HEALTHCARE: C-Sections, home births, and a sprinkle of medical correuption make for a complex decision

Monday, March 31, 2025

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2025/03/28/risks-of-c-sections.aspx?ui=f9839516412491bb1e06c9e47058c6fb81b9b9b6acedf03e65e93dfdb263c1b9&sd=20210317&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20250328_HL2&foDate=false&mid=DM1725282&rid=258510807

What They Don’t Tell You About C-Sections

Analysis by A Midwestern Doctor  —   March 28, 2025

*** begin quote ***

  •     For more than a century, there has been a push to medicalize childbirth and transform it from a natural life event to something requiring major interventions so nothing goes amiss
  •     Many of the standard procedures done during hospital births increase your risk of needing other invasive interventions, eventually cascading into requiring a cesarean section
  •     Like other major abdominal surgeries, C-sections expose mothers to significant risk, require a prolonged recovery, and leave large scars which can cause a wide range of chronic issues
  •     C-sections also expose infants to real risks and predispose them to a variety of chronic autoimmune and neurological issues
  •     This article will discuss the risks of C-sections, the situations where they are necessary, and some approaches that can be used to recover from them

Many traditions throughout history have come to view one’s birth as one of the most important moments in a human’s life as it sets the stage for all that follows. Unfortunately, much in the same way we desecrate the death process by over-medicalizing it (to the point research has found that doctors are less likely to seek end of life care at a medical facility1), the same issue also exists with childbirth.

Many physicians I know who are familiar with the hospital birthing process chose to skip it and give birth at home (along with many more doctors featured in a 2016 documentary2).

Conversely, a minority of childbirths do need advanced medical care. For those mothers, access to a hospital greatly benefits them, particularly if actions are taken to mitigate the most dangerous aspects of hospital birth.

As such, childbirth occupies a similar place as many other medical controversies; neither side of the issue is entirely correct. However, the data clearly shows the risk of routine C-sections outweighs their benefits so this article will attempt to expose what they aren’t tell you about them.

*** end quote ***

I was particularly interested in all the stats that were provided.  As well as the anecdotal evidence from the New Zealand Maoris, “getting a spark”, and the old practice of doctors would wack a baby’s soles to trigger a vigorous cry.  I thought it was a smack on the butt.  

In survival school, one of the mandatory lessons was about emergency child birth.  The essence was to do as little as possible until real help arrived.  Keep patient level, legs elevated, clean newspapers to keep the area as sterile as possible, get the baby crying (really), on mom’s chest, and don’t touch the cord.  And to ignore everything we’d seen on TV.  Laugh!

Came close twice, but no cigar.  In the closest case, commuting into NYC on a train, after the paramedics took her away, the old gent came up and complimented me on doing everything right.  Even mentioning the newspaper bedding and “sheets”.  He said he a was the head of obstetrics at Saint Vincents and would have intervened if I was doing anything wrong. His reticence was due to the malpractice law that rendered me immune but made him libel.  Dumb law.  I was almost pooping MY pants  that I might have to deliver.  Labor pains were a minute intervals.  But Saint Simeon the Holy Fool was with me that day.

Glad I never had to make any of these hard decisions as outlined in the article.

I would hope that the incentive structure for “health care” gets straightened out.

Argh!

—30—


HEALTHCARE: EVERYONE needs a Patient Advocate

Sunday, March 16, 2025

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14470923/pennsylvania-mom-dad-son-rare-disease-gunnar-woodring.html

How mom and dad’s quick-thinking actions helped save son’s life from rare disease
By JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 20:35 EST, 6 March 2025 | Updated: 20:42 EST, 6 March 2025 

*** begin quote ***

The parents of a five-year-old boy from Pennsylvania are being praised for making the quick-thinking decision to return to hospital, despite being recently discharged.  

Gunnar Woodring was known to be a bright and lively child until early January when his health suddenly took a terrifying turn for the worse. 

Initially diagnosed with influenza, his condition rapidly deteriorated, alarming his mother, Katie Woodring.

‘I said, Gunnar, are you having a hard time breathing? And he nodded yes. And I said to my husband, I know we were just discharged, but we need to go back to the emergency room,’ Katie said. 

Her maternal instincts proving to be lifesaving.

*** and ***

Doctors credit Gunnar’s survival to his parents’ quick actions and their refusal to ignore their instincts.

‘Had they not recognized that this was more than just the flu, more than just a mild viral illness. 

‘They knew very early on that this child was quite ill and they did what great parents do: they advocated, and they said there’s something not right, so they saved their child’s life,’ Dr. Frank Maffei, Chair of Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Critical Care at Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, said.

