Luke

My wife and I adopted a Haitian boy last year. We named him Luke and we think he is about four years old. We brought him to the United States in February, 2007.

This post will be added to as the days and weeks roll by regarding Luke's medical saga at OSF in Peoria.

Several months ago Luke developed a medical problem. He has gross hematuria which means he is passing blood in his urine.

We did some blood tests at a local lab that is run by a lady named Joyce Harmon. After Joyce would take Luke's blood, she would kiss him, to help melt away his pain and trauma that he felt he did not deserve. Joyce charges very little for her blood tests and her lab is more a labor of love than a way for her to make any real money.

Other than the blood in his urine, Luke's blood tests were normal.

At that point, we decided to do a sonogram of Luke's kidneys. The sonogram was done at OSF in Peoria and OSF charged us $700.00 dollars for this test. The radiology group read his sono for no fee.

The sono revealed that Luke has kidney stones in his right kidney with an obstruction somewhere in his collecting system.

Several weeks later, Luke had his appointment with a pediatric urologist in Peoria who is very competent and we trust.

More tests were ordered.

On June 7, 2007 we received a letter from OSF-SFMC that stated, "As a service to you we have verified your insurance coverage; however, verification of benefits is not a guarantee of payment by your insurance company that all services rendered will be covered. Based upon this verification, your estimate/deposit for this visit will be $875.00 due upon registratiion. Your payment options are credit card, cash, or personal check."

What the above means, is that OSF-SFMC wants their money as soon as possible. The $875.00 is for a lasix radionuclide scan of Luke's kidney. Like the kidney sonography bill of $700.00, these bills are not covered by our insurance and do not come off our deductible.

So I spoke with the pediatric urology office and we cancelled the lasix radionuclide scan.

On Friday, June 15, Luke is scheduled to have a cystoscopy with retrograde pyelograms performed under a general anesthesia as an outpatient at OSF.

Patient Accounts at OSF called my wife today and stated that OSF charges for the cystoscopy will be $4,598.00 and the charges for the retrograde pyelogram (squirting some dye up the ureters during the cystoscopy), will be $4,903.00. These tests should take between 30-45 minutes in the operating room.

The pediatric urology fees and anesthesiology fees are unknown at this time.

After we meet our deductible of $2,500.00 and add $1,000.00 more, Blue Cross/Blue Shield will cover the rest...we think. OSF advised my wife today to bring $1,600.00 cash on Friday morning at 7 AM to get things started off on the right foot for OSF, the Catholic medical center with a "commitment to life".

OSF's Commitment to Life?

My wife was being cared for by an OSF health care provider last fall. E-mails between the OSF provider and my wife were blocked. They could not communicate with each other over medical issues while we were in Haiti.

The OSF provider was stunned to realize this especially when we did a “test run” to see if we received each other’s e mails. No e-mails were received by either party when sent through the OSF account.

What can this OSF provider do? Nothing if this individual wants to keep her job.

It seems that both my wife’s account and my account to OSF and from OSF employees to us have been blocked by OSF. Dr. Gerry McShane indicated this as I posted in the past. Dr. McShane told me last spring that he was not receiving my e-mails.

I have sent e-mails to OSF Corporate and to OSF's Administrative team and legal counsel pleading for the lives of Haitian Heart's children to allow them to return to OSF for further care.

I do not believe that Dr. McShane and others want other members of Corporate or any OSF employee seeing the content of my electronic communication.

Our four year old son will soon have surgery at OSF. Will the e-mails continue to be blocked by OSF regarding my son’s medical care too? The physician who will operate our son works out of OSF-Children’s Hospital of Illinois.

The Value Statements at OSF are being ignored. Statement number four, “Collaboration with each other, with physicians, and with other providers to deliver comprehensive, integrated and quality health care. Statement number seven, “Open and honest communication to foster trust relationships among ourselves and with those we serve.”

OSF’s hypocrisy regarding its Value Statements is not ethical and could indeed be dangerous.

Milestone for Generosity?

A Milestone for Generosity
Friday, June 8, 2007

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center's plan to improve care for its youngest patients seems to have touched the community. Donations are pouring in by the millions.
First came CEFCU, which in February pledged $1 million toward a new pediatric emergency department for the Children's Hospital of Illinois.

In April came $500,000 from Lynn and Susan McPheeters to help fund construction of the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. Lynn McPheeters, whose daughters were born at St. Francis, is a former president of the hospital's foundation council.

Then RLI Corp. founder Jerry Stephens and his wife, Helen, donated $5 million for the neonatal ICU. Stephens told reporters he had long admired the standard of care at St. Francis. He also revealed that his only brother had died from spinal meningitis and he hoped to spare other families such grief.

All of this generosity is remarkable, especially since OSF isn't running a public campaign for its "Milestone Project" - a $234 million, eight-story building going up at its Downtown campus. In addition to the Children's Hospital, that building will have ground-floor space for Peoria's St. Jude cancer clinic affiliate, to be named after longtime St. Jude crusader and former Peoria Mayor Jim Maloof.

Perhaps local folks just have a soft spot for children, whom nobody wants to see suffer from treatable diseases.

Perhaps it's because Peorians feel that OSF's project, along with a $350 million makeover of Methodist Medical Center, will solidify the city's reputation as downstate's premier medical community. Or perhaps it's simply because people recognize that extraordinary beneficence has a way of paying its own, intangible rewards.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



There are 4 comments:

John A. Carroll, MD – Peoria, Illinois
June 09, 2007 - 22:49
Subject: Peoria's Medical Mafia

The Journal Star editorial reports the millions of dollars given to OSF from people in the area. Their generosity is inspiring.

However, will the funds be put to the best possible use by OSF? Will OSF Corporate and OSF-SFMC Administration follow the founding Sisters mission philosophy?

Probably not.

Haitian Hearts donated over 1.1 million dollars to Children’s Hospital of Illinois over the years for inpatient care for Haitian children. Our patients that were operated at OSF several years ago have been rejected at OSF for repeat heart surgery with full and partial charges offered for their care. Two have died. More will die soon unless OSF follows their mission statements.

There is significant fear in the Peoria community by individuals and institutions. To criticize OSF in a public forum with one’s name attached is not what people usually want to do. An individual contributor to OSF, one that OSF has privately courted for years, implied to me that she feared for her medical safety if she was publicly critical of OSF. (She has chronic medical problems.) This individual has strong reservations about OSF’s current leadership but is afraid to say so. Her fear really says something significant about OSF and would sadden the Sisters.

Also, the Journal Star and the Catholic Post have not reported OSF’s negligence of dying Haitian children and the obscene discrimination leveled against these children. The coverage of OSF’s 500 million dollar expansion and creation of jobs for the Peoria area has been more important to these two newspapers for reasons that are apparent to anyone who lives in central Illinois.

John A. Carroll, MD

Woodford Pundit
June 08, 2007 - 17:36
Subject: All right . . .
Now that we've vented our hatred . . .

Cudos to JMD
June 08, 2007 - 09:49
Subject:
The good sisters of the third order are the crookedest bunch of "well you know what" that ever predatated in the business world.

They do NO charity. They will demand others "share the wealth" as they refer to it. If you cannot tell I know what nuns are REALLY like.

jmd
June 08, 2007 - 08:42
Subject:
If they really cared about patient care - they would drop their vastly inflated pricing schedule.

