Welch Company
San Francisco, CA
S U M M A R Y
DIARY: May 12, 2011 07:36 PM Thursday;
Rod Welch
Pam notified who people are that provided medical care for Millie.
1...Summary/Objective
2...Case Study Principal Providers Millie's Medical Team
..............
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CONTACTS
SUBJECTS
Medical Team Millie Buck Biopgraphy Role Health Care Providers Docto
3503 -
3503 - ..
3504 - Summary/Objective
3505 -
350501 - Follow up ref SDS 33 0000. ref SDS 32 0000.
350502 -
350503 -
350504 -
350506 - ..
3506 -
3507 -
3508 - Background
3509 -
350901 - Background on 110207 2142. ref SDS 21 I26I
350902 -
350903 - Pam has been training for the half-marathon she and Kim entered and
350904 - scheduled for June, reported on 110204 1052. ref SDS 19 FP5G She
350905 - mentioned in her letter that training is going well, so she may
350906 - consider doing a full marathon, 26 miles, reported on 110222 1017.
350907 - ref SDS 24 L86X This was discussed in the letter to Pam on 110223
350908 - 0022. ref SDS 26 LG3T
350910 - ..
350911 - On 110411 1342 Pam visited and reported injuring hamstring training
350912 - for charity hike to raise money to aid cancer research and honoring
350913 - her brother, ref SDS 28 TY8L,
350915 - ..
350916 - On 110411 1342 at 1414 letter to Pam with background on recovering
350917 - from hamstring injuries. ref SDS 28 OF4I
350919 - ..
350920 - On 110512 0813 letter from Pam requests email addresses for Millie's
350921 - health care providers to solicit donations for charity marathon
350922 - raising money to fund cancer research. ref SDS 31 TY6F
350924 - ..
350925 - On 110512 0847 letter to Pam submits email addresses, ref SDS 32 TY6F,
350926 - opposes soliciting donations from Millie's medical team for cancer
350927 - research, ref SDS 32 166Y; and, notes investing time and effort for
350928 - "yeoman's work" enabling a strong doctor patient partnership leverages
350929 - case management with well ordered record to extend survival and
350930 - quality of life better than spending time hikng and solicitating
350931 - donations for cancer research. ref SDS 32 166Q
350933 - ..
350934 - On 110512 1147 Pam asks who are the people that provided medical
350935 - services for Millie, so that Pam can approach them individually on
350936 - donating for her cancer research fund raising project. ref SDS 33 TY6F
350938 - ..
350939 - On 100512 1936 submitted background on who people are that contributed
350940 - to Millie's medical team. ref SDS 0 TY6F
350941 -
350942 -
350943 -
350944 -
350946 - ..
3510 -
3511 -
3512 - Progress
3513 -
351301 - Case Study Principal Providers Millie's Medical Team
351302 -
351303 - Follow up ref SDS 33 TY6F, ref SDS 32 TY6F, and sent copy to Peggy...
351304 -
351305 - 1. Subject: Re: Email addresses Cancer Research Fundraising, Millie and Her Son, RIP
351306 - Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 22:06:54 -0700
351313 - ..
351314 - 2. Responding to your additional request for who people are in the
351315 - list of health care providers who treated your mom, 110512
351316 - 1147, ref SDS 33 TY6F, here is a summary in the order of the
351317 - email list commending Millie's care, and submitted earlier
351318 - today on 110512 0847. ref SDS 32 TY6F
351319 -
351320 - [On 110512 2220 copy of this letter, ref SDS 34 SK8O,
351321 - attached to letter for Kathy sharing experiences of other
351322 - nurses. ref SDS 34 0Y7W
351324 - ..
351325 - [On 110513 0724 Pam received letter explaining who people
351326 - are that contributed to Millie's medical team. ref SDS 35
351327 - TY6F
351329 - ..
351330 - 3. Arlette Phillips...
351332 - ..