*** end quote ***

EVERYONE needs a Patient Advocate. 

Not just a little child.  The patient is not is a position to see and hear everything that’s going on.  

As a PiA (Patient Advocate aka Giant Pain In The <synonym for donkey>) for my sainted wife, I keep my own chart and logs.  I documented every interaction that happened in the hospital.  And, I don’t take no <synonym for excrement> when the SHIF and she’s going into shock (low blood sugar) or coma (high blood sugar),  I understand that the nursing staff can’t stand by 24/7, but I could.  Once went 30 hours without a break during one tough interval. 

I often thought I should have written a book about advocating for your patient.  (Like the time I called the local Fire Department when there was an on-oxygen patient sneaking smokes in an overcrowded temporary ward in an old conference room. The Fire Chief personally thanked me after he shutdown the ER from accepting new patients.  The head of the hospital wasn’t as happy when she visited my wife the day after.  Like I cared.  Frau asked me if I did it; I proudly said “sure did and I’d do it faster next time.”  Never had the chance or need.)  I found that the “head docs” never were upset or rude to me when I put in my “advice”.  Their lesser team members were not as cordial.  I’d seen a “head doc” have a heated hallway conversation with a “little doc” on more tha one occasion.  Funny how much you can see when you are only focus on “your patient”.

I had all sorts of tricks to ingratiate myself to the staff (i.e., all ways thank and compliment the cleaning staff; box of donuts for the night nurses; never ask for a service I could do myself; never try to “help” the patient use the ladies room unless the nurse needed help).  You have to strictly observe the boundaries.  Remember you’re there to watch, record, and report.  Not get in the way.  The staff should barely know you are there.  Remembering their names is easy when you write them all down.

Laugh!  I could have take better notes if I had court reporter training.  But I used some self-generated forms that helped a lot.

Bottom line:  TL;DR. Always trust your instincts; docs and teams make mistakes.

—30—


HEALTHCARE: BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart keeps heart failure patients alive until a donor heart is available

Friday, March 14, 2025

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

*** begin quote ***

Heart of Steel Titanium

An Australian man in his 40s lived for a record 105 days with a titanium heart before receiving a donor heart transplant March 6. Though five patients in the US had previously been implanted with BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart, he is the first to be discharged from the hospital with the device and has the longest survival period between implantation and transplantation.

The device uses magnetic levitation technology—like that used in high-speed trains—to suspend a single moving part, a rotor, which pumps blood through the body. An external system controls the device, adjusting blood flow based on the patient’s activity. Experts say it could be a solution for heart failure patients awaiting transplants and may become a permanent option for those ineligible for transplants due to age or other conditions, though further testing is required.

Approximately 6.7 million Americans over age 20 have heart failure, and around 4,600 heart transplants were performed in 2024. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved expanding the trial to include 15 more participants. 

*** end quote ***

Now that is a real boon to people whose heart is on its way to failure.  And death.

Soon maybe they won’t need donors or pigs.

Amazing.

—30—


HEALTHCARE: Here’s proof that postpartum depression has a physical manifestation

Friday, March 7, 2025

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

*** begin quote ***

Postpartum Neurology

Women with postpartum depression symptoms exhibited corresponding shifts in the size of certain brain regions, according to a study this week. The study provides the first neurological evidence of the condition’s impact, which affects as much as one in seven pregnant women worldwide.

Researchers analyzed a series of brain scans of 88 first-time mothers without a history of depression. They then compared the images to answers given in standard questionnaires used to diagnose postpartum depression. Nearly 30 women who showed moderate to severe symptoms of the condition saw enlargement of the amygdala and hippocampus, key regions of the brain that regulate emotion. Whether the enlarged anatomy causes the depression or vice versa remains unclear.

The condition has been studied for centuries, though data has stemmed from reported experiences rather than anatomical observations. Severe postpartum depression typically manifests as extreme mood swings, extended periods of sadness, and loss of sleep, and its severity distinguishes it from milder, more common “baby blues.”

*** end quote ***

So this is another finding that it’s “not in your head” psychosomatic craziness.  It’s a real demonstrable physical symptom.

Do we have to revisit all the baby killings by moms with baby blues?

—30—


HEALTHCARE: Old medical bills and some tactics for dealing with them

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/how-to-not-pay-your-medical-bills-e9d195e6?st=Smcycm

How to Not Pay Your Medical Bills

  • Actually, that’s easy. This is how I paid a lot less.

