Alternative Doctor

Years ago, I went through a TERRIBLE divorce experience. Looking back, I think I was mentally ill for many years. It didn’t seem that way, but I do remember colleagues kept calling me and saying “Are you SURE you’re OK?” They knew I wasn’t. Things seemed to go through many stages: the classic denial and so forth. There was a period of a year or two when I would have had her back on ANY terms (wouldn’t have solved much, though!) Then there was a period of several more years where I would have had her back on negotiated terms. Eventually, I’m glad to say, I found the real love of my life: Vivien. I’m now actually glad it all happened.

Years ago, I went through a TERRIBLE divorce experience. Looking back, I think I was mentally ill for many years. It didn’t seem that way, but I do remember colleagues kept calling me and saying “Are you SURE you’re OK?” They knew I wasn’t. Things seemed to go through many stages: the classic denial and so forth. There was a period of a year or two when I would have had her back on ANY terms (wouldn’t have solved much, though!) Then there was a period of several more years where I would have had her back on negotiated terms. Eventually, I’m glad to say, I found the real love of my life: Vivien. I’m now actually glad it all happened.

We look back at leeches and scoff (medical leeches have made a comeback, by the way). But maggots? Are they kidding? Maggots was one of the most revolting sexually transmitted diseases I met during my time as House Surgeon (man and woman both flyblown and infested—we never could decide who gave who the problem). But […]

We look back at leeches and scoff (medical leeches have made a comeback, by the way). But maggots? Are they kidding? Maggots was one of the most revolting sexually transmitted diseases I met during my time as House Surgeon (man and woman both flyblown and infested—we never could decide who gave who the problem). But […] The post Maggot therapy. Are you kidding me? appeared first on Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby.

You may not be aware of the furore that has broken out in Sweden over the fact that a convicted murderer was granted permission to enter medical school and study. The guy has had various aliases, so the story is difficult to follow. But—bottom line—he was admitted to a medical school at one of the greatest institutes in the world. The Karolinska Institute. Then the story broke and the Institute (which I hold in the highest regard) was really embarrassed. The trouble was that it was not easy to get rid of him! Sweden is a civilized country which holds the basic premise that once a criminal has served time, he’s paid his debt and there is nothing further that he need fear. This is in complete contrast to the USA, which has a cruel and inhuman view that once a guy gets out of jail, after serving time, then the punishment starts. He can be hounded, abused, persecuted and generally hurt in ways which are reminiscent of the behavior of vicious and crude school children. But the question is raised: should anyone who has ever taken life be allowed to the (supposedly) hallowed ranks of a healer? I think not. I think VEHEMENTLY not. We can treat him with courtesy and regard but that doesn’t mean we have no boundaries. No-one who has stooped to murder can ever claim to be pro life, pro love, pro healing and a pastoral counselor. Look, I know people change, people reform. But THERE IS A LINE. There must be a line… Only a fool would not take into account that criminals who go to jail, often to NOT reform. Anyway, the Karolinska was lucky and finally got rid of him on the grounds that he had falsified his high school records. But then he was admitted to a second well-known medical school — Uppsala, Sweden’s oldest university. He was using a false name, of course, which is how he got past the admissions board. Nobody asked him about the gap in his CV, which covered the years he was in jail [he didn’t mention it, so he is an untrustworthy liar too]. But once the truth is out, what are the authorities to do? Last week, Uppsala officials, responding to concerns about the murderer’s admission, said he had not participated in class work, but did not say why. In another embarrassing twist, a Swedish newspaper reported that much of the verdict and court files regarding Bjorn Soderberg, the murder victim, had been cut out or replaced with blank pages. The police said they had been unable to find a culprit. Does that mean the killer had an accomplice within the system? And in still another case, a 24-year-old medical student at Lund University was convicted last April of raping a 14-year-old boy while he slept. A district court sentenced the student to two years in prison, but a higher court reduced the sentence to two years’ probation and medical therapy. When the dean at Lund sought to expel the student, a national board that reviews expulsions blocked the action, saying that although the man had committed a serious crime, he was not considered a threat to people or property. The decision was then reversed by an administrative court, which upheld the expulsion; the student did not appeal.

