Dr Jaller of LymeMD blog is being persecuted by Maryland medical board

[valentinelynx]

Please see his latest post on his blog at: http://www.lymemd.blogspot.com

I've always found his blog to be a source of thoughtful, well-considered ideas and information about Lyme disease. Astonishing that medical boards are still persecuting doctors for not following IDSA guidelines. And in response to complaints by INSURANCE companies! Talk about conflicts of interest: insurance companies should not be able to make complaints to medical boards!

If you have seen Dr. Jaller or can help his case in any way, please do so.

 

[JaimeS]

@valentinelynx - thanks for bringing this to community attention. I had never heard of Dr Jaller until now, but just went and read four of his entries in quick succession. He seems intelligent, open-minded, and critical of the establishment.

That means they'll have to get rid of him, of course.

-J

 

[Antares in NYC]

I can't believe this outrageous practice keeps taking place, with the IDSA doing the dirty deed of the insurance companies. This is why it's important to organize and keep the political pressure on our representatives. This is why a number of states have been forced by grassroots movements to pass laws protecting Lyme specialists from being prosecuted by this inquisition of old guard researchers clutching on their antiquated guidelines. Even in light of recent studies proving beyond doubt the infectious persistence of borrelia after antibiotic treatment.

Sickening.

Make your voices be heard, people. This needs to stop.

 

[JPV]

They have no problem with pharmaceutical companies selling SSRIs that are proven to work no better than placebos but god forbid that a doctor uses alternative treatments to try and cure desperate people. The guidelines are there just to insure continued corporate profit by forcing doctors to prescribe expensive drugs that barely work. It's all about money and doctors like this obviously threaten their revenue stream. They could really care less about your health and well being. The health industry on this planet is completely degenerate and corrupt.

 

[JPV]

He seems intelligent, open-minded, and critical of the establishment.

That's the problem right there...

 

[Daffodil]

i loved dr. jaller's blog. he seemed like the best doctor! genuinely wanting to help, logical, open-minded.

if only the idiots who persecute doctors like this would somehow contract "chronic lyme", they would understand.

in canada. several doctors have lost their licenses when they have dared to treat it.

this is why these doctors are forced to not take insurance, which makes things difficult for everyone.

 

[JaimeS]

Why shouldn't treatments and treatment options be available to anyone who wants to try them? I understand the effect of the Appeal to Authority on the credulous, where they think that everyone wearing a white coat must be right, but surely these patients are aware that other doctors have told them no, they're cured, they're 'imagining' any remaining symptoms. They're not believing this guy just because he's an authority - they're choosing to believe him because they have objective proof (their symptoms) that he is correct.

That's what the other docs can't stand - the idea that people with Lyme don't believe their dogma anymore. I am certain that they are justifying their actions by saying that he is offering 'useless' treatments, but frankly, these people are willing to do whatever it takes to feel even a little better, and whether to receive additional treatment or not should be their decision. They know whether or not they're cured.

Unfortunately, science has proved again and again that the more convinced you are that you are correct, the less new information makes an impact - except when it makes you defensively more convinced of your own beliefs.

What is being done for this doc? Anyone know him/know anyone who sees him who could see what we might do? I could draft a petition for his patients who are too ill to write individual letters, as he suggests.

-J

 

[Daffodil]

I know in Canada and the UK I think, several patients testified that certain lyme doctors saved their lives, but they still lost their licenses or were continually harassed.


Petition is a great idea..can't hurt!

 

[Antares in NYC]

Well, it seems like it's starting to happen all over the map again. One of the very few LLMDs in San Diego, Dr. Therese Yang, MD (former student of Dr. Burrascano) is facing the same legal harassment, and needs help with the legal costs:
http://www.gofundme.com/kqxvqw

My guess is that, as Lyme is reaching epidemic proportions (no hyperbole --even the CDC now recognizes 300,000 new cases per year), more and more patients are falling severely ill, requesting treatments from doctors, and this is having an impact on the insurance industry's bottom line (a drop in the bucket considering the obscene amounts of money they make). The response from insurance companies to this crisis is to report LLMDs to the IDSA and take them to court to remove their licenses for not complying with the antiquated guidelines they set up together two decades ago. One hand washes the other, and those patients suffering a living hell are abandoned to their own devices.

If I told you this happened in some remote country in the third world, you would understand it as the usual pattern of corruption expected in failed states and non-democratic systems. But no, it's happening in the the good ol' U.S. of A.

 

[Antares in NYC]

Here's a quote worth keeping in mind:

"In the fullness of time, the mainstream handling of chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease.........."
--Dr. Kenneth Liegner.

I hope I'm alive to see it, and I hope there are legal repercussions for the people that mismanaged this epidemic and its consequences because of greed.