By Joel Stein
Feb. 20, 2025 10:25 am ET

*** begin quote ***

As you probably recall, I had a mole removed about a year ago. As fresh as this is in all of our memories, a year is a fair bit of time, so I was surprised to get a bill in the mail for $604.80 from a company called DermTech. Apparently, much like wedding gifts, you have a year to send someone a medical bill.

*** end quote ***

A friend of mine, who is retired and better off than me, has a different strategy.  He calls and asks for a payment plan.  He offers 5$/month since that’s “all his budget allows”.  Each month he mails 5$ paper checks by US mail.  Sometimes people call and say don’t bother since processing the checks costs them more than 5$.  I don’t understand that but it seems to work for him. 

My only experience with “delayed billing” was with a hospital bill for my sainted wife’s last hospital stay that was about TWO YEARS prior.  It was bill for about 1½ M dollars.  That certainly made my eyes water. Talking to them yielded that someone forgot to send it to the insurance company and I should submit it to my insurance company. 

Instead, I called my lawyer.  His firm was conflicted out because they represent the hospital.  He recommended any local lawyer could take care of this with one letter.  Found one with an office near my home.  One visit.  TWO LETTERS required. 

First one to the hospital asking for their agreement with the insurance company.  After a two week delay, he sent a SECOND LETTER to the hospital that their agreement with the insurance company required all bills to be submitted within 180 days and, if not, were deemed “closed”.  A month later he got a letter saying basically “You’re right.  Have a nice day”.  Cost me about $400.  Slightly better than 1½ M$!   

At no extra charge, the local lawyer pointed out that the hospital wouldn’t want to make an issue out of it since the contract with the hospital applied to all hospital bills even if the patient was not insured or insured with some other insurance company.  I can understand why they don’t want that to become common knowledge.  Wonder if the hospital’s lawyers cleaned up their contracts?

Of course, YMMV.

—30—


HEALTH: COVID-19 brain fog cleared in N-of-1 trial

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-first-in-man-oral-proteolytic?publication_id=1119676&post_id=157693736&isFreemail=true&r=3snn7d&triedRedirect=true

BREAKING–First-in-Man Oral Proteolytic and Thrombolytic Dissolution of Intra-Arterial COVID-19 Vaccine Thrombi

  • Complex Blend of Oral Enzymes and Natural Ingredients Clears Brain Fog and Removes Impending Stroke Risk in Heavily Vaccinated Patient

Feb 24, 2025
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

*** begin quote ***

While McCullough Protocol Base Spike Protein Detoxification with Ultimate Spike Detox has quickly grown to a global standard for managing long-COVID and complications after COVID-19 vaccination, at the McCullough Foundation we continue to seek innovative solutions to more rapidly and completely manage the health problems brought on by the pandemic.

In this breaking interview, Dr. Takuji Shirasawa from the Ochanomizu Health and Longevity Clinic describes a 60-year old Japanese man who took 4 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines and presented with a loss of mental clarity otherwise known as “brain fog.” Shirasawa used MR angiography to demonstrate sessile bilateral arterial thrombi in the carotid bulbs. His hypothesis was that mini-blood clots may be responsible for the neurological and cognitive symptoms.

Shirasawa performed a N-of-1 trial giving the patient a complex blend of oral proteolytic and thrombolytic enzymes featuring nattokinase, bromelain, serrapeptase, and papain adding over a dozen natural ingredients given in proprietary blends from Texas based Phytomedic Labs. The patient was also administered aspirin 100 mg per day.

*** end quote ***

This certainly good news.  It proves that “brain fog” really does exist by MR angiography.  So anyone who says the symptoms are all in your head is correct but not in the way they mean it (i.e., psychosomatic).

I was also fascinated by the term of art “N-of-1 trial” that I never heard of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_of_1_trial 

*** begin quote ***

An N of 1 trial (N=1) is a multiple crossover clinical trial, conducted in a single patient.[1] A trial in which random allocation is used to determine the order in which an experimental and a control intervention are given to a single patient is an N of 1 randomized controlled trial. Some N of 1 trials involve randomized assignment and blinding, but the order of experimental and control interventions can also be fixed by the researcher.[2]

This type of study has enabled practitioners to achieve experimental progress without the work of designing a group comparison study. This design, especially if including blinding and wash-out periods, can be effective in confirming causality. N-of-1 trials, if used in clinical practice to inform therapeutic decisions concerned with the patient participating in the trial, can be a source of evidence about individual treatment responses, fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine.[3][4] 

*** end quote ***

Never heard that before.  Heard of “case reports” as anecdotal evidence.  But those were always dismissed as “unscientific”.

