On June 14, 2017, just before noon, a doctor made an incision near a patient’s groin. Kari Kirk, a representative for the world’s largest medical device company, Medtronic, looked on and began texting her colleague a play-by-play.
“Fixing both legs from the ankles,” she wrote.
It was a fairly common procedure at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas, performed to treat blockages in the leg vessels.
Within reach were an array of Medtronic products: tubes with blades attached to shave hardened deposits off of artery walls; stents to widen blood vessels; balloons coated with therapeutic drugs.
Each time a doctor puts a foreign device in someone’s body, it carries a risk of complication, which can include clots or even require amputation. So medical experts, research and even Medtronic’s own device instructions
EditSign urge doctors to use as few as are necessary.
But, as revealed in Kirk’s text messages, this doctor took an aggressive approach.
“Just used 12 [drug-coated balloons]!!” Kirk texted her colleague.
“Does that mean I owe u $$,” he responded.
“Thats what I’m thinking!!! 🤣,” she […]
Thank you, Stephan. I personally appreciate your work greatly. Seems like the Earth, humanity and all life is viewed as something to “harvest” in the name of greed. The penalties, fines, etc. are so inconsequential that they are factored in as ‘just a cost of doing business’….
And stents are garbage. I had 2 implanted and they only lasted 5 years. The more you install the harder it is to work around them later because they can’t be extricated.
I have always mistrusted the for profit medical establishment and at 89 I have no mediciations doing just fine thank you …. My Grandmother said to me in my late teens zthat I had a choice…. I could pay the Doctor or I could pay my Green grocer.. I chose the Green Grocer……., J Bell
My one leg was found to have a big blockage. The doctor said a stent was the only cure. I’m convinced it was the microwave popcorn in which palm oil is used because I had been eating it daily for a few months and according to the internet it was number one for arterial blockage. I had a stent for a heart attack 7 years ago and as a result of the stent placement a stroke. It could possibly happen again. I quit eating popcorn and ate pomegranate supplements and asparagus. One day as I got up to walk the most horrible crippling pain went through my leg and almost dropped me to the floor. I think the obstruction passed as after that it improved daily now up to 90% better. Thank goodness no surgery needed!