My name is Ronald James Martin. I prefer to be called James. I reside in Euless, Texas. It is believed that I acquired Lyme disease in New Jersey at six years of age, but was diagnosed with everything but Lyme until 1996.
I would like to thank the Texas Senate Committee on Administration; the Senators and all the staff, for their hard work in organizing these vital hearings, and in allowing me to testify here today.
I am also appalled that once again, Lyme victims are reduced to testifying, rather than being treated. This is decidedly a sympatheic Committee, but Lyme victims should not be reduced to this. Our lives once held promise, now we are reduce to begging for promises. As a body, we were classic overachievers, above average in intelligence, above average wage earners, highly involved in our schools, churches, families and communities.
Because of our disease, many of us have gone from tax-payors, to tax-eaters.
For over 20 years; after all the studies conducted, after all the testimony produced, after all the horror stories tearfully recited, after all the heartfelt promises, after all the multi-millions of tax-payor dollars spent, the only thing that remains to be done, and we will never see, is to conduct Nuremburg-type trials for the insurance companies, the independent reviewing consulting doctors, and the university-based researchers that have been withholding and denying treatment from Lyme victims. It has progressed to the point where, on May 3 of this year, US Senators and Representatives have officially called for an official investigation by the GAO within all the HHS agencies concerning spending and doctor investigations.
Why do I make this call? The United States is a signator of the United Nations Protocol on Human Rights. In the Technical and Biological sections it tells us:
"It is a human rights offense to be denied treatment for an illness if that treatment effects some improvement in health until a cure is found for the disease."
It is a civil rights offense to actively intrude and cause denial of treatment from which some measure of improvement can be noticed.
We are all told that there are two sides to Lyme. The easy-to-treat side seeks to dismiss the walking zombies with derisive labels; they never seek to diagnose or cure. They state there is no evidence that…..
And yet, following what some call "adequate treatment," even following years of treatment, biopsies and autopsies have found active spirochetes in the skin, spinal fluid, synovial fluid, blood, ligamentious tissue, muscle tissue and iris tissue. In short, despite what the "experts" call "adequate treatment," the causitive agent (Bb) has not been eradicated.
In scientific studies, there are also two side to a hypothisis, the objective and the subjective.
The objective side does indeed tell us, there is no evidence that….
The subjective side tells us, it cannot be ruled out that….
When you lay a quarter flat on the table, you cannot see the side of the quarter laying flat against the table. There is no visual evidence that there is a design on the hidden side of the quarter, yet it cannot be ruled out that there is a design on that hidden side of the quarter, because experience has shown us that every time we pick it up and look at it, there has been a design there.
The same holds true with long term antibiotic therapy. We are told "there is not single study that…." However, there are thousands of documented individual cases in which each case benefit was derived from long term usage.
In the absence of proof of eradication, we must take the proof of benefit.
If we take as proof of wellness the patients oral testimony, we must also take the patients oral testimony of un-wellness.
Doctor fears are real. As paraphrased from the "Book of Moses," when you make a statement that you know is wrong, it is a lie, remember?
A prominent member of the Texas Board of Medical Examiners has stated "There is no Lyme in Texas." This was after the US Army, with the cooperation of the Texas Department of Health, in 1991-1992, as mandated by law, performed and published their studies saying there is Lyme in Texas. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department also had performed and published studies saying there is Lyme in Texas. This was after ethical physicians and laboritories had found Lyme in Texas that satisified the CDC case definition and reported the same.
One must wonder, in the presence of these truths, why someone of such prominence on the Texas Board of Medical Examiners would utter this lie? Although this individual is reportedly no longer associated with the Texas Board of Medical Examiners, you cannot help but wonder who else on that Board secretly rejects these truths? Is it time to examine the examiners? Is it no wonder the doctors fear the board?
There are "bad" physicians out there. There is a need for a Board of Medical Examiners, where the public can be assured that improper, unethical behaviour will be properly, and promptly, dealt with. However, when the Board itself nurtures unethical conduct, when it makes a mockery of the selection process for contracting "independent" reviewers, public trust not only breaks down, doctors sometimes wrongly lose their practices, and patients lose their lives.
When the most prominent medical peer-review publications must write apologies concerning institutional and monetary affiliations, perhaps it is time to turn the witch hunt around.
It has long been rumored that many of the complaints coming before the Boards are coming from insurance companies, or through their straw dogs. It has also been rumored, nationwide, that many Board members have insurance company and HMO affiliations. Perhaps we need to follow the lead of the peer-review publications and publish and certify affiliations along with the complaints.
In closing, I call for Texas to uphold the Human Rights and Civil Rights portions of the United Nations Protocol on Human Rights, and announce immediately to all entities with the right to affect health care in the State of Texas:
"It is a human rights offense to be denied treatment for an illness if that treatment effects some improvement in health until a cure is found for the disease."
It is a civil rights offense to actively intrude and cause denial of treatment from which some measure of improvement can be noticed.
God Bless Texas, and All The Little Children Of The World.
R. James Martin
501 Sycamore Lane, #327
Euless, Texas 76039817.540.2272
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/romarkaraoke/james.html
The URL of this page is https://www.angelfire.com/biz/romarkaraoke/TXSenate2.html
