Heart surgeon meets tee time, misses Clinton

[Nambe]

CNN

If the case of former President Bill Clinton is any example, being a big shot can sure help get a doctor, but it doesn't guarantee first choice.

Dr. O. Wayne Isom said he was at his East Hampton home at 7 a.m. Friday when he got a call from a primary-care practitioner at Westchester Medical Center asking him to accept a patient transfer for emergency coronary surgery. ..

"Realistically, if they had told me it was him, I probably would have said, 'Sure, I'd be glad to do it.' I'm not a big fan of his but, as they say, everybody looks the same on the inside," Isom said.

Asked how his game was, he said, "It's a good thing I operate for a living."

[enki23]

1. how the fuck is this news?

so this guy's an asshole. good for him. i hope he dies of something nasty. other than that, what's the point of this crap?

[blueknight]

2. i hope the

motherfucker drops dead while playing golf

[are_we_united_yet]

56. Of heart disease?

[Jaybird]

3. just another way....

...for the media to show what a hated man president clinton is....its ridiculous that this guy would get any ink for being a prick. it just shows how hateful republicans are.

[DoNotRefill]

60. OK, you have me scratching my head on this one...

How does the article show Clinton is an excessively hated man? I just don't get it. The guy was on vacation. He gets a call, somebody says "can you take a patient, he's important". The guy says "they're all important, I'll pass." It's not like the guy was told "Can you operate on Clinton" and responded "fuck him, I hope he croaks." Instead, he gave a recomendation on who he thought was a really good heart surgeon. I'd note that the guy he recommended performed the surgery, and if reports are accurate, he did a bang-up job of it.

So where's the excessive Clinton hatred? Is it a surprise that some people don't like Clinton?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. CNN continues it's unbroken string...

of Absolute Bullshit masquerading as news. It's almost comforting to know that there are some constants in this ever-changing world.

Almost, but not quite.

[Walt Starr]

5. So golf is the reason that heart surgeons are unable to share their love?

:shrug:

Maybe we should go after the evil Sunday golfers!

[GoldenOldie]

7. Look at it this way

From all interviews that I have heard the comments on the
surgeon that actually performed the bypass is that he is an excellent heart surgeon that is also very personable and caring and takes considerable time with the patient and family. Now if they had to saw your chest open and stop your heart which surgeon would you want holding your heart in your hands? The one that performed Bill Clinton's surgery or the one on the golf course that says, I don't like the guy but I would have done him?

[glitch]

15. Indeed - Clinton got very lucky nt

[lancdem]

22. I agree

I'm glad this jerkass wasn't Big Dog's surgeon.

[AFSCME girl]

37. Me, too!

I'd like to echo TahitiNut..."Now watch this drive".......:grr:

[goclark]

33. Heard his real surgeon is a Republican,right?

[Tomee450]

40. I don't know

if he is a Republican but the doctor who performed the surgery contributed $2000.00 to Bush.

[demokatgurrl]

48. YES

he donated $2000 to Dubya.
Kind of gives me the creeps, probably will to Clinton too when he finds out.

[searchingforlight]

6. I think the telling phrase is - - - - - -

"Realistically, if they had told me it was him, I probably would have said, 'Sure, I'd be glad to do it."

What a self-serving bastard.

[DU9598]

8. Trial Deform

At least trial lawyers haven't driven this bastard from practicing his love with his patients - or his golf buddies. morons

[Skittles]

10. very unprofessional too

asshole

[crickets]

58. that was my first thought. yech. (nt)

[AspenRose]

25. So much for the Hippocratic Oath

Makes me feel a whole lot better, I tell ya what. :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

38. As if the world really gives a hang what his political views are.

Republicans share a sense of unrealistic self-importance.

[readmylips]

9. Dr. Isom is Larry King's heart surgeon....

and he was quick to get on the Larry King talking trash giving his opinion on Prez Clinton, a man he dislikes yet does not know personally. Dr. Isom should chock by swallowing his own tongue on the 18th asshole..

[LTR]

11. Isn't it a bit unethical to go on TV trashing your patient?

Welcome to 2004.

[Sparkle]

12. This article doesn't put this doctor in a good light at all.

But will he and his family realize that or do they have their nose so high up in the air will they notice?

[Gin]

13. where is lightening when you need it? I am glad he didn't do the surgery

and...this story makes the surgeon who did operate look like second fiddle....it's not right...and it's not news.

[TahitiNut]

14. "Now watch my drive!"

