Re: The Widow Lewis At It Again

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:35 PM 9/12/2003 -0400, Snoopy the Celtics Beagle wrote:
> In addition to the drug question is the fact that when he initially 
> collapsed, the doctors at the hospital told him the problem was 
> serious.  The Celtics' team doctor said it was serious.  But Reggie kept 
> shopping for second opinions until he found one he agreed with.  Then, he 
> kept relevant medical information to himself.

Dunno as **kept** shopping is accurate. An upset Donna understandably 
turned to people she already knew and trusted more at Brighams (she'd 
worked there) vs the more personally distant dream team that she and Reggie 
apparently believed were working more for the Cs and had the Cs interests 
coming first. No sign of her looking a bunch of other places as well I 
agree about relevant info (not necessarily or necessarily*just* drugs), but 
even without that info the dream team got it right. Mudge didn't, and 
actually realized that to some degree as time went on per a 4 part series 
the Globe did several months later.

> Frankly, I'm amazed the insurance policy even paid at all given his 
> obvious refusal to treat his condition seriously.  Various doctors, 
> including Mudge, tried to minimize the question of drug use--mostly, I 
> think, for the sake of Reggie's kids--but they couldn't very well ignore 
> it.  Donna made a big deal of it.  She kept pushing and if there's a 
> public perception of Reggie Lewis as a drug user, it's because of her.

I agree about the drug user perception, but I think you're way out of line 
in talking about his obvious refusal to treat his condition seriously. 
Seriously enough, perhaps. But part of the reason for that has to be laid 
to Mudge's door. And what was said in public doesn't necessarily fully 
reflect what anyone thought.

> I keep trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe she just lost 
> it when he died. It does happen.  But at this point, I'm impressed at the 
> restraint shown by Dr. Mudge in not filing charges of his own against 
> Donna for harassment.  His rep is ruined by the repeated trips to 
> court.  I'm sure his legal fees are impressive after ten years of this.

His rep was ruined by his own ego determined to show off he knew better 
than the dream team physician group. Again, back to the articles I re-read 
not that long ago, there were a lot of reasons to not make the diagnosis he 
did, certainly not that quikly and conclusively vs leaving it open as a 
possibility. I agree Donna needs to drop it, but I've not much sympathy for 
Mudge.

> About the only positive in all this is that Reggie isn't around to see 
> this idiocy take place in his name.

Mmm. Amen to that.

Kim