When I was making payment arrangements with Francine Clair Landau Esq., of Accelerated Receivables Management Inc., (ARM) of Jacksonville, Florida, she mentioned that the judgment had been entered on my credit report at the various credit bureaux and that she would have them removed when the judgment was satisfied.  It crossed my mind, momentarily, that I was being pressured.  But again, preferring to think the best of people, I decided that Ms. Landau, who is actually a very nice lady, as an officer of the court and a member of an honorable profession, wouldn't demean herself by such an ignoble action and mentioned it only from a desire to be helpful.  I regret the original thought.

I didn't know anything about credit reporting bureaux until Ms. Landau mentioned them.  I am a retiree on a fixed income and never buy anything on credit anyway, so a comment on my credit report is of little or no consequence to me.  However, when I looked into it I found that if a negative report is placed in one's credit report then, by law, one is allowed to place a rebuttal statement therein.  So that's what I did.  I sent a letter detailing my experiences at the hands of the Mayo Clinic, together with photographs, with the statement that was to be included in my credit report file to the three credit reporting companies.  Two of them have included my statement but the third one decided to remove details of the judgment from my credit report completely. 

So why did the Mayo Clinic do it?  Surely it couldn't be for the money?  The Mayo Clinic must have lots of bean counters on their staff, or maybe their bean counters are as incompetent as is their surgeon who punctured my stomach?  Anyway, if the Mayo Clinic's overheads (and for that matter,  ARM's) are even equal to my local mechanic's or computer shop, then on a time spent basis they must be well out of pocket. A desire to muzzle me?  If so then it didn't work because hundreds of thousands of people now know about their incompetent treatment of me, and will continue to know because even when I am dead my children will continue their funding of this website, than if they had just said that they were putting in procedures to try and make sure it didn't happen to another patient, zeroed the bill and let it all die a natural death. 

So was it just vindictiveness or somehow related to the way they constantly pump up their image and had to try and prove something?  Or are they so self righteously arrogant that they really do think that puncturing a person's stomach in two places by mistake and as a result nearly killing him, is normal treatment for which they should be paid?  Who knows?  If you have an opinion I'd like to hear it so please contact me by clicking the electronic mail graphic on the "Home" (first) page.

But the Mayo Clinic did get a judgment against me.  However, they didn't get the amount they wanted and neither did the judge award them any costs and in the end Francine Clair Landau settled for even less money.  And the judge did agree with me that the Mayo Clinic had been ungentlemanly.  Given what it must have cost the Mayo Clinic to get the judgment, especially after Francine Landau Esq and ARM had deducted their "pound of flesh" was their "victory" Pyrrhic?  I'll let you decide.  Pyrrhus inherited the throne of Epirus in Northern Greece around 306 B.C., and as a young man proved his generalship on the battlefield many times.  Seemingly Pyrrhus had great strategic skills, but he also had the reputation of not knowing when to stop. In 281 B.C. he went to Italy and defeated the Romans at Heraclea and Asculum, but suffered very heavy losses.  That's when he made his famous statement, "One more such victory and I am lost."  Hence the term "Pyrrhic" for any costly victory.

In my opinion the Mayo Clinic's PR techniques and image polishing aren't too subtle.   E.G. In the spring of this year (2006) there was a sickeningly sycophantic "editorial" by a local Jacksonville TV station (WXJT Channel 4) about the Mayo Clinic:  "The Mayo Clinic is committed to patient care, research and education."  The "editorial" also mentioned that the Mayo was responsible for bringing $2 billion a year into the Jacksonville economy.  To me, the "editorial" sounded more like one of those wretched late night infomercials that masquerade as a program.  And, in my opinion, the man doing the "editorial" seemed to be so lacking in enthusiasm as to be doing it unwillingly.  I wrote the TV station with details and photos of what the Mayo Clinic had done to me.  On a previous occasion when commenting upon an editorial I was invited to appear and make my statement on the air.  Not this time though!

Readers who have bought into the American Medical Association's (AMA) propaganda machine's message that American medicine is the best in the world may want to skip this and the next paragraph. It's interesting to note that out of 191 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranks American medicine only 39th in efficacy.  They take into account factors such as longevity, live births per thousand, pre-natal care, incidences of infectious diseases, hospitalizations etc.  But guess who is number one in cost? Yep - that's right - the good old USA.  Click this link: http://tinyurl.com/akdzd to see a précis on the subject.   I also thought it interesting that although the AMA has been very successful in demonizing socialized medicine, most, if not all of the countries in the list that are ranked ahead of the USA, have socialized medicine.

Do you know that a major cause of death in the US is said by some to be medical errors?  Do an Internet search on medical errors but be prepared to be both dismayed and astonished. 

