“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
This video is not only about the appalling coverage by CBS News but all major news outlets. I could just as easily of named Fox News, the Washington Post or even Andrea McCarren of WUSA Channel 9, Washington DC (another CBS affiliate) who has now blocked me on Tweeter for requesting her assistance in exposing these genocidal policies. Sadly they all REFUSE to contact me even after hundreds of emails, Tweets & even phone calls. America needs to know the truth. President Trump needs to know before he can help. Who among you are willing to spread the horror stories from coast to coast? Remember; just one second! One accident. One diagnosis. In just one second any of you can join us as the 100 million forgotten Americans left to suffer cruel and inhumane torture daily. Robert D. Rose Jr. BSW, MEd. USMC Semper Fidelis
An east county family is asking a pharmacy to change its protocols after they say the wrong dosage information on their child’s prescription almost put him in the hospital.
This latest case is another example of errors that state officials might not know about.
“I am angry,” said Shannon Beasley.
Playing with his trucks or hitting home runs in his room is where you’re likely to find three-year-old Michael.
“Michael does not lay around,” she said. “If we can get him to sit for a 45-minute paw patrol episode that’s a good day.”
So when his mom noticed he was more lethargic, she knew something was wrong.
“He kept laying around saying, mom, I’m tired but couldn’t sleep,” she said.
‘Wait, mam. Read that one more time’
Beasley said a doctor diagnosed Michael with an ear infection.
The doctor prescribed Cefdinir, an antibiotic used to treat infections. They had the prescription electronically sent to a Walmart pharmacy in El Cajon.
“My husband gets there, signs in, gets his prescriptions, brings it home,” she said. “I gave him the first dose, later that evening I gave him the second dose because the bottle said two times a day.”
Beasley said three days into the routine Michael wasn’t getting any better. He was tired, refusing to eat, had diarrhea, and was not his normal, destroying-the-house self.
Beasley had enough and called the nurses’ line. She said the nurse asked her to read the prescription and dosage information from the bottle.
“She’s like, ‘Wait, mam. Read that one more time,’ and I read it to her again,” she said. “It was four ml’s (milliliters) twice a day, and she says, ‘No, mam. The doctor prescribed four ml’s once a day.'”
She says the instructions on doses per day were wrong.
“I was giving him more than what he, and I was the one making him sick,” Beasley said.
‘I feel like there is no room for error in this job’
She hung up the phone, contacted poison control and rushed Michael to a doctor.
Michael was severely dehydrated, but Beasley said stopping the medicine the day before was helpful.
She called the Walmart pharmacy, then received a phone call from the company.
“Walmart’s claim department contacted me with an apology and what not, but unfortunately, I feel like there is no room for error in this job. And luckily I took him off of this sooner, but if not, who knows what the outcome would have been,” she said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Walmart wrote:
“We work hard every day to ensure we live up to the high standards we set for ourselves and that our customers expect. We have quality control measures in place to help ensure that our customers receive the exact medications prescribed. In this individual case, we deeply regret this incident occurred despite our quality control measures. We have apologized to the Beasley family and continue to stand ready to work with them to resolve this matter. We take customer safety seriously and have reviewed our procedures carefully to avoid a similar incident in the future.”
Team 10 discovered the California State Board of Pharmacy issues hundreds of citations to pharmacists each year for dispensing errors.
But those errors are only what the state knows about. In California, pharmacies are not required to report those errors.
In April, the head of the agency told Team 10 the board relies on consumer complaints and court settlements to identify wrongdoings.
“We strongly believe that pharmacists do not deliberately make errors,” said Board of Pharmacy Executive Officer Virginia Herold. “If they do, that would be a formal disciplinary matter, and we would move very quickly to remove them from practice.”
The board received more than 3,000 complaints during the 2016-17 fiscal year
According to information obtained by Team 10, the board received more than 3,000 complaints during the 2016-17 fiscal year.
During that time, it issued more than 2,000 citations for pharmacist and pharmacy wrongdoings and referred more than 350 cases to the California Office of the Attorney General.