As always, this is just hearsay until it happens to you or a loved one.

Nice to know such a treatment exists and appears to work.

—30—


HEALTHCARE: COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign was Off the Rails from the Start

Sunday, January 26, 2025

https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/five-signs-the-covid-19-vaccine-campaign?publication_id=1119676&post_id=154884648&isFreemail=true&r=3snn7d&triedRedirect=true

Five Signs the COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign was Off the Rails from the Start
Dr. McCullough with Dean Boffa on the Prometheus Project
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Jan 18, 2025

*** begin quote ***

 I appeared on the Prometheus Project with Professor Dean Boffa and gave some indicators that should have told us all, particularly doctors and nurses that the program was off the rails from the start:

  • Novel genetic mechanism of action (Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen, AstraZeneca) producing the dangerous and potentially lethal Wuhan Spike protein for an uncontrolled quantity and duration of time, meaning there was no understanding of the pharmacokinetics / pharmacodynamics of mRNA or Spike protein
  • Flawed short term trials in low-risk patients without hospitalization and death as the primary endpoint and no short term signal that vaccination reduced these important outcomes
  • Public administration to women of childbearing potential and pregnant mothers
  • Substantial encouragement and later mandates to administer over and over again to COVID-19 recovered patients with natural immunity—no matter when and how many times SARS-CoV-2 infection occurred
  • Failure to perform, frequent, regular, and independent data safety monitoring which should have led to very early termination of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign

Dean Boffa is a professor in the Political Science department at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, who has demonstrated great courage in the face of Canadian authoritarian censorship.

*** end quote ***

I was skeptical when they did everything so quickly.  Usually drug trials literally take years; this was weeks.

I was more skeptical when young men started dropping dead from “heart attacks”.  Prior to this insanity, I could only remember one Maryland basketball player who had a hidden heart defect.

I became insane about it when I found that hospitals got big bucks for coding people as dying from Covid.  Especially the poor soul who died in a motorcycle accident who was coded as “Covid” so the hospital could cash in.

After that, anything that was “reported”, I immediately categorized as “Barbara Streisand” aka Bull <synonym for excrement>.

“I wouldn’t believe you, if your tongue came notarized.” … attributed to Judge Marilyn Milian, but may have an earlier history.

When will people go to prison for this fraud?

—30—


HEALTHCARE: Hospitals are deadly; never forget it

Thursday, January 16, 2025

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/12/13/hospitalization.aspx?ui=f9839516412491bb1e06c9e47058c6fb81b9b9b6acedf03e65e93dfdb263c1b9&sd=20210317&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20241213&foDate=false&mid=DM1672472&rid=183055644

What Makes Hospitals So Deadly and How Can We Fix It?
Analysis by A Midwestern Doctor

December 13, 2024

  • Throughout COVID-19, abysmal hospital care and the suppression of effective off-patent therapies killed approximately a million Americans. Much of this originated from Obamacare pressuring hospitals to aggressively treat patients so they could quickly leave the hospital and reduce health care costs
  • More frail patients respond poorly to aggressive protocols, resulting in them frequently being pushed into palliative care or hospice. Sadly doctors are no longer trained to gradually bring their patients back to health, and hence view many of those deaths as inevitable
  • During COVID-19, hospitals enforced rigid protocols centered around remdesivir and ventilators while denying alternative treatments, even in cases where patients were likely to die — in one striking example, patients who received court-ordered ivermectin had a 95% survival rate compared to just 5% for those denied it
  • Current medical training emphasizes following standardized protocols rather than practicing individualized medicine, with younger doctors being trained to execute procedures rather than critically examine cases and adjust treatment plans for each patient
  • In this article, we will review some of the forgotten medical therapies that dramatically improve hospital outcomes and highlight some of the key strategies patients and lawmakers can use to reduce hospital deaths

*** begin quote ***

During COVID-19, we witnessed something previously unimaginable. A national emergency hospitalized thousands of Americans, where they were cut off from their loved ones and inevitably died. It soon became clear that the hospital protocols did not work, but regardless of how futile conventional care was, patients in our hospitals could not get the alternative therapies they needed.

This led to a sobering realization throughout America — what many of us believed about our hospitals was utterly incorrect. Rather than help patients, hospitals effectively functioned like assembly lines that ran disastrous protocols (e.g., remdesivir), denied patients access to their loved ones and refused to use alternative therapies even when it was known the patients were otherwise expected to die.

