posted by Kyle on Aug 14
I will be voting “Yes” on I-1000, an initiative to legalize Physician-assisted suicide in Washington State.
This is a very important issue to me, because I have seen and will continue to see many many individuals die horrible deaths. There is no reason for them to suffer in the way that they do.
posted by Kyle on Aug 13
Dear Mr. Rossi,
Thank you for kindly communicating with Washington State Ron Paul supporters. I am pleased that you recognize and appreciate the tremendous efforts of so many individuals who have worked tirelessly to restore liberty to America. Those of us truly dedicated to liberty were united in this cause not by a man, nor a speech, nor political issues, but by one single fundamental issue: man’s right to his own life. Some believe that this right is derived from the will of God. Others understand that this right exists ontologically within the very concept of man, and is a direct correlate of his capacity to reason. The protection of man’s natural rights was, and is, the aim of this movement.
I am afraid, Mr. Rossi, that you do not understand the philosophical basis of freedom. Many, in fact most, of your positions are good ones. They are consistent with our political goals. Even some of your rhetoric sounds oddly familiar. I have no evidence to suggest that you are an insincere man, but I remain deeply troubled.
In your email to Ron Paul supporters on 2 August 2008, in response to a question about abortion, you state,
I also oppose assisted suicide. In my own life I have seen loved ones struggle with the infirmities that accompany age and illness. My mother battled and eventually succumbed to breast cancer, but both she and our family valued every moment that we were able to spend together until the end.
This is troubling for a number of reasons, all of which I will address. First is your conflation of abortion and physician assisted suicide, which indicates that you do not possess a deep philosophical understanding of either issue. Second is the implicit expression of your willingness to employ the force of the state for purposes which are unrelated to the protection of individual rights. Indeed, you express willingness to violate those very rights. Third is your implicit assumption that your personal preferences as informed by your life experiences ought to be held by everyone, and that it is acceptable to bludgeon with the coercive force of government those who choose what you would not. Finally, the profound obscenity of the natural conclusion of your position is viscerally disturbing.
You bring up the issue of assisted suicide in response to a question about abortion, as though these two issues are related. They are entirely separate issues with no common characteristics. While it is irrational to ascribe rights to a fetus, it is understandable, and opposition to abortion can be consistent with a political philosophy of individual liberty. If you believe that a fetus has a soul, and further believe that God has endowed said fetus with natural rights, you would be a traitor to your own beliefs if you did not consider abortion to be murder. The basis of your position, however, must be rights and the violation thereof. Physician-assisted suicide is not an issue of individual rights, nor is it an issue of their violation. If you cannot see that there is a profound difference between the aggressive termination of an innocent life and the administration of lethal pharmacological agents to a patient who has given informed consent, I would respectfully suggest that you seriously evaluate your philosophical premises and thought process.
Individuals who embrace the ideas of human liberty understand the rational purpose of government: the protection of individual rights against aggressors. To allow government to step beyond this very limited purpose is dangerous and reckless. Once the door is open, it can be (and experience has shown that it is) very difficult to close. If I gain control of the power of the state, and use it for an unintended purpose, no matter how noble I may consider that purpose, I am assured that he who gains control next will use it for his purposes, and so too will the next, ad nauseum, until all that is left is the deflowered and disgraced corpse of civilization. Government, Mr. Rossi, is dangerous. I am not sure that you fully appreciate that danger.
You cite your experience with your mother as justification for your position. This could be valid, at least somewhat, if you were discussing your own wishes for the end of your own life. This argument is rubbish when applied to other individuals. Your mother suffered from breast cancer; not everyone dies of breast cancer. There are more nasty ways to die than there are visible stars in the sky, and you cannot account for each of those circumstances. Moreover, you cannot account for individual differences, such as how a patient may tolerate pain or analgesics. You cannot form a valid universal value judgment from the evidence you present, let alone a law.
The obscene consequences of your statement are by far the most personally disturbing. In my 23 years, Mr. Rossi, I have seen more people suffer and die than you ever will. I volunteered in an African hospital where I held the hands of children as they died, abandoned by everyone else—even their parents. As a medical student, I regularly see terminal patients. While you may have some romantic view of heroic suffering, the reality is that dying is a horrible process. I have seen people slowly drown in their own blood, I’ve seen people suffocated by tumors, and I’ve seen people put through such intense agony that a lethal dose of morphine could not ease their pain. Speaking to these people, and those around them, I learned that the pain isn’t the worst part of dying; it’s the indignity. Patients lose urinary and fecal continence, they aspirate their own vomit and cannot even feed themselves. While you may not make an issue of your opposition to physician-assisted suicide, the very fact that, given the opportunity, you would deny these people—real people, with real families, real pain and real indignity—their only chance at escape from this agony is reprehensible.