Herold told Team 10 pharmacies are required to keep records of all dispensing errors.
After a mistake, the pharmacy must initiate a quality assurance review looking at what happened and who is responsible.
After what happened with her son’s medication, Beasley believes there’s no room for error in a pharmacy.
The easiest way to prevent a dispensing error is to take the time to talk to your pharmacist, according to experts.
Imagine spending your retirement defending yourself against hundreds of lawsuits in courthouses around the country – all of them alleging that you played a key role in starting the opioid crisis and that you were indirectly responsible for thousands of overdose deaths.
“It is mind boggling to me and its frightening, actually. I don’t know how I’m going to defend myself,” says Lynn Webster, MD, a pain management expert and former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. “Right now, we’re just trying to keep our head above the water.”
Webster has been named as a defendent in so many class action lawsuits – along with Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo, Janssen and other opioid manufacturers – that he’s lost track. He knows of at least 80 lawsuits but believes there are many more.
“I think it could be several hundred,” he says.
The latest one was filed this week by Salt Lake County, Utah — where Webster lives — alleging that drug makers employed him in deceptive marketing practices that downplayed the risks of addiction and overdose. Like the other lawsuits by states, counties and cities, Salt Lake County seeks to recover taxpayer money spent on treating addiction, combating opioid abuse and policing opioid related crimes.
DR. LYNN WEBSTER
“Utah’s opioid crisis stems directly from a callously deceptive marketing scheme that was spearheaded by certain opioid manufacturers and perpetuated by prominent doctors they bankrolled,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Dr. Webster’s advocacy of opioids was designed to create a veneer of impartiality. But Dr. Webster was a forceful proponent of the concept of ‘pseudoaddiction,’ the notion that addictive behaviors should be seen not as a warning, but as indicators of undertreated pain. The only way to differentiate between the two, Dr. Webster claims, was to increase a patient’s dose of opioids.”
Until he retired from clinical practice in 2010, Webster operated the Lifetree Pain Clinic in Salt Lake City. The lawsuit makes a point of mentioning that at least 20 of Webster’s patients died from overdoses and that he was investigated – but never charged with a crime — by the DEA and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
“Most of what they have in there, at least about me, is false. And I think I can prove that,” Webster told PNN.
A footnote in the lawsuit contains the curious but important disclaimer that “Salt Lake County asserts no claim against Dr. Webster arising from his medical practice. The claims against Dr. Webster relate solely to his participation, as a KOL and otherwise, in Manufacturing Defendants deceptive marketing campaign.”
‘Key Opinion Leader’
KOL is an acronym for “key opinion leader” – a euphemism for doctors alleged to be so influential that they helped convince other physicians to prescribe more opioids. Webster and three other pain doctors — Russell Portenoy, Perry Fine and Scott Fishman — are portrayed in the lawsuits as KOLs who greedily accepted millions of dollars in payments from drug makers in return for their promotion of opioids.
“It’s mind boggling to think how four individuals can be accountable for essentially brainwashing all of the doctors in the country to do something intentionally to make pharmaceutical countries rich. How can anyone think that is plausible? It’s crazy,” says Webster. “Most of the pharmaceutical companies that they’ve listed I never received a dime from.”
According to the Salt Lake County lawsuit, Webster was “handsomely rewarded for his efforts,” receiving nearly $2 million from opioid manufacturers from 2009 to 2013. Webster says that dollar amount is unfair and misleading because most of it stems from his work as a researcher. He is currently Vice President of Scientific Affairs at PRA Health Sciences, a clinical research company.
“If you’re a principal investigator in a research program that has contracted with a pharmaceutical company, that money goes under your name. But its money to conduct a trial. Not a penny of it goes to me,” says Webster. “I have received compensation for consultant work and advisory boards. My consultant work is because of my area of expertise. That’s not unusual. And I do not speak for a company’s product. I do not benefit at all because I personally have no shares in any pharmaceutical company.”
