What the Martin Family’s Medical Nightmare Says about Our Healthcare System
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 10:26AM This has clearly been an intense few days for many individuals who have re-lived the nightmare of Chris Martin’s illness last fall. Most obviously for Mary McGonigle-Martin and Tony Martin, and for Melissa Herzog, whose daughter, Lauren, was sick at the same time and at the same hospital as Chris. But also for a number of other individuals, like Ken Conrad, who shared their own stories of medical nightmares.
There’s been so much food for thought, as it were, that I don’t want to try to say too much more. I’ll just make a few personal observations by way of adding to this ongoing discussion.
One thing the story did was remind me of the challenges any of us face when an emergency thrusts us into the midst of the healthcare system’s urgent care services. It’s a system much different from that portrayed on Grey’s Anatomy, where doctors and nurses agonize and debate about each patient’s care. (At least I think that's what happens--I have only caught bits and pieces of the program, since I usually can't stand to watch it for very long.)
I got a slight taste of the realities last summer, when I badly cut my finger in an accident. After five hours of waiting in a hospital emergency room, I finally got to see a plastic surgeon. She confirmed that I had partially severed a tendon, and thus required highly delicate surgery. She administered painkiller, and began her cutting and sewing. Yet even in the midst of her efforts, she was interrupted three times to consult with other doctors and/or tend to other patients. A 15-minute procedure wound up taking 45 minutes but, more disconcerting to me, made me wonder whether her effectiveness, and my finger’s long-term recovery, had been compromised. (It seems to be gradually returning to normal, ten months after the accident.) My point here is that the urgent care system is highly stressed.
Second, it reveals the problems of communication among physicians. I know that on even routine visits, it’s not uncommon for doctors to have obviously not reviewed my records. Once you begin moving around in the system, as Chris Martin did, it’s uncertain your records will quickly follow or, if they do, that they will be carefully scrutinized by harried physicians and nurses who have to administer care.
Third, it reveals the wide disparity in expertise and sensitivity among medical practitioners. They may all be highly trained technically, but they aren’t equally knowledgeable or sensitive. Thus, some doctors knew enough not to give Chris antibiotics, but others thought antibiotics were warranted. Mary remarked to me at one point that she felt as if she was pre-judged (negatively) because her son had consumed raw milk. “I think everyone would have been more compassionate toward us if Chris had become ill from spinach or Taco Bell, but when you tell the doctors he drank raw milk, and we gave it to him, they look at you as if they’re thinking, ‘Are you some sort of @&#% idiot!’ The experience was horrible!”
Fourth, it helps explain our fascination with technology. It can be argued that the system made Chris sicker than he should have been, but it’s clear that once he reached that stage, the system had some amazingly sophisticated equipment to keep him alive so that his body could begin to heal. Unfortunately, too many people observe such sophistication and think it can be substituted for natural functioning and healing.
Finally, there’s the tantalizing matter of what caused Chris' illness in the first place. I appreciate Elizabeth McInerney’s persistent probing and questioning about the role of raw milk in all this. (For the record, I wrote about Lauren Herzog's illness in a posting last December; the woman who served raw milk to Lauren Herzog, Chelsea Higholt, told me then that California authorities tested her milk and found no contamination.)
A scientific paper I just came across sheds further light on this subject but, of course, nothing definitive. A paper examining an outbreak of E.coli in Washington state concludes that unsanitary conditions led to the milk contamination. It indicates that the more milk individuals drank, the greater their likelihood of becoming sick. But it also comes to some questionable conclusions. For example, at the end it says there are 73,000 cases of illness from E.coli each year and "raw milk is an important vehicle of transmission..." As a proportion of 73,000 cases? I don't think so. Unfortunately, as several readers have suggested, it's nearly impossible to come up with definitive causes, and this is something that applies not just to situations involving raw milk.
At least one matter that is still outstanding here, and that is the reaction from Kaiser officials to the experience of Chris. I have asked Mary and Tony to let me know reactions they eventually learn from Kaiser officials to their concerns. It certainly would be nice to know that Kaiser is trying to learn from this situation.
Reader Comments (5)
In 2005, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Mark McAfee at the Wise Traditions conference in Washington D.C. He shared a story with me, and I think he also mentioned in a lengthy LA Times article. He said that you put a pathogen in vibrant raw milk, the pathogen will not be able to survive. However, if you put it in pastuerized milk, the pathogen will multiply. That's where testing raw milk could be tricky - if someone is sick from the raw milk, and then you test it the next day, the pathogens may ceast to exist.
Getting sick from raw milk may be akin to other ailments like the flu, a cold, or salmonella poisoning. Exposure does not always equate with illness. I have a very sensitive system with regard to salmonella (food poisoning). I'm like the canary when a group a people eat the same contaminated food - I might be the only one that has any signs of sickness. If others get sick, my sickness is exponentially worse. This condition has improved over the years as my overall gut health has improved, but I am still very cautious (those memories of illness do not fade fast).
