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Bypass Surgery -- A Expensive Mistake

Bypass Surgery Is Exposed Here As A Harmful Fraud

Article By Karl Loren

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:  Bypass Surgery -- you will get more understandable information about bypass surgery on this one page (and its links) than any other place on the entire web site.

Bypass has an early history of heart disease, covered in the Heart Disease Section.  At some point you transfer from "just" having heart disease to "needing" bypass surgery.  That point is usually called the "angiogram."  Very few heart patients understand just how much fraud there is in this transfer point.  A study shows that more than half of all diagnoses of angiographs are technically deficient, and that many patients are told they need bypass when they don't, even by orthodox medical standards.

What is the Death Rate Under This Knife?

Some number of people who read this page will be those who have been told they need bypass surgery.  

Let's assume, for a moment, that you are such a person -- so I, Karl Loren, address you individually, and personally:

Would it shock you to know that Hospital A, in one city, has a death rate of 15.2%, and that Hospital B, in another, had a death rate of 0.6%!

Would you be interested in knowing which of two hospitals, where you could go, have a bypass death rate twenty five times higher than the other!

What if you heard some rumor that one of these hospitals might have a high death rate among those getting bypass?, and you asked your cardiologist, and he said, "Well, the hospital I recommend, per all published information, 'serves the fashionable clientele of the upper East Side, and offers open-heart surgery under its chief cardiac surgeon, Eugene Wallsh.  In 1984, coronary bypass operations were performed on fifty-nine patients.  I recommend that one -- Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City."

Then you said, "Well, how about that other hospital?" And, your cardiologist said, "Well, that one, I wouldn't recommend it.  That is the Eisenhower Medical Clinic in California.  Open-heart surgery at Eisenhower was performed by Jack J. Sternlieb, who in 1984 performed bypass surgery on 161 patients."

You might ask, "Why would you recommend the one in New York City over one in California?"

To which the cardiologist might say, "Well, the doctor at the Eisenhower Clinic seems to have too many patients per year," or some such invention.

In fact, prior to 1984, statistics on the success (or "failure") rates of individual hospitals was considered one of the most secret of secrets by the hospitals of America.

Then, you read an article by Thomas J. Moore, in a popular American magazine, and he writes, "In April 1985 a little-noticed decision by the federal government provided outsiders with the first peek into one of the most closely held secrets of hospitals.  The government declared that hospital-specific information about the costs and treatment of Medicare patients was available to the public providing it did not invade the privacy of the doctor/patient relationship.  Analysts in government, the universities, and the news media quickly realized that it was now possible to compare hospitals in new and provocative ways.  One was to compare deaths from open-heart surgery.  Within a hospital such mortality data was so tightly held it was normally known only to the cardiac surgeons and a handful of others.  And, outside the hospital such figures were virtually unobtainable, except from a few famous medical centers which prided themselves on routine publication of their surgical results.  The first government figures, while limited to the 40% of bypass operations paid for by Medicare, painted a startling picture."

Mr. Moore's articles then became a Book, now unfortunately out of print -- but you can get a reference to it here.

Then, reading Mr. Moore's report, you find that Hospital A, the one in the fashionable East Side of New York City, the one recommended by your cardiologist, had the highest death rate in the country -- 15.2%.  At the same time, Hospital B, the Eisenhower Clinic, had a bypass death rate of only 0.6%!

Armed with that information you go back to your Cardiologist, and say, "What's this!  You claimed that the Lenox Hill Hospital, Hospital A, on the upper East Side, was the best one for me to go to!  I now find that the death rate from bypass surgery was 25 times higher in the hospital you recommended compared to a hospital in California!"

He says, somewhat defensively, "Well, there are reasons that explain this."

As Thomas Moore writes, ". . . advancing age significantly increases the risk of bypass surgery.  Sternlieb's bypass patients in California [Eisenhower Clinic] were typically older than those of Lenox Hill even though fewer died.  Interviews with both surgeons revealed no unusual differences in patients that would immediately explain the large difference in mortality.  However, Wallsh said, 'There are patients who are operated on here who probably wouldn't be operated on in another hospital because they were too sick.'  But Sternlieb's assessment of his own surgical practice was little different.  'We take all comers who can benefit from the operation.  We don't exclude patients for high risk because of old age or previous damage to their heart.' "

You go back to your cardiologist and say, "How can this be?"

He mumbles!

You then find an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal -- a newspaper not known for scare-mongering!  It reveals that two very famous heart surgeons had often performed bypass surgery while drunk!  Would it surprise you that this story was so considered so important that it reached the front page of the Wall Street Journal for a series!  -- A series of articles on the malpractice of these two surgeons.  Read them all!

Or, be satisfied with a small excerpt!