Since retiring from clinical practice, Webster has become an outspoken critic of efforts by the government and insurance industry to limit opioid prescribing — which he believes have gone too far and unfairly punish pain patients, while ignoring the larger issue of illicit fentanyl, heroin and other black market drugs.
With so many lawsuits hanging over him, Webster’s financial future is uncertain. He says he and his fellow KOLs could be bankrupted by legal fees before any of the lawsuits come to trial.
“We don’t have any big pocket that’s going to pay for anything,” he said. “If a jury decided to award money from us, they wouldn’t get any money, because there is no money. We would be all bankrupt by the time we got to court.”
Drug makers, on the other hand, do have big pockets. And during the 1990’s many of the same law firms now involved in opioid litigation helped win big settlements with the tobacco industry worth upwards of $200 billion.That includes the law firm of Hagens Berman, which is handling the Salt Lake County lawsuit. The firm also represents the city of Seattle in a nearly identical lawsuit against opioid makers, in which Webster is named as a KOL.
Webster is also named in a string of lawsuits filed by the law firm of Simmons Hanly Conroy, which represents dozens of states, counties and cities. Simmons will pocket one-third of the proceeds from any opioid settlement, which could run into hundreds of billions of dollars.
It is against these political, financial and legal forces that Webster must find a way to defend himself.
“The body of the allegations are inaccurate, misleading and irresponsibly paint a picture which ignores the realities of Dr. Webster’s compassionate commitment to alleviating suffering in his chronic pain patients,” Peter Striba, Webster’s attorney, wrote in a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune. “It is estimated that there are approximately one-hundred million chronic pain patients in our Country, and it is very telling that their suffering and their medical condition is entirely absent in the narrative of the Complaint.”
On a recent day in April, I left my doctor’s office elated. I was carrying my first prescriptions for hormone therapy. I was finally going to start seeing my body reflect my gender identity and the woman I’ve always known myself to be.
I went straight from my doctor to the CVS in my town, Fountain Hills, Arizona, which is a suburb of Phoenix. I handed over the three prescriptions that my doctor, who specializes in hormone therapy, had just given me. For more treatment information on hormone therapy, Read More Here
That’s when my day took a turn. After years of working to affirm my identity in a world where transgender people are questioned constantly about how well they know themselves, the pharmacist refused to fill one of the prescriptions needed to affirm my identity.
He did not give me a clear reason for the refusal. He just kept asking, loudly and in front of other CVS staff and customers, why I was given the prescriptions.
Embarrassed and distressed, I nearly started crying in the middle of the store. I didn’t want to answer why I had been prescribed this hormone therapy combination by my doctor. I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers. I just froze and worked on holding back the tears.
When I asked for my doctor’s prescription note, the pharmacist refused to give it back, so I was not even able to take it to another pharmacy to have my prescription filled. I left the store feeling mortified. One can follow this link and for the best testosterone therapy click here.
When I got home, I called my doctor’s office to explain what happened. The office staff tried to intervene by calling the pharmacist, but he still refused to fill my prescription without explicitly explaining why. My doctor ended up having to call the prescription into the local Walgreens, where the medication was filled without question. I transferred all of my prescriptions there so that I never again have to see the pharmacist who discriminated against me.I have contacted CVS’ corporate complaint line multiple times, but no one has addressed my concerns or offered me an apology.
My family supports me, fortunately, and helped me work through the anger and humiliation this experience caused. But many other transgender people are not as fortunate as I am. I don’t want to think about what might happen if this pharmacist mistreats a transgender person who does not have a good social support system.
Today, I filed a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy and am publicly asking CVS to take action and apologize for the way I was treated. CVS has received perfect marks for the past four years in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which is a valuable tool for assessing corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. But something is still not right. Measures should be in place to ensure no other customer is humiliated like I was.
Through training and written policies, the company needs to make it clear to their employees — especially their pharmacists — that transgender customers deserve respect. No healthcare worker should rely on personal beliefs to reject decisions made by doctors and their transgender patients about medically necessary care.
