Senator Frist Becomes Medical Volunteer

Sen. Frist Becomes Medical Volunteer

Sunday September 4, 2005 1:31 AM

By JONATHAN M. KATZ

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bill Frist took off his senator's coat on Saturday and flew for New Orleans as a medical volunteer. But what he found among the thousands needing treatment from Hurricane Katrina was a rescue effort in chaos: patients sleeping on luggage conveyors, teams of nurses who didn't know each other's names and a total communication breakdown.

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Frist left Washington around 4:30 a.m. Saturday on his private plane. He spent most of the day helping to treat thousands of victims at Louis Armstrong International Airport and the New Orleans Convention Center.

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After overnighting in Nashville, Tenn., following his day in New Orleans, Frist planned to return to the Gulf Coast on Sunday to work in storm-ravaged areas of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as returning with supplies to New Orleans.

He plans to be back in Washington by the time the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday. He said the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts will go forward as planned.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5254123,00.html

He came as a poltician. He will administer a few shots. He will have photo ops.He will head back to the snake pit in D.C. to further the Republican agenda.

They just need to forward video tapes for his "diagnosis".

But as Senate majority leader he could do a lot more to lead the fight for national health care that would benefit millions.

Explain to me why he wasn't down there the day after it happened or two days after, instead of testing the political winds, seeing how he can benefit in his run for President in 2008 and using his "medical" expertise as a political weapon against his opponent.

This reeks of political opportunism and fake caring.

Besides, do you want to be treated by a leech like this who thinks AIDS can be transmitted through tears and makes a diagnosis after watching a video tape. He may remove a spleen for a broken arm.

A perform a few other Miracles AS WELL.

like fox & cnn reporters. stranger things have happened, but i won't be holding my breath.

President in 08.

This is window dressing for 2008. I imagine he had a camera crew taping his every move.

please don't let them let the cat killer touch ANYBODY...

don't use Al Gore's name in the same sentence with Frist. Al Gore was held back from landing there,for 3 days, until Bunnypants made his grand entrance for the photo op. When they finally allowed him in,Al Gore took 131 hospital patients out of there in a plane he paid for himself with staff to help the evacuated people.

Al Gore has more leadership in one hair follicle than all the hairy-backed members of chimp & co.

I wrote this myself, so I hope the mods won't have a problem with me posting the whole article.

http://www.algore.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=272&Itemid=81

Breaking: Gore in New Orleans to aid Katrina victims

Updated: CNN reports that Al Gore has landed a plane in New Orleans, and will fly approximately 100 of the most critically ill to hospitals in Tennessee.

According to Alexis Simendinger of the National Journal, Gore organized the relief flights earlier this week, but was delayed for several days trying to get clearance from FEMA, which required a Federal Department to request special numbers for each patient transported by private conveyance. The flight consisted of two American Airlines planes, paid for by Gore himself.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4054083,00.html

Haven from fury Mercy Flight Brings Evacuees to ET

Gore accompanies about 140 arrivals from New Orleans but declines to take credit

By ROBERT WILSON

(snip)

About 140 people - mostly elderly and infirm - arrived Saturday at McGhee Tyson Airport on a chartered mercy flight from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, welcomed to East Tennessee by a bright sun and a host of medical professionals straining at the reins to help their fellow human beings without regard to whether they were on the clock.

The displaced hurricane victims came to Tennessee on a hastily arranged flight, accompanied by doctors and carrying whatever they had in boxes, bags or, in one case, an old suitcase tied up with rope.

Former Vice President Al Gore arranged the flight and was on board, but he declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be "politicized."

(more... )

I'm asking why do VIP's get let in, but qualified law enforcement and EMT officials from neighboring states get turned around at the border?

I don't know if they jerked Frist around as well before letting him in.

is that the Bush Agenda? or are they 1 and the same?

one patient every three minutes or so? Poor people used to that kinda medical care. What a crock a shit.