Cardiac Arrest and Peoria

In March 2007, Mickey Eisenberg, MD, PhD wrote an article “Improving Survival from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Back to the Basics”. It was published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

The article states:

“A 2005 study by Rea et al summarized the cardiac arrest experience of 35 communities, representing 9% of the US population. Overall, the discharge survival rate for all cardiac arrests was 8.4%, and for ventricular fibrillation, 17.7%. Using these figures and projecting to the entire US population, the study estimated that 13,000 Americans are discharged every year after cardiac arrest. The 35 communities reported a range of discharge survival rates from ventricular fibrillation of 3.3% to 40.5%, a 12-fold difference.”

I wonder what Peoria’s “numbers” are? How does Peoria do compared to these 35 studied communities?

Several years ago, as documented on www.peoriasmedicalmafia.com, I was unable to access any statistics from the Peoria Area EMS office at OSF or from our local IDPH office. The Matrix study that looked at fire and prehospital care in Peoria (and charged the City of Peoria $79,000 for their consulting efforts) did not publish any statistics regarding how Peoria’s prehospital patients did after suffering cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation.

Interestingly, Dr. Eisenberg was a co-author of a paper published in Prehospital Emergency Care, October 2004. The title is “Time to Intubation and Survival in Prehospital Cardiac Arrest”.

Quoting from the article’s introduction:

“In this study, we measured the interval from collapse until intubation in cardiac arrest over a 12-year period and compared this variable with survival.

…a correlation between intubation and survival would be an additional argument that advanced life support systems employing paramedics can significantly reduce mortality over non-intubation systems, which are common. Our purpose was to examine whether shorter time from collapse until intubation is associated with greater survival in prehospital cardiac arrest.”

In Peoria, the Peoria Fire Department paramedics are not allowed to intubate a patient unless asked to do so by Advanced Medical Transport.

The results of Eisenberg’s study revealed that in the quick intubation group (intubation time <12 minutes), 46% of the patients survived; in the slow intubation group (intubation time >13 minutes), 23% of the patients survived.

The mean interval time from collapse to intubation in the “quick” intubation group was 10.0 +/- 1.7 minutes.

What would be the outcome if the intubation time could be decreased even more? Would there be more survivors? Eisenberg’s study and common sense would say yes.

But how will we know in Peoria where we don’t have access to statistics and the PFD’s hands are tied as they are unable to perform quick and possibly life saving intubation of Peoria’s prehospital cardiac arrest victims?

Peoria is Corrupt

The New England Journal of Medicine had an article this week regarding employing paramedics with advanced life support techniques for out-of-hospital patients suffering from respiratory distress.

The conclusion was that the rate of death among all patients (over 8,000 studied) decreased significantly from the basic-life-support phase to the advanced-life-support phase.

The study was performed in Canada and is part of the OPALS large multicenter clinical trial. The study was conducted in 15 cities in Ontario.

The advanced life support was given by primary care Paramedics who were trained to perform endotracheal intubation, insert IV lines, and administer IV medications.

Even though the Peoria Fire Department has Paramedics and Intermediates that are trained to do advanced life support, they are not allowed to use their skills unless Advanced Medical Transport in Peoria asks them for their help.

The study discusses the cost of training primary Paramedics to give advanced life support for patients in respiratory distress. In Peoria, we have Peoria Fire Department Paramedics that already are trained in these techniques.

An important issue in Peoria is the cost of pre hospital services versus the value of a human life. The study discusses the cost of training primary paramedics in Canada to give advanced life support for patients in respiratory distress. In Peoria, we have Peoria Fire Department Paramedics who are already trained in these techniques and, most of the time, are not allowed to use their skills.

With the conflict of interest in Peoria that gives the nod to Advanced Medical Transport, it is difficult for policy makers and physicians who control Emergency Medical Services to look at this issue objectively.

It is a shame that the Peoria Fire Department is not giving advanced life support to patients that call 9-1-1 with shortness of breath. The OPALS study indicates that advanced support for these patients may save their lives.

Mauricio

Dear Bishop Jenky and Sister Judith Ann,

Mauricio is a six month old Haitian baby with Tetrology of Fallot. I examined him two days ago in Port-au-Prince. He was born with four abnormalities of his heart which make it difficult for him to pump blood to his lungs. Most children in the developing world do not reach age 20 years with this congential problem.

Please contact as many medical centers that you can to help save his life. He needs surgery which can be done at a good pediatric children's hospital that performs cardiac surgery.

Haitian Hearts will bring him to the United States and back to Haiti when his recovery is complete. His Haitian parents will be very grateful.

Sincerely,

John

Hard to Believe

Health services eye Marshall County
Medically underserved area could receive clinic

Friday, May 11, 2007

BY GARY L. SMITH
OF THE JOURNAL STAR

LACON - Because Marshall County has been designated a medically underserved area, two organizations are looking into the possibility of establishing a community health clinic in the area, the County Board was told Thursday.

A Chicago-area organization and another from southern Illinois are thinking of trying to open a federally qualified health-care center that could serve uninsured and low-income people as well as other residents, said Gene Huber, director of finance for the Peoria City/County Health Department. Marshall County's department is also administered by the Peoria agency.

An operation of that type in the Peoria area, Heartland Health Care, has decided not to pursue one here because of "political reasons" arising from the January opening of a new Methodist Medical Group Family Practice clinic in Lacon, Huber said. That facility, which has a full-time physician and nurse practitioner, replaced one that had closed a year earlier in rented space.

"Methodist was not in favor" of a community clinic in Marshall County, Huber told the board.

The interested Chicago-area group is Aunt Martha's Healthcare Network, a not-for-profit organization providing health care and social services in eight collar counties. The identity of the other organization was not available.

The Peoria clinic "thought it was kind of stepping on toes" in Marshall County, Huber said, "whereas these outside entities are not worried about that."

The county's status as underserved, which is shared by many others, was last updated in September, according to a Web site of the Illinois Department of Public Health's Center for Rural Health. Brian Tun, director of health promotion for the Peoria Health Department, said later that it's not certain whether that could be affected by the Methodist clinic.

But Tun said the designation arises from consideration of many factors besides the number of physicians or other providers, including the population and geographic size of an area, and the distance people have to travel for care.


________________________________________

Haitians Don't Throw Fastballs

Since the beginning of this year, hundreds of Haitians have left Haiti in rickety boats. No one knows how many have drowned or have been eaten by sharks.

In April, 704 Haitian migrants were stopped by the Coast Guard and hundreds have been returned to Port-au-Prince.

Unlike their Cuban neighbors, Haitians don't usually vote Republican and Haitian fastballs are not near as accurate as Cuban baseball players throw.

The U.S. does not want Haitians here.

Addressing 1,200 mourners in an emotional and politically charged service in south Florida, the Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary eulogized Lifaite Lully, 24, who drowned trying to reach the U.S. in a boat carrying 102 Haitian refugees:

"We have come to mourn the death of hope. This young man was....in search of security and freedom and meaning in his life."

Bishop Jenky's Five Years

The Peoria Journal Star recently published an article on Bishop Daniel Jenky’s first five years as Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. Bishop Jenky declined to be interviewed for the article and would not allow other Diocesan officials to be interviewed. Fr. Mike Bliss, OSF chaplain, was picked by the Diocese to be quoted regarding the Bishop’s first five years.