 

[JaimeS]

I hope there are legal repercussions for the people that mismanaged this epidemic and its consequences because of greed.

In the US, I'm pretty sure that'd take the Supreme Court. I mean it. This idea that only one theory is acceptable in medicine at a time and everything else is criminal has got to go.

 

[Antares in NYC]

In the US, I'm pretty sure that'd take the Supreme Court. I mean it. This idea that only one theory is acceptable in medicine at a time and everything else is criminal has got to go.

Agreed, but there's also a lot of critical mass that has been accruing over the last few years. They could get away with this crap when Lyme was still a rare and localized issue. Now it's over 300,000 cases per year, reported in every state. Even by the CDC conservative estimates, that translates to 60,000 new cases of chronic unresolved Lyme every single year. It is literally an epidemic, and they have failed the public miserably.

That doesn't count the scores of people already ill that have gone through hell, alongside their families, their friends. People out there know how messed up lyme is. This is not from reading the CDC website, but first hand experience witnessing what Lyme does to people.

 

[SOC]

If they're so upset about doctors giving useless treatments, why aren't they going after the docs who for years prescribed asthma treatments -- steroids, inhalers, god knows what else -- for asthma I don't have? The doctors could have actually tested to see if I had asthma, as the pulmonologist did last year at my specialist's request, but they didn't bother. Instead they chose to prescribe useless treatments on pure speculation.

And what about the ones prescribing ADs for pure ME/CFS? That's prescribing based strictly on personal prejudice, not evidence... and completely useless. Then there's the ones prescribing CBT (the bad kind) and GET for ME/CFS? That's certainly useless, if not outright harmful.

There is absolutely nothing just about going after Lyme docs prescribing "useless" treatments if they're not going to go after the mountain of other useless treatments out there.

 

[JaimeS]

Agreed, @SOC. It has less to do with actually wanting to help the patient and more to do with the fact that if public opinion on Lyme and its treatment is allowed to make a full turn, they will find themselves criminally liable for their sometimes negligent, sometimes actively harmful treatment protocols. GET and CBT practitioners face the same consequences, and fight against the turning tide for what I believe is the same reason.

It's very hard for me to tell whether that motivation is primarily conscious or primarily subconscious, though. There's a logical fallacy, I forget which it's called, that basically goes:

"Option A would have negative consequences for me. Therefore, Option B is true."

It isn't "therefore, I choose to discuss Option B" or "therefore I try to convince others of Option B" - it's therefore Option B is true. The person committing this fallacy believes A because s/he must believe A, because to believe otherwise would feel terrible and have terrible consequences.

I'm fascinated by the psychological side of denial. It makes me wonder how many are truly convinced they are right, and how many are certain they are incorrect, but are simply scrabbling about to save their own sorry hides.

I guess it's an academic question, since the results are the same...

-J

 

[JaimeS]

@SOC, you have breathing problems too? I would be much obliged if you would answer the question in my poll here... and anyone else who is so inclined. I'm looking for enough responses to produce some meaningful data and we're not there, yet. It's only one question.

-J

 

[SOC]

@SOC, you have breathing problems too? I would be much obliged if you would answer the question in my poll here... and anyone else who is so inclined. I'm looking for enough responses to produce some meaningful data and we're not there, yet. It's only one question.

-J

I was just over there reading your poll when the alert popped up for this. So over here I trotted. Now I'm trotting back to see if I can give an intelligent answer to your poll.

 

[JaimeS]

Haha! I'll have you know I delayed posting this response, @SOC... until I could see you were done with the other one.

Thanks for responding! I've got 15 replies so far, which is good... but it really only places one or two votes in some categories, which is still quite low, statistically speaking.

 

[5150]

I don't know the cause or whatever the true reason. I do know that this disease is killing me. That I know.

 

[Antares in NYC]

Does anyone know how many people are suffering from chronic Lyme in the US? The CDC recently updated the number of yearly reported infections from 30,000 to 300,000 --which shows it got out of hand after the crappy job they had done containing the disease with the IDSA guidelines.

The CDC also claims that conservatively about 20% of those infected become chronic. The ILADS reports a much higher number, 36%. Even by conservative standards you can infer that upwards of 60,000 people each year will become chronic.

Has anybody made an estimate of how many people are currently suffering from this condition in total? All I find online is 'hundreds of thousands" or "millions", but not a ballpark number.

 

[duncan]

Lorraine Johnson over at ILADS may have an estimate. Or Pat Smith at the LDA. Both have been approachable in my experience.

Rest assured, though, that the ALDF or IDSA may have completely contrary estimates. Curious, though - since this admission of being off tenfold, I don't think I recall that group having formally discussed the math and its ramifications.