Nurse Anna Mitchell (nytimes.com)
“How can this be? You can’t go to prison for doing the right thing?” is a question that Anne Mitchell waits to have answered as she faces a trial and possibly ten years in prison for reporting Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles to the state medical board for practicing bad medicine.
She and a second nurse, Vickilyn Galle had witnessed a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures, reports The New York Times. The nurses claim to have been fired for doing their job, protecting their patients. Both were highly regarded, even by the administrator who dismissed them.
“I’m the victim in this case, and that is all I can say,” protests Arafiles, not able to say much more on the advice of lawyers.
According to Vitals.com, Dr. Arafiles received his medical degree at the University Of The East, Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center and completed his residency at the University of Buffalo.
Some see this as an unfortunate case of town politics. After hearing about the complaints that were filed, Arafiles immediately fetched the sheriff, a friend of his, aiming both barrels at the two nurses.
In a surprise inspection of Winkler County Hospital in Texas last September, state investigators found several violations by Dr. Arafiles. Still although charges were dropped against Galle, Mitchell will stand trial for “misuse of official information,” a third degree felony in Texas.
loading...
Related posts:
- NJ Oncology Practices Merge to Form Largest Network in the State: Regional Cancer Care Associates A group of 10 oncology group practices and two individual...
- Dr. Conrad Murray On Trial – Juicy Juror Details Details on the jury for the CA v. Conrad Murray...
- Doctors Leaving Their Private Practices for Hospital Job Security Traditionally, American medicine has been largely a cottage industry. Most...
- Dr. John Beathler’s Medical License in Question for Improper Patient Conduct Dr. John Beathler, Jr. an internist now practicing in Dublin,...
- Dr. Richard Besser, Country’s Reassuring Voice Reporting on the Swine Flu Epidemic Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director for the Center of Disease...
We can explain the prosecution of these nurses on local politics. Explaining the silence of the national healthcare organizations (other than the ANA) is more difficult? Why is the ANA slone? Where are JCAHO, the AMA, and the AHA?
The silence tells everyone who stands up for patient safety:
1. You may be right.
2. You may be doing exactly what we say you should do.
3. But you are alone. If you go to jail, count on us to do this: nothing.
Want to be safe when you go to the hospital? Who is going to jail for 10 years to make sure your care is safe? I am concerned about these nurses. I am far more concerned about what happens over the course of the next 5 years when nurses have to decide whether to blow the whistle. The fact that no one stands up for these nurses if profoundly disturbing.
I am collecting ideas for action at http://tinyurl.com//texas-nurses-break-the-silence
Lee Tilson
http://www.rethinkingpatientsafety.com
http://tinyurl.com/texas-nurse
loading...
This is a very troubling story. How can simply reporting true incidents give rise to a felony trial for a nurse who should instead be celebrated? The sheriff and prosecutor (the buddies of the ‘doctor’ concerned) are not medical personnel and are in no place to evaluate the merits of a complaint, let alone whether the underlying motivation was improper.
And what does it matter whether she was intending to cause the Dr. trouble? Your responsible for your actions and attempted actions, not your personal beliefs and motivations. If the report was proper, her reasons for making it, especially when she was required to do so by the nursing code, have nothing at all to do with its propriety.
This was a case that should have been left to the medical board, and only if they find the complaint meritless should it have been passed along to the nursing licensure board. What shouldn’t happen, ever, is for a nurse to get tried by the buddies of the Dr, because she told the truth to a state agency that REQUIRES her to make such reports.
Dr. Rolando Arafiles should be ashamed of himself. The best part is that this quack sells drugs on the side that aren’t even FDA approved or available in drugstores! He “recomends” some overpriced ‘supplements’ that he sells out of his office! Forget the drug companies influencing doctor’s treatment, this Doc IS the drug company, and the distributor, and the drugstore, and the pharmacist. What he isn’t, is a doctor.
Dr Rolando Arafiles is an arrogant man who treats his patient badly by trying to silence all who blow the whistle on his disturbing practices. Too bad for Dr Arafiles that the story is now public, and everyone now knows the truth: that he doesn’t care about his patients (or their wallets based on the price of his worthless ‘supplement’) at all when compared to his love of manipulating rural politicians.
Dr Rolando Arafiles is a bad doctor, I feel sorry for his patients and can only hope future patients will learn the truth before Dr Rolando Arafiles starts hawking them expensive supplements from the trunk of his car and threatening anyone who might tell them the truth about him. Don’t support abuses of power, cronyism, corrupting friendships amongst prosecutors and their friends, and most of all, avoid Dr Rolanda Arafiles the quack- or maybe it’ll be you we’re reading about as the next sucker who got taken for a ride on his supplement scam and wound up in jail for telling someone about their experience!
loading...
My lord, I hope somebody puts a stop to this man. The news now has sources saying he was previously investigated and censured for his bizarre practices (he opposes vaccination in all cases and promotes new age treatments over proven therapies and medications- like colloidal silver as a cure all, et cet), and that their are renewed investigations that will be announced once the preliminary investigation is complete. This could save us all a lot of grief and deny Dr Rolando Arafiles the medical license he has long since tarnished with his get-rich-quick colloidal silver schemes.
It just gets better and better…. Do a search for vaccination and doctor Arafiles or colloidal silver and Dr Rolando G Arafiles quackery.
I just hope that no new patients go to see him without knowing what they’re signing up for and that if they discover just what kind of “doctor” they’ve got and make the wise decision to find care elsewhere, that if they tell anyone what he’s up to (selling miracle cure snake oil like colloidal silver out of his office to patients he recommends take it for nearly anything) they risk prosecution and arrest by Roland Arafiles’ buddies- who apparently want to protect him.
I truly hope the law is followed in this case and that Dr. Rolando Arafiles is given a fair chance to clear his name before he’s stripped of the opportunity to harm more people with his snake oil and rip-offs.
I’m praying for his patients.
loading...