Edward H Morgan - The Patient’s Survival Guide

It is common sense to assume that improvements in population health are a direct consequence of the advances of diagnosis and treatment for which the healthcare system is quick to take credit. But a great many of the putative advances have withstood scientific scrutiny poorly, if at all. There has been a choir singing that truth for some time. Ed Morgan is contributing his voice to that choir. He brings a keen perspective tempered by a life course devoted to caring about those in need. The Patients Survival Guide is a clarion call. Perhaps this is the voice that will fill the pews.

NORTIN M HADLER, MD, MACP, MACR, FACOEM

Ed Morgan presents a set of facts, arguments, and warnings we all need to heed. With overtreatment and medical mistakes now the third leading cause of death in the U.S., we need to ask the tough questions of our doctors before agreeing to surgery, long-term medications and other treatments. With a commitment to lifestyle change, Ed enables his readers to recognize that you must be in charge of your health.

ROBERT DOLL, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, CROSSMARK GLOBAL INVESTMENTS

The American public has been promised quality and transparency in healthcare through evidence-based medicine. But medicine today is a closed system, essentially devoid of customer input. Ed Morgan has given us a valuable new concept here, evidence-based wisdom, to put us back in the game and keep us out of perpetual patient hood, if at all possible. We thank him!

NORMAN JOHANSON, MD, FAAOS

As a retired surgeon and now a patient, I can attest to the veracity of the topics covered in this book. It asks the questions every patient ought to ask!

CARMINE T. CALABRESE, MD, FACS

As a board-certified practitioner in both Family Practice and Geriatrics with long-term patient relationships, my patients generally listen to what I have to say. I have been espousing the principles presented here for many years and I will be encouraging my patients to get a copy. It is presented in a clear manner with humility and I would recommend it without reservation to anyone.

LESLIE S. EMHOF, MD

Ed Morgan has gone the distance, inputting sensible back into medicine. Hes thought it all through. Youll get an education in becoming a critical thinker when it comes to preserving your own health.

CATHRYN JAKOBSON RAMIN, AUTHOR OF CROOKED, AND CARVED IN SAND

The PATIENTS SURVIVAL GUIDE

First Edition

Copyright 2022 Edward H. Morgan Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. The reader should consult a physician in matters relating to his/her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

Paperback ISBN: 9780825309885

Ebook ISBN: 9780825308673

For inquiries about volume orders, please contact:

Beaufort Books, 27 West 20th Street, Suite 1103, New York, NY 10011

Published in the United States by Beaufort Books

www.beaufortbooks.com

Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books

a division of Independent Publisher Group

www.ipgbook.com

Book designed by Mark Karis

Printed in the United States of America

TO DAD

Who got caught in unwise treatment and died before his time

Its a curious thing, when youre in your mid-seventies, and you realize you have a book in you.

You push it aside; it comes back. Your friends are polite, too polite to tell you youre totally unqualified to write it.

You have a fifty-year marriage to celebrate; you have sons and grandchildren to attend to. People want to talk to you about leadership and board governance.

Yet, this is the junkyard dog with its teeth in your ankle. It wont let go. Stories come to you; they fall in your lap. People tell you their scary medical stories.

And then you realize you see their stories through a different lens than they do. And that youve seen medical stories through a different lens for decades. You saw what was happening to your dad, but you were unable to save him from an early death. But you probably saved your wife from an early demise, and you did save yourself from becoming a heart patient instead of a well person.

You realize that youve got to try to help your family see their medical experiences through a different lensa lens of wisdom and independent thinkingor else they could die early. You know that the US medical system can be dangerous to your health, and will be, if you use it without discretion and let it over-diagnose you, overtreat you, and shorten your life.

Ive had a few insights during my career that stretched the rubber band of conventionality far enough to create disbelief. When I proposed as CEO that the Bowery Mission could adopt a New York fundraising art form called a gala to create a million-dollar event for a little religious charity, people were skeptical. But they were willing to listenand I made it happen.

But when you propose that in certain circumstances you need to go against your doctors sincere advice, this stretches the rubber band until it breaks, doesnt it? If you cant trust your own doctor, where can you go? Do you know more than he or she does? Preposterous.

So the ideas in this book are a hard sell. The idea that the third leading cause of death in the US might be iatrogenic (medically caused) is hard to wrap your head around. It produces a negative visceral reaction. I recognize that this guide starts with a premise altogether foreign to most peopleso foreign its like changing political parties. If you are not ready to tackle such a perspective-changing topic, I understand. And if youve never had a negative encounter with big medicine, I dont consider you a likely prospect, unless you already possess generic wisdom.

But remember this. I set out to write an indictment of big medicine in this country. But then I realized that indictment has already been written more than thirty times in the last twenty years or so by highly qualified physicians, passionate reformers, and grieving parents of children. They all took on the establishment and lost. Many are cited here.

So Im writing a wisdom guide, not a blockbuster.

My hope is that you, the reader, will make the huge leap from the comfort of complete medical compliance to teamwork with your doctor to discover the truth and live to a ripe old age.

This book offers a personal perspective on healthcare as an individual contributor, not a health professional. The health and medical information herein should not be construed as medical advice and should be used to supplement, not replace, the advice of your physician or another trained health professional. Both the publisher and I disclaim liability for any medical outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the principles suggested in this book. This book has been carefully and independently fact checked. However, any remaining errors, misattributions, inaccuracies, or other defects are my responsibility alone.