By C. L. Smith aka “Leonidas”. C.L. Smith is a frequent right-of-center commenter here at The Moderate Voice and is a regular guest voice.
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Not long ago an account of a sawmill worker named John was reported suggesting that he was doomed to death due to no healthcare based on a NYT op-ed by Nicholas Kristof entitled “Are we going to let John Die?” Well seems like this was done without knowing all the facts.
Today, I did something that Pulitzer Prize-winning NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof apparently didn’t do: I talked to a spokesman at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon.
I called them up after OHSU’s Dr. Johnny Delashaw left a comment about Kristof’s piece spotlighting the horrible plight of John Brodniak, an Oregon man with a neurological condition that he says no one would treat.
She goes on:
1) OHSU is a safety-net hospital not far from where Brodniak lives. The hospital accepts all Medicaid patients and would not turn Brodniak away.
Okay, are you ready for Number 2?
2) Brodniak is a patient at OHSU — and has been a patient there for the past three weeks.
In other words, at the time Kristof’s article was published this past Sunday, Brodniak was already being treated and cared for by some of the best neurologists in the country!
And that doctor’s comment she refers to?
In all due respect, this patient did not come see me. If he had and needed care he would get it. Cavernous hemangiomas have a low bleed rate and are only excised if surgery is low risk. They rarely result in a catastrophic bleed. I have many paitients that are observed with cavernomas rather than surgically excised. Others undergo craniotomy for resection. I suspect this journalist is bending the facts because he has an agenda. The gentleman with the cavernoma is welcome to call my office and I will see him. I would ask that the writers of the New York Times write factual editorials rather than sensationalizing a story. You are not being helpful.
Johnny Delashaw
Professor of Neurological Surgery
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland Oregon
Strange what passes for journalism these days.