Suppose, for a moment, that I were to obtain a patient’s informed consent, and assist them in the termination of their life. Would you put me in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, Mr. Rossi? This is a very real dilemma for me: do I end the suffering and indignity of a patient and spend ten years locked up like a beast? Or do I stand idly by while my patient begs for death, because there is nothing I can do to relieve their suffering? Which would you have me do, Mr. Rossi? Do you possess the moral certainty and expert knowledge necessary to make such a decision, or would you rather sit as a spectator and send coy emails to your supporters bragging about your religious beliefs?
There are only two possible conclusions: either you have not thoroughly considered your political positions, or you are a cruel and vicious ideologue whose perverted perception of reality leads him to force others to suffer in unimaginable ways. In either case, I cannot and will not support your bid for Governor of the State of Washington.
With Sincere Regards,
Kyle B. Varner
MD Candidate
American University of Antigua College of Medicine
posted by Kyle on Jul 27
Prescriptions—who needs ‘em?
There is something really cool about living in a third world country. The government usually isn’t strong enough to enforce a bunch of petty regulations. They haven’t got the money and they haven’t got the motivation. This can lead to a lot of convenience.
When I was living in Belize, I had food poisoning a couple of times (that is also a perk of the third world). It was easy enough to get rid of. Two tablets of Cipro and I was good to go. No problem.
Antigua, it seems, is not such a nice place with regards to that. Pharmacies here actually want prescriptions. This is more than mildly annoying, especially since it is harder than hard to get in to see a doctor.
There is a medication that I take on a regular basis, and I’ve run out. My refill will arrive from the United States sometime this week, but until then, I’m stuck. There isn’t any of this particular medication available on this island, but there is an unpurified form. It isn’t ideal, but I can make do for a week on it. I went to the pharmacy and asked for it, and was told I need a prescription. Why? That is indeed a very good question.
It is a very good question not only because this medication is harmless and I only want a supply for one week, but it is just an all-around good question. Why must I go to a doctor, sit in the waiting room and then pay $100 to get him to jot down the drug I want? If I know what I need, I should just be able to go to the pharmacy and buy it.
Noooooooo, scream so many ill-advised individuals. Some of those drugs are dangerous! You might know what you need, but most people are dumb!
So what? Dumb people do all sorts of dumb things that screw up their lives. They drink too much, they spend their money on frivolous things, they have unprotected sex, they share needles. Then, they live with or die by the consequences.
While some people may want to enact laws to protect stupid people from themselves, reality dictates that this is impossible. No law that congress passes will make people smart. They will never be able to stop people from ruining their lives and killing themselves. Everyone knows this.
So, why do I need a prescription?
Throughout most of the world, medicine is an organized cartel. Physicians and their (soon, our) ilk have banded together and lobbied governments to require them. They may claim that it is all about safety, but anyone with half and ounce of critical thinking ability knows this isn’t the case. Its about money. If people can’t get the drugs they need without going to see a physician, they’ll come to the physician’s office, and pay him a nice fee to jot some stuff down on a piece of paper.
This is not what physicians are for! We’re not here to be nannies and keep people from hurting themselves. People will still go to doctors, but instead of going just to get a script, they’ll go when they’re actually sick. Chances are, they’ll not have to endure monumental waits, and they may very well pay lower prices due to a new supply-demand dynamic.
Oh well, we must all sacrifice so that the dumb don’t overdose….
posted by Kyle on Jul 8
I could write 100 posts with this same title. Holberton Hospital (St. John’s, Antigua) is the most disgusting excuse for a hospital that I have ever seen. I really mean that, and I have seen a lot of really bad third world hospitals. Public Hospitals in Ghana (where I volunteered two summers ago), a nation with a per capita income of just over $500 per year, had higher standards of care than this place!
Why? Because, with very few exceptions, the staff doesn’t care one bit about how they do their jobs or the welfare of their patients.
A couple of weeks ago, a call went out on the radio all over Antigua pleading for blood for a patient at Holberton. Apparently, they were out of blood and this patient was critical. Given that I have O- blood, and hadn’t donated for three months, and was completely well, I decided to set aside my studies and go there and donate blood. I filled out the form, and the “nurse” reviewed it, got a worried look on her face, and knocked on the door of a doctor. He looked at my form and concluded that I was an unsuitable donor. I walked into his office to speak to him.
