Wednesday, January 16, 2008
DONALD WILLIAM MACKAY - Fluoridation Fighter .
4TH JULY 1950 - 17TH MAY 2007
Don’s Eulogy (see previous post re the shocking way the medical system in Australia killed my lovely brave husband)
This was read at the funeral by the celebrant.
The Man and Me
Sleeping at night my palm opened flat on his chest,
Warmth feeding warmth, I know we are blessed.
No matter the day’s misunderstandings and blues;
No matter points made and lost;
No matter who thinks who’s the boss;
Sleeping always next to him is the life I would choose.
Re arranging pillows, blankets and such;
Both easy to fire off, yet both easy to touch.
Each unwilling to give way, equal to the end.
The Celt in us both, a marvellous brew,
Stirred and stirring, a wondrous stew.
Sleeping hand to chest our rousing battles mend.
Ah! And give me that fire, pure and unpolished,
And give me the spirit, no argument undemolished,
And give me the wickedness and its play,
Give me the empathy and knowing
Give me the common sense for our growing.
And let us wake hand to chest at the start of the day.
How dear to me is the man who breathes beside me at night?
How dear is the spirit, which gives his eyes their light?
How dear to me is the world we share?
There is no measure I can explain
But that his pain gives me also pain
And that our love is sometimes more than we can bear.
For me he stands, young, fair and clear-eyed as in youth.
For me, the things he feels I know, they are truth.
And I will hold these truths like rare and precious treasure,
For in a shifting sea of easy useless lies
The values of such truths are cherished ties
To the love which lives within the heart which is without measure.
So let me lie for hours, my hand upon his chest,
Thinking on the treasures with which we are blessed.
Such as our children treading out into the world to be,
Carrying the dreams of all our life;
Treasures as sacred as the man and wife
And as sacred as the love which binds the man to me.
With Love Therese
Read by
Ian Mackay Don's brother
The dash between 1950 and 2007 is the period Don was with us. It is the most important dash that we know. It fulfils his life and the love that we know both from Don and to him.
My portion of Dons life is mainly from birth till his early twenties.
BORN on 4th July 1950 the fourth child of Rod & Kath Mackay in the western town of Moree. His family consisted of firstly
Jeanette… (Tet)
Judith… (Jude) and myself
Ian. …Not counting the main proponents of the family Dad (Rod) & Mum (Kath).
My sisters used to dote on me until this kid called “Don” arrived, it changed after that and he became the dotee. That didn’t matter all that much as they couldn’t play marbles and didn’t go much on catching frogs.
Not much to do in Moree,
One evening at dinner not long after his first birthday Don said to us and all,
“We should go to the Snowy and build the Eucumbene Dam as they need people like us” He was a very advanced child. As a group of half a dozen we set off to build a dam. Turns out it was a bit bigger than the six of us could handle, so we called in a few more people (1000 actually) it took about six years to complete. Those six years probably formed Don into the person he became in later years.
The things that we got up to, as kids would have sent you to a home of some sort or other. It included, the four of us setting out for a bike ride of a lifetime, ending up in a pigsty at the original dam site, with a raging fire that could have burnt an average National park. Someone volunteered me to get Mum and Dad (Tet I’m sure) in a raging stormy freezing cold on a 10 mile ride in the dark, with the cavalry Mum & Dad the three eldest – me included were chastised severely. “What were you thinking taking this young baby out in this weather”. As quick as, Tet said “Mum at least he is warm and dry and he is not a baby he is four years old. It ended well. The kids could do no wrong.
The Shooting,
Don & I were shooting tadpoles and frogs in a creek near home. I had just shot a frog and Don said give me a shot: I gave him the slug gun and he said to me “see how you like it” and promptly shot me in the foot.
That was the start of his GREENY ATTITUDE. Not content with the foot shooting when we got home he reloaded the slug gun and chased me around the house.
Fishing
A mate and myself were going fishing and knocked off a bunch of carrots from the headmasters place to eat while fishing next thing Don and his mate Ian ‘Ackenzie’ his real name was Mackenzie but Don couldn’t get his tongue around that, caught us and dobbed us into the headmaster- Mr Faulkner. Don got extra points for that. The mate and I panicked when called to his office, but being a great teacher he didn’t go crook instead gave us a lesson on tying fishhooks.
