The Kiwi ETS Group received an update from the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) on November 22. The HDC stated that they received our email in October, and that they went ahead with their request for 'expert' advice from a vascular surgeon "to assist the Commissioner in deciding what action to take on this complaint".
The HDC stated that they have now received the vascular surgeon's report and that they will "carefully review this information". They concluded by saying they will be in touch again once the Commissioner has decided what further action to take.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Quick update on complaint against ETS surgeon Dr Murray MacCormick
This is a just a quick note to say that the complaint made to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) is still in progress.
-The HDC contacted Dr MacCormick and gave him a chance to respond to the complaint.
-After hearing Dr MacCormick's response, the HDC decided to seek 'expert' opinion from an 'independent' vascular surgeon, and notified the Kiwi ETS Group of this by letter.
-The Kiwi ETS Group emailed the HDC after receiving the letter, asking them to bear in mind several key aspects of our complaint that we do not believe should or can be affected or changed by a second 'expert' opinion (e.g., the lack of informed consent and strongly suspected misdiagnosis, the surgeon's lack of care and professionalism).
We also re-highlighted that the side effects the ETS patient is suffering from are documented and well known - not rare - and that a vascular surgeon is NOT an expert in the Autonomic Nervous System. We asked the HDC to consider consulting a neurologist, and to review the medical literature we sent them copies of.
-The HDC contacted Dr MacCormick and gave him a chance to respond to the complaint.
-After hearing Dr MacCormick's response, the HDC decided to seek 'expert' opinion from an 'independent' vascular surgeon, and notified the Kiwi ETS Group of this by letter.
-The Kiwi ETS Group emailed the HDC after receiving the letter, asking them to bear in mind several key aspects of our complaint that we do not believe should or can be affected or changed by a second 'expert' opinion (e.g., the lack of informed consent and strongly suspected misdiagnosis, the surgeon's lack of care and professionalism).
We also re-highlighted that the side effects the ETS patient is suffering from are documented and well known - not rare - and that a vascular surgeon is NOT an expert in the Autonomic Nervous System. We asked the HDC to consider consulting a neurologist, and to review the medical literature we sent them copies of.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Why prospective ETS patients so often don't hear the full story, and the ongoing effort to change this
'CSmess' is an American professional and family man who moderates and regularly contributes to the Internet forum ETS and Reversals Discussion. He has had both an ETS and a reversal surgery. The reversal only made his side effects worse.
ETS and Reversals Discussion was set up in the early to mid-2000s by American Carole Edward, who lives with hyperhidrosis, so that ETS patients around the world who have had bad outcomes from the surgery can come together online, tell their stories, learn more about their side effects, support each other, discuss possible treatments for side effects, name their surgeons, discuss their legal options, and more. A key mission of the forum is also to WARN prospective ETS patients about the other side of the ETS story - the one the ETS surgeons don't acknowledge and don't want prospective ETS patients to hear.
The forum has members from the following countries:
Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Chile, Peru, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia...and probably more countries. Users of the forum don't always reveal their nationality.
In response to a happy ETS patient who expressed the view that the forum overwhelmingly contains the stories and experiences of those who have had devastating results from their ETS surgeries, 'CSmess' wrote the following on ETS and Reversals Discussion.
******
"There is a huge amount of published research showing that a very substantial percentage of ETS patients experience disabling side effects that dramatically lower their quality of life and diminish their health. Yet, you will not find a single testimonial from any of these thousands of souls published in any surgeon's brochure or on their websites. Furthermore, while many surgeons provide telephone numbers of past patients to prospective patients, they only hand out the numbers of the happy patients. The unhappy stories are swept under the carpet. Prospective patients get to hear only one side of the story.
"The only place where the voices of the many disabled patients can be heard is on forums like this one.
"In other words, lucky/happy ETS patients have a number of formal avenues to "spread the joy", but those who did not have good outcomes have only a self-funded Internet message board. Do a Google search on hyperidrosis or blushing cures and you'll get page after page of lavishly funded websites littered with glowing testimonials. Our puny little forum is but a whisper drowned out by thousands of bull horns that paint a one-sided and dishonest picture of the effects and risks of this surgery.
"Beyond providing a place for the testimonials that the surgeons won't publish, the ETS Reversals and Discussion forum provides links to the mountain of medical research findings that contradict the claims most of the surgeons make regarding the number, frequency and severity of adverse side effects of this surgery.
"Most people considering ETS surgery only hear from patients with happy outcomes. The surgeons make a concerted effort to make sure that remains the norm. And that ain't right. It ain't honest. So, the members of the ETS Reversals and Discussion forum seek to right this wrong, and provide to folks who are considering the surgery the information they won't get from their surgeons."
ETS and Reversals Discussion was set up in the early to mid-2000s by American Carole Edward, who lives with hyperhidrosis, so that ETS patients around the world who have had bad outcomes from the surgery can come together online, tell their stories, learn more about their side effects, support each other, discuss possible treatments for side effects, name their surgeons, discuss their legal options, and more. A key mission of the forum is also to WARN prospective ETS patients about the other side of the ETS story - the one the ETS surgeons don't acknowledge and don't want prospective ETS patients to hear.
The forum has members from the following countries:
Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Chile, Peru, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia...and probably more countries. Users of the forum don't always reveal their nationality.
In response to a happy ETS patient who expressed the view that the forum overwhelmingly contains the stories and experiences of those who have had devastating results from their ETS surgeries, 'CSmess' wrote the following on ETS and Reversals Discussion.
******
"There is a huge amount of published research showing that a very substantial percentage of ETS patients experience disabling side effects that dramatically lower their quality of life and diminish their health. Yet, you will not find a single testimonial from any of these thousands of souls published in any surgeon's brochure or on their websites. Furthermore, while many surgeons provide telephone numbers of past patients to prospective patients, they only hand out the numbers of the happy patients. The unhappy stories are swept under the carpet. Prospective patients get to hear only one side of the story.