Bishop Jenky is spiritual head of almost 200,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Peoria.

In his first five years the Journal listed Bishop Jenky's number one accomplishment was leading a successful capital campaign. 37 million dollars was raised by the Diocese. The majority of these funds are going to Catholic school scholarships and other educational efforts.

The Journal also stated that he has spearheaded plans for a new diocesan center near downtown Peoria. Bishop Jenky also refurbished the Cathedral and a photo shows the Bishop in the Chancery showing "Victorian steps, curving French Renaissance stairways and historic pieces".

Unfortunately, in 2003, Bishop Jenky gave into OSF, as OSF withdrew all support for Haitian children dying of heart disease. Haitian Hearts patients, that were treated at OSF in the past, have not been able to return to OSF, and some have died. Bishop Jenky could have helped find other medical centers to care for sick Haitian kids, but he did not. Based on my conversation with him, I think he is afraid of the power and wealth at OSF. It would be interesting to know how much OSF contributed to the Diocesan capital campaign.

I am sure Bishop Jenky has accomplished good things in his first five years in Peoria. However, advocating and supporting Haitian kids dying of heart disease is not one of them.

Physician-Industry Relationships

When Dr. George Hevesy was Project Medical Director at OSF, he was salaried by Advanced Medical Transport and OSF. Many in the central Illinois area considered this conflict of interest.

The New England Journal of Medicine (April 26, 2007) recently had an article titled Survey of Physician-Industry Relationships.

There are numerous "take-home" points from this article:

1. More than one-quarter of the physicians surveyed received payments for consulting, giving lectures, or enrolling patients in trials.

2. The possibility that companies may target opinion leaders for marketing is further suggested by the higher frequency of industry payments to physicians who have developed clinical practice guidelines and to those who have served as preceptors for doctors in training.

3. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America implemented a code of conduct. This code states that the interactions between company representatives and physicians should primarily benefit patients and enhance the practice of medicine.

4. ...the high prevalence of physician-industry relationships underscores the need to consider their implications carefully.

OSF's Charity Assistance Did Not Include Jean-Baptiste

The following is from the Children's Hospital of Illinois website. Jackson Jean- Baptiste was denied care at Children's Hospital.

Jackson is buried in Goodfield, Illinois.


Charity Assistance
(309) 686-6700
(800) 421-5700

Dear Patient:

The philosophy of OSF HealthCare is that all people have a right to receive needed health care. Our doors are open to persons of every faith and ethnic background regardless of their ability to pay.

We provide help to patients in obtaining payment from third parties such as Medicaid and Medicare. If you are eligible for Medicaid, and you are not currently signed up, we can help you apply.

We also offer charity assistance for medically necessary healthcare services to persons who meet our financial terms provided they submit the needed documents. OSF Charity Assistance may be applied for when there is a balance still due on an account after we have received payment from third party payers (like Medicaid, Medicare or an insurance company) and you feel you cannot pay the full balance.

The PDF form available through the link below must be completed and signed by you. We use income guidelines established by the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services to determine if you are eligible for charity care. We do verify assets regarding your eligibility. So, please provide all the information promptly so we may try to help you as quickly as possible.

For more information, please call your patient accounts representative between the hours of 8am and 4:30pm Monday through Friday at 309-686-6700 or 800-421-5700.

OSF HealthCare offers high quality healthcare and we were pleased to provide that to your family. We look forward to working with you further to make sure the financial aspects of your care are handled in the same high quality way.

Sincerely,
The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis

Click below to download or print the OSF Charity Assistance PDF form.

English Version
Spanish Version










-








-

Virginia Tech and Peoria's EMS

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Peoria Journal Star Editorial

Virginia Tech is known as a football and engineering school, but never have so many Monday-morning quarterbacks descended upon one institution to do so much reconstructing. The worst mass shooting murder in the nation's history was just a few hours old, but already the blame game was in full throttle, going something like this:

Tech administrators waited too long to notify students after the first pair of shooting victims at a college dormitory. They were wrong to view that initial incident as an isolated case of domestic violence. They should have locked down campus and canceled classes immediately. They should have evacuated all 26,000 students, 10,000 employees, thousands of visitors. E-mails were a poor way of communicating with students; they should have been notified of the danger by cell phone. All involved should resign.

This might not have happened at all if someone had intervened more forcefully with Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old South Korean identified as the shooter and described as "troubled" and a "loner." Perhaps the senior English major's professors should have done more than refer him to a counselor when they read some of his disturbing writings. Maybe his roommate should have seen this coming. Maybe his doctor should have red-flagged university officials, since Cho reportedly was on medication for depression. Maybe immigration officials never should have let his family into the country in the first place ... back in 1992. This just goes to show that it's too easy to get a gun in Virginia. This just goes to show it should be easier to get a gun in Virginia. We've just begun to mourn the 32 victims - we don't even know all their names - yet already there's talk of lawsuits.

No wonder VT Police Chief Wendell Flinchum seemed exasperated: "You can second-guess all day. We acted on the best information we had at the time." And maybe the critics should focus on the guy who pulled the trigger.

Virginia Tech officials and police were damned if they did and damned if they didn't Monday, which is why the only fair response to their decision-making was the one given by Bradley University Vice President Gary Anna on Tuesday: "It's too early" to say what lessons can be derived from this massacre.

Of course the Blacksburg, Va., situation has heightened awareness in Peoria, where Bradley has emergency protocols in place, said Anna. Those include general response parameters, but it still comes down to "a judgment call," because every case is unique, he said.

"It is just so unsettling because our young people are under a lot of pressure and it's just hard sometimes to anticipate what might trigger something like that," said Anna. Bradley would go on lockdown immediately "if we had a discharge of firearms in any part of the campus and had any reason to doubt whether or not the person had been apprehended," he said. "It's just not worth putting in harm's way an 18- to 22-year-old."

But Anna acknowledges that the dynamics are very different at BU's much more concentrated campus, home to approximately 6,000, mostly residential students compared to more than four times that number - including a significant percentage of commuters - at sprawling VT. BU officials are looking at some different form of alarm system beyond the standard emails or residence hall staff going door to door, perhaps using their electronic carillon system. Even then, there's no guarantee that college students "with their own sense of immunity" will listen, said Anna.

Bradley's full-time police force of some 15 members continues to do its job, but it's "not as if you can put an armed guard at every building entrance," he said.
Parents may not want to hear it - who can blame them? - but in fact all of us live with a degree of risk. While we can no longer say that slaughters such as these are incomprehensible, it's impossible to plan for every conceivable nightmare.

Our "monsters" don't necessarily look the part. It seems to be coded into America's DNA that we need answers to our tragedies now, cause and effect wrapped up neatly in a two-hour, made-for-TV movie. We may never know why.

What we do know is that there was heroism mixed in with the horrific in Blacksburg, and that we will learn from this, as we learned from Columbine, in time.

________________________________________

There is 1 comment
John A. Carroll, M.D.
April 18, 2007 - 12:07
Subject: Mass Casualty
The Journal Star editorial is asking: What can be learned from the disaster at Virginia Tech?

What if this massacre had occurred at Bradley University in Peoria?

Peoria’s EMS system would be inadequate to suddenly care for 48 injured people. The Peoria Fire Department is Basic Life Support-D with Basic drugs. They cannot provide paramedic service for Peoria. They have no ambulances and cannot transport patients. Transport may be the single most important issue with severe trauma.

