I was an Air Force fighter pilot for 11 years and experienced the loss of many of my fellow pilots in Vietnam and elsewhere. A serious aircraft incident was almost always the result of several errors in a sequence which compounded one another. Almost never does a single error cause a major catastrophe. The same is true in medicine.

The Wrong Patient

Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH; and Elise C. Becher, MD, MA*

Ann Intern Med. 2002;136:826-833.

Among all types of medical errors, cases in which the wrong patient undergoes an invasive procedure are sufficiently distressing to warrant special attention. Nevertheless, institutions underreport such procedures, and the medical literature contains no discussions about them. This article examines the case of a patient who was mistakenly taken for another patient’s invasive electrophysiology procedure. After reviewing the case and the results of the institution’s “root-cause analysis,” the discussants discovered at least 17 distinct errors, no single one of which could have caused this adverse event by itself. The discussants illustrate how these specific “active” errors interacted with a few underlying “latent conditions” (system weaknesses) to cause harm. The most remediable of these were absent or misused protocols for patient identification and informed consent, systematically faulty exchange of information among caregivers, and poorly functioning teams.

Many people working with electromagnetic frequency devices, whether Rife or FSCAN devices, know that growth of cancer cells is selectively inhibited by the right frequencies. Dr. Lai and his research group, at the University of Washington, has demonstrated this in cell culture with a Clark Zapper which only puts out a single frequency.

Low-intensity electric current-induced effects on human lymphocytes and leukemia cells

Narendra P. Singh and Henry Lai

Department of Bioengineering

University of Washington

Seattle, WA

USA

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether low-intensity current affects cells in culture. Two types of human cells: white blood cells (lymphocytes) and leukemia cells (molt-4 cells), were studied. A low-intensity time-varying electric current (0.14 milliamp) generated by the Clark Zapper was applied to cell cultures via two platinum electrodes for 2 hrs at 37o C. Cell counts were made at different times after electric current application. Results show that the current had no significant effect on human white blood cells up to 24 hrs after exposure, whereas it significantly inhibited the growth of leukemia cells. At 24 hrs after exposure, concentration of leukemia cells exposed to the electric current was only 58% of that of non-exposed leukemia cells. These data suggest that the electric current can selectively inhibit the growth of leukemia cells and does not significantly affect normal cells. A manuscript describing these results is in preparation for publication. In addition, the same electric current exposure (0.14 milliamp, 2 hrs at 37oC) was applied to E. coli bacteria cultures. No significant effect of the current was observed in E. coli cultures at 24 hrs after exposure.

Further research should investigate whether this selective electric current-induced growth inhibition also occurs in other types of cancer cells. The critical current parameters and mechanism of this effect should also be investigated.

Medication Errors Observed in 36 Health Care Facilities

Kenneth N. Barker, PhD; Elizabeth A. Flynn, PhD; Ginette A. Pepper, PhD; David W. Bates, MD, MSc; Robert L. Mikeal, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:1897-1903

Background: Medication errors are a national concern.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of medication errors (doses administered differently than ordered).

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: Hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, nonaccredited hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities in Georgia and Colorado.

Participants: A stratified random sample of 36 institutions. Twenty-six declined, with random replacement. Medication doses given (or omitted) during at least 1 medication pass during a 1- to 4-day period by nurses on high medication–volume nursing units. The target sample was 50 day-shift doses per nursing unit or until all doses for that medication pass were administered.

Methods: Medication errors were witnessed by observation, and verified by a research pharmacist (E.A.F.). Clinical significance was judged by an expert panel of physicians.

Main Outcome Measure: Medication errors reaching patients.

Results: In the 36 institutions, 19% of the doses (605/3216) were in error. The most frequent errors by category were wrong time (43%), omission (30%), wrong dose (17%), and unauthorized drug (4%). Seven percent of the errors were judged potential adverse drug events. There was no significant difference between error rates in the 3 settings (P = .82) or by size (P = .39). Error rates were higher in Colorado than in Georgia (P = .04)

Conclusions: Medication errors were common (nearly 1 of every 5 doses in the typical hospital and skilled nursing facility). The percentage of errors rated potentially harmful was 7%, or more than 40 per day in a typical 300-patient facility. The problem of defective medication administration systems, although varied, is widespread.

Gearin-Tosh, Michael. Living Proof: A Medical Mutiny. Scribner, 2002.