You may not be aware of the furore that has broken out in Sweden over the fact that a convicted murderer was granted permission to enter medical school and study. The guy has had various aliases, so the story is difficult to follow. But—bottom line—he was admitted to a medical school at one of the greatest institutes in the world. The Karolinska Institute. Then the story broke and the Institute (which I hold in the highest regard) was really embarrassed. The trouble was that it was not easy to get rid of him! Sweden is a civilized country which holds the basic premise that once a criminal has served time, he’s paid his debt and there is nothing further that he need fear. This is in complete contrast to the USA, which has a cruel and inhuman view that once a guy gets out of jail, after serving time, then the punishment starts. He can be hounded, abused, persecuted and generally hurt in ways which are reminiscent of the behavior of vicious and crude school children. But the question is raised: should anyone who has ever taken life be allowed to the (supposedly) hallowed ranks of a healer? I think not. I think VEHEMENTLY not. We can treat him with courtesy and regard but that doesn’t mean we have no boundaries. No-one who has stooped to murder can ever claim to be pro life, pro love, pro healing and a pastoral counselor. Look, I know people change, people reform. But THERE IS A LINE. There must be a line… Only a fool would not take into account that criminals who go to jail, often to NOT reform. Anyway, the Karolinska was lucky and finally got rid of him on the grounds that he had falsified his high school records. But then he was admitted to a second well-known medical school — Uppsala, Sweden’s oldest university. He was using a false name, of course, which is how he got past the admissions board. Nobody asked him about the gap in his CV, which covered the years he was in jail [he didn’t mention it, so he is an untrustworthy liar too]. But once the truth is out, what are the authorities to do? Last week, Uppsala officials, responding to concerns about the murderer’s admission, said he had not participated in class work, but did not say why. In another embarrassing twist, a Swedish newspaper reported that much of the verdict and court files regarding Bjorn Soderberg, the murder victim, had been cut out or replaced with blank pages. The police said they had been unable to find a culprit. Does that mean the killer had an accomplice within the system? And in still another case, a 24-year-old medical student at Lund University was convicted last April of raping a 14-year-old boy while he slept. A district court sentenced the student to two years in prison, but a higher court reduced the sentence to two years’ probation and medical therapy. When the dean at Lund sought to expel the student, a national board that reviews expulsions blocked the action, saying that although the man had committed a serious crime, he was not considered a threat to people or property. The decision was then reversed by an administrative court, which upheld the expulsion; the student did not appeal.

I love mussels (and oysters); give me a glass of champagne and a dozen Pacifics or West of Ireland Browns and I’m in Stone Age heaven (Oh yes, there were fermented fruits in Stone Age times, didn’t you know that?) So I’m right along there with Nature! Her bounties spread beyond the table. It turns out that mussels are the latest surgical breakthrough (I love amazing things!) Current sutures are non-biological and can cause complications such as discomfort, infection and inflammation. Synthetic adhesives might have been a way round this but they are somewhat toxic and environmentally unfriendly. But bio and eco-friendly adhesives — that’s a different matter altogether. Here come the mussels.

I love mussels (and oysters); give me a glass of champagne and a dozen Pacifics or West of Ireland Browns and I’m in Stone Age heaven (Oh yes, there were fermented fruits in Stone Age times, didn’t you know that?) So I’m right along there with Nature! Her bounties spread beyond the table. It turns out that mussels are the latest surgical breakthrough (I love amazing things!) Current sutures are non-biological and can cause complications such as discomfort, infection and inflammation. Synthetic adhesives might have been a way round this but they are somewhat toxic and environmentally unfriendly. But bio and eco-friendly adhesives — that’s a different matter altogether. Here come the mussels.