Advanced Medical Transport is the only paramedic transport agency in Peoria. If they responded to a mass casualty who would cover the rest of Peoria for people that call 911 with significant medical emergencies?

Madame Therese

The lady in the photo holding the baby is Madame Therese. She remembers growing up in the Les Cayes area in southern Haiti. Her life was good.

Her family had a garden and they had enough to eat. They were happy. A bag of cement was not near as expensive as it is today.

She lives in Port-au-Prince now. She is afraid now. She was never afraid while she was growing up.

Notice her eyes are glistening. Madame Therese prays five times per day for her family and for Haiti. She still has hope for Haiti.

I believe the Madame Therese's of the world keep the world afloat. She is filled with faith. It is not the politicians or monsignors that are keeping Haiti from sinking into the ocean; it is Madame Therese.


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

"Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other poeple won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

"It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we uncounsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Marianne Williamson

Vicarious Grief

"According to Chochinov, there are a couple of catches to vicarious grief. The less the victims resemble us, the less grief we feel. And we don't seem to feel this grief as acutely for those who suffer from chronic problems, which often have their common denominator in poverty."

Maria King

Gorillas Receive Better Care than Haitians

Gorillas in Brookfield Zoo near Chicago receive much better care than most Haitians in Haiti.

First of all, the gorillas are fed every day. And they drink clean water. Gorillas don’t worry about when their next meal will be. On the contrary, the majority of Haitians are obsessed every day obtaining any food or clean water for their families.

Gorillas are moved between zoos in the United States for breeding purposes. We want to protect the future of their species. When Haitians flee the poverty in Haiti in pathetic boats and wash up on our shore, we return them to their island of misery. We don’t seem as concerned about their future.

When gorillas become ill, they receive much better medical care than the Haitians trapped in the slum or living in Haiti’s vast barren mountain ranges.

A gorilla named Chicory at the Brookfield Zoo displayed neurologic signs. An MRI was promptly done which revealed a large brain tumor on the right side. The brain tumor was removed and Chicory made a complete recovery.

When a poor Haitian gets a brain tumor, he doesn't get an MRI or surgery. He dies.

Heart disease affects many gorillas. The picture shows a gorilla's echocardiogram. Obtaining an echocardiogram and surgery for Haitian children dying of congential heart disease is much more difficult than it would be for a gorilla living near Chicago.

Maxime, Jackson, and Peoria's Makeover

Maxime, in front of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, December, 2006.

Haitian kids like Maxime and Jackson continue to die while Peoria will spend an estimated $850 million during the next 10 years to "makeover" their two main medical center campuses. The medical centers are located one block from each other.

See editoral in the Peoria Journal Star regarding this expansion. Also, note that no mention is made of Maxime or Jackson.

Justice and Injustice

Liberation theologists theory of justice begins from the experience of injustice. It is rooted in reflection on the dismal poverty that submerges the majority of Latin Americans in conditions of inhuman wretchedness.

“Justice, says Sobrino, takes seriously the primordial fact of the created world in its given form; that is to say, it takes seriously the existence of the oppressed majorities. The existence of these majorities is not a fact that can be lightly passed over in speaking of the essence of the Christian message.”

Likewise, Segundo Galilea asserts that the starting point of liberation theology’s reflection is the present situation, in which “the vast majority of Latin Americans live in a state of underdevelopment and unjust dependence.”

Justice, the liberationists insist, demands that conflict be brought into the open and faced, not subsumed or denied.

Justice demands that one enter the fray, that one enter into conflict and choose sides for some and against others. As Gutierrez observes, those who seek justice cannot avoid conflict because in a society scarred by injustice and the exploitation of one social class by another, the proclamation of justice will transform history into something challenging and conflictual.

Social conflict is a reality that the liberationists, as long as they do not avert their eyes from the misery and squalor that surrounds them, cannot escape.

However, when liberationists highlight the connection between the struggle for justice and social conflict, they are not blessing conflict. They do not believe that justice can come only at the point of a sword or through the barrel of a gun. On the contrary social conflict is ultimately the product of sin; it is the historical consequence of collective sin.

Humanity need not live in conflict; persons do not need to oppress their sisters and brothers. Conflict need not be sublimated or denied; it can be resolved. The resolution of social conflict, in fact, is precisely why the liberationists give conflict such a prominent position in their work. They seek to resolve it by uncovering and then eliminating the cause for the conflict, namely injustice.

From “Liberation Theology After the End of History—The Refusal to Cease Suffering” by Daniel M. Bell, Jr.

Haiti's Plague is Poverty

The Haitian baby to the right presented with seizures, fever, bulging tense fontanelle, primitive neurologic reflex at his right hand, and eye deviation to the right. He quickly became mottled and more lethargic. He was treated quickly with IM ceftriaxone and steroids. He was comatose for several days, but woke up and began interacting and eating. Most Haitian babies don't do this well with bacterial meningitis.

WHO estimates that about 1.6 million people, including up to 1 million children under 5 years old, die every year of pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. In populations with high child-mortality rates like Haiti, pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of mortality and accounts for about 20-25% of all child deaths. In these populations, Streptococcus pneumoniae is identified consistently as the leeading cause of bacterial pneumonia, and pneumoccal bacteremia is an important cause of child mortality. HIV infection increases risk for pneumococcal disease 20-40 fold, and antibiotic resistance makes threatment difficult and expensive. Thus pneumococcal idsease is a major global-health issue.

Haitian poor children are only given the standard vaccines. They do not get pneumococcal vaccines. If any group of children need the pneumoccal vaccines it is the Haitian children.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines can prevent most serious pneumoccal disease. The seven to 13 serotypes included in conjugate pneumoccal vaccines are expected to prevent 50-80% of all pediatric pneumococcal disease worldwide.

Also, the decline in disease in unvaccinated people is accounted for by the reduction in colonisation in vaccinated children and thus decreased transmission to unvaccinated contacts. In the USA, this herd immunity effect prevents twice as many cases as the direct effects of vaccination alone.

Based on studies done in Africa, there is a compelling case for giving pneumoccal vaccination in Haiti. Pneumococcal invasive disease, pneumonia, and meningitis, and a decrease in all cause mortality has been documented.

What are we waiting for?


"Many fledging moralists in those days were going about our town proclaiming that there was nothing to be done about it and we should bow to the inevitable. And Tarrou, Rieux, and their friends might give one answer or another, but its consclusion was always the same, their certitude that a fight must be put up, in this way or that, and there must be no bowing down. The essential thing was to save the greatest possible number of persons from dying and being doomed to unendng separation. And to do this there was only one resource: to fight the plague. There was nothing admirable about this attitude; it was merely logical."

---From The Plague, by Albert Camus

Peoria's Headlines

During the last several days, the headlines of several articles in the Peoria Journal Star have been about Peoria's medical center's expansions.

"Saint Francis Vision Goes Sky High"(March 31, 2007) is an article about OSF's Life Flight air transport using its new 4.3 million dollar helipad for patient transfers to St. Francis. OSF is planning on spending about $500 million dollars on building projects over the next several years.)

Another article the same day was headlined,"Methodist Unveils Vision for $350 Million Renovation". Methodist Medical Center is one block down the street from OSF. "You can't provide 21st century health care in early 20th century buildings," CEO Michael Bryant told the Downtown Rotary Club.