180

eom

I doubt he would be there otherwise and risk getting sweated and cried on by an AIDs patient.

the real doctors and nurses were there in the middle of a fucking war zone trying to stay alive for their charges. pleading for help, giving each other iv`s to stay alive, and throwing up because even they couldn`t stand the stench.
pat yourself on the back you stupid cat killer and stand aside for the real men and women so they can do the job

Will he walk through the filthy water? Will he breathe the foul air? Will he donate his body to science?

Nah. He'll expect all of _us_ to do those things after he becomes president via this photo op. Or so he hopes.

;)

Honest to god..what a slime.

Wonder if he'll be diagnosing people via video tape.
He's NO physician.

he looks like an opportunist. It looks like he is seeking a photo-op. He is an unprincipled shit and this comes across negatively.

what a slimy opportunist.

there.

Frist? Why weren't you on the phone demanding the WH get those patient's out. Why didn't you demand that doctors and medicine be gotten to the Superdome and Convention Center?

Oh and I notice your ass is too soft to sleep at the airport overnight with the rabble.

And then there would have been one of those matter/anti-matter things and the universe would have ended?

Isn't that his specialty?

I'm sure he'll be videotaping his volunteer service to use in his campaign spots.

I think what he did was right. I don't care that he's a politician - he came down to help and volunteer, and he's got the skills needed in the disaster area. whether it's a photo-op i could care less. He's helping people and my hat's off to him for it. Him being wrong on the issues politically is a different issue, which shouldn't be mixed in with this commendable act.

I don't want him as a politician, but I sure do want him in NOLA, Miss, or Alabama as a doctor. He's a lot more useful that way.

I commend them, even if I have to grit my teeth to do it.

unless you mean rabid religious right. He's there as a cynical political opportunist. That's who he is.

If he was even just half a man he would put some fire in some one pants by telling the truth. He is in on the scam of letting N.O. swing in the wind just like the rest of them. As a matter fact he might even be even worse for having the training of a medical doctor and being able to know what things are not being done correctly with knowledge he learned through his internship (however lightweight it was).

He did more to help the people down there than I did today.

Then again, one can assume that, as majority leader, he did his part to gut the budgets that were needed to forestall and/or minimize the damage that this disaster did to the city of New Orleans. One can praise the deed without losing sight of the overall behavior.

But he remains very, very bad.

Otherwise, he's a RW shill and worse.

MKJ

Doctors need to take a certain number of continuing education credits to maintain their license. I doubt that Frist has bothered to take the time to do so between politicking and fund-raising. He's been a full-time politician since 1996.

Checking the record, I found that he still has a medical license in TN, but he doesn't have hospital privileges anyplace in the state. That's a pretty good sign that he hasn't actually practiced medicine in years. Given his public comments about Terri Schaivo, AIDS, condom failure, etc. I think that he's dangerously behind on his medical education.

Recently, the American Board of Internal Medicine threatened to revoke Frist's certification over his behavior during the Terri Schiavo debacle. It's grossly unprofessional for a doctor to publically diagnose a patient he's never seen or treated. He also faces similar complaints with the Tennessee medical board.

Under ordinary circumstances, he'd also need to pass the medical board exam in the state of LA, unless TN and LA have reciprocal agreements concerning such things. Of corse, given the circumstances, I'd imagine such bureaucratic niceties have been swept away.

So, while LA might be willing to respect a current medical license from a neighboring state, I doubt that they'd be thrilled to have an unqualified physician treating people who need specialized care (emergency medicine, infectious disease, internists, psychiatry), even under the current circumstances.

If Bush was a smart man he should have been pulling people off roofs with his helicopter.

1) He knows that he can do a hell of a lot more good as a political leader. Generals fight wars by making plans and commanding troops. Nobody expects them to pick up a rifle and do a private or sergeant's job unless the situation absolutely demands it. If Generals acted in that way, it would just screw up the battle plan.

2) He might not have a license to practice medicine in the affected areas. A physician can't just set up shop where s/he pleases - s/he has to pass a state certification exam first.

