April 27, 2015 Many of you are still unaware that April 27 is Michelle Bentivegna Day. It was proclaimed in the year 2007 A.D. by the Honorable Ken Flatto, First Selectman of Fairfield on the occasion of Ms. Bentivegna receiving her Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of America. Ms. Bentivegna saw the need to bring soccer to rural Haiti and collected used soccer balls and equipment. She even managed to obtain a huge amount of soccer equipment from a store that was closing. This equipment was then packaged in a container thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jerry Lowny. It was sent to Haiti and to this day, soccer remains very popular in that area thanks to Ms. Bentivegna. It has been widely assumed that Ms. Bentivegna was once a highly accomplished soccer player. Ms. Bentivegna has discouraged such speculation. However, there is little doubt that she distinguished herself as a goalie and popularized what is known as the “face block,” the ability to stop high velocity shots with her face. Whether this was due to Ms. Bentivegna’s legendary fearlessness or due to a slow reaction time is still fiercely debated among soccer historians. Like Earth Day and Kwanza, … [Read more...]
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Cadillac Health Care Syndrome
May 19, 2015 I describe a new condition called Cadillac Health Care Syndrome. Those afflicted are relatively healthy people who have numerous diagnoses, take multiple medications and have frequent surgical procedures because they have excellent health insurance with little to no out-of-pocket expenses. Risk factors include early retirement, lack of hobbies, jobs with paid sick days, excessive television watching and overuse of the Internet to investigate symptoms. It has been widely assumed that better access to health care improves one’s health. Yet this is a relatively recent concept. For most of human history, patients were aware that allowing physicians to intervene had considerable risk. Hippocrates famous nostrum that persists in every physician’s conscience to this day is “Primo non nocere,” “First do no harm.” Most historians believe that George Washington died because of bloodletting. When President Garfield was hit with an assassin’s bullet in 1881, he died as a complication of surgery. In fact, the lawyer for the assassin argued that his client merely shot the President; his doctors had killed him. But with the advent of antibiotics, sterile technique, … [Read more...]
Exploiting Mother Teresa is Bad Manners
March 6, 2015 An art exhibit at a public library In Trumbull, a Connecticut town, featured a painting depicting Mother Teresa and members of her religious order, The Missionaries of Charity, marching in unity with icons of the feminist movement and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. A Catholic organization, The Knights of Columbus, protested, resulting in the removal of the painting. The Secular Left is battling to have the painting returned to the exhibit. Undoubtedly they will win. They always do. I spent a year as a volunteer physician working with the Missionaries of Charity in Haiti. They are the best the human race has to offer. They woke up at 4:30 AM, prayed for an hour on hard wooden kneelers and then spent the rest of the day caring for the sick and dying. They drove through the streets of Port-au-Prince, found people dying, brought them back to their hospitals, and nursed them back to health. They distributed medicine and food to neglected and abused. They cleaned the flies and excrement off of patients dying of AIDS and drug-resistant tuberculosis, allowing them a pain free and comfortable death. They also believed in the culture of Life. … [Read more...]
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