Today (April 3, 2007) a small article was titled, "101 Haitians Who Landed in Florida Likely to be Deported".

The article reported," The United States will probably deport most if not all of the 101 Haitian migrants who landed off a South florida beach last week, a U.S. legislator said Monday, warning other not to risk the dangerous voyage.

"The 101 Haitians, many looking gaunt and exhausted, came ashore Wednesday north of Miami after spending at least three weeks at sea in a dilapidated sailboat. One man died in the crossing and three were taken to the hospital in critical condition."

The articles in the Peoria paper describe the incredible wealth in our world and the incredible hopelessness in the other world.

I have stood on the beaches along the western and southern shores of Haiti and have shuddered at the thought of getting in a "dilapidated sailboat" and leaving. The waters crash into the shore and seem to say, "Don't even think about leaving here." But many courageous Haitians do. They think they have no choice.

We hear of the boat people that make it to our shores, but never hear of the ones that the ocean swallows and delivers them from their misery in Haiti.

The articles in the Peoria paper describe the incredible wealth in our world and the incredible hopelessness in the other world.

I have stood on the beaches along the western and southern shores of Haiti and have shuddered at the thought of getting in a "dilapidated sailboat" and leaving. The waters crash into the shore and seem to say, "Don't even think about leaving here." But many courageous Haitians do. They think they have no choice.

We hear of the boat people that make it to our shores, but never hear of the ones that the ocean swallows and delivers them from their misery in Haiti.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord make me
an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.
O divine Master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood,
As to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are
Born to eternal life.
Amen.

Just think if everyone who had any interaction with the Haitian people said this prayer each morning. It would render so much good will and positive actions. There would be so little time wasted with nonsense that keeps the people poor and voiceless. Haitian people would be educated, paid well, and could drink clean water. None of the gran mange anywhere in the world would suffer---they would benefit. The slums could be torn down and Haiti's "boat people" wouldn't want to leave the Pearl of the Antilles. Who would want to?

MINUSTAH could go home and the Diaspora could come back. And the streets of Port-au-Prince could be safely walked in at night.

Why is this so difficult?

A Deafening Cry

(Father Gerry Jean-Juste with parishoner at St. Clare's Church, Port-au-Prince, 2005.)

Perhaps the single most significant event to give impetus to the rise of liberation theology was the Second General conference of Latin American Bishops that met in August of 1968 in Medellin, Colombia. This meeting has been called the “Magna Carta” of liberation theology.

One of the documents on poverty from this conference, written by the bishops, stated the following:

“The Latin American bishops cannot remain indifferent in the face of the tremendous social injustices existent in Latin America, which keep the majority of our peoples in dismal poverty, which in many cases becomes inhuman wretchedness. A deafening cry pours from the throats of millions of men, asking their pastors for a liberation that reaches them from nowhere else.”

According to the documents from Medellin, the situation in Latin America was characterized by “institutionalized violence,” “unjust structures,” “internal colonialism,” and “external neocolonialism.” Together these amount to a “sinful situation” that leaves the Latin American countries dependent on the economic centers of power. In light of this situation, the bishops called for “ an all embracing, courageous, urgent, and profoundly renovating transformation.” The Church was called to “create an eminently Christian task.” The bishops commit the Church to a program of a “new society” in which the human person is “an agent of his own history.” The Church was encouraged to carry Christ’s message of liberation to the poor by becoming a poor Church, by being in solidatrity with the poor and giving “preference to the poorest and most needy sectors.”

In 1971 Gustaveo Gutierrez’s book was written. “A Theology of Liberation” remains the classic statement of the ecclesiological issues at stake in the rise of liberation theology. Critics charged that liberationists were guilty of reducing Christianity to a political ideology—in effect attending to this world while ignoring more “spiritual” concerns proper to the world to come.

Gutierrez wrote in an essay after publication of his book the following:

“One of the oldest themes in the theology of liberation is the totality and complexity of the liberation process. This theology conceives total liberation as a single process, within which it is necessary to distinguish different dimensions or levels: economic liberation, social liberation, political liberation, liberation of the human being from all manner of servitude, liberation from sin, communion with God as the ultimate basis of a human community of brothers and sisters.”

Jon Sobrino, a Jesuit priest in El Salvador, was recently criticized (2007) by the Vatican. Fr. Sobrino is a Spanish born priest and a well known proponent of liberation theology. The Vatican explained, “Father Sobrino manifests a preoccupation for the poor and the oppressed, particularly in Latin America. This preoccupation certainly is shared by the whole church.” The Vatican stated that the church cannot express its preferential option for the poor through “reductive sociological and ideological categories.”

Sobrino has written, “There is terrible injustice in today’s world, one which, slowly or quickly, brings the great majority of humanity closer to death. Justice and truth, therefore, are fundamental and urgent demands.”

According to liberationists, justice is the key concept for the Christian conscience of our day; the promotion of justice is the essential requirement of the Gospel message today. Gutierrez writes, “When justice does not exit, God is not known; God is absent.”

So maybe God IS absent in Haiti. Maybe God is not known here because there sure is very little justice in Haiti.

There also is little justice for Haiti’s Fr. Gerry Jean-Juste. The very priest who lived his life standing up for the poor, and feeding the poor in his parish, is in “exile” once again in Florida. His story is well known. Haiti and his parishioners really need him back.

The aging Latin American priests philosophy of preferential option for the poor wasn't wrong. It is the right and fair thing to do. But when the Jean-Justes of the world are terrorized and shackled and marginated and condemned of crimes they didn’t commit, the poor don't have any option. And when the Church leaders themselves don’t advocate for Jean-Juste, the injustice continues. Ignoring Jean-Juste is ignoring Haiti's "deafening cry" today.

Does this young boy pictured below, living with his family in rural Croix-du-Bouquets, look like he has many options?

(See "Liberation Theology After the End of History--The Refusal to Cease Suffering", by Daniel M. Bell, Jr.)

The First Class Parking Deck

The Peoria Journal Star had an article on March 21, 2007 regarding OSF’s new parking deck. It is an 1,800-spot visitor and patient parking deck. The article reports it is the largest parking deck in Peoria. The deck’s features will include valet service that includes free paring and shuttle cart transportation to the main buildings, as well as heated and air-conditioned stairwells.

The new parking deck costs $37 million dollars. This will accompany the Milestone Project which is OSF’s new 440,000 square foot expansion which will cost $234 million dollars. This Project will include an eight story building with a new Children’s Hospital, as well as an adult cardiac unit, and new emergency and surgery departments.

It is Peoria’s largest building venture ever.

Chris Lofgren, OSF’s spokesman stated, “One of our goals is to eventually have all private rooms." He also noted that OSF is one the verge of acquiring a FOURTH helicopter.

Now consider this:

1. OSF continues to reject former Haitian Hearts/OSF patients for surgery with partial or complete funds offered for their surgeries by Haitian Hearts.

2. Revenues for OSF are in excess of 1.5 billion dollars per year.

3. Revenues for the entire Republic of Haiti in 2003, with a population of 8.3 million people, was less than $300 million dollars.

4. There is approximately 1 physician/6000 people in Haiti’s rural areas. There is 1 physician/400 people in the United States. 40% of Haiti's population has no access to primary health care.