According to him, because I take lexapro, I am an unsuitable blood donor. I asked him, in the most polite fashion, why that is (all the while knowing that he is wrong). He tried to feed me a line about the fact that he didn’t know whether they’d be giving the patient whole blood or plasma. This is, of course, irrelevant. I proceeded to ask him a very pointed question:
Do you know what Lexapro is?
He gave me a blank stare, and then told me that his is a pathologist, not a clinician. When I opened my mouth to say something else, he waved me off with his hand. So, I left.
There was a man, in critical need of blood, and this doctor turned away a willing and suitable donor because he didn’t know what Lexapro is. He could have, of course, opened a book, or typed in a search on google. He could have even asked me to BRING him a textbook from the medical school library so he could verify that I am a suitable donor. Instead, he waved me off, more interested in whatever else he was doing (or, more likely, not doing) than obtaining blood for a critical patient.
I don’t know of a even single first year medical student who doesn’t know what Lexapro is. It is an incredibly common drug. There are references made to it in movies (i.e. sideways). I’ll give him a pass, though, since he is a pathologist and he practices in a country where the only people who take it are expats who would, in the face of an MI, go to the airport instead of his hospital.
What I cannot set aside, is the fact that he was unwilling to look it up. This wasn’t just some routine donation while they had a full blood bank. The blood bank didn’t have any of this guy’s blood type! I don’t know what happened to this patient. I hope that they found another suitable donor in time, but that is by no means guaranteed. This doctor’s unwillingness to spend five minutes looking up a drug could have cost a patient his life. That is disgusting. That is Holberton.
posted by Kyle on Jul 7
There is a brouhaha of sorts taking place in Washington. The American Medical Association is pushing for a Senate vote to reverse Medicare cuts that went into effect on July 1st. The gist of their argument is this: physicians are struggling, and you’re going to make them stop taking Medicare payments! This means they’re going to stop seeing Medicare patients! The sky is about to fall!!!!
I contend that the sky has been falling for a long while. Medicare has been imploding. Why? It is the very nature of government to make something as inefficient and worthless as possible. Doctors are finding that treating Medicare patients costs them money, and they’re not accepting those patients. Imagine that! With the cuts taking place, fewer doctors will see those patients. The New York Times discusses one such case:
Dr. Gerald E. Harmon, a family doctor in Pawleys Island, S.C., said he decided last week that he would not take new Medicare patients “until further notice.”
“This is not what we enjoy doing,” says a notice in his waiting room. “It is what we must do to maintain financial viability.”
Perhaps you believe that senior citizens, poor folks, and those with chronic renal disease possess a God-given right to health care. Perhaps you believe that their shortcomings amount to a virtue. If you hold this erroneous belief, then you believe implicitly that others have a moral obligation to provide it to them. If this is the case, why are you so worried about what physicians get paid? Surely they are selfless creatures who will work day and night to look after the wretched masses. That’s their moral obligation, right? Work hard in school, work insane hours in residency, and be a slave to society. Sounds like a fair bargain to me!
In any case, if you believe that people have some right to health care, then it shouldn’t matter to you how much doctors get paid to treat these people, because ultimately, they are the only ones able to provide the care. You have the need, and therefore doctors have the moral obligation to fulfill it. Done!
What this means is that if you hold this belief, you must logically conclude that this amounts to doctors trying to play a guilt trip on America so they can make more money. I would readily agree with you in that respect: the AMA, and the doctors for whom they speak, are begging for money. They look and sound a little better than that annoying guy who bothers me in the grocery store parking lot, but they’re begging. I am not in medical school so I can become a beggar. I don’t study for 10 hours per day and ace my exams so that I can get on television and beg a bunch of corrupt politicians to keep sending me stolen money. This sort of conduct is unbecoming of a physician. To the AMA and their members, I say: stand up and stop acting like children. You have no right to be paid by taxpayers, and your patients have no right to demand your care unless you voluntarily agree to provide it.
As I said in the beginning of this post: the sky is falling on medicare. Doctors are opting out, and people on the dole are having a hard time getting their health care for free. I think that this is a good thing. Medicare is a flawed program. On practical grounds it is flawed because of the regulatory nightmare that it creates. On moral grounds, medicare is flawed because it is a distribution of stolen money.
If you think this is moral, then you must logically believe that in five or six years, when I have a medical license, you have every right to put a gun to my head and make me perform medical procedures on anyone and everyone. The only recourse that I would have, according to this flawed position, is to go to congress and beg them to pay me (by means of the forceful expropriation of money from others).