Gearin-Tosh, a tutor at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, was diagnosed with myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow) and told that if he did not begin chemotherapy immediately, he would be dead in less than a year. The recommended treatment, while probably extending his life somewhat, would not cure the condition. A second specialist confirmed the original prognosis, but the author rejected the proposed treatment after a former Oxford pupil consulted a cancer statistician who warned, “If your friend touches chemotherapy, he’s a goner.” Interwoven with engaging anecdotes from his professional life, Gearin-Tosh details his research into the world of alternative medicine…

“Michael Gearin-Tosh is a wonderful writer. He deals with the most important concepts. And he is indeed Living Proof. All physicians should read this book. Many of us are looking for more effective chemotherapeutic agents, biological intervention, etc., but the role of the ‘unorthodox’ therapies in his own experience and Carmen Wheatley’s case report on him–which is particularly well done–deserve scientific scrutiny and study.” Robert A. Kyle, M.D., Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

I’m doing background research on claims by Dr. Sears in his Zone Diet books on the benefits of fish oil. I’ve found that pharmeceutical fish oil produces dramatic effects within a few days on a number of levels. This article discusses why its inflammation suppressive effects help suppress cancer and how this affect depends on individual genes.



The ability of fish oil to suppress tumor necrosis factor production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in healthy men is associated with polymorphisms in genes that influence tumor necrosis factor production1,2,3

Robert F Grimble, W Martin Howell, Gillian O’Reilly, Stephen J Turner, Olivera Markovic, Sharon Hirrell, J Malcolm East and Philip C Calder

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 76, No. 2, 454-459, August 2002

Background: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) mediates inflammation. High TNF- production has adverse effects during disease. Polymorphisms in the TNF- and lymphotoxin genes influence TNF- production. Fish oil suppresses TNF- production and has variable antiinflammatory effects on disease.

Objective: We examined the relation between TNF- and lymphotoxin genotypes and the ability of dietary fish oil to suppress TNF- production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in healthy men.

Design: Polymorphisms in the TNF- (TNF*1 and TNF*2) and lymphotoxin (TNFB*1 and TNFB*2) genes were determined in 111 healthy young men. TNF- production by endotoxin-stimulated PBMCs was measured before and 12 wk after dietary supplementation with fish oil (6 g/d).

Results: Homozygosity for TNFB*2 was 2.5 times more frequent in the highest than in the lowest tertile of inherent TNF- production. The percentage of subjects in whom fish oil suppressed TNF- production was lowest (22%) in the lowest tertile and doubled with each ascending tertile. In the highest and lowest tertiles, mean TNF- production decreased by 43% (P < 0.05) and increased by 160% (P < 0.05), respectively. In the lowest tertile of TNF- production, only TNFB*1/TNFB*2 heterozygous subjects were responsive to the suppressive effect of fish oil. In the middle tertile, this genotype was 6 times more frequent than the other lymphotoxin genotypes among responsive individuals. In the highest tertile, responsiveness to fish oil appeared unrelated to lymphotoxin genotype. Conclusion: The ability of fish oil to decrease TNF- production is influenced by inherent TNF- production and by polymorphisms in the TNF- and lymphotoxin genes.

At a recent MIT conference a white paper was presented that suggested the U.S. medical system was in a state of increasing failure. Even worse, the conclusion of the multi-disciplinary study group was that it was not fixable. Any hope would come from initiatives outside the current medical system. Tommy Thompson, the national leader of our healthcare system has recently concluded the same thing.

The only thing I would question is his conclusion that their is a malpractice crisis. With medical error the third leading cause of death in the U.S., one could conclude that there should be significantly more malpractice claims if patients were really aware of the number of medical errors inflicted upon them, and the number of institutions that cover them up.

The American Medical System is Nearing Collapse

By Tommy G. Thompson – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human services

We are living in the most amazing era of medicine in human history. Yet as we all know too well, all is not well with American medicine. In point of fact, we are dealing with a system of healthcare delivery that is, at its root, dysfunctional.

The problem – the crisis – is the system by which care is delivered, which has simply not matured at the same pace as the technologies and treatments now available.

I’ve traveled all over the country. I’ve traveled to Spain and Germany. I’ve been to Canada. I’ve discussed healthcare with some of the leading policymakers and caregivers in the world. And sadly, I have to report that in Western society broadly, the various systems of care are eroding with ever-greater rapidity.

I’ve come to one central conclusion: The way we provide care is in jeopardy of collapse. It is clouded by regulatory burdens that are confusing, duplicative and extremely time-consuming. Physicians and nurses almost have to obtain advanced degrees in business administration, accounting and jurisprudence just to run their offices from day to day. Patients have to fill out endless forms; get transferred from place to place; worry about what insurance will pay for what treatment and at what cost.