351333 - Arlette is Doctor Johnson's "Girl Friday," to get things done
351334 - in the bureaucracy at Kaiser. She actually works for somebody
351335 - else, but Doctor Johnson counts on Arlette, when he has a
351336 - problem, including using Kaiser's Knowledge Mangement computer
351337 - system. She helped your mom navigate as well. Arlette loved
351338 - Millie, and shared her interest in cats. Your mom's last
351339 - letter to Arlette provides perspective, submitted on 100603
351340 - 0603, ref SDS 13 036C
351342 - ..
351343 - 4. Glory Closson...
351345 - ..
351346 - Mil's Coagulation Control case manager guided daily dose levels
351347 - for warfarin (Coumadin) to treat your mom's pulmonary embolism.
351348 - Gloria monitored blood counts from labs, and checked for
351349 - changes in medication to adjust daily warfarin that maintains
351350 - INR at safe levels. Doctor Johnson counted on Gloria to check
351351 - for conflicts in medication prescriptions. Millie talked to
351352 - Gloria almost weekly since 041104, when she was diagnosed with
351353 - PE, ref SDS 1 4Y9G, and so thought of her as a good friend,
351354 - doing very difficult work, shown by Gloria's call on 061024.
351355 - ref SDS 4 TZ4I
351357 - ..
351358 - 5. Nina Grissom, MD
351360 - ..
351361 - 6. Though none of the 2nd opinions supported Kaiser's prescription
351362 - for mastectomy surgery in September 2005, Doctor Grissom
351363 - proposed that if your mom decided to approve surgery, then
351364 - several innovations would optimize results, reported on 050912.
351365 - ref SDS 2 0001 Doctor Riley-Paul implemented this proposal on
351366 - 051021, and after surgery smiled with a positive signal that
351367 - Doctor Grissom's work plan would yield favorable results. Note
351368 - your brother attended that meeting. ref SDS 3 EG5L
351370 - ..
351371 - 7. Robert Johnson, MD
351373 - ..
351374 - 8. You met Millie's primary care physician several times at
351375 - Kaiser, e.g., letter to medical team on 090725 2017.
351376 - ref SDS 12 T53T Doctor Johnson called the house after Millie
351377 - died. You and Kim listened to his condolences commending
351378 - Millie's courage and dignity living with rare, aggressive
351379 - cancer, reported on 100731 1343, ref SDS 16 5E5H Your mom
351380 - loved the doctor like a son, reported on 100719 1312.
351381 - ref SDS 14 RM9G
351383 - ..
351384 - 9. Hope Rugo, MD
351385 -
351386 - Doctor Rugo led the team at UCSF. She prescribed care for your
351387 - mom despite variance from protocols. When UCSF made mistakes,
351388 - Doctor Rugo put her arm around your mom and said "Don't worry!
351389 - We're not going to let anything happen to you," reported on
351390 - 081016 2342. ref SDS 9 NW6M She said Kaiser and UCSF agreed
351391 - in a letter to fix mistakes with "targeted" treatment, giving
351392 - Millie a life worth living, reported on 090616 1245.
351393 - ref SDS 11 KD6L
351395 - ..
351396 - 10. Catherine Mitsuoka, nurse
351397 -
351398 - Millie's primary nurse for treatment in the Infusion Clinic at
351399 - UCSF. Patients are assigned randomly to nurses and treatment
351400 - chairs by scheduling software, but Catherine arranged to always
351401 - be assigned to care for Millie. Her willingness to "go the
351402 - extra mile" for Millie reduced mistakes by maintaining
351403 - continuity handling a complex case. Catherine came in early
351404 - before the Infusion Clinic opened on the 5th floor, so your mom
351405 - could get blood draws at 0730 in time for the doctor to get the
351406 - lab report at 0830 on the 2nd floor. If Mil was late arriving
351407 - for treatment on the 5th floor due to extended examination on
351408 - the 2nd floor, Catherine placed a pillow in your mom's chair,
351409 - so she always got the same location every Thursday morning for
351410 - 3 years. When Kaiser was unable to service Millie's Power Port
351411 - for CT tests, Catherine solved the problem at UCSF, avoiding
351412 - physical and emotional trauma to Millie and political conflict
351413 - at Kaiser. Millie saw Catherine most often and for the longest
351414 - continuous time of all her providers. They became wonderful
351415 - friends.