If these cuts remain in effect, and further cuts are implemented down the road, it will only accelerate the inevitable: Medicare, like Ted Kennedy, has a glioblastoma. They’re both dying, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it. Congress has no more power to pass a law keeping Ted Kennedy alive than it does to save Medicare from its inevitable demise.
Medicare is going to die slowly. Lines at the offices of those who do accept Medicare are going to get longer and longer, and pretty soon you’re going to find people looking for other ways to get care. They might even choose the moral option; they might decide to pay for it! As people begin nearing the age of retirement, they’ll probably realize that they don’t want to be trapped in this debacle. They’ll probably start saving and buying private insurance for their golden years.
The gluttons feeding at the trough will indeed suffer when no one comes to fill it for them. They’ll figure out a way to survive, though, and others will learn that the taxpayer trough isn’t an attractive place. Medicare will collapse, with or without these cuts. These cuts will accelerate the collapse, and I, for one, am happy to see it take place.
As a side note: The Happy Hospitalist has an interesting perspective on this subject.
posted by Kyle on Feb 22
Calm down, people. I am not going to be crippled for life.
Here is a little update: a lot of the generalized pain is gone, and the right shoulder is much much better. However, there are some specific areas of pain, especially on my left shoulder. The pain in radiating down my left clavicle, and down the anterior of my left arm to within a couple of inches of the antecubital region. If this isn’t significantly improved within the next week or so, I will have to go for an MRI scan. Suffice it to say, though, that I am a lot more comfortable than I was a couple of days ago.
Here is the medical report from Dr. Singh, the orthopedic surgeon who initially treated me, and with whom I will follow up:
This is to certify that Kyle Varner reported to Adelin Medical Centre on 19th February, 2008 when he gave us the history of sustaining injury to his both shoulders while restraining his friend on account of his suicidal tendency.
On examination young healthy male with stable cardio pulmonary status no abnormal abdominal or neurological symptoms were met with.
In examination of his skeleto muscular system confined to his both shoulder he had classical clinical symptoms of post traumatic impingement syndrome for which he was given treatment on conservative lines and was advised to come for clinical follow-up at Ortho Medical Associates. If symptoms persist I will recommend him to have a MR scan done to review soft tissue status of rotator cuff.
I will Kyle good clinical and functional recovery.
So there you have it. I’m healthy and I will recover well.
posted by Kyle on Feb 20
A good friend of mine went off the deep end a few nights ago and became suicidal. While trying to restrain this friend, I sustained bilateral rotator cuff injuries. I saw the top orthopedic surgeon on the island, and he says that I should recover without surgery. The specific injuries that he was able to discover without the help of an MRI are partial ruptures to the acromioclavicular ligament and the supraspinatus tendon. There are probably other injuries, but no way to know without an MRI.
Short story: I’m in lots of pain and as a result have limited use of my arms. But, I will be fine.
If there is no significant improvement within a week I will go for an MRI. But don’t worry, no matter what happens I’ll be OK and I’ll stay in school.
posted by Kyle on Sep 1
No, I haven’t. I’m sure that someone will soon suggest that I watch it. Here is why I haven’t done so yet:
posted by Kyle on Sep 1
Socialized Health Care proposals scare the hell out of me. I am about to start medical school.
When I have a medical license, I will not practice in any state or country that has a socialized health care system. I will not accept medicare, medicaid or any government subsidized insurance. Those who are dependent upon such things will be welcome as patients, and I will reduce my fees to an affordable rate, but I will not participate in an immoral and deadly system. As a patient, I won’t allow government to be involved in my treatment. Why would I allow it as a doctor?
Check out this video. Yeah, you socialists thought Canada was soooo compassionate!
posted by Kyle on Aug 2
This is a really fascinating story. Essentially, there was a brain injured patient who had been in a minimally conscious state for the past six years. The man was the unfortunate victim of an assault which led to severe brain damage.
Essentially, doctors put a wire deep into his brain and sent electrical impulses into his brain on and off for around six months. The result: he can speak a little bit (he was even able to recite half of the pledge of allegiance).
This offers a great deal of promise to many other patients also suffering from serious brain injuries. Unfortunately, this patient will not be recovering fully, but, as his mother said,
Now, my son can eat, express himself and let us know if he is in pain. He enjoys a qualify of life we never thought possible
Modern medicine is pretty cool. Wanna see how a deep brain stimulator works? Check out this video!
Here are some news articles about this case:
Brain-Injured Man Speaks After 6 Years
Brain-Injured Man ‘Jump Started’ Awake
So, go and read these articles. They’re pretty cool. I’m going to do some more reading about deep brain stimulation, and try to write a little more about it on this blog.