This was best illustrated by a travel nurse who was assigned to the New York hospital with the highest death tolls in the nation and realized something very wrong was happening throughout the hospital so she covertly recorded it:

{Extraneous Deleted}

*** end quote ***

It’s hard to imagine that a system that is based on “first do no harm” can deliver such an abominable result.

A plague on all their houses,

Clearly, the system needs to dismantled  and reassembled.

And, some trials and tribunals to assess blame and punishment.

Surely, McDonalds needs fry cooks.

—30—

 


HEALTHCARE: How could AI and “big data” change our healthcare

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/01/james-anthony/clinicians-should-lead-in-improving-healthcare-by-sharing-big-data/

lewrockwell.com
Clinicians Should Lead in Improving Healthcare, by Sharing Big Data
By James Anthony January 3, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Clinicians’ future practice will use big data, instantly.

A clinician will start with a profile of what’s already known about his customer’s genetics, health history, and lifestyle. He will add his current observations. He will then query to find out, for customers who match his customer either closely or closely enough, what outcomes all other clinicians have seen using their own best practices, from as far back as has been recorded to as recently as has been added.

He will consider what interventions will be his best practice for his customer right now—maybe trying a lower dose that might lessen side effects, maybe trying a higher dose that might increase efficacy. He will add these interventions to his customer’s profile.

Later, if he learns anything more about this intervention’s safety or efficacy, he will add this information to that profile.

Unlike in current practice, in future practice all releasable information that’s known about all customers will be collected, shared, pooled, interpreted, and used to guide the next interventions by the next clinicians everywhere.

The resulting model of customers’ responses won’t be biased by only collecting information about unrepresentative groups of customers and adequate dosing regimens. Instead, the model of all the world’s customers will be all the world’s customers. Also, dosing regimens will be as closely tailored as producers make available to support.

*** end quote ***

Ideally this should be happening now.  BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), will the current cast of “rent seekers”, grifters, monopolists, oligarchs,politicians and bureaucrats allow this to happen?

An effective and efficient model would squeeze the parasites out of their current “gravy train” cash flow.  After all, if a healthcare professional can see what works best for their patient, then the cost of trial and error to find out is eliminated.  Think of all the redundant and excessive testing that is done now to avoid and defend against malpractice suits.  And where there is “malpractice”, then there would be a road map as to why it is demonstrable.

Again, I see the problem getting to this future is all the entrenched parasites.

Argh!

—30—


HELATHCARE: Get the bureaucrats out of “healthcare” and enable consumer choice by the States

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/12/james-anthony/make-healthcare-efficient-again/

Make Healthcare Efficient Again

  • The single biggest wasteful spending inside and outside governments is on healthcare. To make healthcare efficient and innovative, customers need usable healthcare-product descriptions.

By James Anthony
December 11, 2024

*** begin quote ***

Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency plan is to cancel major regulations, reduce headcounts, and defund inadequately-authorized expenditures and waste, but not to shrink entitlement programs.

This plan would require legislators to stop using the executive power to allocate budgets, presidents and bureaucrats to stop using legislative power to pass rules, and judges to start opining quickly and broadly against presidents and bureaucrats.

Congressmen, presidents and bureaucrats, and judges have other plans.

*** and ***

Also, the rules would need to make healthcare product descriptions sufficiently simple and clear that customers could use these descriptions to make their best choices when they shop:

  • A fee for office work could be like a lawyer’s rate for office work. A fee for surgery could be like a lawyer’s rate for courtroom work.
  • Test instructions could be transmissible to testing producers. Also, testing producers could list their pricing.
  • Therapy recommendations could be readable by customers. The recommendation on a drug, for instance, could provide all the information that would be needed to shop for the drug if it was available over-the-counter.
  • Procedures could have full packages of features built in, like auto models have. Foreseeable complications could be priced separately, and a worst-case total not exceeded.
  • Quality could be quantified. Procedure sellers could use their past rates of complications to calculate their customers’ average cost for complications.
  • Customers could then compare procedure sellers’ total price plus complications, like customers compare product sellers’ total price plus shipping.

*** end quote ***

I especially like my fiancé’s pharmacy experience overseas.  She walks into the Phamacia and says I want X.  The pharmacist says here it is or “I don’t have it but I do have Y”.  And for pocket change, she has all she needs.  Of course, she knew what she needed.  But she could have consulted a hotel doctor, or got a list from the Embassy. 

But on a transaction basis, it was quick, easy, and cheap.  Of course, “illegal drugs” would be clean, exact, and cheaper than the street deals.

All the money in “prohibition” could be put to “rehabilitation” for those that want it.  Like Portugal.

Argh!

—30—