A Doctor's Story - Why I and my patients will miss Dr. Tiller

by dagan68
Share this on Twitter - A Doctor's Story - Why I and my patients will miss Dr. Tiller Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 10:08:42 AM PDT

I am an internist in Texas.
Dr. Tiller was the only physician in this part of the country to whom I could send patients for critical procedures.
I wanted to share a patient's story - and what has happened to that patient's family because of men like Dr. Tiller.
This is a true tragedy - I am just heart-broken.

dagan68's diary :: ::
A few years ago, I was on call to take unassigned patients from the ER. My job as an internist is to admit patients whom the ER doctor deems need to be admitted.

That night, I admitted a 32 year old man for chest pain. When I opened the door to his room, I realized that this was not a normal "chest pain" admission. Sure, that was his main complaint - however, he was in perfect physical shape, muscular, thin and healthy - not the usual McDonald's physique that would most likely produce coronary disease in a 32 year old.

He was, however, sobbing uncontrollably. He was completely stressed out - emotionally and spiritually. He cried and cried and cried. Through the tears, the story finally emerged. I would have been crying too, had it been me.

His wife was 28 weeks pregnant - about 7 months (far too late for a normal abortion). He and his wife had just been informed that day by their OB-GYN that the fetus had severe deformities of its heart's left ventricle and pulmonary veins. The fetus would live about 5 minutes upon birth. However, they were told, there was a surgical corrective measure that could be done immediately upon birth that would give the child a 10% chance of living to be 21. Furthermore, that procedure would require a 50,000 dollar co-pay - and the baby would have to have several very expensive open-heart procedures througout its lifetime. The total cost to them and their insurance company ( and by extension SOCIETY ) would likely be 2 - 3 million dollars in the first 15 years of the baby's life.

The young man was beside himself - not only with grief - but with overwhelming fear about the future. Any conscious human being with an IQ would be able to immediately realize the ENORMOUS FINANCIAL strain this would take on this young family.

This young man and his wife had discussed this together. They had decided that 50 years ago - if this had happened to their grandparents - the baby would be born and just die. They both decided together that they wanted to abort the fetus, mainly, just to get the death of the fetus over for all involved and to do so in a controlled way. They decided they would immediately begin working on another baby to join their other two. They had prayed about it, discussed it with their families and wanted it done.

Then they talked to their OB - and found out it was not going to happen in Texas. By the laws of the State of Texas - and by extension the Southern Baptist Convention, late-term abortions are impossible to be done here. And thus, in total despondency - my patient just could not handle the stress and ended up in the hospital with chest pain.

I spoke with Dr. Tiller's clinic the next day - and fortunately, he was able to help them very soon thereafter. This family now has 4 healthy kids - and more importantly, are not burdened with the financial disaster of having a child who needs open heart surgery every 3 years. They are ardent Evangelical church-goers and they called me this morning to share their intense grief at what had happened to someone they view as their hero.

These issues are so much more than just a surgical procedure for this family. Late-term abortions - despite what Bill O'Reilly has to say - are almost NEVER if EVER done for birth control or because someone just "doesn't want to be pregnant". They are NOT done to fix pregnancy-induced depression. They ARE done to abort fetuses who are found to have disastrous problems like this couple's baby. And in the process, relieve both the family and society from gigantic emotional and financial pain.

In all my years of practice, I have had a mere 2 women who have had to do this - one is above - the other was very similar.

I thank God there are men like Dr. Tiller who were out there doing this for the women of America.

May God Have Mercy on his soul - and be with his family in these trying hours.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/1/737587/-A-Doctors-StoryWhy-I-and-my-patients-will-miss-Dr.-Tiller

the greater our loss grows.

Will anyone step up and take his place?

Are there any heroes left out there, I wonder..............

provides the services that Dr. Tiller did. I forget his name, but he's in CO.

...I read about him yesterday and he said something to the effect that now that Dr. Tiller is gone, he is next on their list.

Those sick, anti-choice RW assholes. They need to rot in hell.

BTW: I read about that one tombstoned DUer who was dogging you and I read a bit of the thread it was on. I am so sorry this happened to you.

:hug:

rightwing troll finally get a pizza.

I saw a quote from him yesterday - I can't remember the source - and his last line was "I guess I'm next."

