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Anne Mitchell, RN, of Kermit, Texas, a town of 5,200 just south of the New Mexico border, reported Rolando G. Arafiles Jr., MD, to the Texas Medical Board because she believed that he was practicing bad medicine.
Mitchell’s complaint said that Arafiles was improperly prescribing medications at his weight-loss clinic, and performing improper surgical procedures at the 25-bed Winkler County Memorial Hospital.
Mitchell and a second nurse, Vickilyn Galle, RN (who was dropped from prosecution), learned that Arafiles was e-mailing patients he had seen at the hospital, encouraging them to buy questionable herbal products that he sells off the books. He also performed some questionable procedures in the hospital’s emergency room.
Others noticed problems, too. Two staff physicians also lodged complaints against Arafiles with the hospital board, but the board failed to act. So in April 2009, Nurse Mitchell contacted the Texas Medical Board. She asked that it investigate Arafiles' care of several patients.
The board notified Arafiles that it had received the complaint and asked him to provide copies of the medical records. (To see a copy of the board’s letter, see http://www.casewatch.org/civil/mitchell/tmb_complaint.pdf.) The doctor complained to the local county sheriff and his friend, Robert Roberts, alleging harassment. Roberts credits Arafiles for saving his life when he had a heart attack; he also is a partner in the doctor’s herbal remedy enterprise.
Mitchell, who with Galle has lost her job at the hospital, has been accused of “misuse of official information,” a third-degree felony in Texas. It carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She was fingerprinted and photographed at the Kermit jail, an experience she called “surreal” because you shouldn’t “go to jail for doing the right thing.”
Mitchell’s trial began Feb. 8. The jury found her "Not Guilty" after one hour of deliberation. The turning point in the trial came when Dr. Arafiles stated confidently under oath that "diabetics heal wounds at the same rate as normal people", a statement that caused audible gasps and murmurs in the court gallery. Most laypeople, not to mention competent medical professionals, are well aware that slow wound healing is a major feature of diabetes, and the cause of frequent amputations in diabetics from slow-healing wounds that become gangrenous.
These nurses followed their consciences and filed a complaint against a physician who was causing harm through his shady practice of medicine. Instead of receiving accolades, these two women lost ther jobs and underwent criminal prosecution for "leaking official information". The prosecution was instigated by the malpracticing doctor, but the hospital that employed them all supported the physician (for fear of paying out malpractice lawsuits) and fired the nurses.
Many states, including Texas where this happened, have laws meant to protect whistle-blowers, but the laws are not general enough to cover all situations. The nurses in this case weren't covered under the whistle-blower's act in texas because that act only protects those who report public industries for wrong-doing, not individuals like Arafiles.
Is a blanket Federal Whistle-blower's act needed to protect those of good conscience in every profession, in every state, so that miscarriages of justice like the case I described above no longer appear in our courts?
It seems to me it would be a Good Thing, but I fear those who are anti-goverment would disagree. How do you all feel about it?
No, not "The Crying Game"; that's something else entirely.
The "choking game" is an activity in which persons strangulate themselves to achieve euphoria through brief denial of oxygen to their brains. It is different from autoerotic asphyxiation (the act of depriving oxygen to the brain by using a noose to achieve a stronger orgasm). Autoerotic asphyxiation was in the spotlight recently when celebrity David Carradine was found dead with evidence that this practice had caused him to pass out and strangle to death. Choking is not the same thing; it's typically practiced by children and young teens to get a "high" feeling, in the same way some children deliberately spin around and around to get dizzy, but choking can have devastating consequences, and even be fatal.
The choking game can cause permanent long-term disability and death. In 2008, the Center for Disease Control reported 82 deaths attributed to the choking game and other strangulation activities during the period 1995–2007; most victims were adolescent males aged 11–16 years. To assess the awareness and prevalence of this behavior among all 8th graders in Oregon, the Oregon Public Health Division added a question to the 2008 Oregon Healthy Teens survey concerning familiarity with and participation in this activity.
This report indicated that 36.2% of 8th-grade respondents had heard of the choking game, 30.4% had heard of someone participating, and 5.7% had participated themselves. Youths in rural areas were significantly more likely (6.7%) to have participated than youths in urban areas (4.9%). Choking game participation was higher among 8th graders who reported mental health risk factors (4.0%), substance use (7.9%), or both (15.8%), compared with those who reported neither (1.7%).
Parents, educators, counselors, and others who work with teens should be aware of strangulation activities and their serious health effects; they should watch for signs of participation in strangulation activities, especially among youths with suspected substance use or mental health risk factors.
The Oregon Healthy Teens survey, an annual anonymous survey of 8th and 11th graders, is based on the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey and includes questions on physical and mental health, sexual activity, substance use, physical activity/nutrition, and community characteristics. The mean age of respondents to this question was 13 years. A similar percentage of girls reported participating in choking compared with boys.