Last night my wife and I watched a TV film in the great British detective series “Midsomer Murders”. It stars John Nettles as Detective Inspector Tom Barnaby, has fabulous creepy music each episode and makes an English village seem a very dangerous place to live. They are now up to the 12th season and there have been several hundred people bumped off in this fictional, snoozy corner of England!! Anyway, the episode we watched concerned a series of strange deaths in an old folk’s home. It turned out there were no villains and all the deaths were eventually explained by natural causes—except one! I won’t worry about spoiling and tell you that a kind-hearted woman suffocated her relative, because the old girl is riddled with cancer and the doctors had pronounced she has only two months to live. Well, you know what I think about that folly. doctors-must-stop-giving-death-sentences But the final moments were given over to speculating whether it was really murder, to put someone out of their suffering. Inspector Barnaby seems to almost sympathize with the murderer at the close. Of course this was only fiction, so such debates can take place a grassroots level. There are two important qualifiers to the discussion, neither of which were brought up by the script writers:

Last night my wife and I watched a TV film in the great British detective series “Midsomer Murders”. It stars John Nettles as Detective Inspector Tom Barnaby, has fabulous creepy music each episode and makes an English village seem a very dangerous place to live. They are now up to the 12th season and there have been several hundred people bumped off in this fictional, snoozy corner of England!! Anyway, the episode we watched concerned a series of strange deaths in an old folk’s home. It turned out there were no villains and all the deaths were eventually explained by natural causes—except one! I won’t worry about spoiling and tell you that a kind-hearted woman suffocated her relative, because the old girl is riddled with cancer and the doctors had pronounced she has only two months to live. Well, you know what I think about that folly. doctors-must-stop-giving-death-sentences But the final moments were given over to speculating whether it was really murder, to put someone out of their suffering. Inspector Barnaby seems to almost sympathize with the murderer at the close. Of course this was only fiction, so such debates can take place a grassroots level. There are two important qualifiers to the discussion, neither of which were brought up by the script writers:

If you haven’t heard already, you will soon come across a new anti-cancer therapy called Kanglaite. It’s manufactured in China and is pushed by incredible hype and fanfares as a “proven” and “miracle” cure. But we’ve been there before, haven’t we? When commercial interests get on the bandwagon, the inconvenient matter of truth and integrity suddenly gets lost in all the brouhaha. So what are the facts? Kanglaite was developed by a pharmacist, Li Dapeng. It is made from a plant called Job’s tears, a relative of maize. We might think of it as “Chinese pearl barley”. The botanical name, for those interested, is Coix lachryma-jobi. Its Chinese name, yi-yi-jen, or yi-mi (in southeast China) is the same as that used for barley, or yang-yi-mi, ‘yang’ meaning ‘foreign’, or ‘across the ocean’. Yi-mi is used in soups and gruel and is a common ingredient in many Chinese traditional herbal medicines for treating a variety of ailments including cancer. It has also been widely used as a diuretic, analgesic and antispasmodic agent. No one knows exactly how Kanglaite works, but the drug has been taken by more than 270,000 patients in some 2,000 hospitals in China, and has proven effective against malignant tumors such as carcinomas in the lung, liver, stomach and breast. So far so good.

If you haven’t heard already, you will soon come across a new anti-cancer therapy called Kanglaite. It’s manufactured in China and is pushed by incredible hype and fanfares as a “proven” and “miracle” cure. But we’ve been there before, haven’t we? When commercial interests get on the bandwagon, the inconvenient matter of truth and integrity suddenly gets lost in all the brouhaha. So what are the facts? Kanglaite was developed by a pharmacist, Li Dapeng. It is made from a plant called Job’s tears, a relative of maize. We might think of it as “Chinese pearl barley”. The botanical name, for those interested, is Coix lachryma-jobi. Its Chinese name, yi-yi-jen, or yi-mi (in southeast China) is the same as that used for barley, or yang-yi-mi, ‘yang’ meaning ‘foreign’, or ‘across the ocean’. Yi-mi is used in soups and gruel and is a common ingredient in many Chinese traditional herbal medicines for treating a variety of ailments including cancer. It has also been widely used as a diuretic, analgesic and antispasmodic agent. No one knows exactly how Kanglaite works, but the drug has been taken by more than 270,000 patients in some 2,000 hospitals in China, and has proven effective against malignant tumors such as carcinomas in the lung, liver, stomach and breast. So far so good.