"The only place where the voices of the many disabled patients can be heard is on forums like this one.
"In other words, lucky/happy ETS patients have a number of formal avenues to "spread the joy", but those who did not have good outcomes have only a self-funded Internet message board. Do a Google search on hyperidrosis or blushing cures and you'll get page after page of lavishly funded websites littered with glowing testimonials. Our puny little forum is but a whisper drowned out by thousands of bull horns that paint a one-sided and dishonest picture of the effects and risks of this surgery.
"Beyond providing a place for the testimonials that the surgeons won't publish, the ETS Reversals and Discussion forum provides links to the mountain of medical research findings that contradict the claims most of the surgeons make regarding the number, frequency and severity of adverse side effects of this surgery.
"Most people considering ETS surgery only hear from patients with happy outcomes. The surgeons make a concerted effort to make sure that remains the norm. And that ain't right. It ain't honest. So, the members of the ETS Reversals and Discussion forum seek to right this wrong, and provide to folks who are considering the surgery the information they won't get from their surgeons."
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Please speak up!
This is another call for dissatisfied ETS patients of Dr Murray MacCormick to write to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC). The more complaints about this ETS surgeon, the harder it will be for the HDC to simply write Dr MacCormick an educational letter as a way of 'resolving' the one complaint against Dr MacCormick that they are currently investigating.
To add some perspective....Richard Stubbs, a liver cancer and obesity specialist here in NZ, who had been the subject of numerous complaints in relation to not obtaining informed consent, was recently fined NZ$100,000 by the NZ Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. He was also censured, and ordered to undertake a mentoring programme for 18 months and have a practice audit.
Was this a fair result? Consider this doctor's history of harming patients:
-He appeared before the Tribunal in 1999 and was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a medical practitioner.
-Five complaints were made to the HDC about this doctor between 2002 and 2004, mostly in relation to consent.
-Another two complaints had been made to the HDC by 2007.
-The case that brought him before the Tribunal most recently was one that found him guilty of of professional misconduct, failing to obtain informed consent, and failure to adequately document post-operative care. In this case, the male patient, 'Mr N', died in 2006, after an operation with Dr Stubbs.
So...this doctor contributed directly to a man losing his life, and has had at least eight other formal complaints made about him in less than 10 years.
And he is still practising.
He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get name suppression for himself and the hospital he works at (Wakefield Hospital, in Wellington), and tried to get out of paying the NZ$100,000 fine by claiming that most of his earnings went toward research and he kept only a small portion for himself. The Tribunal looked into this and stated they were "not impressed" with his evidence, and upheld the fine.
Disheartening and disturbing? Without a doubt. And it also highlights the fact that it takes a lot of noise before these medical professionals who harm patients again and again and again finally come to the attention of those who pull the strings.
I hope Dr Stubbs never treats another patient again. His name has been all over the media here.
Could the Kiwi ETS Group achieve the same with Dr MacCormick???
To add some perspective....Richard Stubbs, a liver cancer and obesity specialist here in NZ, who had been the subject of numerous complaints in relation to not obtaining informed consent, was recently fined NZ$100,000 by the NZ Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. He was also censured, and ordered to undertake a mentoring programme for 18 months and have a practice audit.
Was this a fair result? Consider this doctor's history of harming patients:
-He appeared before the Tribunal in 1999 and was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a medical practitioner.
-Five complaints were made to the HDC about this doctor between 2002 and 2004, mostly in relation to consent.
-Another two complaints had been made to the HDC by 2007.
-The case that brought him before the Tribunal most recently was one that found him guilty of of professional misconduct, failing to obtain informed consent, and failure to adequately document post-operative care. In this case, the male patient, 'Mr N', died in 2006, after an operation with Dr Stubbs.
So...this doctor contributed directly to a man losing his life, and has had at least eight other formal complaints made about him in less than 10 years.
And he is still practising.
He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get name suppression for himself and the hospital he works at (Wakefield Hospital, in Wellington), and tried to get out of paying the NZ$100,000 fine by claiming that most of his earnings went toward research and he kept only a small portion for himself. The Tribunal looked into this and stated they were "not impressed" with his evidence, and upheld the fine.
Disheartening and disturbing? Without a doubt. And it also highlights the fact that it takes a lot of noise before these medical professionals who harm patients again and again and again finally come to the attention of those who pull the strings.
I hope Dr Stubbs never treats another patient again. His name has been all over the media here.
Could the Kiwi ETS Group achieve the same with Dr MacCormick???
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The latest on the HDC complaint.....
The Health and Disability Commission (HDC) have written to say they are now giving Auckland ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick the chance to respond to the issues raised in our complaint.
The HDC also said in their letter that they do not have the authority to make a doctor financially compensate a patient, or to stop a doctor from practising* (*I think only the Medical Council of NZ has this authority). However, the HDC also wrote in their letter that they will consider the other 'desired outcomes' we stated in our complaint letter.
The HDC also said in their letter that they do not have the authority to make a doctor financially compensate a patient, or to stop a doctor from practising* (*I think only the Medical Council of NZ has this authority). However, the HDC also wrote in their letter that they will consider the other 'desired outcomes' we stated in our complaint letter.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Another update on complaint against NZ ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick
The Kiwi ETS Group heard from the Health and Disability Commission (HDC) today. It turns out that, for the last two months, the complaint submitted by our group on behalf of a Kiwi ETS patient has been with the HDC's legal team.
It's not as exciting as it sounds....the HDC's legal team were simply determining whether or not to consider the complaint as separate to an earlier complaint made by the same patient against the same surgeon.
Now that the HDC's legal team have concluded that this most recent complaint is a new, separate complaint (this had already been specifically pointed out when the Kiwi ETS Group contacted the HDC in writing in June....), the complaint has been returned to the HDC and Auckland ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick should be contacted by the HDC any day now regarding the complaint, if he hasn't already.
So, the process of investigating the complaint has finally begun.