So how do I "feel" about it now?  My main emotions are hard to describe - perhaps a mixture of stunned disbelief and sadness. Disbelief that the Mayo Foundation Board members don't know what's going on in the trenches, and if they do, stunned that by allowing it, they appear to condone it.  Sad that an institution that started out with such lofty ideals could descend to what appears to be just a common money grubbing enterprise with a vindictive streak.   If the Drs. Will & Charlie Mayo know how the present Mayo Foundation Board members are prostituting the Mayo Clinic name then the said Drs. Will & Charlie Mayo must be gnashing their teeth and spinning in their graves. 

 

Am I bitter?  Not at all.  Other than the pain, being haunted by the distressing memories, the loss of over two years of my life, being left with a bulge at the side of my abdomen and physically restricted as to the weight I can now lift, it was all very interesting and I learnt a lot, for example, how to build and publicize websites.  And I never met anyone connected with the Mayo Clinic/ACR that I disliked; they and the judge are all very nice people.   However, I find it disconcerting that no one from the Mayo Clinic ever expressed any regret for what they did to me.  But one of the things I have learnt in my life is that there is such a thing as a perfect Universe and things always do come full circle.  Colloquially, do something improper and it'll come back and bite you in the rear.  Or maybe someone up there really is keeping a balance sheet of the way we behave and treat others.  One day, the people who stuck it to me, medically and legally, will have a similar thing happen to them or a loved one.  It may take decades but it will happen and when it does they will be reminded of what they did to me.  If they have any shred of decency and humanity in them at all, it should give them pause.

Go to this website: www.Mayoinfo.com   It's a site run, under the radar, by employees (or ex employees) of the Mayo Clinic. Here's an excerpt: "With national and international expansion and an insatiable appetite for growth, money and regional domination at any cost, problems have become so routine that an independent Guide To Surviving The Mayo Clinic is a necessity."  After reading some of the postings you may well wonder why anyone would want to work at such a place.  No doubt Mayo Clinic's top brass would say that Mayoinfo.com was put up by disgruntled employees or ex employees.  But if so, since the Mayo is supposed to be "sugar and spice and all things nice" that response in itself would be, to quote the Immortal Bard, a "hoist by their own petard" type admission.

The postings in www.mayoinfo.com by the Mayo Clinic employees are very interesting.  E.G. After the Mayo Clinic doctors' mistakes were corrected by another doctor I obtained my medical records from the Mayo Clinic and, in my opinion, they had been "pruned."  Visit the Mayoinfo.com  forum entitled "Mayo Watch" and in particular this thread:

                             http://www.mayoinfo.com/showthread.php?t=317 

and you'll see where Mayo Clinic employees admit to patient record deletions and changes.  However, I am walking around with the evidence of their surgical incompetence that the Mayo Clinic can't delete or change! 

I have been asked many times as to why I didn't seek legal advice and sue the Mayo Clinic for medical malpractice.  There are many reasons including that I believed the Mayo Clinic surgeon Dr. Sanford J. Finck when he told me my stomach was in the wrong place.  It was not until I learned from the Iranian surgeon that it wasn't that I knew the Mayo Clinic surgeon had either lied to me or is so medically incompetent that he really believed my stomach was in the wrong place.   Also, another reason for not entering into litigation is that I am aware of the despicable lengths to which American insurance companies and medical industry go in order to avoid their obligations.  Also, under the Florida legal system there is a built-in incentive, especially with the elderly, for the party found to be at fault to delay and appeal ad-nauseam.  At my age I did not want to spend what is left of my life being mauled over by doctors, giving depositions and rehearsing mock trials etc.   However, if I had known what I know now, I would have sought legal counsel immediately.  My advice now to anyone who believes they may have been injured by medical incompetence is to believe nothing the medical industry says and to seek legal assistance as soon as is practical.

So why am I telling my story?  The person who punctured my stomach didn't do it on purpose - it was a mistake.   Anyone can make a mistake - I've made some mistakes myself in my lifetime.  But when I have I've apologized and tried hard to correct them.  However, unlike the Mayo Clinic, I didn't add insult to injury.  I suppose another reason is the same one that pre-historic cavemen painted aspects of their lives on cave walls, some people keep a diary or have personal blogs, carve their initials into trees or whatever, it is to leave a record.  Sort of the "Kilroy was here" syndrome.  And also, apropos the Mayo Clinic's interesting blend of viciousness and non-repentance, to quote the Immortal Bard again (the greatest psychologist who ever lived):          
 

 

                                      In the corrupted currents of this world

                                      Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,

                                      And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself

                                      Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;

                                      There is no shuffling, there the action lies

                                      In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,

                                      Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,

                                     To give in evidence. What then? What rests?                                  

                                     Try what repentance can: what can it not?

Hamlet  III, ii (William Shakespeare)

The next four pages (9, 10, 11 & 12) detail what may help some common health problems.  Page 13 contains some Mayo Clinic tidbits and page 14 has comments made by visitors to this website.