>JHarper33(AT)aol.com wrote:
>> Did you talk with John
>
>Yes. There isn't much doubt about wanting the pump.
>
>The problem here in southern New Hampshire is in
>finding a low risk doctor to do it.
>
>The complication rate for intrathecal pumps is
>rather high --- maybe 40%, mostly involving the
>catheter. Like a spinal tap, the catheter is
>inserted at the usual safe place where the cord is
>unbundled. Unlike a tap, the catheter then bends
>upward for several inches to where the cord is more
>vulnerable. I would like this to be performed by
>someone who can do it in his/her sleep.
>
>The first referal does something like three per year.
>Not often enough for my confidence. The second chap
>does a zillion. [Maybe dozens.]
>
>However, I looked this doctor up in the Massachusetts
>database. In his category, 89% of the Mass. doctors
>had NO malpractice settlements in the past ten years.
>This doctor has had TEN. That isn't definitive, but
>it is unsettling. The first doctor is not listed in
>the database.
>
>It may be that the category, being a catch-all,
>consists mostly of safe disciplines and that all
>doctors doing what he does have malpractice records,
>i.e., he could be the best. Maybe I should relax.
>
>This is why I am less than totally confident.
>
>Alton, who would like his new pump to be as worry
>free as his new rear end suspension (hip prothesis)
>
>