We are a bit disappointed that it has taken this long - 2 months - for the complaint investigation process to get started, and more so that the HDC did not contact us at all during the last 2 months to simply let us know what was happening. Still, at least the ball is now rolling.
(Please refer to older posts to read more about the story beind this complaint.)
It's not as exciting as it sounds....the HDC's legal team were simply determining whether or not to consider the complaint as separate to an earlier complaint made by the same patient against the same surgeon.
Now that the HDC's legal team have concluded that this most recent complaint is a new, separate complaint (this had already been specifically pointed out when the Kiwi ETS Group contacted the HDC in writing in June....), the complaint has been returned to the HDC and Auckland ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick should be contacted by the HDC any day now regarding the complaint, if he hasn't already.
So, the process of investigating the complaint has finally begun.
We are a bit disappointed that it has taken this long - 2 months - for the complaint investigation process to get started, and more so that the HDC did not contact us at all during the last 2 months to simply let us know what was happening. Still, at least the ball is now rolling.
(Please refer to older posts to read more about the story beind this complaint.)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Quick update on complaint about NZ ETS surgeon Dr Murray MacCormick
The Kiwi ETS Group's complaint has been received by the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) and the Kiwi ETS Group is now waiting to hear back from the HDC.
It has been a few weeks since we last heard from the HDC. We see this as a positive sign that the HDC is taking the time to thoroughly investigate the complaint.
It has been a few weeks since we last heard from the HDC. We see this as a positive sign that the HDC is taking the time to thoroughly investigate the complaint.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Second update on complaint against NZ ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick
The Kiwi ETS group has made a complaint, on behalf of a New Zealand ETS patient, to the Health and Disability Commissioner about prolific Auckland ETS surgeon Dr Murray MacCormick.
The Kiwi ETS Group has highlighted the following in the complaint:
-We believe that Murray MacCormick failed to fully inform the patient about common and documented side effects of ETS;
-We believe Murray MacCormick misdiagnosed the patient's midlife facial sweating as hyperhidrosis depite the fact there were numerous red flags indicating the patient's condition was not hyperhidrosis;
-We believe Murray MacCormick showed an overall lack of care, professionalism and ethics in dealing with this patient;
-The Kiwi ETS group has evidence and anecdotal evidence that Murray MacCormick has a history of unhappy ETS patients, all of whom we believe he failed to inform about the common and documented side effects of ETS.
Updates on how the complaint progresses will be posted here.
The Kiwi ETS Group has highlighted the following in the complaint:
-We believe that Murray MacCormick failed to fully inform the patient about common and documented side effects of ETS;
-We believe Murray MacCormick misdiagnosed the patient's midlife facial sweating as hyperhidrosis depite the fact there were numerous red flags indicating the patient's condition was not hyperhidrosis;
-We believe Murray MacCormick showed an overall lack of care, professionalism and ethics in dealing with this patient;
-The Kiwi ETS group has evidence and anecdotal evidence that Murray MacCormick has a history of unhappy ETS patients, all of whom we believe he failed to inform about the common and documented side effects of ETS.
Updates on how the complaint progresses will be posted here.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Excerpts from an interview with an ETS surgeon
The following are excerpts from a recent interview between a member of the Kiwi ETS Group and a New Zealand ETS surgeon.
Interviewer: I spoke to a neurologist who said that the Sympathetic Nervous System plays a role in a lot of different functions in the body, and a couple of the ones he mentioned were: lung function, heart function…um, brain function, blood vessel function, sexual function, for example. So, what I wanted to ask you is…when the SNS is cut or cauterised – whichever method a surgeon prefers to use – how does that system maintain its equilibrium after it has been cut into?
ETS surgeon: Ah…I don’t think you can really say. A lot of the reason why the operation works is unknown. Like if you operate on someone for facial blushing…the four people I’ve done for that, I’ve told them beforehand that um, that we don’t really know why the operation should work because you’re cutting the sympathetics that normally supply the arm and they’re interested in the face.
It’s not very logical that the operation would work…like I say, you cut the sympathetics to the arm. But what you say, about what happens to the sympathetics afterwards and all that sort of stuff, I don’t really think anyone knows. And so the results...those who do get bad compensatory truncal sweating…it’s very unpredictable.
Interviewer: Is that not a concern – that the mechanism, what the surgery actually does, how it stops sweating and blushing, is not actually understood?
ETS surgeon: Yip.
************
Interviewer: There are two health practitioner insurers in Australia – MDVA and Avant – and they will not insure for ETS because they said they received too many complaints related to ETS for the number of surgeries being performed.
Again, is this something that is a concern to the community of surgeons doing the surgery?
ETS surgeon: Ah, I don’t think so. I don’t think that is that well known.
************
Interviewer: So related to all that, as well as those Australian insurance companies I mentioned not insuring practitioners for the procedure, in 2005 a Finnish Organisation – FINOHTA, the Finnish Office for Health and Technology Assessment – they did a review and their conclusion was that there was “a lack of controlled trials and no reliable evidence for the effectiveness of ETS for excessive sweating in the face and hands or for flushing in the face”. They also concluded that the treatment had no impact on social phobia and was associated with significant immediate and long term adverse affects.
Further to that, in August last year, the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures – surgical, they released a report. I believe it was passed on to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) that same month - August 2009. Their conclusion was very similar. They said there was a lack “high quality, randomised trial evidence” on the surgery that made it “difficult to judge the safety and effectiveness of the technique”. They said there is a potential number of safety issues associated with ETS surgery, and they suggested a full systematic review be undertaken to assess the safety and efficacy of the surgery.
As someone who is seeing a few patients every year for the surgery, what do you think about those two reviews? Do they concern you?
ETS surgeon: Yeah, that’s accurate. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad operation.
Interviewer: Is it more that they’re saying there needs to be more research done?
ETS surgeon: Yeah exactly, it means that if you looked at all the studies, there’s not much useful information in it.