351417 - ..
351418 - 11. Brigid Miralda, NP
351419 -
351420 - Doctor Rugo's primary aid for the 1st 2 years of Millie's
351421 - treatment at UCSF, working with Jackie, the coordinator for
351422 - Mil's clinical trial with cetuximab. Brigid did all the
351423 - examinations and case work-up to prepare for Doctor Rugo to
351424 - visit for a new minutes at the end of meetings. Brigid was
351425 - initially confused by the complexity of your mom's case. She
351426 - soon adapted well, and reported that Millie responded to a new
351427 - "targeted" treatment for 2 years, more than double any other
351428 - patient. She has a great sense of humor that maintains energy
351429 - and hope under dire circumstances. Your mom loved hearing
351430 - "Brigid's rule" - Stable is good!" Brigid also offered
351431 - critical assistance solving problems at Kaiser getting a Power
351432 - Port installed for CT tests and labs without torturous pain and
351433 - suffering, reported on 080501. ref SDS 7 766K
351435 - ..
351436 - 12. Paula McPhail
351437 -
351438 - Kaiser's claims analyst called Millie 071006, and reviewed
351439 - Kaiser's refusal to provide care. ref SDS 5 Q963 Doctor Rugo
351440 - said that "Kaiser cut Millie loose," reported at UCSF on 071018
351441 - 0800, ref SDS 6 W23I Since your mom needed treatment to
351442 - survive, she objected. Doctor Johnson said his prescription
351443 - was overruled by someone in Vallejo, Doctor Mason, and others
351444 - whom we never met. Paula took time to read the record.
351445 - ref SDS 5 TM37 She prepared a claim for Millie, which was
351446 - approved months later at a hearing in Oakland. They overruled
351447 - the people who had overruled Doctor Johnson, so your mom got
351448 - treatment in time to be effective. In 2010, Paula filed
351449 - another claim for Millie to get treatment prescribed for her to
351450 - recover from more medical mistakes. Kaiser and Medicare
351451 - delayed processing this claim beyond statutory limits, another
351452 - mistake, resulting in your mom dying before Paula could get an
351453 - independent hearing in Oakland to again overrule denying
351454 - prescribed care for your mom. May have mentioned previously
351455 - that Paula called in shocked disbelief the day after Millie
351456 - died. She was crying and asked that the family give permission
351457 - to convert the pending claim for care into a review for
351458 - wrongful death to help others avoid needless suffering that
351459 - Millie endured for over a year.
351461 - ..
351462 - 13. Diane Craig, nurse
351463 -
351464 - She worked with Catherine in the Infusion Clinic at UCSF.
351465 - Whenever Catherine was on vacation or sick, Diane was the
351466 - backup. She discovered a medical mistake in the dose level of
351467 - Millie's treatment with Carboplatin, resulting in needless
351468 - relapse. Her timely warning minimized injury to your mom.
351470 - ..
351471 - 14. Paula Vannicola, Chief Nurse Infusion Clinic
351472 -
351473 - Paula was instrumental and persistent in getting Kaiser
351474 - management to overturn resistance in the CT Department using
351475 - Millie's Power Port for injecting contrast medium. Paula also
351476 - made sure the Infusion Department would draw blood using the
351477 - Power Port, since the staff in the Lab, where blood draws are
351478 - normally done are not qualified to access port catheters into
351479 - main arteries, as your mom's was placed. Your mom's long
351480 - survival in continuous treatment caused trauma (scarring) to
351481 - her veins. This made it very difficult to set IV catheters and
351482 - draw blood for routine labs. IVs that normally take about a
351483 - minute, took several hours of pain and suffering with multiple
351484 - needle punctures, probing, massaging, etc. Paula helped
351485 - eventually overcome labor jurisdictional conflicts, and
351486 - resistance to change, so that your mom's suffering was greatly
351487 - reduced.
351489 - ..