Can you imagine?

ONE physician in the whole United States? Where is their Hippocratic Oath? What are medical schools doing when tey allow their students to "opt out" of learning how to do abortions, presumably so as not to offend their tender religious sensibilities?

When did this PC bullshit get so out of hand?

What is WRONG with these people?

who wants to a walking target for any nut job. And it is not just them. Their staff is threatened, they live in fear.

It takes strong conviction. The Doc here that does abortions does it because he lost a friend in HS to a back alley abortion. Those of us that can remember those days are determined never to see them return, but alas we are getting older.

When does life begin. The fundamentalists push that day further and further to the point of being ridiculous-and this totally non biblical. When is a fetus a human being.....simple....when it draws it's first independent breath.

Until the advent of modern medical that saves younger and lower birth weight babies, these babies dies. I am a medical person and at the risk of seeming less than compassionate-I think there is too much heroics on this end of the spectrum. I work every day with special needs and fragile children. A whole industry has sprung up to support these children. We have a moral responsibility to take care of those that cross our path-we do not have the responsibility to save those that are not viable-that is not GOD-that is humans trying to be GOD.

I go to Church every Sunday and do volunteer work in church. I hold my faith as dear to me as any fundamentalist, but I think that my actions and words will work to persuade those seeking a better spiritual path. If Christ was about anything....it was love and compassion. The medical and religious community will miss a brave and compassionate man who now surely sits with Christ. If I have to be judged-I hope Dr. Tiller is on the jury.

"Eco-terrorists" are persecuted...but these murdering "pro-life"{cough cough} domestic terrorists are not treated with the
disdain and legal prosecutions they so aptly deserve.

Thank you.

Your comments about NICU kids had me nodding my head. Just because the technology exists, it doesn't mean it needs to be employed every damn time. (See "Octomom" and "Jon and Kate Plus Eight")

Life is life and, like you, I agree that it begins with that first independent breath, even if it needs a jump-start. Anything else is someone else's religious idea trying to trump my very secular one, and that's not allowed, not in these United States.

I am a Free Speech zealot, and I will go to my death defending the right of people to speak out in the name of unpopular causes, but now I am watching all this, and watching the lunatics and malcontents these anti-choice movements attract, and I find myself thinking, "Someone has to do something about these people."

That physicians are afraid, that medical staffs live in terror, that a woman cannot get the competent and legal medical care to which she is entitled when she needs it - all those things are NOT the hallmarks of a democracy. They are the results of threats and sadistic actions taken by terrorists, just like the Taliban, who will not rest until they prevail.

We cannot let them prevail .....................................................

He had even voiced to me his sadness at the situation in this country wherein doctors are murdered and persecuted
for performing perfectly legal medical procedures. He was very concerned that the future generations of ob-gyns
would not be performing any abortions...due to the terrorism of these fanatics.

He wrote this...
http://www.prch.org/william-k-rashbaum-md

a tribute to him...
http://www.prch.org/programs-william-k-rashbaum-md-abortion-provider-award

He died of lung cancer in 2005
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E3D61530F93BA35756C0A9639C8B63

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health discuss Dr Tillers murder...
and a video of Gloria Steinem discussing her abortion at the 2009 William K. Rashbaum, MD, Abortion Provider Award Ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Physicians-for-Reproductive-Choice-and-Health/93188136312


I miss Dr. Rashbaum very much. He was a kind and gentle man and I was unbelievably lucky to have had him for
my doctor for 30 years.

...and sobbing as I do this.

:cry:

Dr. Tiller was a saint and the anti-choice bastards killed him.

lives of others.
Sadly, it has almost accomplished its goal...terrifying pregnant women and doctors.
It targets the poorer rather than the well-to-do, who can seem to manage to find a way to get
an abortion when they need one...as they did even when it was illegal.
I hope we are not dragged back to the middle ages by these hypocritical, murderous "pro-lifers"
who are actually only "pro" very specific lives...and abandon the welfare of most others.
They are fanatics, just as surely as all the other terrorists in the world are fanatics.

I sincerely hope that this senseless act of violence against Dr. Tiller causes a major tectonic shift
in the attitudes of the majority of Americans.

"Preserving" life by murdering doctors is so far beyond hypocrisy that I cannot come up with an appropriate
description.