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#Post#: 13092--------------------------------------------------
Macabre Medicine
By: SHL Date: March 4, 2019, 11:06 pm
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I debated not posting this, because the story is a bit
disturbing, but it´s all true. As they say „truth is stranger
than fiction“ and this bizarre story is proof of that. But,
since this article actually won awards (see the quote below), I
decided to post it. Sorry if it`s a bit too much, but I thought
it was interesting.
About 20 years ago I was doing some legal research for something
(I can`t recall at the moment for what) and I sort of stumbled
upon this really weird criminal case that went up on an appeal
to a California Appellate Court (I forgot which one). Because it
was appealed and the court decided to publish it (they don`t
certify all for publication) was the reason why I was able to
locate it. I was horrified and shocked when I read it (I`ve
actually read worse criminal cases than this), but the facts
were so bizarre that I never forgot this story. Hence I decided
to google it, and it actually got news attention at the time,
which I apparently missed. In short, the story tells the history
of a very rare and little know psychiatric disorder, one so rare
and strange, that it doesn`t even have an official name to it,
and doesn`t even appear in the DSM, which is the official
diagnostic manual psychiatrists use in the US for diagnosing
psychiatric disorders. The condition is a sort of body
dysmorphic illness where the person suffering from it seeks to
have a leg or arm amputated, even though the leg or arm is
totally normal. It reminds me a bit of anorexia where the person
with the disorder thinks he or she is fat when they are actually
skin and bones. Or body dysmorphia where someone like the late
Michael Jackson thinks there is something wrong with his or her
face and has multiple facial surgeries, but never seems fully
content with the results, or not content for long and turn to
plastic surgeons for help (Michael Jackson had had at least 8
nose operations that left him with almost no bone or cartilage
on his nose toward the end of his life).
Apparently a US TV series, Inside Edition, did a documentary
about the doctor in this story, Dr. John Ronald Brown, entitled,
„The Worst Doctor in America.“ I`ll have to see if youtube has a
clip on this.
For those perhaps interested, this is the link.
HTML https://web.archive.org/web/20100908023359/http://www.littlespeck.com/content/health/CTrendsHealth-020118.htm
(The L.A Weekly scored three awards from the Greater L.A. Press
Club for this article "The Peculiar Practice of Dr. John Ronald
Brown" (published Dec 17, 1999); Paul Ciotti won first place in
Feature Story Competition. Sentenced to15 years to life, Dr.
Brown appealed against sentence last Aug 2.)
#Post#: 13093--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Alharacas Date: March 5, 2019, 4:14 am
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It so happens I'd heard of this before. Once you think about it,
it's not much stranger than an amputee feeling their missing
limb is still there, even though they can see the stump, is it?
Poor people - imagine feeling you've got something attached to
your body which isn't yours.
What I find most weird and gruesome about the article you linked
to is this doctor being allowed to go on operating for so long.
Without getting locked up, I mean.
#Post#: 13095--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Irena Date: March 5, 2019, 5:30 am
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Ah, yes. I'd heard about this sort of thing before. The Atlantic
ran a story about it many years ago.
HTML https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/12/a-new-way-to-be-mad/304671/
#Post#: 13101--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: SHL Date: March 5, 2019, 12:29 pm
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[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=888.msg13093#msg13093
date=1551780895]
It so happens I'd heard of this before. Once you think about it,
it's not much stranger than an amputee feeling their missing
limb is still there, even though they can see the stump, is it?
Poor people - imagine feeling you've got something attached to
your body which isn't yours.
What I find most weird and gruesome about the article you linked
to is this doctor being allowed to go on operating for so long.
Without getting locked up, I mean.
[/quote]
Yes, Alharacas I felt the same way. This doctor was previously
(a few years earlier before the second degree murder conviction)
suspended from practicing medicine for gross incompetence for a
few less serious offenses, but they were still gross deviations
from the practice of medicine that resulted in his patients
having to be hospitalized while he essentially abandoned them to
attend a medical conference in Paris. His patients ended up in
the hospital needing emergency surgeries with doctors astounded
by what another doctor in their own profession had done. What I
found amazing from this story is Dr. Brown never thought he had
done anything wrong. He just thought he was helping people. When
he was being interrogated by police after the incident, and he
was waiting for the police investigators to return, he got bored
(because there was nothing to read) and walked out (right when
they were about to place him under arrest.) He got two blocks
from the police station before two police cars stopped him and
about 12 police officers approached him, one with a guns drawn.
His only thought was „Gee. That´s a big gun.“
The guy was just very strange.
#Post#: 13103--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: SHL Date: March 5, 2019, 1:47 pm
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[quote author=Irena link=topic=888.msg13095#msg13095
date=1551785432]
Ah, yes. I'd heard about this sort of thing before. The Atlantic
ran a story about it many years ago.
