US captive soldier in Afghanistan exchanged for 5 Guantanamo detainees

Ah, it's a conspiracy! That explains it. That poor woman just had a bunch of foster kids who all needed brain surgery, and that mean DA is picking on her.

That's your story?

barfo

 

Oops, not foster kids. Adopted.

 

Dang. Adopted it is.

barfo

 

D'oh!

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/05/us_senate_candidate_monica_weh.html

Patrick O’Hollaren, a urologist who works with Wehby, said pediatric specialists are particularly vulnerable to parents who want to dupe doctors. That’s because doctors can’t rely on young children to describe their symptoms.

“What the parents tell us is paramount, it’s huge,” he said. “If somebody really wanted to pull the wool over a doc’s eyes over what is going on with the child, it’s doable with any specialty.”

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/04/us_senate_candidate_has_drawn.html

Wehby calls her tethered-cord advocacy her proudest professional achievement. It defines her practice, and reflects her personality as well. She says if you don't do it early, say by age 5, the symptoms risk becoming permanent, more serious harm.

Wehby's role in pushing the treatment nationally, even in the face of criticism and controversy, gains importance now that she is running for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Rep. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

In Wehby's estimation, it illustrates how she presses on when she knows she's right.

Early on, when she says she was being "crucified" by her professional colleagues at meetings, she considered giving up the surgery. But her patients' success stories renewed her conviction.

"It was worth all the hassles and the slings and arrows," Wehby said in a recent interview. "I know that I've changed the lives of so many kids that otherwise would not have been helped."

She said that because she is on salary at Legacy Health, she has no incentive to do more surgeries. Legacy bills carriers about $23,000 per tethered-cord surgery.

Over time, more surgeons have adopted her approach toward using the surgery. But some of her colleagues still think the surgery should be done sparingly, whereas Wehby conducts several dozen each year.

Wehby defends her number of surgeries, saying it's because she has become well-known among parents and urologists around the country. First, because she was more willing to do the surgery than others. And later, because she does it so well, using a tiny incision to lessen the risk and in just 20-30 minutes on an operating table, she says.

And, she says, it works 90 percent of the time or more, with very low risk. "I haven't had any problems," she said.

Indeed, a posting on the popular Portland blog, urbanMamas.com, is filled by parents and patients describing symptoms and surgeries, many of them recommending Wehby when other surgeons refuse to do the surgery.

...

Steinbok, the Vancouver doctor who is leading a study on the topic funded by the National Institutes of Health, says he has changed his position. From being skeptical of Wehby, he has moved toward sometimes doing the surgery himself, though he still wants more scientific backing for it.

He says the tethered-cord controversy is typical of how the practice of medicine changes, by trial and error. If you do something and hurt the patient, you stop. If the patient improves dramatically, you do it again, he said.

 

Which, of course, means they should be extra vigilant, which she doesn't appear to have been.

And thus both the unnecessary surgeries and the stalking...

barfo

 

It appears she was quite vigilant, innovative, and helped everyone she could.

Desperate grasp at straws it seems. People have bitter divorces. She's human.

 

Bet the kid who had several unnecessary brain surgeries is not going to agree with you.

So was Hitler. Not sure being human is all that big of an achievement.

barfo

 

Blame the kid's parents. Seems the authorities are!

Let em eat cake!

 

There can be more than one party that bears some blame. Clearly the primary culprit here is the crazy mom. I'm not suggesting Wehby's done anything criminal (well, aside from the stalking, that is). But not being charged with a crime should not be the bar one has to hurdle to be a senator.

No, no, force them to eat cake!

barfo

 

I don't really care about this person much, or the election there. All I know is I see talking points and I see her record on the talking points. It's a smear tactic, plain and simple. She seems to have pioneered a kind of surgery that really helps people. This is according to the people helped. The doctors who initially opposed her approach are coming around to thinking she's doing good. Her domestic disputes are a non issue. Makes you look foolish.

It also might be a good idea to elect people who aren't lawyers or SNL clowns for a change.

The force them to eat cake is what to expect from a commie pinko.

 

I know that. You just want to argue. I get it. Me too!

In the same way that any discussion of any politician is a smear tactic, yes.

Did they interview the people that weren't helped? Did they contact everyone she'd operated on to find out the success rate? Or did they just talk to the people she referred them to, and the doctor she works with (who obviously isn't going to say anything too negative publicly)?

For a self-professed skeptic, you sure aren't very skeptical.

You are asserting that on what basis?

Not sure a huge number of SNL clowns have been elected. I can think of one. Lawyers, yes, lots of them get elected. But her opponent isn't a lawyer.

That's why I said it. I didn't want to disappoint you.

barfo

 

Medicine isn't so much science as it is statistics. They give 1/2 a test group the drug and the other 1/2 a placebo and see if the drug helps. The doctors at the CDC are doing this with her treatment and finding it is quite effective. By her own reckoning, her success rate is 90%, and I'm sure she actually counted the people that came in and had their problem cured.

The doctor she works with? He just said the obvious. That you can't get a medical history by interviewing a child under 5. You have to trust the parents are telling you the truth about how often the kid cries or pukes or goes to the bathroom. But it doesn't fit with the talking point, barfo.

The people she supposedly stalked contributed big time to her campaign, are her neighbors, regret they made any complaint in the first place, etc. They could be lying, but I'll take them at their word unless there's some sort of proof they're bought off or something. That doesn't fit with the talking point, either.

Maybe you all trying to smear her can actually find something in her policy positions to oppose? Like her stand on abortion or something.

 

Ok, well, if SHE says the success rate is 90%, then it surely is. She'd certainly have no reason to fib.

Yes, that was my point too. He JUST said the obvious. He didn't actually say "why, she's the most conscientious, careful doctor I know" or anything like that.

I think you've got the facts a little bit wrong there.

You just kind of take everyone at their word, don't you? Easy-going Denny...

It's not hard to find things I disagree with, despite her fairly minimal policy position portfolio.

Anyway, neither of us give a shit about her, so I'm happy to move on to the next outrage.

barfo