5. Haiti has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the western Hemisphere. Haiti is located 90 minutes from Miami by air.

6. 25% of Haitian children are chronically malnourished.

7. Only 50% of Haitian children are vaccinated with the standard vaccines.

8. 75% of births in Haiti are accompanied by non-qualified personnel.

9. There are many Haitian children born with congenital heart disease or who acquire rheumatic heart disease and need surgery. Cardiac surgery is not routinely done in Haiti and never done through the Haitian government for charges that the poor can afford. Serious heart disease in children and adults is virtually a death sentence.


The Journal Star article ended with Lofgren stating that while OSF works on its new project, visitors and patients can enjoy the new deck and its valet services.

“Because of the size of (the deck), it is the right thing to do,” Lofgren said beaming. “This is first class, all the way.”

John Carroll's Posts

In December, 2006, and January, 2007 I posted about 30 posts on a local blog in Peoria. I have compiled those posts and they can be found at John Carroll's Posts.

Most of the titles are highlighted and link back to the blog where comments follow the posts.

Peoria Heights Fire Department

The Journal Star published an article on the Peoria Heights Ambulance Service on February 7, 2007. It is worth reading to see what is left out.

Peoria Heights has decided to pay two EMT’s to staff their ambulance for 12 hours each day. They will continue their Basic care for the people of Peoria Heights rather than contract out to Advanced Medical Transport (AMT) for Paramedic care. AMT is the only Peoria based Paramedic and transport service and is strongly supported by Peoria’s three hospitals and Peoria Area EMS Service (PAEMSS).

Peoria Heights Village trustee Wayne Baum has argued for contracting with AMT. He stated that the difference between Basic care and Paramedic care is “tremendous”. Paramedic care (advanced life support) has been shown to save lives for people that call 911 with chest pain and shortness of breath. Mr. Baum also stated that there was conflict of interest involved with the vote in Peoria Heights because one of the trustees is a VOLUNTEER fire fighter for Peoria Heights.

To invoke conflict of interest here seems quite ironic. Mr. Baum’s connections with OSF, are well known, and OSF is AMT’s biggest supporter in Peoria. Also, the Peoria Fire Department (PFD) has remained mired at Basic and non transport for many years, while OSF’s Emergency Department Director and former Project Medical Director, Dr. George Hevesy, obtains a salary from AMT and OSF. The conflict of interest in Peoria regarding the highly lucrative ambulance business is significant and does not serve Peorians well.

In Peoria Heights, those in favor of hiring EMT’s stated that keeping service in Peoria Heights ensures two ambulances are always available in the village and that the new system would allow the ambulance service to upgrade to a higher level of service ( Intermediate or Paramedic) in the future.

The Peoria Heights Fire Department is well aware that AMT is not always available when 911 is called and that AMT will actually call the PFD to go to the scene and provide care. The PFD can only provide Basic care. Even if the PFD has a licensed Paramedic, they are not allowed to give advanced life support if AMT is not on the scene and asking for their help.

The Peoria Heights village decision was wise as they are trying to avoid the unfortunate EMS situation in Peoria.

John A. Carroll, M.D.
www.peoriasmedialmafia.com

The Anonymous Blogger

www.peoria.com published The Anonymous Blogger.

The Peoria Pundit is Scared and Very Disappointing

Here is a post from the Peoria Pundit today. The commenters continue to trash me even after Bill stopped me from posting. Bill is even trying to make me look bad if you read his comments and his posts. However, he did "retract" some of what he said when I called him on it. The more he can blame me, the more he appeases people that threaten him and his blog.

Bill stopped the comments from yesterday's post he wrote about respect and he even deleted the computer systems analyst e-mail from OSF (steve.miller@osfhealthcare.org) that was linked to yesterday in a comment. I think Bill is very afraid of OSF and what they could do to him if they took him to court. He won't admit to that. He does not want to lose his blog. Too bad there is that much fear in Peoria.

I think Bill is upset with himself that he gave in to the powers that be. He was angry, misleading, dishonest, and sarcastic in his comments today.

Conclusion: People don't want to read about Peoria's deficient EMS system which is controlled for the most part by OSF, and they do not want to read about the abandonment of Haitian Hearts patients that need further heart surgery at OSF. The commenters did all they could to attack me for several months, and Bill took a lot of heat from powerful people and his blogger friends. It all became too much for him and he had to join in on the attack and get rid of me.

I do realize that this the way the game is played. And I am sure it is not unique to Peoria.

Peoria Pundit Fires Me

The Peoria Pundit finally got rid of me. Read about it and the comments are interesting also. I thought this would happen, I just didn't know when.

A Threat

Please go to Peoria Pundit to read about threats sent to Jeanette Johnson after she organized Maxime's funeral. Please see comments that follow her post.

Last night I posted to the Peoria Pundit. It was deleted by Bill Dennis who runs the Pundit. Bill deleted another post of mine a while back that talked about connections between people and OSF.

The deleted post is below. A number of anonomyous commenters attacked today after reading this post:

The Anonymous Blogger

My concerns that I have posted on the Peoria Pundit have been the discrimination against Haitian kids who have not been allowed back to OSF for surgery, and what I believe is an ambulance and paramedic monopoly in Peoria. I don’t think I should blog or comment about important subjects like these unless I sign my name. Putting down one's name increases credibility. In my opinion, pseudonyms don’t work.

Disputes arise when an anonymous blogger includes damaging comments against a company. When an employee blogs against their company, there are limits to what companies can do to find out what employees are blogging against them. However, the company can sue the ISP to determine the blogger identity.

The Peoria Pundit has many anonymous commenters and an anonymous author or two.

Commenters and bloggers can be anonymous for multiple reasons. One can only speculate why someone wants to remain anonymous with their comments. Reasons to remain anonymous are many including fear of publicity, distraction to one’s professional career, ability to lie, denounce, spin, and write anything without answering for it.

I doubt many of the Pundit commenters would be so impolite and abusive if they had to sign their names. I think many of these commenters have a big knowledge base, but anonymous bloggers never have to admit they are wrong. Transparency is not out in the open. And bloggers and commenters seem to have some synergistic parasitic relationships with each other that push their aggression over the top.

Bill Dennis has to walk the fine line between demanding civility and honesty, and has to deal with overt dishonesty, spin, libel, etc. In my opinion, the Peoria Pundit blog is frequently not civil. And many potential commenters are driven away by a handful of commenters. I don’t think people who occasionally comment, even anonymously, like to be attacked by the attackers on this site.

I can understand anonymous bloggers or commenters in a country where their lives are in danger if they blog or comment openly (about their government, for example). But what are these people afraid of in Peoria? Their jobs and reputations mainly, and whether their kids get scholarships…

As opposed to a big company going after a blogging employee, can a member of the public ask a big company like OSF to identify an employee or someone using osfhealthcare.org in their anonymous comments?

An anonymous commenter on the Pundit, “Tony” has responded to many of my posts regarding EMS in Peoria, and in my opinion, he spins the truth a lot in OSF’s favor. He definitely has the inside look at this topic. His uses words like “conspiracy” in a taunting manner and doesn’t answer questions about OSF. I have asked him who he is so we could put his comments into perspective about why he did not feel obstacles were being thrown up to the PFD by PAEMSS or OSF regarding their ability to upgrade, and whether he thought their was conflict of interest at OSF, which he doesn’t seem to want to answer.