351490 - 15. Jullin Kwok
351491 -
351492 - Medicare manager in charge of the Kaiser account in 2007.
351493 - Jullin submitted via fax the SDS record to Paula McPhail at
351494 - Kaiser, which Paula turned into a claim, leading to approval
351495 - for care on referral at UCSF, explained above, so Millie lived
351496 - another 3 years. By 2010, Jullin had been promoted and was no
351497 - longer handling the Kaiser account. Since she knew about prior
351498 - mistakes affecting Millie, she ordered immediate review at
351499 - Medicare of Millie's claim filed on 100527. Medicare
351500 - assembled an oversight team and demanded immediate action from
351501 - Kaiser. Everyone said Millie would get the care she needed,
351502 - but dark forces at Medicare and Kaiser worked against favorable
351503 - outcome. When to everyone's surprise Mil's claim was denied,
351504 - Jullin then got Paula to take over at Kaiser to correct obvious
351505 - error and save Millie's life. Of course time ran out. Jullin
351506 - was at all times a big player in your mom's care. She didn't
351507 - have to do a thing, but tried her best to make things right.
351509 - ..
351510 - 16. Glenna Auerback, Coordinator
351511 -
351512 - Glenna was Doctor Rugo's coordinator at UCSF for Millie's
351513 - treatment with Sunitinib clinical trial. She was generous with
351514 - her time and attentive to Millie's care. In August 2008,
351515 - Doctor Johnson at Kaiser asked your mom to ask UCSF to submit a
351516 - list of protocols for treating your mom's cancer as a chronic
351517 - disease. As you know from your brother's experience, not every
351518 - treatment is effective nor can be tolerated. Therefore, being
351519 - prepared to switch agents is essential. Over the preceding
351520 - years, follow on treatments were discussed in meetings at UCSF.
351521 - Doctor Rugo's team kept saying in October and November that the
351522 - doctor had identified many treatments ready for Millie, but
351523 - they did not submit the list to Kaiser. Finally, on 090121,
351524 - Glenna called and said UCSF lost their list of treatments
351525 - planned for Millie. They asked Millie to submit a list from
351526 - her records of prior discussions. The list was submitted
351527 - immediately. Millie also hired a doctor, who travels the
351528 - research circuit, to prepare an additional list of cutting edge
351529 - treatments with the highest potential to treat Millie's rare
351530 - patient profile. This was submitted to Glenna. She was then
351531 - instrumental helping Doctor Rugo formulate a promising
351532 - prescription with PARP that is targeted to cancer, and so is
351533 - well tolerated with no side effects, but is further aimed
351534 - directly at Millie's rare patient profile.
351536 - ..
351537 - 17. Nichole Daamen, MD
351538 -
351539 - Doctor Daamen refused to take "no" for an answer, when Kaiser
351540 - kept losing results of Millie's biopsy to evaluate triple
351541 - negative status. Normally, doctors leave administrative "leg
351542 - work" to nurses, techs, clerks, and administrators.
351543 - Thankfully, Doctor Daamen rose above formalities to get the job
351544 - done, because results were critical to expand the pool of
351545 - treatments for helping your mom. Hard to imagine so many
351546 - things can go wrong ordering one biopsy, a very routine
351547 - procedure. To appreciate the effort Doctor Daamen expended on
351548 - your mom's behalf see case study on this "world's record" of
351549 - errors - reported, 081016 2342, ref SDS 9 W26G
351551 - ..
351552 - 18. Tara Lacey, NP
351553 -
351554 - Tara was Millie's final nurse at UCSF for Doctor Rugo. She was
351555 - outstanding in every respect being very careful and thorough to
351556 - track you mom's progress. Tara first recognized during a
351557 - morning meeting in late March that there was a mistake in the
351558 - Radiation Oncology Department diagnosing cancer (IBC) in
351559 - Millie's breastbone, as "reaction to radiation." She didn't
351560 - tell Millie, but said she would call Doctor Hsu to report her
351561 - findings, so he would be prepared to meet with Millie later
351562 - that afternoon. Doctor Hsu said he didn't get a call from
351563 - Tara. Months later in June, the truth came out, and Tara was
351564 - heart broken. Tara later called Millie late at night to say
351565 - Doctor Rugo wanted Millie to get treatment at Kaiser
351566 - temporarily with chemotherapy, which had already been
351567 - determined conflicts with Mil's patient profile, but as a stop
351568 - gap for 2 months until PARP was ready at UCSF for Millie to
351569 - recover from mistakes in March and April.