The remainder of our stay in the Adaminaby Dam site was filled with family love and love of family a really great place to grow up as a child.
Dam completed Don called us together again and said that the people were having troubles with a dam at Tan Tanungra and felt that we should help a fairly uneventful part of our lives Don schooled at New Adaminaby. Tet worked with Dad and Jude helped mum at the local shop.
Don again gathered us after our Sunday roast and weekly caster oil and said, “there are problems with a power site at the Lake Macquarie we should go and help”
Swansea this joint had it all
TV - never seen that
Beaches - been on holiday
Lakes - made them
Fishing - caught millions and masses of adventures that four kids from the Snowy had never seen.
Don became a super star at Soccer in the under 14s and we both completed schooling there. From there the family fragmented.
Tet married Jack Holmes and had a son Phillip all died in a car accident 1969.
Jude married Buddy whom died in a car accident in 1965.
I married Monika and had a son Terry and daughter Jenny.
Jude remarried, Kevin and had a son Rodney and daughter Joanne.
Don said they were calling from Port Headland in WA. The family fragmented further, as mum and dad with Don in tow headed there to sort out the problems the Port mob encountered.
The problem solved and plans to return to Swansea were completed. However Dad encountered cancer and lost the battle in the Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth on 31 Jan 1966.
Don and mum returned to the eastern states, I got leave from Vietnam to see Dad before he passed but unfortunately due to slow transport missed seeing him before passing. My leave was far to short and I returned to Vietnam whilst Mum and Don went to Maroon country in Brisbane where the tied up with Jude.
With Brisbane a temporary base Don now 17 headed to Blackwater mines 4-500 kilometres west of Rocky. This part of his life was born “The wild child” bought new cars and demolished them at a rapid rate.
Mum returned to Cardiff and Don soon followed and sort of lost the Wild Child a bit when he met
Therese and had two daughters
Melissa in 1974
Alison in 1977.
The remainder of his story is related by Therese through Garry our celebrant.
To have known Don as a brother was a privilege and to have loved and be loved by him irreplaceable.
DON REST IN PEACE, WE ALL LOVE YOU.
Therese’s part
Don, from 1972
Don and Therese met in Newcastle in 1972 and joined forces about three weeks after that meeting. Don was then working as a Fitter for Hodge Industrial installing underground petrol tanks and bowsers all across NSW.
In 1974 Melissa was born to them and Don’s boss offered them the use of a large caravan to use so that Don would not want to come home each weekend to be with his family and could spend months moving around NSW working.
This was a wonderful 18 months and there were few areas they did not get to spend time. Blayney in winter in an uninsulated caravan was an experience. Opening the van door at the tick gates and seeing their red kelpie, called Red, slithering around in the beetroot which had fallen out of the fridge, because someone had forgotten to put the pin in the fridge door was another.
Port Macquarie was one of the towns they visited and Don was offered work from Gordon Hunt should he ever move here.
In late ’76 they moved to Port Macquarie.
Alison was born in 1977 and the family was complete.
They lived in a small house just past Sea Acres near Johnson’s Fruit shop, which cost $12 a week. Here they were home. Chooks, ducks, a dog – Boris, cats – (Don was never too keen on these creatures) and Lucky - Don’s horse, two happy little girls and little money made this a happy home for Don and Therese
He worked on building sites and drove a backhoe and truck and was able to turn his hand to most things he tried.
In 1982 Don was badly injured while working in the canals behind Settlement City.
He became a quadriplegic and spent a seven-month stay at Royal North Shore Hospital (Sydney). Therese, Melissa and Alison moved for that period living near the hospital, with Therese’s eldest sister Veronica. All returned to Port Macquarie when Don was well enough
After a settling period, Don along with his wife Therese became involved in issues in which he believed in passionately. He lobbied Council in the ‘80’s for better wheelchair access and struck a deal with them that he would go halves in the cost of construction of wheelchair access on major access points around the CBD.
In the early ‘90’s he manned the RSPCA phone and was passionate about his commitment to this. Although it’s a well known fact Don was not a great cat lover, he abhorred cruelty of any sort and would too often be upset by the callousness of human beings to their pets and livestock.
