Text of Pat Smith Speech.
Today is a historic day for Lyme disease. Today marks a turning point
in the war against our doctors. Today, we draw a line in the sand with
our treating doctors on one side and the “ivory tower establishment” on
the other.
Whoever dares to cross this line from this point forward and threaten
our doctors’ right to treat needs to understand that we will no longer
sit idly by. We, as a community, a united national Lyme community,
will bring all the forces we have at our command, whether they be
political, medical, scientific, legal, or otherwise, against them.
The GAO investigation taking place in Washington, DC, right at this very
moment is only the first step. State by state, we will get legislators,
governors, and other officials to listen to us by educating them and
presenting not only the science but also the overwhelming numbers of
chronic Lyme patients coast to coast. The LDA has already helped
initiated this process in several states through health commissioners
and state boards. Additionally, we have begun to focus Washington’s
attention on Lyme disease through the Lyme Disease Initiative.
We will deluge our legislators with information and with patient horror
stories, forcing them to acknowledge the grave situation, which exists
for our patients and our treating doctors. We will continue to demand
bias investigations of all agencies and/or licensing boards who place
our doctors’ right to treat Lyme in jeopardy. These boards operate with
public funds, and we after all, are members of that public, and we must
demand the same rights as all other disease victims have: the right to
be treated with antibiotics and the right to be treated with dignity.
We will deluge those who espouse, without science, that 28 days of
treatment is enough with cases and literature to prove otherwise. We
will leave no stones uncovered in the search for consultants who may be
paid with public dollars who advocate this unsubstantiated treatment
regimen. We will raise funds for researchers whose minds are open to
the complexity of the Lyme disease organism. We will support our
doctors who are organizing through ILADS or other organizations to
become an effective force in our battle to regain the rights of our
doctors to treat.
This national disgrace perpetrated upon us by vested interests must
end. It began in New Jersey ten years ago with one of the most
knowledgeable Lyme doctors hauled before the medical board and branded a
“quack.” It continued in New Jersey with another prominent Lyme doctor
who was driven to his death after being charged. Another, and another,
and yet another followed until our doctors in New Jersey began to leave
the state or go in hiding and not treat Lyme. This sent a clear signal
to Insurance companies who have had a field day turning down patient
claims and forcing doctors to withdraw from medical plans which cut
patients off from more treatment.
Alabama, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New
York followed suit. Licenses were revoked, fines levied, stipulations
were attached to licenses. Most often, it has been the doctors who are
in the forefront of treatment who have suffered. Why? To scare the
remainder. Up until now, that strategy may have been effective, but it
will work no longer.
Dr. Burrascano, like those who went before him, has stuck out his neck
for the Lyme community and he has produced sensible, clinically based
published guidelines to help other doctors help us. Now, we must help
him and all his colleagues. The message needs to be a clear one: Leave
our treating doctors practice the medicine they have been trained to
practice, which involves all the knowledge, skills, and clinical
judgement they possess. If you cross that line in the sand to attack
our doctors, we in turn will attack you with all the science, bodies,
and medical and legal expertise it takes to eradicate you as a threat to
our treatment and, indeed, to our very lives and the lives of our
children.
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