subluxations is not so rare at all. Many authorities now recommend children receive a chiropractic spinal check up as soon as possible after birth to lessen the effects from Traumatic Birth Syndrome and Subluxation.