People Over Profits

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http://www.peopleoverprofits.org/

 

Imagine Surgery with No Anesthesia

Tuesday, May 2, 2006 – 12:09 pm

 

This message is from medical malpractice victim Dialyn Powers. As the

Senate prepares for debate on legislation that will restrict the

rights of people like Dialyn, we need to make sure her voice is heard.

Please read, post to blogs, and send to as many people as possible.

Tell your Senator about Dialyn's story.

 

My name is Dialyn Powers and I am a victim of medical malpractice,

which occurred during a hysterectomy when I was 39. I want to share my

story with others so horrible mistakes like this can be prevented in

the future. After reading, please forward to friends and family.

 

Before my surgery, during a normal pre-operative procedure, a

nurse-anesthetist taped my eyes closed, and administered a drug to

temporarily paralyze me, then inserted a breathing tube. This

procedure should have been followed by the nurse-anesthetist's turning

on the anesthesia gases for eight to ten minutes in anticipation of

the surgery. The anesthesia would have rendered me unconscious and

unable to feel the pain of the surgery.

 

The nurse-anesthetist did not turn on the anesthesia. When he realized

he had forgotten, he turned on the gases, gave me a shot of narcotics

and another drug meant to wipe my memory so I wouldn't recall what was

happening. The nurse-anesthetist did not tell the surgeon what he had

done and allowed the surgery to proceed, even though he knew the

anesthesia hadn't had enough time to take effect.

 

Paralyzed from the pre-op drug, my eyes taped shut, and a breathing

tube in place, I had no way of communicating to the surgeon, who had

begun the hysterectomy. For between twelve and thirty minutes, I had

total feeling and sensation and remember everything. I could hear the

scissors snipping.

 

I prayed that the surgeon would realize I was awake. Then I prayed he

would stop the operation. Then I prayed I would die on the operating

table and be put out of my misery.

 

Before this horrific experience, I had been working as a mortgage loan

closer, and was even in line for a promotion. I tried to go back to

work after recovering from surgery, but could no longer handle the stress.

 

Right now Congress is trying to set an arbitrary limit on the

compensation people like me can receive when we hold those who hurt us

accountable. Judges and juries should make this determination. It

shouldn't be a one size fits all decision made in Washington, DC.

 

Please take a moment to contact your U.S. Senator and tell them to

oppose S. 22 and S. 23.

 

 

 

U.S. Chamber's Bogus Survey

Monday April 10, 2006 – 9:28 am

 

 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently released its annual " study " that

supposedly ranks the best and worst state legal systems in America.

 

But as is the case with much of their past rhetoric, this " study " is

long on corporate spin and short on facts.

 

The so-called " study " is based on a survey of corporate defense

lawyers from multi-million dollar corporations who spend their days

trying to ensure that consumers or employees can't hold these

corporations accountable for wrongdoing and gross negligence.

 

Read about the truth and alert others about this bogus propaganda.

 

 

 

The Victims of Senator Frist's Health Week Agenda

Monday April 3, 2006 – 11:28 am

 

In October 2000, 15-year-old Tricia Newenham of Steuben, Maine took 3

doses of Triaminic cold syrup for a runny nose. Less than 24 hours

later she had a massive stroke that left her mentally disabled,

partially paralyzed - and blind.

 

By the time the Food and Drug Administration declared PPA (a drug used

in Triaminic) unsafe the pharmaceutical industry had spent more than

two decades fending off growing evidence of a possible link between it

and hemorrhagic stroke.

 

Once a promising artist who had imagined a career in design, Tricia

now passes the time rocking gently in a blue recliner. When asked a

question, she struggles to find the most economical answer, usually a

word or two, often a guttural " I don't know, " with little intonation.

(Dose of Denial, Los Angeles Times, March 2004)

 

These are the types of families Congressional leaders and well-heeled

special interests will likely target during a so-called " Health Week "

in the Senate on May 2. Their Medical Malpractice reform bill would

severely limit the rights of families like Tricia's, often regardless

of the cost of medical bills and future care.

 

Send a letter to your Member of Congress or download the Protecting

Victims Rights petition. But hurry, Senator Frist's newest partnership

with industry begins in a few weeks.

 

 

Teflon Makers Dumped Poisonous Chemical Into Drinking Water- Civil

Justice Forces Clean Up

March 27, 2006 - 11:34 am

In 1961, DuPont chemical company was aware that perfluorooctanoic

acid, " PFOA " or " C8 " , a chemical used in the manufacture of non-stick

Teflon, was toxic to animals and caused organ abnormalities, according

to internal company documents. But it took 40 years and a class action

lawsuit brought by the residents of the Mid-Ohio Valley in West

Virginia before the company agreed to stop contaminating the Ohio

River with the chemical.

 

 

 

" Our story is not a good one... We continued to increase our emissions

into the river in spite of internal commitments to reduce or eliminate

the release of this chemical into the community and environment. "

 

Internal DuPont memo from company lawyer John R. Bowman in 2000

 

Following the private lawsuit, the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) began to look closely into the cancer-causing effects of C8. On

Jan. 25, 2006, the EPA entered into a voluntary agreement with eight

companies, including DuPont, to try to eliminate C8 from consumer

products by 2010. The public still risks exposure to C8 in everyday

products such as pizza boxes, microwave-popcorn bags and nonstick

Teflon cookware.

 

 

 

Insurance Industry Picking Victims Pockets

March 14, 2006 - 8:57 am

 

Language was sneakily added to a bill passed by the House of

Representatives recently that would force an injured person to pay

back their ERISA health plan for all medical expenses if they receive

any compensation from the wrongdoer that caused their injury.

 

The injured person would be forced to do so even when the cost of

future medical care and expenses are more than what they receive from

those who hurt them, which is often the case.

 

This would leave severely injured and disabled victims without enough

money for their future medical care -- expenses that would inevitably

be left to taxpayers.

 

Bottom line here: insurance company wins, injured person loses. A

conference committee, made up of key Members of Congress, will decide

whether this Provision, known as Section 307, will be passed by the

entire Congress.

 

Join the thousands who oppose this special protection for the

insurance industry.

 

 

Study: Medical Malpractice rates cool, no crisis exists

March 1, 2006 - 11:05 am

 

Americans for Insurance Reform published an excellent study on the

so-called medical malpractice insurance " crisis. "

 

According to Joanne Doroshow, AIR spokesperson and Executive of the Center for Justice & Democracy, " Consumer rights

organizations have long maintained that the `crisis' of skyrocketing

insurance rates for doctors and other policyholders would end when the

insurance investment cycle stabilized, and that this would occur

whether or not so-called tort `reform' laws were enacted. Insurance

industry data now unmistakably confirms this prediction. "

 

 

Debate on a MedMal bill will likely be brought before the Senate this

spring.

 

A Victory- For Now

February 16, 2006 - 9:10 am

 

This week, the Senate blocked the Asbestos Bailout Bill, after only 58

Senators voted to wave the Congressional Budget Act, short of the 60

required. For now, victims of asbestos and their families have

retained their right to hold asbestos companies accountable for their

actions.

 

Thanks to the over 50,000 People Over Profits supporters who sent

letters to their Members of Congress, and over 190,000 supporters who

signed one of two petitions in opposition to this corporate bailout.

 

But stay tuned, supporters of this measure have vowed to bring the

bill up again in the future.

 

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