We have to fundamentally change the current healthcare delivery system in our country. The myriad rules, regulations and restrictions that make obtaining good healthcare difficult, if not impossible, have to be reviewed carefully and, when necessary, jettisoned like useless ballast.

But there’s another area of reform that must – I repeat, must – be among the highest priorities we can develop: malpractice reform. America is experiencing a medical malpractice insurance coverage crisis that is increasing the cost of healthcare, decreasing access to doctors and hospitals for many patients and lowering the overall quality of care provided to patients.

Tommy G. Thompson is U.S. secretary of health and human services. This is excerpted and condensed from his remarks July 18 in Chicago to the American Medical Association

Repeatable clinical results are the gold standard for any treatment modality. Few published frequency sets for the FSCAN or Rife devices give repeatable results. Some of the few published sets I have seen, such as a list of frequencies for carpal tunnel syndrome, work 90% of the time for me with immediate relief in 10 minutes.

“What works” is of highest priority. Efficient use of research resources is to focus on documenting how and why “what works” is useful and how to assure it is repeatable. Only then can you take a result to clinical trials for definitive comparison to other treatements.

During the past few years, I have had a 100% success rate in eliminating clinical symptoms from parasite infections with careful clinical technique. I could post the frequencies for about two dozen parasites along with comments on clinical symptoms and conclusions about probably route of infection and suspected organism in many cases. Here are the problems:

1. You must know the exact frequencies of each stage of the life cycle of the parasite (typically there are four). They are specific not only to the parasite, but to the strain of the parasite in question. For some parasites, you must be within 10HZ in the Clark frequency range, 2HZ in the Rife range, or you will simple annoy it, not eliminate it. There are many methods that people have used to find exact frequencies but they are all very controversial, even the automated DIRP function on an FSCAN.

2. Zapping any strain of any organism causes evolution of the infectious disease. Most people are aware of this because antibotics have spawned resistant forms. With any set of organisms in the body, different specific organisms respond to a frequency range. Let’s assume the organism response is normally distributed and you hit the “exact” frequency or the mean of the normal distributed frequency band for the organism and wipe out two standard deviations on either side of the mean. The upper 5% and lower 5% still live and grow new populations of organisms outside the range of destruction of the original frequency. This means you must quickly determine a new frequency to terminate another population, and maybe have to do this several times before you are done.

3. You also must be able to detect the organism in any food or clothing which may cause reinfection. Many of the parasites are extremely infectious. A contaminated pair of eyeglasses, or an eyeglass case, or a sock is all that is necessary to spawn a new infection. Until we all have a DNA scanner that will work in a very generic way, prevention is not possible for many people. Thus even perfect clinical techniqe will not solve the problem.

4. Pockets of organisms may hide away in various organ systems. The brain is a favorite place for jock itch or athlete’s foot since the organisms are exposed to many toxic agents on other body parts, but almost noone is foolish enough to plaster their head with Tiniactin. Plate zapping (a la Hulda Clark) with contact electrodes or passing a Rife tube over all parts of the body with the ability to detect (like an airport scanner) any spots where organisms are hiding out is essential. Most people are unable to detect where organisms may be hiding.

5. Even more subtle effects exist. As Aubrey has pointed out, the frequency that affects an organism is distorted by the tissue through which it passes (an effect well known to radiologists) and that must be calibrated for (I spent many years on the faculty of the Department of Radiology at the Univ. of Col School of Medicine where my job was to supervise Ph.D. theses trying to determine and adjust for such effects.) This means the same organism may require different frequencies in different tissues.

6. Killing a parasite will often release other organisms that must be identified as to frequency and killed quickly. Otherwise the treatment can sometimes be worse than the disease. I once precipitated a gall bladder attack in myself with four cascading sets of organisms. I was able to identify the frequencies and kill all of them within 20 minutes. Going from a full blown gall bladder attack to perfectly health in 20 minutes was extremely painful and very scary. Not recommended for the faint of heart.

7. Every person I have tested has multiple parasite infections, some of them there since birth or early youth, often with no clinical symptoms. All of them I view as clinical time bombs since any compromise of the immune system can cause one or more of them to grow exponentially. It takes a lot of time to figure out how to deal with this.

8. A co-infection, like candida, can make it impossible to eliminate the parasite without eliminating the candida. The parasite and the candida work in tandem to suppress the immune response.

9. Finally, other family members and pets can repeatedly reinfect a person with parasites. The whole family (including pets) must be treated if they are infected.

In my experience, the right set of frequencies, in the right order, for the right amount of time, in the right spot, with the right power transfer will always work. However, therein lies the conundrum. For almost every organism, and every strain of that organism, this may need to be determined for the specific case. There are some exceptions, some of the cancer frequencies, and the carpel tunnel frequency set, but otherwise, frequency sets are only good starting points for investigation in a specific context.