It is interesting to see that the ACLU is interested in a pt being discriminated at the pharmacy dept.. unfortunately I can’t count the number of chronic pain pts that I have read about contacting ACLU and being told that they don’t have the resources or maybe “the interest” in pursuing any action against the various pharmacies against that type of discrimination.
I wonder if any charges will be placed against the pharmacist because he basically STOLE/CONFISCATED the prescription from the pt…. because it is the property of the pt.
One has to ask.. where was this Pharmacist’s “moral compass” when he was going thru pharmacy school ? or did his “moral compass”changed directions once he got out into the real world ?
But what about that scary “500 million” figure that celebrities, politicians and news anchors constantly cite? It turns out that number came from a 10-year-old who, for a school project, telephoned some straw makers.
Because the boy is cute, the media put him on TV. Now the media, environmental activists and politicians (Is there a difference?) repeat “500 million straws used daily … many end up in oceans,” as if it were just fact. The real number is much lower.
That is 1.6 straws/day for EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD in the USA – someone must be ABUSING STRAWS ?
FDA announces voluntary recall
of several medications containing valsartan
Food and Drug Administration voluntary recall announcementof several drug products containing the active ingredient valsartan, used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. The recall is due to the presence of an impurity which is classified as a probable human carcinogen based on laboratory test results.
Take immediate action and review the Information about the recalled products on the FDA Drug Recalls website, including information on returning affected lots for credit. NCPA urges pharmacists to review their inventories for any of the products listed in the recall announcement. The FDA says that pharmacists should notify their patients if any of them have been dispensed the medicine included in this recall to discuss their treatment, which may include another valsartan product not affected by this recall or an alternative treatment option.
The FDA’s review is ongoing and has included investigating the levels of NDMA in the recalled products, assessing the possible effect on patients who have been taking them and what measures can be taken to reduce or eliminate the impurity from future batches produced by the company.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Growing concern over opioid addiction and overdose has prompted state health officials to create a proposal that would eliminate prescription opioids from the Oregon Health Plan by 2019.
State health leaders’ concern about addiction, however, is matched by anger from advocates of opioids for some pain conditions.
Julia recently had eye surgery. It did not go well. She said she’s tried other alternatives, but they haven’t worked. She said she’s tried 30 different medications and surgeries.
“I have scar tissue attached to the back of my eye,” she said. “It feels like I have a Charlie horse every day.”
Advocates of opioid treatment say removing the option would be discriminatory.
Amara, another patient, said she deserves to have opioid treatment as an option.
“I’ve proven it works successfully for me,” she said. “I’ve gone down a long journey to get to that point. It wasn’t my first choice.”
On Thursday, they plan to hold a protest against the proposal in front of the Oregon health Authority in Salem.
State health leaders tell KOIN 6 News the evidence review committee will gather public opinion before any decision is made.
“All this medicine does is make me be able to live,” Julie said.
Did anyone notice that Oregon is one of the handful of states that has a “death with dignity ” law ?.. So the state of Oregon is taking away the pain medication from Medicaid pts… ones who can probably not afford to pay for them – since they are “poor” and on Medicaid…
So as these chronic pain pts’ pain levels soars up the pain scale.. the state is ready, willing and able to facilitate a chronic pain pt’s desires to resolve their pain with the “final solution”…
Just by chance… the pts that take this options will be one less “taker” on the state’s Medicaid program. So is the state of Oregon… moving from the “covert genocide” that many suspect is going on in this country to a few steps away to a LESS COVERT GENOCIDE ?
So it would appear that the Oregon bureaucrats won’t tolerate some discrimination by some in the business community, but apparently when the same bureaucracy will itself discriminate against those in the society that are the most poor and the sickest of the sick without any repercussions.
A United States Postal Service worker has been found dead inside her mail truck during a sweltering heatwave in California.
Peggy Frank, 63, had worked for the Postal Service for 28 years and planned to retire soon.
She had been on medical leave for several months after breaking her ankle, and returned to the job on Friday.
