Collateral Damage
Dan Walter
183 pages
$17.95
What do you do when you take a family member to the hospital for an elective procedure, you are present at all times prior to the procedure, you both have researched the procedure (She’s an RN), and she is left near death afterwards?
There are two ways to read Collateral Damage. The first is to read the book in a single sitting, totally immersed in the story, blind to tone and style, although it is an indication of excellent writing when these become invisible to the reader. The second is to read a few pages or a chapter at a time, grow breathless with dismay, and be forced to take a break to begin breathing again. Meals do not get prepared while this is happening. Newspapers go unread. Few conversations occur.
Either way, Collateral Damage demands and receives the reader’s undivided attention.
Dan Walter has found a way to tell his wife’s, Pam’s, medical nightmare in the context of relevant research protocols, medical device company business plans, and even public statements by the Pam’s surgical consultant.
Pam Walter had atrial fibrillation, a fairly common heart rhythm problem. Previous treatment had not corrected the problem, and in 2001, she was ready to try something else. A registered nurse herself, she researched her options. Atrial ablation, which involves entering the heart with a catheter and burning areas of tissue to diminish over-activity, was available.
She and Dan consulted an interventional cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, and Pam decided to undergo the procedure. Unknown to Pam or Dan, Pam was enrolled in a clinical trial designed to prove that the procedure Pam had agreed to undergo would not correct her heart rhythm problems.
Unknown to Pam or Dan, Pam was about to be subjected to a cardiologist fellow’s initial use of a new heart catheter. The surgeon she had consulted would not be present until very late in the day after the worst of all possible complications had occurred.
The catheter tip became embedded in Pam’s mitral tissue. It could not be removed – until someone gave a strong pull – and the catheter came out along with vital heart muscle, sufficient to leave Pam in urgent need of open heart surgery before she died.
Pam got the surgery. Over the next many weeks, she fought to live. She survived, but at the loss of her career and her life as an active partner.
Dan says:
I’m a writer and consultant. After my wife was injured during a cardiac procedure at Johns Hopkins, I began to research how such a thing could happen at “America’s Best Hospital.”
The stunning story unfolded as I read transcripts from FDA hearings wherein doctors revealed the unvarnished truth about corporate driven medicine ̶ with devastating results for patients.
Collateral Damage reads like a crime novel. Unfortunately, the story is true. Even more unfortunately, there is no happy ending for Pam Walter.
As for Johns Hopkins. The university’s hospital was soundly rebuked for its use of human subject, its manipulated statistical results of clinical trials, and its faulty informed consent procedures.
At least one of the projects Pam’s surgical consultant administered went up in flames. And so did the company that produced one of the medical devices submitted to the FDA for approval.
The Walter family played no part in this. Cardiology colleagues and the FDA took action.
Such losses for Johns Hopkins or the medical device companies are “a cost of doing business.” Disappointing results from the FDA do not stop or alter their efforts.
Pam, however, has been stopped in her tracks. When, after failing other attempts to deal with damage to her health and destruction of the family’s finances, Dan and Pam turned to the legal system for redress, they were thoroughly trounced, tortured and outmaneuvered by the hospital’s attorneys.
Collateral Damage will not restore Pam Walter’s health. The book will not make up for the ongoing costs of her medical care or the loss of her income – and Dan’s as well, as the couple struggled to keep Pam alive.
Collateral Damage, nonetheless is a worthwhile and important book. It reveals a side to the health care profit system that we would rather not see. And it forces us to look.
Collateral Damage has appeared at an important time.
The FDA’s user fees for prescription drugs and medical devices must be reauthorized every five years. Congress needs to act on reauthorization legislation this year. The FDA cannot fiscally survive without those fees.
This year, negotiations between the FDA and medical device companies has been unusually difficult. This year, some in the medical device industry are pushing back against regulation – period.
People who require continuous medical care probably already know some of Pam’s story, because they may have had similar experiences themselves, though less devastating to their quality of life. People who have lost loved ones to medical mistake may also recognize some of the themes Dan examines. In particular, they may have had experiences in which the medical practitioners seemed far more concerned about themselves and their own “bottom line” than about the well-being and futures of their patients.
The rest of us need to remember that we are merely temporarily well. Most of us will eventually have close encounters with the US health care system with all of its warts.
Whether you read Collateral Damage in a single sitting or you read it as I did over a couple of days while the rest of my life was placed on hold, you need to read this book.
