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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

North Carolina: Shame on You

Today I saw a patient who came all the way from North Carolina. She has sero-positive neuroborreliosis with all the classic symptoms, an abnormal mental status and neurological exam and an abnormal brain MRI showing extensive white matter disease. The doctors in her home state agree that she needs IV antibiotics, but know one will prescribe them. After what happened to Dr. Jemsek there, doctors are afraid to treat this disease appropriately.
To make matters worse she made an appointment with a "Lyme specialist" at John Hopkins University here in MD. While waiting months for the appointment she read an article describing this physician's approach to Lyme disease. She was in tears. It was clear that the physician did not treat chronic Lyme disease and that he was an orthodox IDSA guy. She spoke with him on the phone. He said based on a review of her case that he would not be able to treat her. But he suggested she see an ILADS doctor "because they do a good job." Apparently he couldn't treat her by anything other than IDSA guidelines, which he apparently knew were wrong: A bad career move at the John. The patient is a credible source. She is an optometrist. She had a good attitude. She kept telling me the truth will eventually come out. I hope she is right.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Doctor, I came across your Blog. I was not able to finish reading all your post. But I can feel you could help me. But I am so far away from you. I am wondering if you could do phone consulting for me.

Lyme report: Montgomery County, MD said...

Dr. Ray Jones has been put through the ringer by the system. One of the main charges against him is that he treated patients by phone with out seeing them. Medicine can not be done on the phone. Direct doctor/patient contact is required. Patients need to be examined as part of the evaluation. I don't do phone medicine. Good luck.