That same day, a neighbor found her unresponsive in her mail truck in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, authorities said.
“I am really so sad because she was going to retire really soon,” Lynn Calkins, Frank’s sister, told KTLA-TV. “Now she can’t.”
Officials are working to determine Frank’s cause of death.
Her family said they believe the extreme heat may have been a factor.
Temperatures in the area had soared to 117 degrees, and an excessive heat warning for the region had been released by the National Weather Service.
In addition, USPS trucks are not equipped with air conditioning, CBS Los Angeles reported.
“They [the Postal Service] need to do something,” Calkins told KTLA-TV. “They need to start caring about their people a little more.”
A spokesperson for the USPS told KTLA-TV that postal workers are reminded every day to stay hydrated, wear appropriate hats and clothing, to carry water and ice and to stay in the shade as often as possible.
“The safety of our employees is a top priority and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees,” a statement from the USPS said. “In connection with the HIPP, the Postal Service provides mandatory heat-related and other safety training and instruction to all employees and assures they have the resources needed to do their jobs safely.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the employee’s family at this time,” the statement said.
But Frank’s family said the efforts made are not enough.
“They need to change things a little so it happens to nobody else,” Calkins said.
Most medications are suppose to be stored in a max of 85F… if a mail carrier died because of the heat in her mail truck.. what is happening to your medications ? The same medications that you buy/take to help you maintain your health.
The manufacturer, wholesaler & pharmacy are legally responsible to maintain medication within the mandatory storage range… but.. when a mail order pharmacy hands your heat sensitive medication off to a delivery service.. they no requirement to maintain those storage temperatures.
about mail order medication where the pt – liver transplant pt – medication was so harmed by HIGH HEAT… that the pt started to rejecting his transplanted liver
REMEMBER… health care is nothing but a FOR PROFIT BUSINESS…
Have you ever ordered medicine from questionable online pharmacies? Many folks use these alternative pharmacies because of their extremely cheap prices and the convenience they provide.
But are you sure they are safe? Aside from putting your information and your health at risk, these illegal online pharmacies can also put you in the crosshairs of extortion email scams.
Read on and learn more about the latest round of scary letters that the FDA is warning everyone about.
Fake FDA Warning Letters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning the public about impostors who are forging FDA warning letters and sending them to people who tried to buy medicine from illegal online pharmacies.
The FDA said that instead of receiving the medicine they attempted to buy online or over the phone, targeted individuals are receiving official-looking but fake warning letters about drug violations.
The fake letters claim that based on a review of your social media accounts and the package that is being shipped to you, the FDA has determined that drug violations have indeed been committed.
The letters are commonly addressed to a generic “Sir/Ma’am” but may even include a specific name. Don’t be fooled! Since these fake online pharmacies may already have your name, address and maybe even your credit card details, it’s not a stretch to think that they’re misusing your data.
Although the letters don’t demand money (for now), they do warn that “we are still investigating the root of this delivery & necessary legal steps will be taken if we found [sic] out any suspicious activity on your end.”
The FDA is still investigating this matter but it believes that it could be a part of an international extortion scam.
Nope – Not from the FDA
The FDA said while they do send out warning letters to companies and individuals who are involved in the manufacturing or distribution of FDA-regulated products, they don’t send them directly to consumers.
“Consumers who aren’t involved in manufacturing or distributing FDA regulated products should be on alert that if you get an FDA warning letter, it’s probably fake, and probably a scam,” FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb explained in an official statement.
The agency also said that they don’t generally take action against people for purchasing medicine online. However, they do regularly take action against the operators of these illegal pharmacies.
To help stop this scam, the FDA is urging any consumer who has received a fake warning letter to email FDAInternetPharmacyTaskForce-CDER@fda.hhs.gov with details about the letter and its packaging, including photos or scans.
Stay away from illegal online pharmacies
The FDA also said that getting victimized by scams like this is not the only danger when you purchase medicine from illegal online pharmacies.