This practice is widespread, and is beginning to cause an alarming increase in deaths and brain damage from oxygen deprivation. Parents who notice changes in their kids' behavior and suddenly falling grades should not only consider drug use, but also the practice of "the choking game". One tell-tale sign is the appearance of a frequent red rash, bruising, or chafing around the neck. This is caused by the pressure of a noose (sometimes covered with a towel or washcloth to minimize neck damage). Nooses can be attached to closet poles, door knobs, shower rods, clothing hooks, anything strong enough to bear the weight of the child.
Just another thing that concerned parents should add to their list of things to watch out for to protect their kids. Don't assume your child has never heard of this game -- do your part to educate about the risks and fatal consequences of playing.
Jimi Hendrix, after going underground 40 years years ago, has popped his head up and finally released a new CD title "Valley's of Neptune". Reviews have so far been positive with most critic's stating that he still has what it takes to be the greatest guitar player of all time.
Quit yer bitchin. It's not Jimi but it still rocks.
The idea for a .xxx domain was first proposed in 2001 and was approved by Icann four years later.
The scheme is intended to create a silo for pornography on the internet.
"Those that do want to see it can; those that don't can filter it out," explained Mr Lawley.
However, the scheme is voluntary and adult sites will still be able to use other domains such as .com.
In 2007, Icann overturned its original decision to allow .xxx domains to be sold amidst a firestorm of protest from conservative groups, predominately in the US, which opposed the plan on moral grounds.
Recently an arbitration panel of retired judges at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution ruled that the plan should be revisited after analysing evidence about the alleged interference.
"Our claim was that Icann came up with a lot of different excuses," said Mr Lawley.
The board concluded that Icann's decision to reject the .xxx plan was "not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy" and should be revisited.
Mr Lawley described it as a "landmark" ruling.
The non-binding decision will now be discussed by Icann on 12 March and a decision will be made whether to reconsider its approach to .xxx.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8556364.stm
Interesting idea. Although I think that if this was to be overturned, all sites should be required to be within that domain. Those who do not want to have sites come up surprisingly in a search should be able to block and never have to see it again!
A friend sent me an article about recent slayings of 200 Christians in Nigeria. He was very upset that Muslims had done this. But of course at the end of the article after the media "shocked you" into reading, you find that this violence has been going on for awhile and in January 150 Muslims were killed in the town of Kuru Karama. Muslim officials say that a over 350 Muslims were killed in that week alone.
The media as usual is really ticking me off here. One LONG explicit article about the 200 Christians, but only a snippit on the Muslim death toll. Even the titles are obviously one sided. "Attack on Nigerian town kills hundreds" as apposed to "Christian-Muslim violence in Nigeria warrents probe, rights group says"
The Senate approved the Tourism Promotion Act in February. The idea here is to encourage people from foreign countries to be tourists in the US. Has the Senate looked around lately? People don't need any encouragement to come here. They need encouragement to leave. Maybe that's the plan. Come in. Look around. Thanks for stopping by now get out.
The act plans to tax each visitor $10 per visit. I wonder if they get a discount for bringing in a specially marked Coke can. Will there be lower rates in our off season?
Here's what I see happening. A bunch of people will have to be hired to collect this $10 tax. Sounds good. Job creation. But it's a job that doesn't need to be a job. And you know the $10 isn't going to fund what will become a whole new government department. What's going to happen here is that we're going to get a new department, an oversight committee, our politicians will have to fly around being world wide tourists to see what will bring world wide tourists to the US (an excuse to take more vacations on tax payer money is what that is) the $10 won't cover these costs, they'll raise the tax, fewer tourists will visit because they can't afford it, those that can will spend less and then the government will tax us to keep the program going while telling us how much money they are bringing in.
A few days ago, a man shot himself in his car outside of a shooting range. This happened at Red's in Pflugerville, Texas.
A guy in the parking lot saw the man slumped over in his car and went to see what's up. He found the guy was dead. The cops came out and found his gun and cleaning kit in the car. The kit was on the passenger seat. No word on where exactly the gun was. The dead guy was in the driver's seat.
The coroner has not yet ruled if this is an accidental death or a suicide.
I call suicide. You can't properly clean a loaded gun. You have to clean the breech and you can't do that with a bullet in it. Maybe it was a revolver. Well, you can't clean the cylinder with a bullet in it. Even if you tried, it'd be a piss poor job and you'd gunk up your ammo. People really don't clean loaded guns. I have a theory but, in a minute.
Maybe he was about to clean it and didn't know it was loaded. He was at the range shooting his gun. This isn't some random gun he came upon by chance. He knew he had bullets in it just a few minutes before going to his car. He should have known if he shot all those bullets. The ranges I've been to have rules against walking up to and away from the firing line with a loaded gun. You load, shoot and unload at the line. Checking to see if it's loaded is also step one to cleaning a gun.
And who cleans their gun in their car at the range? Either do it in the range (if they allow it) or do it at home. And I don't wanna hear it was his self defense gun and he wanted it clean if he had to use it between the range and home. A gun can be some damn dirty and still work fine.