************
Interviewer: Further to what we talked about before, the review done in Finland and the one recently done by Asernip-s in Australia...you mentioned an American support group. There is also a support group in Sweden, there is also a support group in Australia and there’s also one here in NZ for people who had bad outcomes from the sympathectomy surgery, and I also believe there is a Japanese language website, and a Taiwan Chinese website that were created by people who had bad outcomes from the surgery.
All these support groups and all these websites seem to suggest quite a high number of unhappy patients. What do you think about that?
ETS surgeon: You shouldn’t undertake the operation unless you’re aware there is a possibility of a bad outcome like that.
Interveiwer: Do you think there are issues around the consent process – that people aren’t being adequately warned about the possible side effects?
ETS surgeon: Ummmmmmm....probably.
Interviewer: I spoke to a neurologist who said that the Sympathetic Nervous System plays a role in a lot of different functions in the body, and a couple of the ones he mentioned were: lung function, heart function…um, brain function, blood vessel function, sexual function, for example. So, what I wanted to ask you is…when the SNS is cut or cauterised – whichever method a surgeon prefers to use – how does that system maintain its equilibrium after it has been cut into?
ETS surgeon: Ah…I don’t think you can really say. A lot of the reason why the operation works is unknown. Like if you operate on someone for facial blushing…the four people I’ve done for that, I’ve told them beforehand that um, that we don’t really know why the operation should work because you’re cutting the sympathetics that normally supply the arm and they’re interested in the face.
It’s not very logical that the operation would work…like I say, you cut the sympathetics to the arm. But what you say, about what happens to the sympathetics afterwards and all that sort of stuff, I don’t really think anyone knows. And so the results...those who do get bad compensatory truncal sweating…it’s very unpredictable.
Interviewer: Is that not a concern – that the mechanism, what the surgery actually does, how it stops sweating and blushing, is not actually understood?
ETS surgeon: Yip.
************
Interviewer: There are two health practitioner insurers in Australia – MDVA and Avant – and they will not insure for ETS because they said they received too many complaints related to ETS for the number of surgeries being performed.
Again, is this something that is a concern to the community of surgeons doing the surgery?
ETS surgeon: Ah, I don’t think so. I don’t think that is that well known.
************
Interviewer: So related to all that, as well as those Australian insurance companies I mentioned not insuring practitioners for the procedure, in 2005 a Finnish Organisation – FINOHTA, the Finnish Office for Health and Technology Assessment – they did a review and their conclusion was that there was “a lack of controlled trials and no reliable evidence for the effectiveness of ETS for excessive sweating in the face and hands or for flushing in the face”. They also concluded that the treatment had no impact on social phobia and was associated with significant immediate and long term adverse affects.
Further to that, in August last year, the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures – surgical, they released a report. I believe it was passed on to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) that same month - August 2009. Their conclusion was very similar. They said there was a lack “high quality, randomised trial evidence” on the surgery that made it “difficult to judge the safety and effectiveness of the technique”. They said there is a potential number of safety issues associated with ETS surgery, and they suggested a full systematic review be undertaken to assess the safety and efficacy of the surgery.
As someone who is seeing a few patients every year for the surgery, what do you think about those two reviews? Do they concern you?
ETS surgeon: Yeah, that’s accurate. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad operation.
Interviewer: Is it more that they’re saying there needs to be more research done?
ETS surgeon: Yeah exactly, it means that if you looked at all the studies, there’s not much useful information in it.
************
Interviewer: Further to what we talked about before, the review done in Finland and the one recently done by Asernip-s in Australia...you mentioned an American support group. There is also a support group in Sweden, there is also a support group in Australia and there’s also one here in NZ for people who had bad outcomes from the sympathectomy surgery, and I also believe there is a Japanese language website, and a Taiwan Chinese website that were created by people who had bad outcomes from the surgery.
All these support groups and all these websites seem to suggest quite a high number of unhappy patients. What do you think about that?
ETS surgeon: You shouldn’t undertake the operation unless you’re aware there is a possibility of a bad outcome like that.
Interveiwer: Do you think there are issues around the consent process – that people aren’t being adequately warned about the possible side effects?
ETS surgeon: Ummmmmmm....probably.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Update on complaint against NZ ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick
The following was written by the ETS patient who is making the complaint. They have given their permission for this to be circulated.
*******************************************************************************
"Still no reply to my letter dated 2 April, 2010, to Murray MacCormick.
"My advocate from the Health and Disability Commissioner came over this morning and we talked. She had a copy of the Kiwi ETS Group's support letter to the Commissioner and was very impressed with it. She had also read the web pages I had given her and was quite surprised that the surgeon continues to perform ETS and said this is a very valid complaint.
"However, an advocate goes into the meeting and says nothing. They are there only to call a meeting off should it "get ugly". Without her being able to help or say anything it seems pointless. I would probably be so upset and make a complete fool of myself and my surgeon would probably suggest a shrink.
"All MacCormick is required to say is sorry. Not good enough.
"When you go to these meetings you are only allowed to talk about yourself, others are not to be mentioned.
"When or if MacCormick's response letter arrives, I will leave a message with his secretary saying that his reply took too long and my complaint has now gone to the Commissioner.
"I encourage others to do the same, whether our complaints go in together or separately."
**********************************************************************************
The Kiwi ETS group is supporting this patient in complaining to the HDC, and we urge any unsatisfied ETS patients of Murray MacCormick to make a complaint.
One complaint about one surgeon is nothing out of the ordinary to the Health and Disability Commissioner. However, several complaints about one surgeon from patients who all had the same surgery should hopefully be cause for alarm and warrant a thorough investigation.
*******************************************************************************
"Still no reply to my letter dated 2 April, 2010, to Murray MacCormick.
"My advocate from the Health and Disability Commissioner came over this morning and we talked. She had a copy of the Kiwi ETS Group's support letter to the Commissioner and was very impressed with it. She had also read the web pages I had given her and was quite surprised that the surgeon continues to perform ETS and said this is a very valid complaint.