:puke: Isn't it heart-warming that his taxcut goes for greens fees?

[wtmusic]

17. LOL and that Junior's EPA Methyl Bromide exemption

keeps those greens free of pests while causing birth defects? :puke:

[lunarboy13]

16. Sounds like the Heart Surgeon is a Repuke

Oh I can hear it now...TORT REFORM! Heart surgeons need to improve their golf games!


And, he might have missed his golf game if he'd known it was Clinton, but when it was a nameless patient on death's door, the tug of the links was too much?

At least OB-GYN's love their patients...:puke:

[Mokito]

19. That really bothered me too

Isn't this idiot supposed to keep to his Hippocratic Oath?

This numb skull is actually confessing in public that he has no qualms about choosing a game of golf over a (potentially dying)patient if he or she doesn't have the right "credentials". That's utterly sick.

[toopers]

28. I'm not sure what the uproar is here?

I am sure I will be met with disagreement, but why is everyone upset with Isom. He was on vacation, I am sure he has someone in his practice that covers for him, and he referred Clinton to a doctor who is more practiced/current in the specific type of surgery Clinton needed.

It does bother me that Isoms would have put his vacation on hold if he knew the name of the client. That's certainly not right. The uproar should be that people like like former Presidents, et al, have access to the best practices while the rest of us must take the "whatever is available" group. Shouldn't we all be treated alike when it comes to issues like this? We should all get the best treatment.

[Lizzie Borden]

34. I've had to deal with so many

doctors all my adult life, I gotta tell you, the doctor's remarks don't surprise me a bit. Generally speaking, I think way too many physicans have attitude problems. Clinton was lucky to get the other doctor.

[ryban]

18. junk lawsuits...

I"m sure it was the "junk lawsuits" and the "trial attorneys" that drove him to the golf course and away from practicing his first love!

[progressivebydesign]

21. oops.. welcome Ryban..

I posted almost the identical post below yours, before I read yours. Great minds think alike. sorry.

[progressivebydesign]

20. Because of frivilous lawsuits...

..this poor surgeon had to golf in the Hamptons, rather than operate on a world leader. East Hampton.. that's where the public housing is located, right? That poor, poor surgeon. Having live under those conditions... and having to choose golf, over "practicing his love" in the operating room.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. SO nearly all the replies here seem to think a doctor

shouldn't have vacations. They should be on call, 24x7, for whenever any patient comes in. It doesn't matter if there are other doctors close by that are on the agreed rota - if one doctor is called for, he should drop his private life and be at the beck and call of anyone.

If that were the way a doctor's life was led, would you want to be one? Give the guy a break. If you were phoned at 7 in the morning, and asked to break your vacation, when you knew your workplace had people capable of doing the job, would you go in?

[leetrisck]

24. Aw, poor guy - yeah 24/7 is fine with me - that's

what our military does (except for bush of course)

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Then what's this thing called 'leave'?

I've heard that talked about a lot in the military. Just an ugly rumour, huh? They never get days off in their entire career?

[leetrisck]

29. In so-called "war time" - probably no leave - then

maybe you will and maybe you won't - they have to know where you are all the time anyway - subject to be called back any minute.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. And that's when there's a special situation

this was a normal case of coronary surgery, done every day. The hospitals had the facilities and personnel to deal with it without calling back people from their vacation.

I'd point out the doctor's comment of "Well, they're all important" is a good egalitarian attitude.

[liberalhistorian]

45. Yes, they're all important as long as

they have money. If they don't have money or good insurance, then they don't care. Seen and dealt with way too many doctors to believe otherwise. And as a paralegal, I've seen doctors sue uninsured people for what little they own even after they tried to set up payment plans. And I've seen too many refuse desperately needed treatment up front because there wasn't enough money involved. And most doctors aren't exactly living in public housing, and I have yet to see ANY doctor on food stamps, so please spare us the wingut "doctors are hard up too" talking point.

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. We don't know what this doctor's attitude to a patient's money is

so that's fairly irrelevant. And neither I, nor anyone, has complained about what the doctor, or any doctor, gets paid. I'm just advocating that he gets to have his vacation, unless there's a genuine emergency when it's actually only his skills that would save someone's life. It's not as if New York has only one good cardiac surgeon.

[DoNotRefill]

61. Ever hear of R&R?

eom

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. That's why he gets the big money

and I'm sure he still gets plenty of time for golf.

