A newspaper reader is pissed that a heart murmur was missed in a young athlete’s death, and wants more physician CME:
Is it any wonder that the physician who examined young Bruda’s heart missed his murmur? This observation dovetails with another brief article describing the restoration of Sen. First’s (sic) medical license after his accountant falsified his submission to the Tennessee Medical Board. In light of this, you should educate your readers that continuing medical eduation in Texas is a sham both in content and in enforcement by the Texas Medical Board.Physicians in Texas are required to take 20 hours/year of CME, but it does not have to be done in their specialty. The Texas Medical Board verifies 1% of CME each year. Placing your life in the hands of a physician in Texas is equivalent to boarding a commercial plane flown by someone that had a pilot’s license at one time…and he has a parachute and you don’t!
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{ 11 comments }
So leave Texas already if you don’t like it. Just don’t take a plane. Heck, save the rest of the country your griping and head south where you won’t have to deal with those US doctors.
CME has nothing to do with this unfortunate event, and it is so easy for another to hear that murmur after the fact.
The only thing I ever learn at CME courses is that lawyers have thought up a new way to sue, rape and pillage us that I never heard of before. Last year it was that some lawyers are suing their client’s pediatrician for “pain and suffering” after their client was allowed into the resuscitation room to watch their child’s resuscitation. And for years they taught us this was a good thing. They forgot to ask the lawyers.
Texas requires 24 hours of CME annually, including one in medical ethics. My speciality requires 50 hours per year to maintain certification. So I more than double the requirement. Do I think I am a better doctor because of this? Absolutely not. But if it makes someone feel better, it is all worth it.
That would be a difficult dx to make. Auscultating the heart in kids for IHSS is not very sensitive (not sure about specificity). Listening to a kid’s heart is almost more of a formality at best (except in cases such as PFO or arrhytmias). CME has nothing to do with this.
Ahhhh, Texas. The only thing more popular in TX than….well hell I can’t think of anything more popular than high school football. I think the question should maybe be – why are the physicals for high school football players such a joke in TX? A joke not because of the horrible doctors who don’t care if the kid dies but rather, a joke because some parents will do ANYTHING to get their kid in a jersey, and the requirements are pretty easy. “Hmm. He has a pulse. He has a uniform. Let him play!” I haven’t kept count but the “HS football player collapses” headline is no longer a shocker here.
“why are the physicals for high school football players such a joke in TX? A joke not because of the horrible doctors who don’t care if the kid dies”
Yeah, that’s it, they don’t care. That’s why most doctors have health problems, psychiatric problems, high suicide rates, high divorce rates, and really bad personal health. It’s because we don’t care. Maybe we’d be better off if we didn’t care, especially about precious children. Since morons like you are so smart and think we don’t care, why shoud we?
Get real. Does anyone believe that any amount of CME will result in any doctor missing a heart murmur. As to the particular case, what kind of murmur was it. A lot of teenagers have a physiological normal systolic murmur. Do you really think that doing more CME will result in the detection of more murmurs that prevent death. We’re coming to a time where all sports medicals are going to require a cardiac echo. A sports medical is simply a school and/or school district placing all liability to a physician. The send home message is to simply not do these stupid sports medicals. They’re not worth the 20, 40, or 50 bucks.
Anon 1126: You must either be an idiot and thus unable to comprehend the clip that you took from my comment, or an attorney who makes a living by parsing and then deliberately misinterpreting what people say.
Look again: “…a joke NOT because of the horrible doctors…but rather a joke because some parents will do anything”
Get it? Hey Kevin I sugget going back to non-anonymous comments. If someone’s going to be an idiot we should at least all be able to know who it is.
where is criminallopath?
i’m sure he’d love to chime in about how med school is unnecessary to hearing cardiac murmurs, and that we need to open up the field to more nurses and PAs to do the work.
I’m sure nurses and PAs would get better than 60% on catching heart murmurs. what a joke.
A murmur is the Sound of blood flowing. Most often it is benign, sometimes it suggests pathology. Not all pathology causes a murmur. If it does cause a murmur, this does not mean that the murmur is present at all times, but only when the blood flow conditions are right to produce the sound.
Since the plaintiff is dead, how does anyone know that there was a murmur to be heard in the first place? Perhaps the plaintiffs attorney’s ears are better than mine.
Carol is correct that it is amazing how many athletes drop dead each school year, usually early in the year when it is hot and humid. Heat stroke and cardiac problems primarily. I wonder how many scuba divers have had an ECHO to check for a patent foramen ovale? You can bet this is not ausculatated on a routine physical either. It is doubtful this unfortunate lad’s valvular defect would be noted on auscultation.
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