First, the products bought from these shops may be counterfeit, contaminated, or expired, putting your health at risk.
Secondly, most illegal online pharmacies don’t have sufficient cybersecurity safeguards to protect your sensitive information from data breaches. Some may even be deliberately misusing your data by selling it to scammers and fraudsters!
With your real name, address, email and financial information at their disposal, they can send you more extortion and scam emails or even charge you with products that you never purchased.
How to spot an illegal online pharmacy
Buying medication online from fly-by-night online shops can be enticing since they tempt you with cheaper prices and they usually don’t require a prescription.
However, you are putting your health, your bank account and your identity at risk so please avoid them at all costs.
To be safe, keep your eye out for online pharmacies that:
Allow you to buy prescription medicine without a valid prescription.
Offer extremely low prices that are too good to be true.
Do not have an available U.S. state-licensed pharmacist to answer any questions.
Are not located in the U.S.
Offer worldwide shipments.
Appear on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s List of Not Recommended Websites. (However, not being on this list doesn’t mean that an online pharmacy is safe. New shops appear every time).
Are NOT licensed by your state board of pharmacy, or equivalent state agency. (Please check your state board of pharmacy to verify its licensing status of the pharmacy).
Do NOT have the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s (NABP) Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites Seal (VIPPS). This seal means that an online pharmacy has met state licensure requirements and it is safe to use.
Did the Fighting Marine Robert Rose win or lose Tuesday in U.S. Federal Court in Greeneville, Tennessee?
Depends on how you look at it?
From a legal point of view, he lost.
A Federal Judge rejected Rose’s attempt for an injunction that would have forced his Congressman (Phil Roe) and his Veterans Administration Hospital Mountain Home VA Center in Johnson City, to talk about Rose’s claim that treatment for his chronic pain was denied.
Rose, who took on his Quixotic adventure versus a huge federal bureaucracy without the benefit of a lawyer, lost but, in defeat, he may have won.
First of all, Congressman Roe, ironically (or maybe not ironically) is head of the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee.
Rose has challenged Roe for over a year, to simply talk with him.
It started July 4, 2017 when Rose showed up at an event at the VA Center…but was denied his opportunity to speak with his Congressional Representative. The National Pain Report was there, at least on the telephone.
As one long-time observer of Tennessee politics who wished to remain anonymous told the National Pain Report Tuesday, “Robert was marginalized and was made invisible and stigmatized by his own Congressman. It’s a tragedy.”
What did Robert do?
Thanks to his own expertise in developing a following on social media, and the National Pain Report’s interest in his case, Robert has built a narrative that has caught the attention of other veterans.
Here’s one of many examples the National Pain Report has received to Robert’s story:
“I was injured in the 1983 Beirut bombing conflict with neck and lower back injury that resulted in spinal stenosis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, PTSD /panic attacks, neuropathy of my feet because of lower back, said Walter Radziszweski, a Connecticut veteran who emailed the National Pain Report on Tuesday. I have been going to the VA mostly at the Newington CT campus which is an outpatient clinic. Specialty care at the West Haven campus and getting timely appointments are just about impossible and return phone calls take days. Care is good, when you can get it!“
For fellow Tennessee resident and nationally recognized chronic pain advocate, Terri Lewis, Ph.D., the Marine’s efforts are starting to pay off.
Dr. Lewis believes Robert’s case is a textbook opportunity for the VA to address its mission to give Rose and other vets the palliative care they deserve.
“I’ve surveyed thousands of chronic pain patients and Robert’s case is typical… The question that Congressman Roe and others ought to be asking is ‘Why hasn’t’ the VA served people like Robert better?” she said.
She believes that Robert and other vets who has been denied care need to continue the fight within the VA to make sure our vets receive their care.
Robert, as he drove into his driveway plainly exhausted, told the National Pain Report, “I’m tired, but I will think about a new strategy about how we best address the issues facing our veterans and others who want to know that addressing their chronic pain is a priority.”
If you have experience about this topic, please share in our comments section..