[TahitiNut]

31. Maybe he should at least meet the standards imposed on the nurses ...

... who assist him in the OR, staff post-op, and support the med-surg unit. Isn't it funny how the 'big bucks' seems to LOWER the standards we demand? :eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. You mean they call the nurses back in from vacation

every time a new patient comes into the hospital? That must piss them off a lot. You'd think they would have a system where there always some nurses already in the hospital. Myabne you should suggest it to them.

[sandnsea]

39. Yes dear, they do

My daughter has been called in on her days off and even when she was on vacation time and she's only a freakin' aide. She can't say no or she wouldn't have a job. That's the way it works in the real world.

[TahitiNut]

49. Yup.

For most nurses, a "day off" is also referred to as "on call." More and more employees in skilled trades and knowledge work are subject to employment policies of being on-call 24x7 - and that includes vacations.

The fact that they can even be reached is a clue. I'm no nurse, but I've had to leave contact information when I went on "vacation" for exactly that contingency.

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. OK, I apologise for the sarcasm I was using earlier

if American hospitals are regularly calling people in from vacation; but I still maintain that if a particular hospital is well enough run that they don't have to do that, you shouldn't criticise a doctor who works there for wanting to take his vacation. We know this wasn't a life-threatening situation - the surgery wasn't done for another 3 days.

[TahitiNut]

70. What comes through loud and clear to me about Dr. Isom ...

... is his "me first - me only" attitude. When they cite the number of operations performed and their relative fatality rates, it seems clear that Dr. Isom takes a deliberately and selectively low load and selects based on some self-serving criteria, which seem to clearly include the 'celebrity' status of the patient and the inherent likelihood of success. I get the clear impression he's not taking the most difficult cases but taking only those which make him look 'good.' There's far too much of a flavor of 'managing his numbers' and posturing for my taste. I've encountered far too many "Country Club Doctors" in my life to see it otherwise, I guess.

I think Big Dog was well-served by NOT having Dr. Isom, quite frankly.

[DeepModem Mom]

35. Well, here's the TX legislature's resolution commending native Texan Isom

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
1-1 WHEREAS, Dr. O. Wayne Isom, a native of West Texas and now
1-2 department chairman at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, has
1-3 built an international reputation as a cardiothoracic surgeon and
1-4 leads one of the most respected heart surgery programs in the
1-5 country; and
1-6 WHEREAS, Born and raised on his family's farm near Idalou,
1-7 some 10 miles east of Lubbock, Dr. Isom attended Texas Tech
1-8 University and graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern
1-9 Medical School; after completing his residency at Parkland Hospital
1-10 in Dallas, Dr. Isom joined the faculty of New York University,
1-11 where he trained with fellow Texan and noted cardiothoracic surgeon
1-12 Dr. Frank Spencer; and
1-13 WHEREAS, Since 1985, when he moved to Weill Medical College
1-14 of Cornell University to become chairman of the cardiothoracic
1-15 surgery department, Dr. Isom has overseen more than 20,000
1-16 open-heart procedures; presently his team does about 1,500
1-17 operations a year, and he personally performs some 300 operations
1-18 annually; and
1-19 WHEREAS, Among the throng of patients who have had the great
1-20 good fortune to be treated by Dr. Isom have been a number of
1-21 celebrities, including talk-show host David Letterman, who
1-22 underwent a quintuple bypass; other well-known individuals have
1-23 included violinist Isaac Stern, news anchor Walter Cronkite, and
1-24 talk-show hosts Larry King and Jack Paar; and
2-1 WHEREAS, A soft-spoken, unassuming man who inspires
2-2 confidence in his patients and who is quick to share credit with
2-3 the staff around him, Dr. Isom speaks appreciatively of the West
2-4 Texas environment and values that shaped him

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/77R/billtext/HC00258I.HTM

[hughee99]

46. When was this from? n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

51. April, 2001 -- another link:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/77R/billtext/HC00258F.HTM

[hughee99]

52. From the look of it

I don't see why he wouldn't deserve the commendation. Here's a guy who performs operations that save people's lives. Until this week, no one seems to have had any issues with him. The Big Dog's people though enough of him to recommend him to do the operation. Then, the guy turns down the opportunity to perform the operation of a patient who's name he has not been told, to enjoy his day off, and all of the sudden he's an evil, arrogant asshole according to some people on this thread. I just don't get the outrage.