Article 1 of 12 Cut Down:  How 2 Top Surgeons Saw Lucrative Practice Collapse in Acrimony --- Million-Dollar MDs Lost It, One to Alcohol and One, In Part, to a Past Error --- A Hospital and Its Ambitions By George Anders   09/13/94 The Wall Street Journal Page A1 (Copyright (c) 1994, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.)  CANTON, Ohio -- At the peak of their careers, Philip Rice and Richard Schwartz were doctors who made heads turn. They dominated cardiovascular surgery in this city of 84,000. They posted some of the lowest surgical mortality rates in Ohio. Each doctor earned more than $1 million a year, and they reveled in the luxuries that a thriving practice could buy. The two surgeons furnished their office at Aultman Hospital with Oriental rugs, glass sculptures and original oil paintings. They drove matching sports cars -- first Jaguars, then black, top-of-the-line BMW 750s -- that they parked side-by-side in hospital bays reserved for them by name. In their grandest gesture, Drs. Rice and Schwartz each December threw a black-tie dinner party at a local country club for 200 friends and colleagues. That single night's entertainment cost $20,000, Dr. Schwartz says, but it established him and Dr. Rice as part of Canton's social elite. Then people in Canton began to learn unsettling things about the star surgeons. Deaths associated with bypass surgery surged in 1990 and 1991. Hospital disciplinary bodies began looking into reports of alcohol on Dr. Rice's breath. And hospital lawyers uncovered a little-known, grisly episode in Dr. Schwartz's past, involving the death of an infant in his care. The Canton case provides a rare inside look at how a top medical practice boomed and then fell apart. Each year, state medical boards discipline about 3,000 doctors, or one in every 200, with steps ranging from reprimands to revoking of licenses. Most of those cases occur almost entirely in private, though, with only a brief case summary being released once a dispute is resolved. The public seldom learns about drawn-out and heated battles over whether to discipline a doctor. In Canton, lawsuits in state and federal courts have put thousands of pages of confidential material into the public record. What emerges is a tale of two ambitious doctors, a city that urgently wanted their services -- and the debacle that resulted. The story has its tragic figures, yet also some unexpected heroes, including nurses who spoke out early about physician conduct that they believed wasn't good for patients. Ohio's medical board suspended Dr. Rice's license indefinitely in 1993, after he enrolled in three alcohol-dependency programs and then refused to take a urine test. Dr. Schwartz hasn't had any action taken against his state license and remains active as a vascular surgeon in Canton. But his heart-surgery privileges at Aultman have expired, and the hospital won't renew them unless he establishes current competence. Like Little Boys Fighting!  Except This Fight Involves Death! In an interview, Dr. Schwartz says that he believes Aultman Hospital has acted unfairly against him, adding that he views his record as a heart surgeon as excellent. Dr. Rice didn't return repeated phone messages, but one of his attorneys called and said she had no comment beyond what was in the public record. The two surgeons are suing each other, and their joint practice is in dissolution proceedings. Many aspects of the Canton case touch on broader medical issues. Among them: How many "second chances" should a top doctor be allowed? What happens when a doctor's disciplinary case is intimately tied into an entire hospital's reputation? Most broadly, how well can the medical system police itself? [This blue text is taken from Mr. Moore's Book, Heart Attack]

Well, you might say that Karl Loren is only showing the few reports that are very negative.  "How about asking some well recognized opinion leader on the health scene, for instance, the President of the American Heart Association?"  Click here for the entire story.

Up to half of all coronary artery bypass surgeries fail. In these surgeries, portions of veins are surgically inserted to bypass clogged blood vessels to the heart. Gene therapy shows promise of reducing this failure rate. Drs. Victor Dzau and Michael Mann at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have developed a gene therapy technique that may prevent the growth of new cells lining the inside of these grafted blood vessels. The new cell growth is a fertile ground for the growth of the plaque obstructions that characterize atherosclerosis.

Well, you say, "But I was diagnosed by one of those terribly accurate medical procedures, the angiogram.  They showed me the actual pictures.  I have a 85% blockage and I will die within days if I don't get bypass immediately!"

I, Karl Loren, used to think that the angiogram was an accurate measure of the need for surgery, too, until I did some research, and found the following.  (Click here to read the entire study.)

Evidence from numerous studies of coronary angiography show differences between observers' assessments of 15% to 45%. The implication of this variation is serious: If readings are erroneous, some patients will undergo revascularization procedures unnecessarily and others will be denied an essential treatment. We evaluated the variation in interpretation of angiograms and its potential effect on appropriateness of use of revascularization procedures.

and . . .

The potential effect on differences on the appropriateness of revascularization was assessed by use of the RAND criteria. Technical deficiencies were found in 52% of cases.

Well, you say, "Surely the history and research behind bypass surgery is extensive, and if I really need it, and if I find a really good doctor, things will be for the best???"

Well, how about this?

One of the earliest of surgical procedures for the heart involved talcum powder!  These brave surgeons would cut open someone’s chest, expose the heart and rub it with sandpaper, or sprinkle talcum powder on it.

The idea was to irritate the heart and make it start beating properly.

This was the recommended method of heart surgery prior to 1950, believe it or not.

Now, some brave researcher decided to open up a few chest cavities, expose the heart, sprinkle talcum powder on some hearts but not on others.