"However, an advocate goes into the meeting and says nothing. They are there only to call a meeting off should it "get ugly". Without her being able to help or say anything it seems pointless. I would probably be so upset and make a complete fool of myself and my surgeon would probably suggest a shrink.
"All MacCormick is required to say is sorry. Not good enough.
"When you go to these meetings you are only allowed to talk about yourself, others are not to be mentioned.
"When or if MacCormick's response letter arrives, I will leave a message with his secretary saying that his reply took too long and my complaint has now gone to the Commissioner.
"I encourage others to do the same, whether our complaints go in together or separately."
**********************************************************************************
The Kiwi ETS group is supporting this patient in complaining to the HDC, and we urge any unsatisfied ETS patients of Murray MacCormick to make a complaint.
One complaint about one surgeon is nothing out of the ordinary to the Health and Disability Commissioner. However, several complaints about one surgeon from patients who all had the same surgery should hopefully be cause for alarm and warrant a thorough investigation.
Monday, April 12, 2010
NZ ETS patient makes official complaint about their surgeon
A New Zealand ETS patient has just begun the process of making a complaint about their ETS surgeon, Dr Murray MacCormick, to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC).
Updates on how the complaint progresses will be posted here. The Kiwi ETS Group has written a letter in support of this ETS patient to the HDC, highlighting the fact that several New Zealand ETS patients we have had contact with are dissatisified patients of Dr MacCormick because of the disabling and devastating side effects their ETS surgeries have left them with - side effects Dr MacCormick never warned them about or downplayed the likelihood/severity of.
In addition, the letter highlights the following issues with Dr MacCormick's decision to offer ETS to this patient.
1.) The patient was suffering from excessive facial sweating as a side effect of medication they were taking. However, at that time, the patient was not aware what was causing the excessive facial sweating - after all, they are not a medical professional.
You would think that in such a case, an experienced doctor, which Dr MacCormick indeed is, would extensively question the patient about their medical history, any medication they were taking, and how long the sweating had been a problem for, and use their medical knowledge to determine that the sweating was not actually hyperhidrosis but a far simpler problem that could easily be alleviated by adjusting or changing the patient's medication.
Instead, within the space of a 15-minute consultation - the first ever consultation between Dr MacCormick and this patient - the doctor recommended ETS to treat the excessive facial sweating and scheduled the surgery to take place within the week.
2.) Even IF the patient had indeed had facial hyperhidrosis, ETS surgery is suppposed to be a last resort treatment for hyperhidrosis when all other non-surgical treatment options have been tried, and have failed. However, as the patient did not even have hyperhidrosis, they should never have been considered a candidate for ETS.
The letter also points out that Dr MacCormick, as a private practitioner, made a sizable sum of money from performing the ETS surgery on this patient.
The patient now lives with disabling severe CS and other side effects commonly reported by ETS patients - ongoing fatigue, painfully dry skin on the arms and mysterious pains in the limbs and extremities.
This patient's story is one of the most shocking we have heard to date about ETS in New Zealand.
If you are a dissatisfied past patient of Dr Murray MacCormick, now would be a good time to make your dissatisfaction known to the Health and Disability Commissioner. The higher the number of distressed patients, the harder it will be for the HDC to take the issue lightly.
Updates on how the complaint progresses will be posted here. The Kiwi ETS Group has written a letter in support of this ETS patient to the HDC, highlighting the fact that several New Zealand ETS patients we have had contact with are dissatisified patients of Dr MacCormick because of the disabling and devastating side effects their ETS surgeries have left them with - side effects Dr MacCormick never warned them about or downplayed the likelihood/severity of.
In addition, the letter highlights the following issues with Dr MacCormick's decision to offer ETS to this patient.
1.) The patient was suffering from excessive facial sweating as a side effect of medication they were taking. However, at that time, the patient was not aware what was causing the excessive facial sweating - after all, they are not a medical professional.
You would think that in such a case, an experienced doctor, which Dr MacCormick indeed is, would extensively question the patient about their medical history, any medication they were taking, and how long the sweating had been a problem for, and use their medical knowledge to determine that the sweating was not actually hyperhidrosis but a far simpler problem that could easily be alleviated by adjusting or changing the patient's medication.
Instead, within the space of a 15-minute consultation - the first ever consultation between Dr MacCormick and this patient - the doctor recommended ETS to treat the excessive facial sweating and scheduled the surgery to take place within the week.
2.) Even IF the patient had indeed had facial hyperhidrosis, ETS surgery is suppposed to be a last resort treatment for hyperhidrosis when all other non-surgical treatment options have been tried, and have failed. However, as the patient did not even have hyperhidrosis, they should never have been considered a candidate for ETS.
The letter also points out that Dr MacCormick, as a private practitioner, made a sizable sum of money from performing the ETS surgery on this patient.
The patient now lives with disabling severe CS and other side effects commonly reported by ETS patients - ongoing fatigue, painfully dry skin on the arms and mysterious pains in the limbs and extremities.
This patient's story is one of the most shocking we have heard to date about ETS in New Zealand.
If you are a dissatisfied past patient of Dr Murray MacCormick, now would be a good time to make your dissatisfaction known to the Health and Disability Commissioner. The higher the number of distressed patients, the harder it will be for the HDC to take the issue lightly.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
ETS surgeons in NZ and abroad
To help other ETS patients find this blog - whether they be potential ETS patients or patients who regret having had ETS - I will list the names of all the ETS surgeons I am aware of.