[DeepModem Mom]

53. I'm sure he's a wonderful, dedicated Dr., and I don't fault him at all...

for not doing the surgery. It was this that infuriated me: "I'm not a big fan of his but, as they say, everybody looks the same on the inside." I was curious to see what kind of Clinton hater would have thought that statement appropriate to make about someone undergoing bypass surgery, so I googled his name. While many thousands of Texans voted for Bill Clinton, a majority of Texans are probably not fans of his. I just thought it interesting to find that the doctor was a Texan, who graduated from the college at which the GHW Bush Presidential library is located (and, to add a macabre note, did his residency at the Dallas hospital to which JFK was rushed after his assassination).

[hughee99]

54. Good background.

Interesting stuff.

[DoNotRefill]

62. OK...

suppose it was a sports star, say, Michael Jordan, and not Clinton. Same response from you?

The doctor was on vacation. Doctors don't have to accept new patients if they don't want to.

Like I said before, I'd be pissed if the doc was told it was Clinton and then begged off, leaving him to a person with inadequate training, but that's not what happened. He didn't know who he turned down, and recommended a top notch doctor who was willing to take the case.

[DeepModem Mom]

64. Word for word from my post:

"I don't fault him at all for not doing the surgery." It was the remark he made that angered me. Would it have been appropriate, if Michael Jordan were facing heart bypass surgery, for the doctor to have said: "I'm not a big fan of his but, as they say, everybody looks the same on the inside." The right-wing media machine has made personal attacks on Bill Clinton, under any circumstances, an acceptable national pastime.

[DoNotRefill]

65. Personally...

I wouldn't have a problem with the doc saying that about Jordan, maybe he's a Celtics fan.

[Bandit]

36. Yep....Best health Care in the world........

:crazy: Golfing is more important than a person's life.

[montana_hazeleyes]

41. I'm glad the arrogant

dr. Isom did not perform the surgery.

What bothers me is he had to diss President Clinton, but sure would have liked to add his name to his list of "big name" patients. The biggest name of all.

[Stuckinthebush]

42. According to my physician wife...

Heart surgeons and orthopedic surgeons are usually the most arrogant of her colleagues.

It's a macho thing I guess.

[Carolina]

43. don't forget neurosurgeons too

[crickets]

59. I'll back that one up from personal experience

I'm grateful. My neurosurgeon did an excellent job and I'm still alive and functioning today thanks to him, but his people skills - and I don't just mean bedside manner, I mean people skills - were sorely lacking.

[hughee99]

44. I don't see what the issue is?

From the sounds of it, this guy was NOT aware of who the patient was, so there's no intentional dis' of the Big Dog here. This guy MAY (though I don't know) have had his first day off in some time and wanted to go golfing. I imagine his job can be pretty stressful, and I wouldn't begrudge him a day off. Clearly, he was not the only person available to perform the operation, and no one was going to get screwed as a result of his decision, so why do many people here seem upset with the doctor? I can see why someone would be upset that CNN thought this was news, but I'm just not feeling the outrage at the doctor.

[robbedvoter]

47. I hate doctors. Just been reminded why. F* God complex - they think

they can create life. My ob-gyn "shared his love" by threatening me "not to deliver my baby" because I refused some of his stupid ideas. I promptly let him know that I was doing the delivery , he was merely assisting. Pricks, all of them.

[Piperay]

50. Dr. is a repuke

on one of the network "newscasts" they said he gave $2000 to chimp.

[Pallas180]

55. "Not A Particular Fan" - good thing Big Dawg got someone else - this guy

sounds like a real ass-ol-

[fujiyama]

57. This guy

sounds like a prick. He sounds really unprofessional.

Hell, the guy that performed the surgery gave Bush money but that doesn't mean he makes comments like "I'm not a big fan of the guy". God, what a crude way of putting it that too.

If he said something along the lines of "My politics are different from him", that's one thing, but the way he said it makes him sound like a jerk. That along with his, I'm playing golf, don't bother me.

I'm glad that the other guy performed the surgery. He may be a puke but he sounds like he did a professional job - and most importantly he didn't allow his politics get in the way of doing his job.

[DoNotRefill]

63. How did this guy let his politics get in the way of his job?

He didn't know it was Clinton when he refused to operate.

On another note: If the guy needed the vacation time that bad, would you want him operating on YOU, much less Clinton???

[girl gone mad]

68. Just wait until..

surgeons have toi compete with an influx of Indian or Chinese immigrants brought over by HMOs in an attempt to cut costs.

[truthisfreedom]

69. i guess everybody needs a vacation, huh?

i give this a "who cares?"