He doesn’t answer questions about Sue Wozniak’s comments regarding Dr. George Hevesy and Hevesy’s salary from AMT. (He actually confused the topic by referring to an old AMT website.) Ms. Wozniak is Chief Operating Officer at OSF and a Board Member of AMT. Tony avoids this topic as much as possible for some reason. He knows he could be tracked by OSF’s geeks. But is he even worried?

I doubt it.

When I address the issues of EMS in Peoria and discrimination against Haitian Hearts kids, two of whom we have buried, Tony and a couple of his anonymous colleagues have tried to turn me into the problem, which seems to get quite old in their myriad of abuse. Tony laughed at my suggestion that he is well connected. (I think I have to quit using the word “connected” regarding OSF, because Bill had to delete a comment regarding that in the past by an unhappy reader that put on some pressure and made me the problem again.)

However, even though Tony guffaws at the chance he is well connected, he has sent a comment or two from osfhealthcare.org. His IP 204.238.189.254 gnat-cfh.osfhealthcare.org. I think this is from the library at the Center for Health at OSF. But I am no geek and don’t know for sure. I am sure the tech support system at OSF Corporate does know. But will the tech support track this and tell me?

The reason that tech support at OSF should track this is that this is one of the OSF Mission Statements—“open and honest communication”. Tony’s communication is not open and frequently not factual. Does OSF have a responsibility to me or the general public based on their premise of “open and honest communication” to identify Tony. Tony has said some pretty abusive and biased things as an employee of OSF or a “well connected” friend of OSF. Will OSF break another of their OSF Mission Statements?

I don’t mean to pick on “Tony” but when he sends his comments from OSF, he becomes an easy target for me to at least assume he has connections with OSF, which quite likely colors many of his comments the last couple of months regarding Haitian Hearts and EMS in Peoria.

Tony, if you don’t work at OSF, or are “well connected” with them, please accept my apologies. But when we don’t know you or what motivates you, how are we supposed to know about your credibility and the honesty of your anonymous comments?

John A. Carroll, M.D.
www.peoriasmedialmafia.com
www.dyinginhaiti.blogspot.com

The View from Inside

Please go to the Peoria Pundit to read The View from Inside, The Mission and Maxime, and Haitian Hearts to Monmouth.

Maxime's Obituary

Maxime Petion

EAST PEORIA - Maxime Petion, 21, of St. Georges, Haiti, who was hosted by an East Peoria family, died on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007, in Cleveland, Ohio.

He had traveled from Haiti to Cleveland Clinic for medical treatment through arrangements made by Haitian Hearts, Dr. John Carroll, Senator Mike DeWine and Cleveland Clinic.

Maxime was born on May 6, 1985, to Anne Marie D'Haiti. She survives, along with three brothers, Jean-Marcel, Jean-Paul and Frandy, and one sister, Anilia, all of Haiti. He is also survived by his host family, John and Jeanette Johnson and their sons, Adam, Andy and Evan of East Peoria.

The Johnson's hosted Maxime in 2002, when he had heart surgery at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. Becky Noss, Maxime's teacher and friend, also survives. Also surviving is Maxime's Haitian pastor and special family friend, Reverend Todo Julien. Maxime was also survived by Mary Hurley, who hosted him while he was in Cleveland.

Though Maxime lived a very poor life in Haiti, he exuded joy and gratitude through his beautiful smile. He was a very devout Christian and read his Bible so much that he wore out its binding.

Maxime touched the lives of many people in central Illinois and also during his brief time in Cleveland. One of his caretakers at Cleveland Clinic wrote the following poem in tribute to Maxime.

Thank you, Maxime, for lessons taught how to pause and enjoy the minutes, to be grateful, to breathe, and to sleep, and to laugh with beloved family and friends. As Jesus did, and Jackson and so many others, you have again taught us by example, a quiet persistent message, despite being wracked by pain and exhaustion, despite smashing into nightmares of inequity, injustice, man's arrogance and fear. Faith. Hope. Love. My faith and hope have been, once again, healed by your life example, your love of life. Now is the moment, not tomorrow or next year. Thank you for the reminder Maxime. I will try, again, to make NOW count.

Services will be held on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007, at 10 a.m. at Mason Funeral Home, Germantown Hills Chapel, with visitation an hour before. Burial will follow at Sand Ridge Cemetery. Rev. Dr. Donald Whitman will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Maxime's Haitian family members in care of John Johnson.

Online condolences at www.masonfuneralhomes.com.


Published in the Peoria Journal Star on 1/24/2007.

Recent Posts on Peoria Pundit

The Peoria Pundit has continued to allow me to post even though his fellow bloggers get upset with him and the comments continue to disregard the content of my posts. The truth is very painful for some of these people and they become quite emotional.

Please see: OSF Expansion Continues, Jean-Baptiste's Anniversary, When a Good Hospital Loses its Way, and Pope Benedict says Hunger is Bad.

Pictured above is Maxime and his brother Jean-Marcel. Maxime will be buried this Saturday and Jean-Marcel and his two brothers are attempting to obtain visas this week to come to Illinois for his funeral.

Homicide in the ER?

Please go to the Peoria Pundit to see post regarding an Emergency Room in Illinois where a patient died after being triaged to the waiting room and homicide is being considered. Homicide did not happen but there are serious systemic errors in EMS in the United States.

Vita and Katina

Please go to Peoria Pundit to see posts on Vita and Katina.

Comment on Maxime and Jackson from Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Dear Dr. Carroll,

As you know, we lost Maxime on our floor, and it broke my heart. We adored him, and we are all so thankful you brought him to us. Of course, taking care of him brought tearful memories of Jackson back to me. I go to school full time, but during my winter break, dressed in the CCF green, I spent most of my time in room four, taking care of Jackson. He was so smart, and so kind! But he was so very weak, too.
Reading this, I wonder if it was me ,the nurse-aide, because I bathed him frequently, and I still to this day remember that moment.

I will NEVER forget him. I am haunted by his tired voice, when one day towards the end of my week he asked me, "why didn't you brush my teeth?"
I did not realise that he no longer had the strength to do it himself.
So I got out the toothpaste and brush, and I spoke to him gently as I brushed his beautiful teeth.

I will always remember how he'd sit up and listen to his CD walkman, and read when he had the strength.

I feel very blessed that you brought him to us. I am still working there, but as a nurse trainee, still in school, and of course, it is my winter break and I got to meet Max.

His hard-boiled eggs were still in the hallway fridge. No one had the heart to throw them out last time I checked.

His smile and his sense of humour will live with us. I know I will never forget him. Or Jackson.

Thank you for bringing him to us.

Maxime Dies

Go to Peoria Pundit and Live From Haiti to see tributes written for Maxime.

Peoria Comments

The Peoria Pundit allows me to continue to post about Haiti, OSF, and Emergency Medical Services in Peoria. He is taking a fair amount of grief by a handful of well connected commenters who say that I have "hijacked" his blog.

We will see what happens.

War in the Haitian Slum

Please go to War in the Haitian Slum posted on the Peoria Pundit.

Where the Money Goes

The Peoria Pundit took a swipe at OSF this morning. What this site says is self-explanatory.

Conflict of Interest in Peoria

Please see Conflict of Interest posted on the Peoria Pundit.