Last but not least, I wanted to comment on this:
“I think everyone would have been more compassionate toward us if Chris had become ill from spinach or Taco Bell, but when you tell the doctors he drank raw milk, and we gave it to him, they look at you as if they’re thinking, ‘Are you some sort of @&#% idiot!’ The experience was horrible!”
This reminds me of a cancer patient who dies that shuns traditional treatment. "What an idiot! His family should sue the quack who gave him vitamins/herbs/etc." However, if a cancer patient dies after doing months of traditional treatments (chemo, radiation, etc), everyone says "He died fighting."
I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT RAW MILK WHEN MY DAUGHTER HAD IT SO OF COURSE MY REACTION WAS NOTHING BUT HORROR AND DISGUST OVER THE CONSUMPTION OF RAW MILK. ESPECIALLY SINCE MY DAUGHTER WAS NEVER EXPOSED TO IT BEFORE. AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, I WAS UPSET. WHEN HER PEDIATRICIAN WAS FINALLY TOLD, HE SAID "RAW MILK IS FOR BABY COWS, NOT HUMANS"
CALL ME IGNORANT, CALL ME WHATEVER YOU WANT, I HAVE TO AGREE WITH THE MAN, SORRY! I KNOW IM NOT POPULAR HERE ON THIS BLOG BUT "IT IS WHAT IT IS" AND WHEN YOUR CHILD ALMOST DIES FROM SOMETHING....YOU BET YOUR LIFE YOU WOULD NOT BE IN FAVOR OF IT, NO LESS TRY TO UNDERSTAND ITS BENEFITS. (THAT ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN BY THE WAY). I HAVE ALL THE PROOF I NEED...
THANK YOU,
MELISSA
I'm probably the only person that can follow your email. I understand your anger! You didn't choose raw milk for your daughter. You feel angry and I feel guilty....we make a great team :)
David, I want to thank you for posting our story. I'm feeling a bit more at peace about everything. Everyones comments have been healing.
I would like to leave this story on a positive note. Without a doubt our entire medical establishment is in dismal shape, but if your child does become critically ill, modern medicine works miracles.
The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Loma Linda's Children's Hospital is amazing. I will forever be in awe of the doctors and nurses. They save lives everyday! We were just another family spending time in their world.
We all watch hospital shows on T.V. and I can't tell you how scary it is to be on the "real" show. When your child is near death, ten doctors do show up in a room to save the day. Once Chris was intibated, all his vital signs went back to normal. When your child has a seizure, you scream for a doctor and from out of nowhere 4 doctors and 3 nurses show up; in the blink of an eye, you're rushed back to the PICU.
Ventilators, dialysis machines, blood transfusions, plasma transfusions, narcotics, blood pressure meds, TPN, central lines, MRI, and CT scans. They all saved Chris' and Lauren's life. All the people who have lived before us; for everyone who invented these life saving "things"--I feel nothing but graditude and love. All these great minds invented tools that allowed doctors and nurses to play God with our children. Without any of this, Chris and Lauren would have died quickly. I'm sure it only takes a few days to die after renal failure. Modern medicine saved our children! That's something to feel good about.
I like happy endings!
Mary
The "blueprint" you speak of - is it pulsed-field gel electrophoresis? I understand you to say 4 children who tested positive for E. coli had the same "blueprint". And since the only common denominator the busy epidemiologists in the midst of a country-wide E.coli outbreak (different blueprint, natch!) could come up with was the consumption of raw milk - case solved. Let's move along.
Sounds to me like a pretty pat answer, but the job isn't done until the facts add up. The milk/ colostrum came from two farms and three different product streams. Although I don't know how far apart these dairies are, to me it seems that a common blueprint is unlikely unless somehow the organism is pervasive in the environment. And - after all the testing that was done, E. coli should have been found if it was there.
It only takes a few cells of E coli to make someone really ill. That leaves the worrisome possiblity that when this summer rolls around, more children will get ill because they may not have IDed the real source.
What do you think the challenge test that Organic Pastures has done tells us ? They added e-coli 0157:H7 to raw milk and it died out within a few hours.They also added it to pasteurized milk and it flourished.
This tells me that I don't have to fear e-coli 0157:H7 if my digestive system is populated with plenty of the beneficial bacteria that live in raw milk.It also tells me that I don't want to consume anything that will diminish that healthy bacteria.
Sometimes a virus or something can upset the digestive system no matter how carefully we choose our food.When this happens it is best to reestablish that healthy community of bacteria as quickly as possible.Veterinary doctors have been using probiotics for years to treat diarreah. As far as treating the patient it matters little how the system got out of balance. The job at hand is to reestablish that healthy community of bacteria that protects us against things like e-coli 0157:H7
Using several antibiotics one after the other to treat food poisoning is maddness. To me it would be like spraying the pasture with one weed killer after the other and then being surprised when the whole pasture turns into a field of weeds that are resistant.