Admitting a Mistake--August 2015
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| Jackson Jean-Baptiste |
There are a few ethical medical centers in the United States. Just recently a Haitian patient who has been operated in the past was found to need repeat heart surgery. The same medical center and physician accepted her back to continue giving her the medical treatment that she deserves. This is unusual but indeed wonderful.
Imagine that your child was receiving chemotherapy for cancer. Would it be all right with you if the medical center and physicians treating your child withdrew chemotherapy half way through the treatment protocol? Would you say anything about this? Or would you do all in your power to make sure treatment was continued for your child? If after all of your efforts on behalf of your child, treatment was still denied, how would you feel when your child died an unnecessary death because of irresponsible and negligent medical care?
Over a decade ago I received a letter from OSF-Saint Francis Medical Center attorney Doug Marshall which stated that OSF would not accept any further patients from me. This of course is against the Mission Philosophy of The Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Sister Judith Ann Duval, Chairperson of OSF HealthCare, had personally assured me (more than once) that OSF would never turn their back on any of my Haitian patients. But she did. And so did Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky as this incredible negligence by a Catholic medical center was allowed to happen just six blocks away from his diocesan chancery.
I have begged OSF over and over to remove their embargo against my Haitian kids, especially the ones who had been operated at OSF and needed to return to Peoria for repeat heart surgery. OSF has remained tone deaf and unfortunately three of my Haitian Hearts patients who were operated at OSF have died. (This includes Jackson Jean-Baptiste above.) OSF did not allow them to return for definitive care.
So over the years was I to remain quiet and say nothing? Was I just supposed to stick my head in the sand? I would have liked many local groups of all colors, cultures, and beliefs to have taken OSF to task for this negligence, but I have painfully learned that most people will stay silent even when confronted with wrongdoing because of the perceived personal risk of getting involved. And I think that OSF and the Diocese knew in advance that “people of substance” would not challenge them for exactly these reasons.
As a rule, people without a voice or status or money who live in Harrison Homes in Peoria or in the slum in Haiti are usually ostracized and become friendless during times of need. It is a shame but it is reality.
And this is what makes the actions of the medical center who just reaccepted their Haitian patient so good.
OSF needs to admit their error and change their current philosophy barring Haitian kids from returning to OSF for repeat heart surgery. In the years to come, when we are all buried in local cemeteries, I think OSF’s treatment of Haitian children will be publicly viewed as derelict. And in the future OSF and our local Catholic Diocese may even say they made a mistake. But this admission won’t help the kids who have died or the ones who are suffering in Haiti now.
Comments 2015
Anynomous
Why mention Bishop Jenky he has no control over the hospital. Everyone wants to blame him for everything. Just because it is Catholic does not mean he owns it or has control any more than just because you are a doctor you have control over a hospital. Sick of everyone dragging him through everything happens around here.
You have always been the best Dr full of compassion. Your work has not gone unnoticed. Also, the unethical political treatment of patients by OSF has not gone unnoticed by people either. I was witness to one of their own Nuns being victimized by corrupt mananagent. It is sick for them to deny treatment to others in need. The cooperation needs to act as Jesus did and take on his characteristics. Shame on you OSF once again for your greed.
Dear Anonymous,
The local Catholic bishop can intervene at a Catholic medical center in his diocese if it concerns pastoral care issues.
For example Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix has declared that St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, located in the diocese, can no longer call itself a Catholic hospital because of a dispute over whether a procedure performed at the hospital several years ago was a direct abortion.
A Catholic hospital like OSF in Peoria is supposed to operate according to the Directives established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Catholic understanding of health care is rooted in the basic scriptural understanding, outlined in the bishops’ document, that the healing mission of Jesus “touched people at the deepest level of their existence: He sought their physical, mental, and spiritual healing.” Throughout its history, the church has dedicated herself in service to the sick and all those in need.
The social responsibility of Catholic health care services is guided by five essential principles outlined in the bishops’ document:
To promote and defend human dignity: The right to life of every human being means the right as well to adequate health care and must be basic to every Catholic institution involved in medical service and science.
To care for the poor: No one can ever be turned away from a Catholic hospital because of an inability to pay. This attention to the poor, the underinsured, and the uninsured must be paramount at a Catholic hospital.
To contribute to the common good: Catholic health care services are meant for the entire community. These services should be instigators of social change that lead to a greater respect for
fundamental human rights and for the economic, social, political, and spiritual health of the entire community.
To exercise responsible stewardship: As the bishops state, “Catholic health care ministry exercises responsible stewardship of available health care resources. A just health care system will be concerned both with promoting equity of care – to assure the right of each person to basic health care is respected – and with promoting the good health of all within the community.”
Adherence to the moral teachings of the Church: In our society today, any Catholic health care service will be approached, or even pressured, to provide medical procedures that are contrary to Catholic teaching. But by refusing to provide or permit such medical procedures, Catholic health care affirms what defines it: a commitment to the sacredness and dignity of human life from conception until death.
(Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, 2008)
Thus, as you can see, Bishop Jenky here in The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has every right and it is his duty to see that OSF-SFMC follow the Directives of the Bishops regarding care for Haitian patients.
It is my sincere wish that Bishop Jenky will find the courage to not only reprimand OSF for their negligent behavior but to change OSF’s philosophy of “denial of care” to some of the sickest and poorest children on earth.
John