I didn't do it.
No one saw me do it.
You can't prove I did it.
If anyone claims I did it, I'll deny it.
Posted on 02/22/2005 3:39:57 PM PST by bourbon
A federal judge said Thursday she was stunned to hear that an X-ray machine owned by a real estate agent and operated in a trailer in a chain restaurant parking lot was used to diagnose thousands of plaintiffs with a work-related lung ailment.
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack has called doctors to back up some 10,000 silicosis diagnoses obtained by lawyers via screening companies such as Occupational Diagnostics of Ocean Springs, Miss.
Dr. H. Todd Coulter, the fourth physician to testify, explained how he worked out of a "physician´s suite" in a trailer equipped with an X-ray machine. He said he was hired to scan X-rays taken by screening company staff for signs of silicosis, a progressive disease caused by prolonged inhalation of sand particles. He said he was paid $40 per screening and screened five to 60 people a day.
While not a radiologist by training, he said he went to colleagues after a few months for a tutorial and they assured him he was reading the images correctly. He said no license was required to take X-rays in Mississippi.
"How this has been handled is very frightening," Jack said. "You mean I could go to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and buy an X-ray machine and take it to Wal-Mart and start taking X-rays?"
Defense lawyers say Coulter is responsible for 237 of the cases moved from state courts in Mississippi, Alabama and other states to Jack´s courtroom for pretrial proceedings. The lawyers, from more than a dozen industrial firms including 3M Company, Lockheed Martin, and American Sand & Gravel Co., are hoping to prove lawyers used shaky, if not fraudulent, methods to recruit plaintiffs.
They have highlighted cases including a teacher, salesman and self-employed home repairman who all say they were sickened by years of breathing in the dust.
In December, Jack ordered all doctors and screening companies to appear this week so she could weed out any claims that lacked a solid diagnoses for the disease. Her order came after one doctor recanted some 3,700 diagnoses he said he thought were only second opinions.
Plaintiffs´ attorneys said all the doctors they used met federal qualifications to diagnose and were following well-established standards to diagnose silicosis. They said every client screened had a history of silica exposure and was therefore likely to show signs of the disease.
Plaintiffs´ attorneys said Dr. George Martindale´s withdrawals took them by surprise, and said they would rely on the initial physicians´ diagnoses.
But that doctor, Dr. Ray Harron of West Virginia, testified Wednesday he often never saw his final reports diagnosing people with lung scarring caused by work site dust. He seemed at a loss to explain how permanent signs of asbestosis he´d diagnosed disappeared years later when he diagnosed the same workers with silicosis.
Heath Mason, owner of N&M Inc., a screening company that used Harron for most of its reports, said his company´s function was solely to take X-rays for lawyers and that he had nothing to do with diagnoses.
Thursday, attorney Kathleen Snapka said the plaintiffs had been victimized and were volunteering to have a court-chosen doctor re-examine all their clients.
"We have in no way attempted to defraud any party and especially this court," she said.
Jack said it may be too late.
"Three years into this litigation and now you say you´re going to come up with a doctor who can diagnose?"
(((MS PING)))
I didn't do it.
No one saw me do it.
You can't prove I did it.
If anyone claims I did it, I'll deny it.
if you think that's something you should see how they diagnose hemorrhoids.
What an evil smile!
Looks like a cross between John Ritter and the Joker.
Just another example of those Hiteck Redneck Jobs
in Mississippi
"...an X-ray machine...operated in a trailer in a chain restaurant parking lot was used to diagnose thousands of plaintiffs..."
This could be the real reason John Edwards has a fondness for Wendy's.
and where, oh where is our credible press in reporting this?
SO9
Our local hospital(which is very good and efficient) contracts an enormous amount of "trailer" operations for imaging and diagnosis. Their parking lot looks like an RV exposition on certain days. As to who owns the trucks and machinery, I'm sure it's all sorts of partnerships of all sorts of people.
perfect
Until the Justice Dept. gets involved and hits these guys with RICO charges, this will continue.
:-)
It was an X-ray machine the working man could afford. :)
High priced technology such as MRI can be made available to smaller hospitals for a certain number of contracted days per week or month by these mobile services.
The "trailer" is not the problem. Great medicine can be practiced under a tent (military field hospitals) and quack medicine can be practiced in a fancy modern building.
The problem is if a fly-by-night operation that is not certified or licensed is producing radiographic imaging read by someone who is neither trained nor licensed. For every quack trailer outfit these lawyers have, I'm sure they have other quack outfits with really nice offices.
Yes' and if you are a male over 50 they can probably approximate that digital x-ray for prostrate problems.
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