My theory is that most of the so called accidental shootings that happen when someone is supposedly cleaning their gun are bogus. It's a lie made to cover until the cops and courts can sort out what really happened. The life insurance may not pay on a suicide so no one wants to say right off that it is. And lets not embarrass the family by announcing first thing that Daddy just killed himself, on purpose. Maybe the couple was fighting and things got heated. One shot the other and then got out the cleaning kit to cover their crime. "I don't know what happened, officer. I was just cleaning it and it went off." Bull crap. I know what happened. You got pissed and shot the old bird. Or maybe you were horse playing and really did accidentally shoot your kid. It didn't happen as a cleaning accident though. It happened because you were being a dumb ass horsing around like you're not supposed to.
My guns don't go off while I'm cleaning them because they're not loaded. Mine don't "just go off" any time. Not even the loaded ones. The chances of a firing pin moving forward to strike a primer with out the trigger being pulled are so slim; I'm telling you, most of these accidental shootings are not a firearm malfunction. They're a user malfunction.
Microsoft told Windows XP users today not to press the F1 key when prompted by a Web site, as part of its reaction to an unpatched vulnerability that hackers could exploit to hijack PCs running Internet Explorer (IE).
In a security advisory issued late Monday, Microsoft confirmed the unpatched bug in VBScript that Polish researcher Maurycy Prodeus had revealed Friday, offered more information on the flaw and provided some advice on how to protect PCs until a patch shipped.
"The vulnerability exists in the way that VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer," read the advisory. "If a malicious Web site displayed a specially crafted dialog box and a user pressed the F1 key, arbitrary code could be executed in the security context of the currently logged-on user."
Last week, Prodeus called the bug a "logic flaw," and said attackers could exploit it by feeding users malicious code disguised as a Windows help file -- such files have a ".hlp" extension -- then convincing them to press the F1 key when a pop-up appeared.
Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are impacted by the bug, said Microsoft, and any supported versions of Internet Explorer (IE) on those operating systems -- including IE6 on Windows XP -- could be leveraged by attackers.
Until a patch is ready, users can protect themselves by not pressing the F1 key if a Web site tells them to, said Microsoft.
"The prompt can appear repeatedly when dismissed, nagging the user to press the F1 key," Ross added.
The security advisory made the same recommendation: "Our analysis shows that if users do not press the F1 key on their keyboard, the vulnerability cannot be exploited."
"Microsoft is concerned that this vulnerability was not responsibly disclosed, potentially putting customers at risk," said Jerry Bryant, a senior manager with the MSRC, in an e-mail. By Prodeus' account, he notified Microsoft of the flaw Feb. 1, about four weeks before publishing his findings.
Microsoft has not set a timeline for a fix, saying only that, "Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers." The next scheduled security patch date for the company is March 9.
Although it does not rate the severity of vulnerabilities in its advisories, Microsoft noted that hackers exploiting the VBScript flaw using Windows Help and Internet Explorer could grab complete control of a Windows system.
Customers running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 are safe from such attacks, Microsoft said.
Chile was hit last week by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. President Obama came out and said the US will give aide to Chile. He also said he would "protect Americans". No elaboration on that statement. Maybe he meant US citizens living, working or visiting in Chile. Maybe the remark was aimed at the arrest of that church group in Haiti. We'll soon see how aid is rendered now after that little debacle.
It does seem that Chilains are in need of protection. On the news tonight, I heard some say they were afraid to try and return to their homes because of gangs of violent looters. Better arm the Salvation Army before they go over.
As we all may know, Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles from model years 2005 to 2010. The big issue is the accelerator pedal getting stuck.
The two reasons presently being given for stuck accelerator pedal are floor mats getting hung up on the pedal or the peddle gets stuck in the "shoe" that puts friction on the pedal to make it feel right to the driver. Toyota has named these recalls "Floor Mat Entrapment" and "Pedal". The encourage all vehicle owners to bring their vehicles to a Toyota dealer for service as soon as possible. They also say that even though the malfunctions are rare, if you feel the pedal is not right, do not drive the vehicle.
Now then, when this first came out, I heard that the stuck pedal was caused by the "shoe" getting rusted. Now it's caused by "wear and environmental conditions". Those are two contributing factors to rust.
The floor mat issue... I dunno. I've driven lots of vehicles with lots of floor mats. No Floor mats. Cardboard boxes for floor mats. Never had this problem. I know a good many vehicles now have little posts the floor mats hook on to to keep them in place. Don't know if these Toyota vehicles do or not. If I drove a Toyota and the only thing causing this was the floor mats, I'd go down to the parts store and buy new mats. Unless Toyota had charged me $74 for them. Then, I'd damn sure get new mats from Toyota even if I just used them for the cats to sleep on.
Toyota has a recall sight you can check to see if you drive an affected vehicle. If you do, be sure to use a Toyota dealer for the service. They are not allowing independent repair shops to do the work. if you had a non Toyota repair shop do the work and then had a recall related problem, you may be SOL.
