Thomas Johnson - Medical Blog

 In a leaked opinion written by Judge Samuel Alito, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade , the landmark decision that granted universal access to abortion in America. Alito found reasoning behind Roe v Wade was weak and reportedly referred abortion back to the legislature. Critics on the left are outraged, calling it an attack on reproductive rights and individuals’ rights to make decisions about their bodies.   However, in countries where abortion is allowed, it is legislated so the US Court’s decision is not unusual. In the US, conservative Republican-run states like Mississippi that brought the present challenge have been curtailing abortion through restrictive laws. But that leaves Democratic states that permit abortion.   While the Court’s decision is a setback for abortion, it is not banned so comments like late show host Trevor Noah who called it “a hostile takeover of America’s reproductive rights” are hysterical.   The left, who generally clai...

  Groote Schuur Hospital’s (GSH) Urology Clinic diagnosed a Cape Flats resident for a neuro-urological condition. She was under their care for four years and during this time put on multiple courses of medication.   The patient told me last year doctors abruptly said they had “misdiagnosed” – she did not have the condition after all. They offered no explanation or apology and casually discharged her. She now suffers from cortisone-induced diabetes , a potentially life-threatening chronic illness .   The patient wrote to GSH’s “superintendent”, likely CEO Dr Bhavna Patel.  She was called to a meeting and met Professor “Hickman”, the neuro-urology specialism head, and another doctor, likely part of the management team.   Without the patient mentioning it at any stage in email or meeting, Hickman mentioned the prospect of the patient taking legal action, apparently all they were concerned about.   She told them she understood misdiagnoses occur. All s...

 Long read. This is the text, edited and appended, of an affidavit submitted to the National Prosecutions Authority's (NPA) Western Cape office, the director of public prosecutions, in September 2021. (I’ve previously written about these cases in this blog.)   These cases, as with others reported over the years involving the Western Cape and national public health system, and other state organs, show a pattern, a modus vivendi, of endemic corruption, illegality and unethical conduct.  Nothing ever changes.  Then as now the NPA is reluctant to or won’t prosecute corruption, politically sensitive cases and government officials.    WC Health shields negligent unlicensed British doctor. NPA and Health Professions Council refuse to prosecute   In 2001 Western Cape Health Department (WCHD) and Groote Schuur Hospital management chief medical superintendent Drs Peter Mitchell, outpatients director Tunc Numanoglu, orthopaedics unit head Mike Solomons and ...

 Pandemic Data and Analytics, better known as Panda, burst onto the scene a year ago with their infamous report the economic consequences of the lockdown would allegedly kill more people than Covid-19.   The media gave them significant coverage but no one questioned their and front man Nick Hudson’s faulty, mischievous assumptions and analysis.   Later when they issued a “study” that questioned epidemiological models predicting Covid deaths could exceed 50,000, and they said deaths would not exceed 20,000, the media still reported them, although with less interest.   But as the pandemic wreaked its heavy toll, Panda fell out of favour and was eventually sidelined.   Recently Daily Maverick’s Nafeez Ahmed and Rebecca Davis took down Panda – “Kung Flu Panda: dodgy analytics or pandemic propaganda”. But like most of the media, they have a short memory. At the time the media never critically examined Panda for what they obviously are: pandemic denialists. Th...

A doctor Suzanne Walter, 47, a palliative care specialist, and her 71-year-old patient, Diethelm Harck are asking the high court in Johannesburg to order the government to enact legislation that would allow physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia . Both are terminally ill, Walter with multiple myeloma and Harck with motor neuron disease. The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) and government are respondents. One of the grounds of their application is euthanasia is not permitted in a Christian country. This is an interesting case. But I'm not sure it will succeed, not because of religion, but as the law and more importantly public consensus in most countries applies to doctor-assisted euthanasia. Wikipedia lists the few countries and states where euthanasia in some form is legal. Ironically, euthanasia is not permitted in, for example, most US states particularly southern where the death penalty is actively pursued. Ditto abort...

Covid reached a million cases in South Africa over the Christmas weekend and the band plays on. No one seems to have noticed the oddity revealed in President Cyril Ramaphosa's "emotional" address on Monday: members of the military-style command council recalled from their "festive breaks" while a "war" is raging. Like Western Cape health MEC Nomaindia Mbombo who went on holiday to Limpopo while the WC experiences a Covid surge worse than the first. And when these putative leaders return from their breaks they'll bring the virus with them, infecting colleagues and family, ironically, what they're concerned holidaying citizens are doing. It's no wonder the virus is rampant in SA. Like UK and US, its leaders are on holiday, playing golf or - something Ramaphosa shares with Johnson - weak, ineffectual and flip-flopping. And SA's people too are throwing caution to the winds as they always do - capacity shopping malls and beaches and ignoring...

Prof. Devi Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health, University of Edinburgh in The Guardian on December 24:  “The responsibility for this new [Covid-19] variant [in the UK which is similar to SA's] can partly be attributed to those who argued against restrictions, believing that allowing the virus to run rampant in young people while shielding the vulnerable would allow immunity to develop. Such conditions are ripe for variants to emerge. Unless we suppress the virus, it will probably mutate further. This could make our current vaccines ineffective, or lead to reinfections.” The UK is now called “Plague Island”, exacerbated by its Brexit woes. Because of the infectious variant, Boris Johnson, after as usual flip-flopping, “cancelled Christmas”. The British wanted to be isolated but not in the way they thought. Meanwhile, like the UK, the DA and DA-run Western Cape too are heading for their own right-wing isolationist bubble by arguing against restrictions (John Steenhhuisen, ri...