ETS surgeons in New Zealand:
Murray MacCormick (Auckland)
David Ferrar (Hamilton)
Thodur Vasudevan (Hamilton)
Ross Blair (Tauranga)
John Mercer (Christchurch)
David Lewis (Christchurch)
Malcolm Gordon (Christchurch)
ETS surgeons in Australia:
Peter Y Milne
Barry Beiles
Roger Bell
Hamilton White
Raffi Qasabian
John Preston Harris
Sanjay Sharma
Marek Garbowski
Philip Middleton
David Marshman
Spero Raptis
Ben Anderson
Chris Hensman
Richard Gilhome
Ray McHenry
ETS surgeons in the UK:
Christer Drott
-Drott used to practise in Sweden and performed ETS on thousands of patients throughout the '90s. Drott stopped practising in Sweden when a Swedish support group for those living with disabling side effects from ETS gained widespread media attention and ETS was temporarily banned in that country.
Goran Claes
-As above...Drott and Claes now practise on Harley Street in London.
There are likely many more ETS surgeons that I am not yet aware of. I will add more surgeons' names with time.
ETS surgeons in New Zealand:
Murray MacCormick (Auckland)
David Ferrar (Hamilton)
Thodur Vasudevan (Hamilton)
Ross Blair (Tauranga)
John Mercer (Christchurch)
David Lewis (Christchurch)
Malcolm Gordon (Christchurch)
ETS surgeons in Australia:
Peter Y Milne
Barry Beiles
Roger Bell
Hamilton White
Raffi Qasabian
John Preston Harris
Sanjay Sharma
Marek Garbowski
Philip Middleton
David Marshman
Spero Raptis
Ben Anderson
Chris Hensman
Richard Gilhome
Ray McHenry
ETS surgeons in the UK:
Christer Drott
-Drott used to practise in Sweden and performed ETS on thousands of patients throughout the '90s. Drott stopped practising in Sweden when a Swedish support group for those living with disabling side effects from ETS gained widespread media attention and ETS was temporarily banned in that country.
Goran Claes
-As above...Drott and Claes now practise on Harley Street in London.
There are likely many more ETS surgeons that I am not yet aware of. I will add more surgeons' names with time.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Want to make yourself heard, officially?
I thought it was time to start putting some information on here about the legal options for people who have had bad outcomes from ETS surgery.
In brief, your options are:
-Make a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner
-Make a 'Treatment Injury' claim to ACC
-Take your surgeon to court
Click here for links to information on 'How to Complain About a Doctor' and 'How to be Aware of and Enforce Your Rights as a Patient'.
I will add more on this topic later.
For now, know that there are options available to you, and as ACC recently informed me, at least seven people right here in New Zealand have already made treatment injury claims in relation to their sympathectomy surgeries. Six of these seven claims were accepted.
In brief, your options are:
-Make a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner
-Make a 'Treatment Injury' claim to ACC
-Take your surgeon to court
Click here for links to information on 'How to Complain About a Doctor' and 'How to be Aware of and Enforce Your Rights as a Patient'.
I will add more on this topic later.
For now, know that there are options available to you, and as ACC recently informed me, at least seven people right here in New Zealand have already made treatment injury claims in relation to their sympathectomy surgeries. Six of these seven claims were accepted.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Sydney ETS patient starts legal proceedings against surgeon
Our friend in Sydney, who had ETS for palmar hyperhidrosis and now lives with numerous severe and disabling side effects as a result, has given me permission to announce the following.
I wanted to announce that I have started legal proceedings against my ETS surgeon.
I hope that the case will generate some much needed publicity, debate, awareness and will expose (debunk) the pseudoscience these surgeons rely on.
No matter what the outcome, it might also serve as a warning for insurance companies who no doubt will react very sensitively to the prospect of having to pay compensation for an unproven, unexamined 'cure'.
I truly believe that the publicity generated from this (or any other ETS case that is presented and represented well) can open the doors for a class action and a change in how doctors will have to inform their patients in general.
I wanted to announce that I have started legal proceedings against my ETS surgeon.
I hope that the case will generate some much needed publicity, debate, awareness and will expose (debunk) the pseudoscience these surgeons rely on.
No matter what the outcome, it might also serve as a warning for insurance companies who no doubt will react very sensitively to the prospect of having to pay compensation for an unproven, unexamined 'cure'.
I truly believe that the publicity generated from this (or any other ETS case that is presented and represented well) can open the doors for a class action and a change in how doctors will have to inform their patients in general.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
A theory and method for treating ETS side effects holistically and naturally
In case anybody reads the comments on the first post on this blog and wonders, "What is Carter's diet? And how can it help treat my ETS side effects?", allow me to explain.
Chris Carter had ETS and suffered from horrible side effects. He researched the side effects of ETS, developed a theory on what was causing them, and came up with an eating plan to heal his body.
Check out this forum thread from ETS and Reversals Discussion, where Carter posted about his theory on what causes the side effects of ETS and the diet he has followed for several years, which he claims has cured his side effects. Scroll down the thread to see a list of foods that Chris Carter does and does not eat.
http://etsandreversals.yuku.com/topic/374?page=1
Please note that Chris Carter is a not a doctor or nutritionist but he speaks from experience and his own research.
Below is some further information written by Chris Carter, which has been copied from another post he wrote on the same forum. Chris wrote this post in June 2008. It has been edited only slightly for brevity and clarity.
******************************************************************
I believe natural food and the way you eat is the answer to all ETS side effects.
I'm a 30-year-old male and live in the UK. For those desperately looking for some sort of answer, wondering why your life has finished because of ETS, I am offering some advice. I want to tell you that there is life after ETS and it's a lot better than you think . . . . I'm living proof!
I had ETS at T2 and T3, four-and-a-half years ago for head, hand and armpit sweating. For five months after the surgery, I thought everything was good. Then the weather started to warm up . . . . oh shit, WTF have I done.
For the next two years my whole world fell down because of ETS side effects. I had become a shadow of who I was, a walking dead person with no vision of anything bright, sunny or happy. I had every known side effect and was in and out of hospital going for various scans, tests, scans and more tests, cameras in places, more tests, different consultants, being passed around like some f**king experiment.