HTML https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/12/a-new-way-to-be-mad/304671/
[/quote]
Thanks for the link Irena. I was actually surprised that both
you and Alharacas had heard of this disorder, since I talked to
a psychiatrist once who had never hear of this. It could be that
its rare or so bizarre, the medical journals hardly mention it.
I read about Dr. Money originating the term that describes the
disorder (but I didn`t know he had immigrated to New Zealand),
and I heard about the doctor in Scotland who did these sorts of
procedures before he was stopped, but I think the Scottish
surgeon was likely more competent than Dr. Brown. Brown was
quoted saying:
"I passed the written part of the exam (to become a
board-certified plastic surgeon) without cracking a book," he
says. The problem was the orals. As a result of having grown up
with a "domineering" father, he tended to fold when confronted
by authority figures. "My brain turns to cottage cheese."
Wow, or when he was operating and hit an artery and blood
spurted across the room he`d say, „oops. I made a boo boo.“
I imagine you could say his personality was sociopathic or
perhaps he had Aspergers Syndrome or something.
#Post#: 13104--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: SHL Date: March 5, 2019, 1:50 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=888.msg13093#msg13093
date=1551780895]
It so happens I'd heard of this before. Once you think about it,
it's not much stranger than an amputee feeling their missing
limb is still there, even though they can see the stump, is it?
Poor people - imagine feeling you've got something attached to
your body which isn't yours.
What I find most weird and gruesome about the article you linked
to is this doctor being allowed to go on operating for so long.
Without getting locked up, I mean.
[/quote]
I think one of the weird and gruesome things too was that the
medical profession was so bad about policing its own back then.
I found this quote especially moving:
„At the same time, there are plenty of other people who tell me
they won't rest until Brown is behind bars for life. UC San
Diego plastic-surgery professor Jack Fisher has personally
repaired 12 to 15 of what he calls Brown's "pelvic disasters."
"He's a terrible, appalling technical surgeon," says Fisher.
"There's just no other way to describe it. He doesn't know how
to make a straight incision. He doesn't know how to hold a
knife. He has no regard for limiting blood loss." Basically,
says Fisher, the man "had been committing crimes against
humanity for years."
#Post#: 13119--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Kseniia Date: March 6, 2019, 6:27 am
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I'd never heard of this disorder before I read "Career of Evil"
a couple of years ago (it's a detective novel published in 2015,
so it's not even that old). The novel begins with the main
character receiving letters from a wannabe amputee and shortly
after that - a package containing a woman's leg. The book in
that sense is even more disturbing than a previous one in this
series, and I wouldn't call the author too sympathetic to the
BIID (body integrity identity disorder) community. One
transabled person (I think that's the term?) in the book says
this:
“That’s the perennial problem,” said Tempest, clearly oblivious
to the effect she was having on Strike, “finding reliable
surgeons. They’re usually completely unsympathetic. People have
died trying to do it themselves. There was a wonderful surgeon
in Scotland who performed a couple of amputations on BIID
sufferers, but then they stopped him. That was a good ten years
ago. People go abroad, but if you can’t pay, if you can’t afford
travel… you can see why Kelsey wanted to get her mitts on your
contact list!”
["the effect she was having on Strike" refers to his reaction to
being called a voluntary amputee because he actually lost half
of his leg in a bomb attack in Afghanistan]
Anyway, that was news to me that there were doctors performing
this kind of surgery - and apparently it's something that
happens in many countries because I've just found an article on
Russian would-be amputees which states that in Russian online
groups dedicated to amputations "you’ll sometimes find offers of
the following kind: "A full set of service. Expensive, but
reliable, legal, and confidential".
#Post#: 13122--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Alharacas Date: March 6, 2019, 7:34 am
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Irena, thanks for the link! That was a really interesting
article, I thought.
#Post#: 13123--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Truman Overby Date: March 6, 2019, 7:37 am
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[quote author=Kseniia link=topic=888.msg13119#msg13119
date=1551875270]
[/i]
which states that in Russian online groups dedicated to
amputations "you’ll sometimes find offers of the following kind:
"A full set of service. Expensive, but reliable, legal, and
confidential".
[/quote]
Why the need for confidentiality if it's legal?
#Post#: 13126--------------------------------------------------
Re: Macabre Medicine
By: Alharacas Date: March 6, 2019, 8:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Gef the Talking Mongoose
link=topic=888.msg13123#msg13123 date=1551879468]
[quote author=Kseniia link=topic=888.msg13119#msg13119
date=1551875270]
[/i]
which states that in Russian online groups dedicated to
amputations "you’ll sometimes find offers of the following kind:
"A full set of service. Expensive, but reliable, legal, and
confidential".
[/quote]
Why the need for confidentiality if it's legal?
[/quote]
Insurance fraud, Jerry? Or perhaps because it might somewhat
distract people from feeling the amputee was coping heroically
if they knew the amputation had been voluntary?
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