His mother died in 1997. He not only looked out for his mother’s needs but also Therese’s mother and was always quick to see when others were had difficulties. He had a great compassion for others who were suffering illness or other.
When his sister Judy was dying in Queensland in 1998 he and Therese spent the last three months with her only leaving a few days before she passed away. This was a special time and he spent many days just quietly sitting by his sister’s bedside talking and laughing about family.
He believed ardently in the right of the individual to freedom of choice on issues regarding Fluoridation, and other and it is well known he did not suffer fools gladly. He was very active in the fight against the privatisation of Port Macquarie Hospital and he worked for years tirelessly to have the hospital returned to public hands.
Unfortunately he was stuck in bed on the day the Hospital Action Group had its celebration outside the hospital grounds once again when the hospital was finally handed back to the people of NSW in 2004, but he spent that morning harassing the local media, as was his wont, into speaking with the Hospital Action Group who were there from the beginning of the fight in early 1992.
He became actively involved in One Nation, and along with Marge Rowsell from Taree organised the original meeting in the Civic Centre when Pauline came to Port Macquarie and filled the Civic Centre to overflowing on a Tuesday morning. When Pauline moved away from One Nation so did Don. He was outraged by her jailing and worked as hard as he could writing letters etc to help raise awareness of the injustice often saying that if it could happen to such a public figure as Pauline, it could happen to any one of us, and that we each, on our own, must always fight against injustice when we are able…
When Pauline was released, fully exonerated he was over the moon.
Don and Therese moved out here to Craggy Island in early 2004. The sense of peace and beauty they both felt the first day they saw this place is still here with us and for Therese it is the essence of her husband and a fitting place for this service.
Becoming a Quadriplegic was bad enough, but Don was unlucky in that he was suffered constant pain and would comment on those few days when it totally lifted how good the day was. As the years went on this became much worse. His courage and endurance, still being able to be concerned about others, smiling, fooling about, being involved and interested and most of all never complaining, was truly wonderful to experience. It was heartbreaking at times when people did not understand his fragility and his exhaustion and bravery he showed by just facing the days at times.
The family are aware of the many roles Don played in life and on the small screen, where just the placement of a wig, or a hat and he would transform into little fat Eadie from Picnic at Hanging Rock which should now be known as “Picnic at Don Rock”…and his Mafia alter ego called “The Don” was done as seamlessly as he did everything.
There was the eighth day of the week “Don Day” which was a special day for the kids.
His force of personality and its many facets became something of a miracle to his family and especially Therese, Melissa and Alison. He was constantly concerned about their welfare, and that of the extended family, and he seemed to grow more compassionate, the more he suffered.
Melissa and Alison joke about the fact that they quickly learnt to never say they were bored because when they did he would give them jobs to do. Now adults they say they are grateful for this. He was fiercely independent and a gentle and concerned loving husband and father.
He passed away at his home on Thursday 17th May, two days before his eldest daughter Melissa and her fiancé Chris were due to be married. He had been in RNSH for 5 weeks and was flown home the night of his passing. Unable to speak because of the Ventilator for the past 5 weeks, when it was finally turned off, he softly talked and joked with those of us gathered for about two hours. He died with his family around him and was loved gently as he went with dignity and concern for others welfare the last things he expressed.
The manner of his passing after the terrible suffering he endured, will never be forgotten by those of us present, and has left us with no fear of death… none at all. Yet another of the precious gifts he left to those he loved. He was beautiful to the end and died quietly with his daughters and wife and other loved ones… in a quiet room... at home at last. He deserved such a peaceful seamless death to this life. His compassion and empathy for others; his sense of fun and stirring; his generosity; his unpredictability; his intense love of the natural world; so much, but more even was the love he held for his children Melissa and Alison, and his wife Therese. He loved them without conditions. Its known Don had his rough edges but the rough diamonds are always the best, and are always more precious
Thanks must go out to Therese’s sisters Veronica, Joan and Jackie for their support. Jackie spent the last day in the hospital with Don while the family drove home to meet the Air Ambulance. She went on the flight with him so that he always had someone with him he loved. Thanks to Carmel, Patsy, Mike, Rod, Neil and Renata, and Donna, and they know why.