3) He might have duties to patients in his current medical practice - a doctor can't just close up his/her practice and jaunt off on a whim.

4) He might recognize that that a high-profile doctor-turned-politician going to "help out" is just a cynical public relations stunt, likely to inconvenience the people on the ground more than it could possibly help.

Frist is grandstanding, of course. Were Dean to do the same thing it would also be perceived as grandstanding.

he knows at this point he is not a physician. He may be in name, but he knows he has not touched a patient and has lost those skills to be competent at it. Bill Frist on the other hand seems to think those skills stay sharp even though they are not used. Bill Frist seems to think that a cardiothoracic surgeon is qualified to practice emergency medicine after 10 years of non-practice. Because Bill Frist wants to use the term MD in this situation he is grossly misrepresenting his abilities. He has earned the title as Howard Dean has, but to run down there and throw that title out there is a shameful act.

He shoulda gone first. Oh well, as much as I dislike Frist, if he stays more than just a few hours at least he's helping out.

Physicians turned politicians are much more useful acting as politicians. They're in a unique position to coordinate medical and relief efforts and to cut through red tape.

We need Dean right where he is. Grandstanding at a tragedy by playing heroic missionary doctor for a few hours is reprehensible. Some political bigwig horning in on a rescue effort that's finally coalesced will just screw things up for the people on the ground. Dean knows that, Frist doesn't.

Frist and his gang pulled the feeding tube out of New Orleans.

all by himself.

eofm

So, Dr. Frist, don't try to impress me with a few hours or days of self-serving volunteer work. You are complicit in the deaths of thousands. In a sensible world, you would be on the run, and the people of this country, through their law enforcement agencies, would be hunting you down to bring you and your kind to justice. The fact that you are free to profit from the all suffering you caused is an abomination.

Unfortunately, justice will have to wait for better days and times. In the meantime, my wish for you: May the people of NO find you, tar and feather you for what your evil agenda has wreaked upon them, and run your sorry ass out of town.

"I assume the president's going to say he got bad intelligence... I think that wherever you see poverty, whether it's in the white rural community or the black urban community, you see that the resources have been sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich." -- Congressman Charles B. Rangel

'Today I saw 5,000 African-Americans on Highway 10, desperate, perishing, dehydrating, babies crying - it looked like the hold of a slave ship. It's so ugly and obvious. The issue of race as a factor will not go away.'

Let's hope that he doesn't come across any brain-damaged patients.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

I wonder how many hurricane victims have died or suffered needlessly because Bush hasn't taken Castro up on his offer to send over a thousand doctors and emergency supplies?

From what I've heard, Cuban physicians are fairly good.

More to the point, they've probably got lots of experience dealing with hurricane survivors in a sub-tropical climate under relatively primitive conditions.

People forget that earlier this year Hurricane Dennis (also a Category 4 Hurricane) traveled right along the length of the island of Cuba:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/DENNIS.shtml?

People were still killed, but we didn't hear reports of massive mayhem like along the US Gulf coast. No matter what you think of their political system, we can learn a lot from Cuba about hurricane preparedness.

I find out where I put my VHS player. I always try to be helpful.

Fat lot of good that's going to do. Where was Frist when the budget for FEMA was gutted?

A surgeon of his capability (well, before letting his skills go to pot while playing politician) should've flown down there in his private plane earlier. What was he doing all that time?

My husband can't go down there. We're not independently wealthy like Frist is, and he can't get the time off work. It might work out okay, as it's looking like our National Guard base might get some of the evacuees, all of them needing medical attention, but we talked seriously about it and went through it all, and he just can't go. He and I are sick about the conditions these poor souls are in, but the need is great here for doctors (we're an underserved area, whatever the government says), and the practice he's in is swamped right now.

It'd be so nice to have a job he could just take time off whenever he wanted, to have the money to just go and volunteer whenever he wanted, and a private plane to fly around in. Frist should've been down there sooner, and he better put that plane to good use while he's there.

