Medical Ethics at OSF, EMS, and Willie Fortune--December 2019
EB 1584--Medical Ethics at OSF, EMS, and Willie Fortune--Dec 2019
Willie (Photo by John Carroll)
In 2001, The American Medical Association’s representative from the Ethics Standards Group sent me a copy of relevant opinions from the AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics.
During that fall, I spoke to Dr. Gerald McShane, Director of the Ethics Committee at OSF-Corporate, regarding OSF’s conflict of interest due to it’s relationship with Advanced Medical Transport (AMT). AMT was the only ambulance service in Peoria which offered advanced life support and transport. It was (and is) a very lucrative business and OSF is AMT’s main supporter. The Peoria Fire Department was attempting to improve their level of care for Peorians; however, OSF and it’s Project Medical Director and Emergency Department Director George Hevesy wanted AMT to be he only advanced life support and transport agency in Peoria.
Dr. McShane told me in 2001 that he did not think that OSF’s Ethics Committee should be consulted regarding Emergency Medical System issues. He stated that he did not feel it was an appropriate topic to be brought up as an ethical issue. However, it clearly WAS appropriate because of the conflict of interest involved. George Hevesy was on the OSF payroll as well as the AMT payroll. He supported AMT and not the efforts of the PFD to upgrade. Hevesy spoke at the Peoria City Council against the PFD upgrading and was quoted in the Journal Star stating the same.
During the same time period, I spoke to Joseph Piccione, Corporate Ethicist at OSF, and he told me that I was MANDATED to bring up ethics issues with the Ethics Committee. However, when I brought up my concerns regarding EMS in Peoria–largely controlled by OSF–to Dr. McShane, he wouldn’t present it to the Ethics Committee.
In May 2002, when I wrote five OSF Corporate leaders about the same conflict of interest, I never received an answer from anyone, including Joseph Piccione.
Thus, it seemed to me that the Ethics Committee at OSF was picking and choosing what they wanted to discuss. And in my opinion, the Ethics leaders were protecting OSF from being exposed to criticism of the way they were handling very sensitive and unique medical issues.
In the Spring of 2004, while in Haiti, I examined a Haitian Hearts patient, Willie Fortune. Willie was a teenager who had been operated at OSF in 2000 for a serious form of cyanotic congenital heart disease. Willie had a prolonged postoperative course but did recover and we took him back to Haiti where he lived with his mom.
In 2004, Willie told me that he was tired and lacked energy. My exam in Haiti revealed that his pacemaker that he received at OSF with his heart surgery was not working…the battery was dead and he would need a new pacemaker.
Willie needed to return to OSF for a new pacemaker because he was slowly dying in Haiti. I contacted OSF and offered them full charges for a new pacemaker for Willie, but they refused. OSF was apparently content to let him die silently in Haiti– a long ways from Peoria.
(To be continued….)
John A. Carroll, MD
www.haitianhearts.org
2 thoughts on “Medical Ethics at OSF, EMS, and Willie Fortune”
Tracee G Laing
says:
December 16, 2019 at 11:33 am Edit
As a physician who works every 3 months in Haiti, with a full Haitian staff at a clinic I founded 20 years ago, it seems to me the best approach would be to bring the new battery to the b patient when needed. It would be best to train a Haitian surgeon to change the battery and make sure new batteries are available to the patient. This is the responsibility of the group that sponsored the patient in the first place. They knew the battery would need to be replaced and they should have set up a plan when they had the pacemaker placed in the first place.
ReplyAnonymous
says:
Dear Dr. Laing,
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
john
Reply
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