The effort made by Don’s Doctor Dr Mark Stewart and the Air Ambulance and others made it possible for Don to have his last wish, which was to die at home.
He is survived by Therese his wife, Melissa and Alison his daughters and Ian his brother.
Goodbye for now our lovely Eadie… See you round like a rissole.
Melissa’s part
One things for sure this world will never be the same again without Don or better known as Noddy to Ali Mum and I.
Whenever I think of him it always makes me smile and a million memories come rushing to me. Each one making me happier. Dad had a wonderful sense of fun and a wicked wicked sense of humour. Which left a lot of people not quite sure, was he laughing at them? That made it funnier. Alison and I from a young age absolutely loved when he was being wickedly funny. Kids love it when someone can get away with saying and doing things naughty. Ali do you remember your first communion? I know mum and I sure do! Only 20 cents for a glass of water. We had some amazing times as a family, you couldn’t ask or wish for a better dad. He was always always there for you, and nothing was ever too much. The gap in our little family is going to be felt, but he is always with us, because he promised me once. I remember when dad was in hospital, his arms were tied with restraints, mum and I untied them and he stretched out his arms like he was going to fly away. I said jokingly, YOUR FREE! And he laughed and smiled it was the most beautiful smile. So I hope he is free and still has that beautiful smile, that I’ll never forget.
He deserves all the wonders of complete freedom and happiness.
Melissa Mackay
21.5.2007
Alison’s part
Where do I start, when trying to say goodbye, or a final “see you later” to you Dad? I know that you will always be with me & that I will meet you again, but for now you need to rest. I am so sorry for what happened to you at Royal North Shore Hospital, it was as you said “Shithouse”. We were lucky to have been with you at the end. I hope that you could feel all the love from us.
You & Mum gave us such a fun & rich childhood; there was always much laughter in the house. There are so many stories and great times that will always be with my heart. Thankyou for teaching me so many things its strange but I still remember each moment so clear when you taught me to tie my shoelaces, to dive properly into the pool, my times tables, telling the time on a real clock. All the times you watched me swimming by myself in the pool because I was always to scared jaws would get me if you weren’t watching. You would try to sneak away after a long while but I’d always catch you and you’d always come back out.
There were always lots of cuddles in our house, interesting games of monopoly, jobs if we admitted boredom, and there was always a right way to do jobs and a short time in which to begin them. That was just you though Dad and it became slightly amusing as we got older.
We have so many funny home videos of us four and others, but by far the best was our “Picnic at Don Rock!” you played Edie brilliantly and we have so many one-liners from it that will always make us laugh.
Thank you Dad for always being so helpful and kind to me. You always tried to make things better for me. All the phone calls over the last few years I will cherish. All the stories you told, all the silly voices we did. You taught me how to cope with things that were beyond my grasp, and always when the seriousness was over you’d get me chuckling again.
People tell me that I am like you in many ways and I am proud of that. You always taught me to stand up for myself too, which I am grateful for. You did so with such phrases as “Don’t take shit” and “are you gunna put up with that?” Dad you always taught me to be strong and fair. Two qualities that you have.
I will always love and cherish you, there have just been so many funny and warm times shared. I am so lucky to of have had a father like you, a friend like you and a teacher like you.
Take care Dad wherever you are right now, and always know how proud I am of you for who you are, how you lived, how you dealt with hardship’s, how you joked and how you loved.
I love you
Love always Ali
4TH JULY 1950 - 17TH MAY 2007
Don’s Eulogy (see previous post re the shocking way the medical system in Australia killed my lovely brave husband)
This was read at the funeral by the celebrant.
The Man and Me
Sleeping at night my palm opened flat on his chest,
Warmth feeding warmth, I know we are blessed.
No matter the day’s misunderstandings and blues;
No matter points made and lost;
No matter who thinks who’s the boss;
Sleeping always next to him is the life I would choose.
Re arranging pillows, blankets and such;
Both easy to fire off, yet both easy to touch.
Each unwilling to give way, equal to the end.
The Celt in us both, a marvellous brew,
Stirred and stirring, a wondrous stew.