I have a nurse friend (ICU and ER mostly--exactly whom they need) who spent an entire day calling FEMA and everyone she could think of who'd take her on as a volunteer, and she was told over and over again that they weren't letting even medical volunteers down there. She finally got a call back from the Red Cross who wants her to go through some training thing they have later this week before she can go. It's not like they won't need her, but they could've had her sooner.

FEMA and the federal government screwed this up, and people--thousands of good, good people--have died because of it. They need to pay for their sins.

This is an old trick by ambitious pols. It'll be all about the photo ops. He'll be in no danger. If he is sincere, good for him, and he doesn't need my approval, but I think presumption wisely rests with skepticism here.

has Bill Frist made the ultimate jump from animal to human euthanasia and experimentation??? Will he test the possibility of catching AIDS from tears? BEWARE, PUNY HUMANS: THE DOCTOR IS IN.

Seriously, I wouldn't let that scumbag near me. Go kill some cats, F**kmunch.

if you see some creepy looking, smarmy assed dude shaking a box of Friskies - run like hell.

All apologies.

His "private" plane. Why did he not evacuate some of the babies who need medical care, the newborns? Or maybe that poor 100 year old lady I saw being carried through the city streets by no less than angels... Gore evacuated people, and Frist left by himself.

I'm grateful if he provided real medical care.. but if I hear later from those around him that he was doing nothing, he will not even be elected Arabian Horse Judge Commissioner (see Michael Brown, FEMA dir. bio for that reference).

Isn't that what he said? AIDS can be transmitted by tears and sweat? Plenty of that in NO right now...

open his eyes, but I won't hold my breath.

Pardon my skepticism, but it seems that this is a desperate pr move to attempt to pull the administration's ratings out of the toilet.
I would be interested to hear what other volunteers working with him have to say about the reality of his performance. He was a highly paid heart surgeon who hasn't done anything for years, not an emergency room triage expert!

The American Board of Internal Medicine threatened to revoke his board certification for his comments during Terri Schaivo. He also faces complaints to the Tennessee Medical Board about his comments over Schaivo, AIDS, condom failure, etc.

According to the Tennessee Medical Licensing Board, he still has the license, but he doesn't have hospital privileges listed. That's a fairly good sign that he's retired from medicine. I doubt the man's touched a scalpel since he got elected to the senate in 1996. If so, his medical knowledge could be dangerously out of date.

but bill frist is nothing but a CUNT. I'll probably have this post deleted, but I want to call a spade a spade. He's dispicable and is doing nothing but a bunch of PR photo-ops in order to get himself in the running for the campaign in 2008. I hope he falls in the shitty water and gets a mouthful if not more. . . .

Quack touch me!

Last I counted, there were 100 senators and something like 1,000,000 (?) physicians in the US.

The nation doesn't need one non-practicing cardiologist in NOLA a week after the fact. It needed 10,000 emergency medicine and public health specialists ready to go last Friday.

As a senator, Frist could have made that happen, but he didn't. As a senator, he could keep a catastrophe of this sort from ever happening again by galvanizing government and the medical community using his position and the remnants of his medical training. He could also be coordinating government medical relief efforts for the refugees. (Hint: Free government medical care, medicines and public health measures for the destitute, to prevent the spread of infectious disease into the general population.)

I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that Dr. Frist hasn't touched a scalpel or medical textbook in years, that he isn't up on his continuing medical education (required to maintain an MD license), and he sure as hell isn't qualified to provide the sort of medical care the refugees need.

This is just a cynical PR move on his part.

He could have diagnosed them via videotape :evilgrin:

it might be kitten steak!!

especially after his diagnosis of shivo

fucking asshole

Oh, wait...

on the poor guy. Having to smell the odors ect. My--My.

Oh, brother. :eyes:

Hell, he offered a full opinion of Terry Schiavo while watching a video.

he causes more commotion than he is helping.

Said in jest, I really hope he will help and not get in the way by doing crap like photo ops and interviews like he did for his tsunami visit.

they shouldn't have to put up with an incompetent md

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

Physician, heal thyself.