Even if the average clinician were able to overcome all of these issues, my conclusion after extensive experimentation is the the time it takes would not be financially viable in current clinical practice until the process can be largely automated. The good news is that I think it could be largely automated, but some signficant investment in diagnostic and treatment devices is required.

Cancer is a life threatening phenomenon and should be treated by a professional. However, tumors typically go through at least three pre-maligant phases, often over an entended time period of many years, where cancer frequencies may be detected. By eliminating all evidence of these frequencies in the body, a maliganant tumor may be avoided. The attached note shows one approach to this problem.

To: [email protected]

From: “jsutherland”

Date: Thu Aug 1, 2002 11:06 am

Subject: Comments on 11.7M frequencies

I’ve had the opportunity to test out the FSCAN and EM6+ on a variety of tumor types recently and found that pinpoint accuracy on the cancer frequencies is essential.

First, eliminating the 2008, 2127 organisms is essential to stop tumor growth and initiation of new tumors. The 2127 frequency is stable. However, it is often necessary to knock out strains of the organism at each frequency between 2003 and 2009 to eliminate all of it.

It appears that these organisms when confounded with parasite infections are very difficult to eliminate, as the parasites become infected and server as a recurrent source of infection. So sets of parasite frequencies may be essential.

Then I go to the 11.7M range. Here, I find a different specific frequency for each tumor and metastasis. Not having the exact frequency means you will not knock out the organism which behaves like a fungus. Since I am limited to the EM6+ and FSCAN I can only treat below 10000 with EM6+ and below 3M with the FSCAN. I treat every octave of the exact frequency in the treatement range of these devices until there is no detectable response.

This gives very good results on localized tumors, particlarly on the skin. Internal tumors are much more difficult to deal with.

In any event, the lack of exact frequencies is going to give very mixed results for different researchers using the 11.7M frequencies as they are much more highly variable than the 2008,2127 frequencies, yet appear to be essential to deal with for tumor elimination.

I have also experimented with multiple auxiliary modalities, many of which prove to be palliative and confirm a lot of folklore. Homeopathy I use in every case and seems to be essential at least to eliminate tumor mass, if not an essential part of curative process itself.

There are quite a number of unnecessary surgeries for appendicitis and they are not without risk. You can die from side effects, like nosocomial infections, which are much more virulent in hospital settings because hospital patients do not move around to reinfect others. They lie still and the nurses and doctors reinfect others. That means organisms which immobilize an individual are spread rapidly in a hospital, whereas in the wild, so to speak, the person would die without infecting very many other people. This has to do with rapid genetic evolution of strains of organisms causing more virulent strains to spread more widely in hospitals. In World War I, there were almost twice as many dead from this factor than the 10 million killed by enemy fire. More details and references on this later, but I digress …

FSCAN users need never get sick enough to find themselves in the emergency room where a doctor has to make a quick decision with insufficient information. Better to give you unnecessary surgery than have you die of appendicitis and get sued. Always ask for a scan first. The literature shows this substantially increases your odds of a correct diagnosis.

Take a microscopic slide of an appendix and put it on the FSCAN imprinter. Do a scan and it will preferentially pick up hits from the appendix. Then treat with the appendix slide on the imprinter and impedance will be better matched to tissue like an appendix causing more energy transfer to that tissue in your body. Periodic scanning and treating will signficantly reduce the risk of appendicitis, i.e. it should never get infected and hurt. If it does, better see your physician.

The placebo effect is an interesting and important phenomenon. Research in recent years show that every thought in the brain generates physiological effects. The effects can be as strong as powerful drugs. Much more research should be done on how to generate a good placebo effect in every patient with a harmless treatment.

When I was at Stanford working in biostatistics, every patient in the hospital was on a study because even those patients getting a placebo did better than patients not on a study. Every medical interaction should focus on generating a positive placebo effect in a patient, especially when it leads to avoidance of an invasive treatment like knee surgery.

Knee Surgery For Arthritis Is Ineffective, Study Finds

By Susan Okie

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 11, 2002; Page A01

An operation performed about 300,000 times a year on U.S. patients with arthritis is completely ineffective, according to an unusual study that compared the procedure with phony surgery.

The study, by researchers at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center, compared two versions of arthroscopic knee surgery for osteoarthritis with a placebo operation in which patients were given a sedative and received only small skin incisions. All patients reported reduced pain and better knee function, and there was no difference in outcome between those who had real surgery and those who got the placebo procedure.