First do no harm

the 3 granddaughters play a cacophonous trio Each of our children has a daughter

Each so different

Grandpa and granddaughter

The Dateline show highlighting our local sleazebag aired last night. Dr. Fata, operating as  an oncologist, managed to harm or kill more than 500 patients while bilking Medicare and various insurance companies  of millions and millions of dollars.  Did he do this through sheer incompetence? Nope pure greed and callous disregard for the suffering of his patients. One of his favorite scams was to falsely diagnose patients with cancer, usually cancers that had no imaging of tumors such as multiple myeloma. The lab results would be easily faked as not only did he operate the clinics but the laboratories and the pharmacies. One of his victims, who never had cancer,  had his liver poisoned by the treatment such that he needed a liver transplant. A woman in my on-line TNBC cancer group was purposely undertreated so that she would need additional treatment in his hands. She is now battling a recurrence at UM that would not have happened had he gotten clean margins and treated with radiation (he didn't have a radiation clinic). He was sentenced to 45 years (he is 50). I am not sure if he can't get out earlier. He is the most despicable person. His whole evil empire would have been uncovered earlier had the State listened to a nurse who reported what he was doing. Finally one of his own physicians became a whistleblower when he realized one of the patients clearly didn't have cancer but was treated as if she did. Medicare should have been suspicious as he was the number one biller in the country. Blame all around. Patients who hinted that they were getting a second opinion were told that he no longer would help them. And for patients, don't be so trusting. Question everything!

 

I am in preparation mode which always makes me a bit crazy though I think I finally got a handle on it. Extra bonus: earlier the weather forecast was for rain every single hour of our trip now shows a clear spot tomorrow. I've booked places for the first and third night. How far we get the second night is very dependent on many factors.

 

This morning when I ran, it was a whopping 8 degrees with a stiff headwind making the windchill well below zero (easier on the way home). Let today be the toughest weather I will deal with this year. At least there was no black ice as there had been Saturday. Maya was over most of the afternoon testing us at every opportunity. Then the kids and their spouses had a sibling night out, a first. Steve and I watched the grandkids at Shanna's. The boys were mesmerized by their devices while the girls played together. Ms. Allie, age 27 months, seems to have an early understanding of arithmetic. I was reading the girls a book in which the main character kept losing one object at a time and Allie correctly said how many things were left.