Crummy Choices 2-18-12

Head Scratcher’s

Sometimes problems can be so daunting or dismal that it leaves one incapable of any kind of comment or justifiable thought process.  That is kinda me on the first item here.  All I can say or think is “there but for the grace of God” . . . .  .  .  it does seem to me that these are not uncaring or cold people – just individuals caught in a truly desperate situation from which they could find no resolve.  Sought help, but couldn’t afford it.

It does reveal something rotten about our medical system and the lack of benevolence therein.  If you know who to go to, or which steps to take or how to take them. . . . it can be intimidating and heartbreaking.   This one hurts.   Jan

Couple sentenced to prison in death of 8-year-old son

Pair pleaded guilty to denying boy cancer treatment

By Thomas J. Sheeran ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND — The parents of an 8-year-old boy who died from undiagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma after suffering for months from swollen glands were sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday following their guilty pleas to denying him medical treatment.

Attorneys for Monica Hussing, 37, and William Robinson Sr., 40, had said the parents had financial problems and tried to get checkups for their son Willie Robinson but couldn’t afford it.

The couple was given the maximum sentence by Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Astrab, who accepted their guilty pleas last month to attempted involuntary manslaughter in a last-minute plea deal before their trial was to begin.

• They were handcuffed and taken into custody immediately. Both plan to appeal.

“I loved my son,” Robinson told the judge. He said he was sorry.

“I tried to help my son,” Hussing said.

According to the prosecution’s pre-sentencing memo to the judge, at least eight family members noticed Willie’s deteriorating health over a period of nearly 2  1/2 years and most spoke to the couple about it. One relative described the boy’s swollen neck glands as the size of a softball.

Hussing’s oldest daughter, Lillian, 18, defended her mother in court and said Willie was able to do the same things other 8-year-olds do. “He was able to play, go outside,” she said.

The judge looked surprised and asked the teen whether she would be willing to repeat her statements under oath and possible penalty of perjury. She did.

The judge compared the autopsy photo of Willie’s emaciated body to concentration-camp victims. “If anybody, anybody, didn’t know this kid was sick, they are seriously, seriously disturbed,” Astrab said.

• Two doctors told the judge before the sentencing that no sick child would be turned away from a hospital.  (So why was this never offered or discussed with them?)

Willie collapsed at his home on March 22, 2008. Prosecutors say he had begged his parents to take him to see a doctor but was rejected. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a highly treatable cancer.  (Was stated that this was un-diagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma)

Lillian Hussing said earlier the family didn’t have money for medical care when they lived in Warren, tried repeatedly to get help from social services and visited a free clinic but left when told they would have to pay $180.

The family soon moved to Cleveland, and the boy died within weeks.

Prosecutors say that while the boy was suffering, the parents claimed financial hardship but paid $87 to have a pit bull treated for fleas. Monica Hussing’s defense attorney, John Luskin, said the dog belonged to Hussing’s parents, and her parents paid for the treatment.  (low-blow to try to paint them as heartless)

The second poser is the same ole, same ole. . . WHITE HAT MANAGEMENT – who else?  It seems daily now, another item appears in the local paper regarding them.   They are thinking of fighting the judges orders or they are in discussion with their attorneys to determine their next step.  What they are NOT GOING TO DO is comply with the judge’s orders.  This fight is going on for two years – what’s the hurry?

White Hat fights order for financial records

Schools want to see how funds spent

By Catherine Candisky THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio’s largest for-profit charter-school management company is fighting a judge’s order to turn over financial records showing how it has spent millions in tax dollars.

Attorneys for White Hat say the ruling requires them “to disclose confidential information and trade secrets” and asked that it be put on hold while they take the case to the Franklin County Court of Appeals.

In a notice of appeal, White Hat attorney Charles R. Saxbe argued that the order issued by Common Pleas Judge John F. Bender requires the company to disclose records that “would reveal confidential, proprietary information.”

Saxbe also noted that the judge failed to protect “the improper use of that information by issuing a protective order.”

Earlier this month, Bender gave White Hat until March 6 to provide tax returns, building leases, transactions with its subsidiaries and other financial records to 10 charter schools that had contracted with the firm for management services.

• The tax-funded, privately operated schools in Akron and Cleveland sued White Hat in 2010, after the company refused to provide an accounting of how money paid to them was spent.