Sleeping hand to chest our rousing battles mend.
Ah! And give me that fire, pure and unpolished,
And give me the spirit, no argument undemolished,
And give me the wickedness and its play,
Give me the empathy and knowing
Give me the common sense for our growing.
And let us wake hand to chest at the start of the day.
How dear to me is the man who breathes beside me at night?
How dear is the spirit, which gives his eyes their light?
How dear to me is the world we share?
There is no measure I can explain
But that his pain gives me also pain
And that our love is sometimes more than we can bear.
For me he stands, young, fair and clear-eyed as in youth.
For me, the things he feels I know, they are truth.
And I will hold these truths like rare and precious treasure,
For in a shifting sea of easy useless lies
The values of such truths are cherished ties
To the love which lives within the heart which is without measure.
So let me lie for hours, my hand upon his chest,
Thinking on the treasures with which we are blessed.
Such as our children treading out into the world to be,
Carrying the dreams of all our life;
Treasures as sacred as the man and wife
And as sacred as the love which binds the man to me.
With Love Therese
Read by
Ian Mackay Don's brother
The dash between 1950 and 2007 is the period Don was with us. It is the most important dash that we know. It fulfils his life and the love that we know both from Don and to him.
My portion of Dons life is mainly from birth till his early twenties.
BORN on 4th July 1950 the fourth child of Rod & Kath Mackay in the western town of Moree. His family consisted of firstly
Jeanette… (Tet)
Judith… (Jude) and myself
Ian. …Not counting the main proponents of the family Dad (Rod) & Mum (Kath).
My sisters used to dote on me until this kid called “Don” arrived, it changed after that and he became the dotee. That didn’t matter all that much as they couldn’t play marbles and didn’t go much on catching frogs.
Not much to do in Moree,
One evening at dinner not long after his first birthday Don said to us and all,
“We should go to the Snowy and build the Eucumbene Dam as they need people like us” He was a very advanced child. As a group of half a dozen we set off to build a dam. Turns out it was a bit bigger than the six of us could handle, so we called in a few more people (1000 actually) it took about six years to complete. Those six years probably formed Don into the person he became in later years.
The things that we got up to, as kids would have sent you to a home of some sort or other. It included, the four of us setting out for a bike ride of a lifetime, ending up in a pigsty at the original dam site, with a raging fire that could have burnt an average National park. Someone volunteered me to get Mum and Dad (Tet I’m sure) in a raging stormy freezing cold on a 10 mile ride in the dark, with the cavalry Mum & Dad the three eldest – me included were chastised severely. “What were you thinking taking this young baby out in this weather”. As quick as, Tet said “Mum at least he is warm and dry and he is not a baby he is four years old. It ended well. The kids could do no wrong.
The Shooting,
Don & I were shooting tadpoles and frogs in a creek near home. I had just shot a frog and Don said give me a shot: I gave him the slug gun and he said to me “see how you like it” and promptly shot me in the foot.
That was the start of his GREENY ATTITUDE. Not content with the foot shooting when we got home he reloaded the slug gun and chased me around the house.
Fishing
A mate and myself were going fishing and knocked off a bunch of carrots from the headmasters place to eat while fishing next thing Don and his mate Ian ‘Ackenzie’ his real name was Mackenzie but Don couldn’t get his tongue around that, caught us and dobbed us into the headmaster- Mr Faulkner. Don got extra points for that. The mate and I panicked when called to his office, but being a great teacher he didn’t go crook instead gave us a lesson on tying fishhooks.
The remainder of our stay in the Adaminaby Dam site was filled with family love and love of family a really great place to grow up as a child.
Dam completed Don called us together again and said that the people were having troubles with a dam at Tan Tanungra and felt that we should help a fairly uneventful part of our lives Don schooled at New Adaminaby. Tet worked with Dad and Jude helped mum at the local shop.
Don again gathered us after our Sunday roast and weekly caster oil and said, “there are problems with a power site at the Lake Macquarie we should go and help”
Swansea this joint had it all
TV - never seen that
Beaches - been on holiday
Lakes - made them
Fishing - caught millions and masses of adventures that four kids from the Snowy had never seen.
