No harm in warning about riskPublished: 2010-07-11 17:00:45Author: Preston Long and J. William Kinsinger | New Haven Register | April 6, 2010THE state Board of Chiropractic Examiners has voted 4-1 — four
chiropractors to one public representative — not to warn patients that
stroke is a rare, proven complication of chiropractic neck manipulation.
The
risk has been documented in scientific literature for the past 80
years, as well as in the autopsy findings of coroners and warned about
by neurologists and medical experts around the world.
The fact
that hearings took place at all is a tribute to the “stroke ladies,” as
one chiropractor derisively called them, led by Janet Levy and her
group, Victims of Chiropractic Abuse.
The board was the jury
hearing evidence, yet it in fact was on trial itself. By its questions
and tactics — starting with listening to the Connecticut Chiropractic
Association trying to get rid of the one public member of the board
before the hearings even started and rejecting on a technicality the
only chiropractor scheduled to provide testimony on behalf of the
victims — the board showed its complete failure to act in the best
interests of patients.
State Sen. Leonard A. Fasano, R-North
Haven, testified with simplicity and courage, clearly willing to break
the political bowing to chiropractors. He gave notice to the board that
there will be a legislated warning. If he succeeds, the impact will
extend to every state and will be a legal and political landmark.
The
state Board of Medical Examiners also sided with the victims. While
chiropractic witnesses played word games to suggest neck manipulation
was “associated” with strokes but does not “cause” strokes, the medical
doctors stated it clearly: “There is compelling circumstantial
evidence.”
Yet, the chiropractic board relied entirely on a
single statistical study in which no medical or chiropractic chart was
examined. This is utterly amazing.
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