The National Hockey League (NHL) continues to put making money over player safety in stonewalling over the growing number [...]]]>

Effects of CTE on the brain

Normal brain on the left, brain of NFL player John Grimsley in the middle, and a boxer on the right. The two right images show the dark tau staining brain matter seen in CTE.

The National Hockey League (NHL) continues to put making money over player safety in stonewalling over the growing number of cases of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in NHL hockey players related to blows to the head with sticks or bare knuckle fist-fights amongst the players. In some sort of barbaric ritual, “enforcers” shed their gloves and have at it on the ice, delivering pounding blows to the head, which over the course of a career contribute to multiple concussions and the development of CTE, a brain disorder characterized by multiple small lesions on autopsy that stain positive for tau protein, with chronic headache, mental depression, and neurocognitive abnormalities, that can progress even after the end of an athletic career. I have previously written about the tragic cases of Wade Belak and Derek Boogard, two Canadian hockey players who succumbed to suicide and drug overdose last year, in the context of CTE.

Wade Belak

The NFL had to come to grips with CTE in its retired players, with multiple cases of chronic depression and some suicides, but the NHL head Gary Bettman continues to put his head in the sand. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University has demonstrated CTE related to sports injuries and has recently published and reviewed a total of 48 cases (you can read their scientific publication here). Bettman and his poodle dog Ruben Echemendia, PhD, a neuropsychologist and advisor to the NHL, continue to say more research is needed and there isn’t enough evidence to provide a link between fighting in hockey. This is all BS of course, just throwing out the “more research is needed” mantra when the overwhelming number of experts in the field, who actually do research in the field, like those at Boston University, unlike Echemendia, who is not an active researcher in the area and is not even affiliated with a university, have already said there is ample evidence that hits to the head cause brain damage in hockey players. This is especially the case when such a dire outcome as tossing the lives away of the players is at stake. Bettman and Echemendia should hang their heads in shame at their behavior of putting profits over health, and the poor example they set for all of the junior hockey players who are risking their brain health by engaging in violent contact.

Below is the press release from Advocates for Responsible [...]]]>

Protest against death sentence for Grady dialysis patients in Atlanta, GA

After two years Grady Hospital has refused to renew the contract with Fresenius for the dialysis care that the Grady patients with renal failure need to stay alive. Please sign this petition and call your senator or representative to protest this injustice and inhumanity.

Below is the press release from Advocates for Responsible Care.

I already have serious heart complications. Without dialysis I am a ticking bomb.
-Reina, Grady Dialysis Patient, ARxC member

Atlanta, Georgia –September 3, 2011 at 8:30AM, twelve (12) ARxC Dialysis patients were refused emergency dialysis treatment from the Grady Hospital System (GHS). Grady Emergency Room staff took blood pressure readings, blood tests and told the twelve (12) patients they would not receive dialysis. GHS sent them home. The patients attempted to state their symptoms and impress the urgency they felt struggling without dialysis treatment. GHS staff directed the patients to return to the ER only if their symptoms worsened. One patient, despite his blood pressure being elevated was sent home. Another patient was told to go to another hospital ER but not GHS. ARxC believes each patient is facing impending danger today and their threat of medical jeopardy is obvious.

Five (5) of the 22 ARxC patients were hospitalized before today. With out explanation, three (3) of the ARxC patients are receiving temporary one month dialysis treatment extensions by Fresenius. One patient is staying with his family and could not get transportation to GHS. Two (2) patients did not go to GHS.

Each day the patients must assess their symptoms and decide if it is worth the pain and humiliation of going to GHS Emergency Room. These patients cannot wait any longer for treatment without the consequence of permanent injury or death. ARxC and its supporters are asking our physicians, community leaders and elected officials to ask these two large corporations, GHS and Fresenius, “Why are you waiting? End this torture. Give the patients dialysis so they will not die while efforts proceed to reach a long term solution!”

In this article they write about how there are 348 physicians in the US [...]]]> There is a new series of investigative journalism pieces from ProPublica about payments by pharmaceutical companies to physicians as well as a widget you can use to look up your own doctor to see if they are on the payroll.

In this article they write about how there are 348 physicians in the US who make over $100,000 per year giving lectures for drug companies, and that many of them lack board certification or have undergone various disciplinary actions. The picture shows that most do not have academic credentials or research backgrounds, and in some cases are working primarily as hired guns to promote the company’s viewpoint. Obviously the drug companies want academics from prestigious schools to be their pitchmen, but when push comes to shove, they will take someone who will pitch their products over someone who is going to give a balanced view.
And the public doesn’t like it. A poll by Consumer Reports found that 74% of Americans think it is a problem when doctors get paid by drug companies, 70% think that doctors should make those payments known, and 69% feel that drug companies have too much influence.
The solution, of course, would be to make doctors pay for their own education, the way lawyers or journalists do. If some corporation provided “free education” to journalists, given by other journalists on their payroll, and they actively added or dropped speakers based on whether or not they were getting across their “message”, wouldn’t we be outraged?

During one of the orientation sessions a parent asked about what happened if their kid developed a mental health issue. I mean, that’s something to be concerned about if [...]]]> This weekend we took our daughter to the University of Chicago for orientation for her first year of college (sob!).

During one of the orientation sessions a parent asked about what happened if their kid developed a mental health issue. I mean, that’s something to be concerned about if you send your kid of on their own, right? One of the deans replied that because of HIPAA (meaning the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) they couldn’t release medical information to parents without the signed consent of the students. When I raised my hand and challenged the statement that HIPAA precluded healthcare providers from discussing medical information with families, she told me in essence to go argue with the university lawyers.

The statement that you cannot talk to family members is a common falsehood that is frequently disseminated (see here for the real rules). This is a pet peeve of mine, using HIPAA as an excuse for all kinds of ridiculous behaviors. I have the feeling that there are a lot of mental health consumers out there who are penalized by health care providers who use HIPAA as an excuse to ignore families. I think she was confusing administrators talking to families from the counselors talking to families, but who knows what the “laywers” are telling people.

After August 31, 2010, thirty three (33) uninsured End-Stage-Renal Disease patients of Grady Memorial Hospital will no longer receive their life-sustaining dialysis treatments.

- In September 2009, Grady Memorial Hospital closed its outpatient dialysis clinic. At that time the thirty three (33) uninsured patients, [...]]]>

Protest against death sentence for Grady dialysis patients in Atlanta, GA

After August 31, 2010, thirty three (33) uninsured End-Stage-Renal Disease patients of Grady Memorial Hospital will no longer receive their life-sustaining dialysis treatments.

- In September 2009, Grady Memorial Hospital closed its outpatient dialysis clinic. At that time the thirty three (33) uninsured patients, most of whom are immigrants, were promised dialysis for one year from Fresenius dialysis facilities as specified in the Grady Memorial Hospital – Fresenius contract.

- On August 31, 2010 the Grady Memorial Hospital – Fresenius contract expires.

- To date, no alternative source of dialysis treatment has been made available to the remaining thirty-three patients.

- The patients will die within weeks of the August 31st deadline if they are not provided with ongoing dialysis treatment.

As advocates for human life, please sign the petition below to encourage the private dialysis providers of Atlanta, Georgia, to supply the 33 indigent patients of Grady Memorial Hospital with life saving dialysis care.

Here are some facebook groups you can join to keep abreast of the issue.

Protest the Grady Dialysis Cuts

Protest Grady Hospital’s Sentence of Death for Dialysis Patients.

Advocates for Responsible Care – Group

Read all posts about the Grady dialysis situation here.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5