The doctor would know which patient got "the treatment," but the secret was to be kept from the patient. The laws about such tests are now so strict that this would not be allowed today.

Yes, it was done, and yes, as you guessed, there was no difference between the results. If the heart got irritated, or if the heart didn’t get irritated, there was no difference. It didn’t look like this surgery had any value at all.

It was very quietly dropped.

You think I jest!

Read a report, by Claude S. Beck, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 1958. In that report Dr. Beck described how 97 percent of the people he operated on, using asbestos to rub against the exposed heart, experienced relief of angina pains.

Another weird surgical procedure involved something invented by Dr. Arthur M. Vineberg. This fraudulent procedure was in full use, on hundreds of patients, for many years. In fact, by 1972 this procedure had been in increasing use for 27 years without any objective test of whether or not it worked.

This procedure involved carving a tunnel through the heart muscle. One of the unused mammary arteries was then pushed into the tunnel and sewn into place. This brought extra blood to the heart, they thought.

The asbestos and mammary artery procedures were just about to be tested in 1972, at the Veterans Administration hospitals when the test was canceled because a brand new procedure had surfaced and seemed to show amazing results.

The new procedure was what we now call bypass surgery.

Neither asbestos, sewn mammary arteries nor bypass surgery has even been tested scientifically and none of them show any real evidence of increasing the length of life of the patient. None!

Many other authors have revealed the fraud behind heart surgery, and the lack of objective tests of any of the many weird techniques.

Yet, there is one method of treating heart patients where a double blind study was done, and where the results showed that the group which got the special new procedure had significant improvement in health and heart condition compared with the group that didn’t get the treatment.

Well, is there any hope?   What Could Be Better Than A Medical Doctor?

Yes there is.  You understand that there has never been a truly scientific study of any of these heart surgery procedures -- none!

Yet, there IS one study, a double blind study, of heart patients in an intensive care ward in a famous hospital.  Click here to read all about that.

A double blind study is considered the most reliable for predicting results because neither the doctor nor the patient knows that he is getting the treatment.  Half of the group gets the treatment while the other half does not.  Someone other than the doctor decides which person gets the treatment -- the doctor doesn't know.

When you get statistically significant improvement with a treatment in such a trial, you can be very assured it is not likely due to chance or the famous "placebo effect."  You would think that your cardiologist would be telling you about this -- the ONLY truly scientific study of intensive heart care patients every performed.  And, you have not heard of it!

You doctor HAS heard about it, will admit it, but will never offer you any information about it!  Click here to read about that study.

My web site is getting pretty popular -- more than 77,000 page requests in one month recently.  As you can guess, many of those visitors are already involved in the "health field" somehow.  Some of them are finding that the information on these 8,000 pages is dramatically different from what they are learning in medical school.

The world of traditional medicine is crumbling -- and the world of bypass surgeons, in particular, is crashing down.  I predict that within 10 years there will be less than 10% of the current number of bypass surgeons.

As often happens with me, since I get hundreds of eMails every week, I got a fascinating message on April 16, 2000, and quote it below.

His was the message:

April 15, 2000
Dear Karl,

The information you provide in your site is fantastic. I  have not seen as much information on these subjects organized in such a way before.

I am a 29 year old who has been interested in nutrition and  natural remedies for about 10 years. I have no real education in the area, just readings and some trial and error on my part. I have two associate degrees and one being in cardiovascular technology which I am trained in peripheral vascular technology and echocardiography, which, I have been doing for about 4 years.

I am enrolled now at UCF [University of California -- Fresno] and working on my BS in Biology with goals for going to PA school (Physician's Assistant).  For a while now I wanted to become a PA and work in the fascinating field of cardiovascular surgery, now I am not so sure. 

In the echocardiography field I have spent many hours in open heart surgery (not really a lot, about 30 surgeries) operating TEE (trans- esophageal echocardiography). I first thought it was the greatest thing, then after a while I started questioning it, especially with all of the complications, lack of options, and the surgeons themselves (not all of them, I think some of them are really trying to help people, not just themselves).

I'm trying to make a decision on where to go. Your information was the extra boost I needed to let me realize that this is an area I do not want to be a part of. 

I still am partly wanting to become a PA, because I can work in plenty of areas that can actually really help people, or go into a more homeopathic, another fascinating field or other naturalistic approach. I will be writing with many questions in the future. Thank you for the great information.

Sincerely,

Mike

If you missed it, you can go to either a SHORT explanation of the whole story, or a detailed explanation on ONE PAGE.  On this page you are getting more detail on one part of the story, but on either of those pages you can get the broad picture.  Don't miss reading one of them.  You can actually spend many hours on this web site, depending on the depth of research and reading you want to do.  There are an amazing 4,000 pages here -- more information on these general subjects than almost all other web sites combined!  At some point along the way you will probably say, "Karl's crazy," and leave never to return to this site, or you will say "I want to try some of that oral chelation formula he writes about!"

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