351571 - ..
351572 - 19. Gwen Stritter, MD
351573 -
351574 - Millie met Doctor Stritter at a medical conference sponsored by
351575 - the Wellness Community. The doctor presented a paper on new
351576 - treatments for cancer and clinical trials available to
351577 - patients. When UCSF called and reported losing the list of
351578 - treatments Millie needed for survival, and asked Millie to
351579 - submit a list, Millie hired Gwen to summarize her research into
351580 - a list of treatments sorted according to the most promising
351581 - results for Millie's patient profile. This list was then
351582 - submitted for the medical team to be prepared for providing
351583 - care in time to be effective. UCSF reported in a meeting on
351584 - 090616 that Kaiser and UCSF agreed in a letter to use one of
351585 - the treatments on Gwen's list, PARP, for Millie to recover from
351586 - UCSF medical mistakes.
351588 - ..
351589 - 20. Joe (I-Chow) Hsu, MD
351591 - ..
351592 - Doctor Hsu in UCSF Radiation Oncology performed medical
351593 - services on assignment from Doctor Rugo for Millie to recover
351594 - from delays in the Breast Care Department providing systemic
351595 - treatment due to losing the list of therapies for treating
351596 - Millie's cancer as a chronic disease. Doctor Hsu was notified
351597 - that the most severe cancer was in Millie's breastbone, and
351598 - this needed urgent treatment to save her life. Doctor Hsu laid
351599 - out radiation treatment zones. He hired a contractor to build
351600 - molds that guide equipment to provide precise radiation
351601 - coverage that optimizes recovery, while avoiding injury to
351602 - non-cancerous tissue. Both objectives failed. Months later
351603 - Millie was treated for radiation injury to her lungs, and on
351604 - 090609, Doctor Hsu pointed to your mom's bleeding breastbone
351605 - and said: "This is a mistake." This is not reaction to
351606 - radiation as we have been saying since March, but is advancing
351607 - cancer due to an error laying out the treatment zones, or
351608 - possibly an error in the molds. To his great credit, the
351609 - doctor ordered immediate aggressive systemic care for Millie to
351610 - recover, and to be performed in the Breast Care Clinic under
351611 - Doctor Rugo's supervision, noted above.
351613 - ..
351614 - 21. Christopher Diederich, PhD
351615 -
351616 - Chris assisted Doctor Hsu in Radiation Oncology laying out
351617 - treatment zones for Millie's care. He was primarily involved
351618 - in providing this care.
351620 - ..
351621 - 22. Lee Davidson, MD
351622 -
351623 - Chief of Radiology at Kaiser in Walnut Creek, Doctor Davidson
351624 - wrote a letter to Millie apologizing for errors and omissions
351625 - in the CT Department, and advised that staff would be counseled
351626 - to avoid recurrence. Your mom's primary care physician, Doctor
351627 - Johnson, who was also Chief of Oncology for the Kaiser Diablo
351628 - region, told Millie on several occasions that Doctor Davidson
351629 - felt very badly about what happened to her and that the doctor
351630 - was "in her corner" fighting along with Paula Vannicola to get
351631 - changes at Kaiser, which were resisted for political and
351632 - financial reasons, but were needed for your mom to survive.
351634 - ..
351635 - 23. I support your contacting Millie's medical team to say thanks
351636 - for helping your mom, as noted in the letter earlier today on
351637 - 110512 0847. ref SDS 32 166Y
351638 -
351645 -
351646 -
351647 -
351648 -
351649 -
351650 -
351651 -
351652 -
351653 -
3517 -