TUESDAY, 08 MARCH 2011 01:00 BY JANELA BUHAIN | VARIETY NEWS STAFF
* But others express support for Dr. Friedman
Dr. James Stadler, left, confers with Dr. Lee Meadows during yesterday’s meeting at the Guam Memorial Hospital, which discussed the allegations made last week by Dr. Sam Friedman. Photo by Matt Weiss
Led by obstetrician Dr. Thomas Shieh, who is also the president of the Guam Medical Association, a petition was passed around asking Gov. Eddie Calvo to withdraw his nomination of Friedman as a board member of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners.
In addition, Shieh wrote to Calvo yesterday expressing his opposition to Friedman and his public allegations against GMH.
He also conveyed his support for GMH Nursing Supervisor Cely Mangrobang’s testimony in which she claimed that Friedman is a racist because of insulting comments he made about Filipino nurses. Additionally, Mangrobang, a 33-year veteran of GMH, attached a petition signed by several GMH registered nurses opposing Friedman.
Undue fear
“I think his statements made at the confirmation hearing were irresponsible and create undue fear in the public,” wrote Shieh.
“To say that island doctors or the hospital are killing patients is very careless and simply wrong. The word kill is criminal,” he added.
Friedman neither practices at the hospital, Shieh said, nor visits his patients when they are admitted to GMH.
During the meeting, oncologist Dr. Arnold Wax pointed out that Friedman, in making those allegations in the media, violated federal law.
“He took an undiscoverable issue and made it public record,” said Wax.
Another obstetrician, Dr. Jeffrey Gable, said: “This is a guy that slandered everyone at the hospital. Obviously he doesn’t have the full story. If he does know any information, it was illegally obtained and illegally disseminated.”
Group of 8
However, an email correspondence Variety obtained between medical professionals dated March 6 corroborates Friedman’s accusations against GMH staff.
In it, horrifying details are given about the seemingly covert method of handling medical malpractice situations at the hospital.
“To cover up, diagnoses are changed, medical records are altered and in past times, the coroner ignores the fact that negligent homicides are occurring every day,” the email states.
In addition, the medical professional stated that an audit was conducted on 300 random charts at the hospital in which 136 were found to be negligent, including “one planned murder.”
“A defenseless newborn baby whose death was planned by the doctor and nurses alike! It was spelled outright in the medical record. Neither a former [attorney general] nor the FBI would do anything about it,” the email further stated.
The murder of the baby was allegedly planned by a “group of 8” medical professionals.
Lastly, the medical professional referred to a doctor who “expired” 12 patients within nine days while covering for another doctor who was off-island.
Nurses
In a bid to prove Mangrobang wrong, five Filipino nurses yesterday transmitted a letter to Committee on Health Chair Sen. Dennis Rodriguez, Jr. expressing their support for Friedman.
The five nurses noted that at the Cancer Center of Guam, where Friedman practices, there is a varying makeup of ethnicity, religion, race and sexual orientation of employees who work for Friedman.
“In brief, we never considered racial origin other than as encouraging and welcoming any addition to the incredible cross section of the Guam population and culture,” the nurses wrote.
Shieh additionally conveyed his pride and support for Guam’s medical community.
“Many of our doctors are on staff at our hospital and every day we work hard to save lives We have challenges every day as with other hospitals, but we continue to come into our island’s only hospital to take care of patients,” wrote Shieh to Calvo.
“That’s our dedication to the health of this island and we still stand to support our hospital and our patients continuously.”
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