Maxime's Host Parents

The Peoria Journal Star published a forum article today written by Maxime's host parents when he was a patient several years ago at OSF.

The letter asks the question: how should OSF's disagreement with one doctor influence their policy when lives of Haitian children are at stake? OSF's attorney talks about cooperation and respect. Who do they think is going to believe this?

If what I challenged OSF on was not reasonable they would not have responded so negligently towards the Haitian Hearts patients.

I have questioned them on lack of bed capacity, long waiting times in the ER, monopolizing ambulance care in the city of Peoria, delaying Haitian kids surgeries, attempting to obtain funds for Haitian Hearts that were not meant for OSF, and showing total lack of respect for their own Mission Statements and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services written by the U.S. Catholic Bishops.

Peoria Pundit

During the last several weeks, the Peoria Pundit, was kind enough to allow me to post on his web log.

Also, we were able to get Maxime on the plane to the United States to be evaluated for heart surgery. He landed safely in Cleveland yesterday.

Pictured above is Maxime in front of a festive Christmas tree in front of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.

Yesterday, 400 special forces from the UN and members of the Haitian National Police led a raid into Bwa Neuf, another section of the slum adjacent to Soleil. Their goal was to kill a gang leader there named Belony. At least nine people were killed, all civilians, and 30 injured. The Haitian government gave the OK for this sweep to occur.

The people of the slum are not happy with the UN.

You Would Think They Were Human

Please see Dying in Haiti regarding Jackson Jean-Baptiste's family in Haiti that still mourn his passing.
These young ladies are Jackson's sisters.

Maxime

Please go to Dying in Haiti to see update regarding Maxime.

OSF Attorney Responds to Haitian Hearts

Please see Peoria Pundit. OSF's attorney, Douglass Marshall, sent me an e mail. Haitian Hearts children are still being denied care at OSF no matter if they were operated at OSF several years ago and are very ill now. Also, new Haitian Hearts patients are being denied care at OSF. The baby above, Ferna, died here in Haiti a few months ago with a cardiac lesion (hole between the lower chambers of her heart) that could easily have been repaired at OSF.

Imagine

Go to Peoria Pundit to see a post regarding the totally dysfunctional Haitian medical system. Peoria, with its exorbitant medical spending and medical technology, should offer more to Haitian kids trapped in Haiti. The doctors and nurses at OSF would love to see the Haitian Hearts patients be allowed to return to Peoria. OSF Administration will not allow it. The Sisters and Bishop Jenky maintain their silence.

Cleveland Clinic Rescues Peoria's OSF

Go to Peoria Pundit to read an encouraging post regarding Maxime Petion.

Haitian Blogs

Go to Dying in Haiti and Live from Haiti to see recent updates from Haiti.

Northern Haiti.

Medical Homicide?

This weeks New England Journal of Medicine has an article and editorial regarding decreasing the amount of time from "door to balloon" for the heart attack victim. This means doing everything possible to open up the diseased corornary artery as quickly as possible.

Of note, the Journal states, "In addition, a recent ruling by a coroner's jury in Illinois provides an additional sobering reminder of the potential implications of treatment delays (for heart attacks). In that ruling, the jury found the death of a patient who had spent nearly two hours in an emergency department waiting room before proper diagnosis and treatment of a heart attack constituted a potential homicide."

Logic would also dictate that a jury could come to the same conclusion if pre hospital care, prior to the emergency department "door", were slowed in any way for the heart attack victim.

Peoria Heights Fire Department

The Journal Star has an article today regarding the Peoria Heights Fire Department.

The main theme in the article concerned paying the volunteer EMT’s who work for the Peoria Heights Fire Department.

However, interesting concepts were brought up in the article that reflects what is happening in Peoria. The people in Peoria Heights have obviously been following the unfortunate events in Peoria with the Peoria Fire Department during the last 15 years.

Wayne Baum, one of the Peoria Heights trustees, would like to see AMT provide the service for Peoria Heights. Mr. Baum states, “ My concern is not what you can do, but what you can’t do”. He was explaining how AMT can administer a number of drugs and do procedures that Peoria Heights Fire Department, a basic level provider, can’t offer. Thus, I would assume that Mr. Baum would believe that the Peoria Fire Department is offering an inferior quality of service too.

Interestingly, Chief Reichert responded by saying that the Peoria Heights ambulance service can upgrade its level of service. By this Chief Reichert meant that the Peoria Heights department can go to Intermediate or Advanced life support. Chief Reichert is well aware that in order to upgrade their service, this would have to be done with the blessing of the Project Medical Director who is a physician and is employed at OSF and is controlled by OSF. OSF is AMT’s biggest local supporter and would love to see AMT have the mandate to monopolize the Peoria Heights pre hospital care as it has in Peoria.

Chief Reichert is well aware that the Peoria Fire Department, which takes over 10,000 medical EMS calls each year has been held at basic life support with defibrillation and basic drugs for many years. Chief Reichert is also aware that the Peoria Fire Department is present at the scene quicker than AMT much of the time for serious medical emergencies, can only provide basic service, and cannot transport the patient. Chief Reichert knows that the Peoria Fire Department was forced into selling their only ambulance several years ago and he does not want Peoria Heights put into the same unfortunate situation as Peoria by AMT and the wealthy supporters of AMT.

Chief Reichert wisely states,” Having our own service ensures a quick response.”

Open Letter to Catholic Diocese of Peoria and OSF

December 3, 2006

Dear Bishop Jenky, Sister Judith Ann, Keith Steffen, and Paul Kramer,

I have been following the weather conditions in Peoria from here in Haiti. The snowfall, winds, and cold seem to have partially paralyzed central Illinois.

Haiti’s condition is actually much worse than Peoria, even though the weather is much nicer. The people here suffer every sort of injustice known…except snow and ice.

Please prayerfully consider accepting Maxime Petion at OSF for evaluation of his heart. I e mailed you about Maxime 6 weeks ago, but didn’t hear back.

Maxime was operated several years ago at OSF when he was 17 years old. He is suffering greatly in congestive heart failure.

It is my understanding that OSF’s International Committee is going to meet this week and discuss whether Maxime will be accepted at OSF. Unfortunately, no Sisters sit on this Committee.

As you know, Paul Kramer, Director of Children’s Hospital of Illinois, called the American Consulate in Port-au-Prince several years ago to stop Haitian Hearts patients from obtaining visas to travel to Peoria. Mr. Kramer sits on the Committee. Also, OSF’s legal counsel, Doug Marshall, wrote me a while back stating that OSF will not accept any Haitian Hearts patients even when full or partial charges were offered. These actions by OSF’s leaders are opposite to the Sisters Mission Statements and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services written by the Catholic Bishops in the United States.

His host family in the Peoria area are very concerned about Maxime and even suggested to me that they come here to be with Maxime and his family. Political violence and kidnappings in Haiti are at an all time high, so I have discouraged his host family from traveling here.

Haitian Hearts will offer you $10,000 up front for Maxime’s life. I am pleading with you to give Maxime another chance at OSF.

He will die soon unless something is done very quickly.

Sincerely,

John

Structural Violence

Go to Dying in Haiti.

Close Your Eyes

"I just keep on not knowing, and I cling to that like a redemptive handrail."

Polish Poet, Wylawa Szymborska
(Also Paul Farmer, MD--The Tanner Lecture on Human Values, Vol. 25)