Everything went wrong, as so many of you have experienced, and I couldn't believe that no one knew anything and no one could help me. I felt I had signed a death sentence.
After one-and-a-half years of all these terrible side effects, I started to research the human body, starting with the ETS operation. Coming from an engineering background, I like to find solutions and answers to problems. After looking at all my side effects and what causes the same conditions in people who have not had ETS, I started to work things out from the results of all my tests and scans and I began looking at the op and the sympathetic nervous system in more detail.
It took me about a year to fully come out of ETS side effects by changing my diet and lifestyle. For the last year and a half my body has been rebuilding. I was only going to get better as a result as coming out of the state of fight-and-flight.
The effects of fight-and-flight taken from Wikipedia
-Acceleration of heart and lung action
-Inhibition of stomach and intestinal action
-General effect on the sphincters of the body
-Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body
-Liberation of nutrients for muscular action
-Dilation of blood vessels for muscles
-Inhibition of lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation
-Dilation of pupil
-Relaxation of bladder
-Inhibition of erection
-Auditory exclusion (loss of hearing)
-Tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision)
-Increased sweating
-Digestion slows down, redirecting blood to the muscles and brain.
-Breathing increases and supplies more oxygen to the muscles.
-The heart beats faster and raises blood pressure.
-Perspiration increases to cool the body.
-Muscles tense up to prepare for action.
-Chemicals are released to help blood clot.
-Sugars and fats are released in the blood stream to provide fuel.
My Theory in Brief
The operation put our bodies, not our brains, in the state of fight-and-flight. The area that was cut on me (T2 and T3) stopped certain messages from the heart and lungs getting to my brain. Hence, by default, the internals of my body changed and began to operate in a different way, to keep me alive. One of the main changes in my body was how I convert food to energy. In a person who has had ETS, this process is very different to how it happens in a person who has not had ETS. Therefore it is really, really, really important what we eat every single day.
The main thing is NOT to eat any man-made substances, only 100% natural whole food. Basically anything that doesn't have a wrapper around it.
Foods To Avoid
All E-numbers, especially E101-199 E202-299 E301-399 E500-599 E600-E700, E800-E900 or anything that has an X or a Z in the name, and any sulphates - the less you eat, the better. In addition, don't eat anything that has been modified or contains an ingredient whose name you can't pronounce.
You will need to read the ingredients of everything you eat.
You also need to massively reduce (or even better, stop) eating sugary, processed refined food and any liquid stimulants (coffee, tea, fizzy, energy or coloured drinks). You will need to reduce salt, as this is a natural preservative. Most sauces, drinks, packaged foods and cheap processed stuff contains loads of these bad things.
As most of you are probably aware, the best thing to drink is WATER and that is very true for ETS patients, any other drink seems to affect me and probably will affect you. Sports drinks, protein shakes, coffee, energy drinks, caffeine drinks, etc. will affect us even more as these are all stimulants that effect the body (i.e., they are quickly absorbed into the blood stream through the kidneys and liver).
Basically, make everything you eat from scratch. Learn to cook! Eat fruit and veges, drink lots of still water. Yes, this may be very boring but you get used to it.
It's a lot better than taking any medication, most medication does contain stimulants, sugars, salts or preservatives, so really it's no good for us either. Also, multi-vitamin tablets contain loads of man-made s**t, therefore they will affect you, especially if you are not out of the fight-and-flight.
The reason certain foods affect our bodies is because lots of man-made chemicals in food have the same basic chemical formula as adrenaline, or noradrenaline - E-numbers and modified foods with added substances especially! These foods keep ETS people in fight-and-flight, and the longer it goes on the deeper you get into losing normal, healthy, bodily functions.
I think you will all agree, all the symptoms of fight-and-flight are the same as ETS side effects. Normal people may only be in that state for hours, most of us who have had ETS have been in that state for years.
If you suffer from ETS side effects then I recommend you look into and change your diet, cut out foods containing the chemicals/substances that I have mentioned above for at least 9-12 months (maybe longer). When you start seeing improvements and getting better then maybe start re-introducing things and see how they affect you.
I'm living proof this works as I'm so much better now after two-and-a-half years on my diet. I work in London and wear a suit every day, don't have to even think about wearing a vest underneath my clothes don't even have to think about taking my jacket off really and its June (UK summer). Three years ago I would change my vest underneath my shirt about three times a day in June.
I have just returned from holiday in Spain with my girlfriend, where it was 28 degrees Celsius. I was lying on the beach all day.
I am not on any medication. ETS and its horrible side effects are behind me now but what I know and what I'm going to do with that knowledge for the rest of my life is all in front.
For those who want to try this, please have a sustained go at it. It's better than medication. You just need to eat natural foods.
Things to Read Up On (use Google)
GI Diet (this details high GI foods and low GI foods, low and medium GI foods have proved to be better for me)
Effects of fight-and-flight
Food stimulants
Processed food
Microwaves and their effect on natural foods
Natural whole foods
I have put this information out there for people like me who have had ETS and are devastated about the results.
ETS was the maddest/worst/hardest/most amazing and terrible experience of my life, but now having my normal life back, doing normal things again is the best experience ever!
Thanks for reading
Chris Carter
Chris Carter had ETS and suffered from horrible side effects. He researched the side effects of ETS, developed a theory on what was causing them, and came up with an eating plan to heal his body.
Check out this forum thread from ETS and Reversals Discussion, where Carter posted about his theory on what causes the side effects of ETS and the diet he has followed for several years, which he claims has cured his side effects. Scroll down the thread to see a list of foods that Chris Carter does and does not eat.
http://etsandreversals.yuku.com/topic/374?page=1
Please note that Chris Carter is a not a doctor or nutritionist but he speaks from experience and his own research.
Below is some further information written by Chris Carter, which has been copied from another post he wrote on the same forum. Chris wrote this post in June 2008. It has been edited only slightly for brevity and clarity.
******************************************************************
I believe natural food and the way you eat is the answer to all ETS side effects.