Karen S. Hockstad, an attorney for the schools, said the information is needed to help guide the decisions of school officials and make sure the money is being appropriately spent.

ccandisky@dispatch.com

Chemo meds still short

STILL FRONT PAGE, – STILL coming up SHORT

SUPPLIES OF CHEMO MEDICINE DWINDLING

Maker releases emergency quantities of methotrexate

By Misti Crane THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Noelle Corrigan has a 5-year-old daughter with cancer.  That’s a lot to worry about.

But a national shortage of methotrexate, a potentially lifesaving chemotherapy drug that Makayla gets weekly, has compounded her fears.

“I’m very, very uneasy. I have a pit in my stomach,” said Corrigan, who lives in Twinsburg, in Summit County, and takes her daughter to Akron Children’s Hospital for treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“The government needs to step in or somebody, and say there are certain drugs that should go into the category of lifesaving that should probably take precedence over whatever else is being produced. It’s a really big deal. These are cancer patients.”

The injectable methotrexate shortage is linked to the November shutdown of an Ohio manufacturer, Bedford Laboratories, owned by Ben Venue. The company voluntarily closed its Bedford facility after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection found dozens of problems earlier last year.

The company said in a statement that it is releasing more supplies that were made before the shutdown and that other manufacturers have said they’re working to produce additional methotrexate in the coming weeks.

But doctors and pharmacists remain on guard. The shortage is one in a long list of shortages in recent years that have kept hospitals scrambling to make sure their patients can get their medications, sometimes the only drugs that can save their lives.

“I’m getting emails, ‘We’ve got no methotrexate left or enough for one more patient for one week. Doesn’t anybody have any?’” said Dr. Jeffrey Hord, director of hematology and oncology at Akron Children’s Hospital. Each week, it seems, brings a new crisis, he said.

• Methotrexate has several uses. Pediatric patients with leukemia and sarcoma use a lot of it. In adult care, patients with leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors depend heavily on the drug, said Brooke Crawford, pharmacy coordinator for clinical and research services at Ohio State University’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital.

Hord said Akron Children’s has enough for the moment, but if a single patient who needs a lot came in, it would be gone quickly.

Crawford said Ohio State’s supply is being closely managed, and patients who can take something else with no ill effects are. Patient care has not been compromised, but word that Bedford isn’t likely to resume production before the end of this year is daunting, she said.

Officials at Nationwide Children’s Hospital issued a statement saying they have enough of the drug right now but refused to answer further questions about their supply. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital also has enough at this time, spokesman Jim Feuer said.

“The reality is, almost all of us are in the exact same predicament,” Hord said. “It’s not like any of us have a supply hoarded away that we can really offer.”

• The trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said it is working with Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and others to address the drug-shortage problem.

The FDA has been working aggressively to ensure that supplies are adequate, the agency said in a statement, and was pleased that Bedford had emergency supplies to release.

There’s no simple resolution, nor is there one cause, said Ernest Boyd, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association. It might be that smaller pharmacist-owned companies will have to begin making more medication, he said.

• “In the big-picture side of this, right now I do not see an immediate solution.”

• Among the reasons for shortages: Generic medications (such as methotrexate) aren’t big moneymakers for drug manufacturers; companies sometimes have to cease production because of problems in their plants; and raw materials can be difficult to obtain.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has proposed a law that would require drug manufacturers to alert hospitals when they encounter a shortage. But that isn’t likely to do anything to fix the larger problem, Boyd said.

Although there haven’t been any patients who’ve been given sub-par care because of the methotrexate shortages, that’s not the case across the board, Crawford said.  (no one believes that!)

Another cancer drug, doxorubicin, has been unavailable for months, and doctors have had to recommend other treatment plans that are, in some cases, not as effective, she said.

mcrane@dispatch.com

(This has been going on for years and years.  We don’t give BIG PhRMA this affectionate term for no reason. No one believes that anything other than PROFITS drive these companies.  In truth, short of tightening the regulations around them, this will not change.  No one is forced into this field.  There should be ethics and strict regulations to be able to be part of it and participate. 

The FDA  itself is suspect.  With them issuing regulations and supervising all,  is akin to having the fox guard the hen-house.  I’m just saying, the problem is so huge – where does one begin?   Is there anyone who is wise enough,  capable enough and simultaneously ethical enough to actually envision and take on this humongous task?  We would need that rare individual as much like Elizabeth Warren as you could get.    Jan)