I'm a 30-year-old male and live in the UK. For those desperately looking for some sort of answer, wondering why your life has finished because of ETS, I am offering some advice. I want to tell you that there is life after ETS and it's a lot better than you think . . . . I'm living proof!
I had ETS at T2 and T3, four-and-a-half years ago for head, hand and armpit sweating. For five months after the surgery, I thought everything was good. Then the weather started to warm up . . . . oh shit, WTF have I done.
For the next two years my whole world fell down because of ETS side effects. I had become a shadow of who I was, a walking dead person with no vision of anything bright, sunny or happy. I had every known side effect and was in and out of hospital going for various scans, tests, scans and more tests, cameras in places, more tests, different consultants, being passed around like some f**king experiment.
Everything went wrong, as so many of you have experienced, and I couldn't believe that no one knew anything and no one could help me. I felt I had signed a death sentence.
After one-and-a-half years of all these terrible side effects, I started to research the human body, starting with the ETS operation. Coming from an engineering background, I like to find solutions and answers to problems. After looking at all my side effects and what causes the same conditions in people who have not had ETS, I started to work things out from the results of all my tests and scans and I began looking at the op and the sympathetic nervous system in more detail.
It took me about a year to fully come out of ETS side effects by changing my diet and lifestyle. For the last year and a half my body has been rebuilding. I was only going to get better as a result as coming out of the state of fight-and-flight.
The effects of fight-and-flight taken from Wikipedia
-Acceleration of heart and lung action
-Inhibition of stomach and intestinal action
-General effect on the sphincters of the body
-Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body
-Liberation of nutrients for muscular action
-Dilation of blood vessels for muscles
-Inhibition of lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation
-Dilation of pupil
-Relaxation of bladder
-Inhibition of erection
-Auditory exclusion (loss of hearing)
-Tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision)
-Increased sweating
-Digestion slows down, redirecting blood to the muscles and brain.
-Breathing increases and supplies more oxygen to the muscles.
-The heart beats faster and raises blood pressure.
-Perspiration increases to cool the body.
-Muscles tense up to prepare for action.
-Chemicals are released to help blood clot.
-Sugars and fats are released in the blood stream to provide fuel.
My Theory in Brief
The operation put our bodies, not our brains, in the state of fight-and-flight. The area that was cut on me (T2 and T3) stopped certain messages from the heart and lungs getting to my brain. Hence, by default, the internals of my body changed and began to operate in a different way, to keep me alive. One of the main changes in my body was how I convert food to energy. In a person who has had ETS, this process is very different to how it happens in a person who has not had ETS. Therefore it is really, really, really important what we eat every single day.
The main thing is NOT to eat any man-made substances, only 100% natural whole food. Basically anything that doesn't have a wrapper around it.
Foods To Avoid
All E-numbers, especially E101-199 E202-299 E301-399 E500-599 E600-E700, E800-E900 or anything that has an X or a Z in the name, and any sulphates - the less you eat, the better. In addition, don't eat anything that has been modified or contains an ingredient whose name you can't pronounce.
You will need to read the ingredients of everything you eat.
You also need to massively reduce (or even better, stop) eating sugary, processed refined food and any liquid stimulants (coffee, tea, fizzy, energy or coloured drinks). You will need to reduce salt, as this is a natural preservative. Most sauces, drinks, packaged foods and cheap processed stuff contains loads of these bad things.
As most of you are probably aware, the best thing to drink is WATER and that is very true for ETS patients, any other drink seems to affect me and probably will affect you. Sports drinks, protein shakes, coffee, energy drinks, caffeine drinks, etc. will affect us even more as these are all stimulants that effect the body (i.e., they are quickly absorbed into the blood stream through the kidneys and liver).
Basically, make everything you eat from scratch. Learn to cook! Eat fruit and veges, drink lots of still water. Yes, this may be very boring but you get used to it.
It's a lot better than taking any medication, most medication does contain stimulants, sugars, salts or preservatives, so really it's no good for us either. Also, multi-vitamin tablets contain loads of man-made s**t, therefore they will affect you, especially if you are not out of the fight-and-flight.
The reason certain foods affect our bodies is because lots of man-made chemicals in food have the same basic chemical formula as adrenaline, or noradrenaline - E-numbers and modified foods with added substances especially! These foods keep ETS people in fight-and-flight, and the longer it goes on the deeper you get into losing normal, healthy, bodily functions.
I think you will all agree, all the symptoms of fight-and-flight are the same as ETS side effects. Normal people may only be in that state for hours, most of us who have had ETS have been in that state for years.
If you suffer from ETS side effects then I recommend you look into and change your diet, cut out foods containing the chemicals/substances that I have mentioned above for at least 9-12 months (maybe longer). When you start seeing improvements and getting better then maybe start re-introducing things and see how they affect you.
I'm living proof this works as I'm so much better now after two-and-a-half years on my diet. I work in London and wear a suit every day, don't have to even think about wearing a vest underneath my clothes don't even have to think about taking my jacket off really and its June (UK summer). Three years ago I would change my vest underneath my shirt about three times a day in June.
I have just returned from holiday in Spain with my girlfriend, where it was 28 degrees Celsius. I was lying on the beach all day.
I am not on any medication. ETS and its horrible side effects are behind me now but what I know and what I'm going to do with that knowledge for the rest of my life is all in front.
For those who want to try this, please have a sustained go at it. It's better than medication. You just need to eat natural foods.
Things to Read Up On (use Google)
GI Diet (this details high GI foods and low GI foods, low and medium GI foods have proved to be better for me)
Effects of fight-and-flight
Food stimulants
Processed food
Microwaves and their effect on natural foods
Natural whole foods
I have put this information out there for people like me who have had ETS and are devastated about the results.
ETS was the maddest/worst/hardest/most amazing and terrible experience of my life, but now having my normal life back, doing normal things again is the best experience ever!
Thanks for reading
Chris Carter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)