Don became a super star at Soccer in the under 14s and we both completed schooling there. From there the family fragmented.
Tet married Jack Holmes and had a son Phillip all died in a car accident 1969.
Jude married Buddy whom died in a car accident in 1965.
I married Monika and had a son Terry and daughter Jenny.
Jude remarried, Kevin and had a son Rodney and daughter Joanne.
Don said they were calling from Port Headland in WA. The family fragmented further, as mum and dad with Don in tow headed there to sort out the problems the Port mob encountered.
The problem solved and plans to return to Swansea were completed. However Dad encountered cancer and lost the battle in the Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth on 31 Jan 1966.
Don and mum returned to the eastern states, I got leave from Vietnam to see Dad before he passed but unfortunately due to slow transport missed seeing him before passing. My leave was far to short and I returned to Vietnam whilst Mum and Don went to Maroon country in Brisbane where the tied up with Jude.
With Brisbane a temporary base Don now 17 headed to Blackwater mines 4-500 kilometres west of Rocky. This part of his life was born “The wild child” bought new cars and demolished them at a rapid rate.
Mum returned to Cardiff and Don soon followed and sort of lost the Wild Child a bit when he met
Therese and had two daughters
Melissa in 1974
Alison in 1977.
The remainder of his story is related by Therese through Garry our celebrant.
To have known Don as a brother was a privilege and to have loved and be loved by him irreplaceable.
DON REST IN PEACE, WE ALL LOVE YOU.
Therese’s part
Don, from 1972
Don and Therese met in Newcastle in 1972 and joined forces about three weeks after that meeting. Don was then working as a Fitter for Hodge Industrial installing underground petrol tanks and bowsers all across NSW.
In 1974 Melissa was born to them and Don’s boss offered them the use of a large caravan to use so that Don would not want to come home each weekend to be with his family and could spend months moving around NSW working.
This was a wonderful 18 months and there were few areas they did not get to spend time. Blayney in winter in an uninsulated caravan was an experience. Opening the van door at the tick gates and seeing their red kelpie, called Red, slithering around in the beetroot which had fallen out of the fridge, because someone had forgotten to put the pin in the fridge door was another.
Port Macquarie was one of the towns they visited and Don was offered work from Gordon Hunt should he ever move here.
In late ’76 they moved to Port Macquarie.
Alison was born in 1977 and the family was complete.
They lived in a small house just past Sea Acres near Johnson’s Fruit shop, which cost $12 a week. Here they were home. Chooks, ducks, a dog – Boris, cats – (Don was never too keen on these creatures) and Lucky - Don’s horse, two happy little girls and little money made this a happy home for Don and Therese
He worked on building sites and drove a backhoe and truck and was able to turn his hand to most things he tried.
In 1982 Don was badly injured while working in the canals behind Settlement City.
He became a quadriplegic and spent a seven-month stay at Royal North Shore Hospital (Sydney). Therese, Melissa and Alison moved for that period living near the hospital, with Therese’s eldest sister Veronica. All returned to Port Macquarie when Don was well enough
After a settling period, Don along with his wife Therese became involved in issues in which he believed in passionately. He lobbied Council in the ‘80’s for better wheelchair access and struck a deal with them that he would go halves in the cost of construction of wheelchair access on major access points around the CBD.
In the early ‘90’s he manned the RSPCA phone and was passionate about his commitment to this. Although it’s a well known fact Don was not a great cat lover, he abhorred cruelty of any sort and would too often be upset by the callousness of human beings to their pets and livestock.
His mother died in 1997. He not only looked out for his mother’s needs but also Therese’s mother and was always quick to see when others were had difficulties. He had a great compassion for others who were suffering illness or other.
When his sister Judy was dying in Queensland in 1998 he and Therese spent the last three months with her only leaving a few days before she passed away. This was a special time and he spent many days just quietly sitting by his sister’s bedside talking and laughing about family.
He believed ardently in the right of the individual to freedom of choice on issues regarding Fluoridation, and other and it is well known he did not suffer fools gladly. He was very active in the fight against the privatisation of Port Macquarie Hospital and he worked for years tirelessly to have the hospital returned to public hands.
Unfortunately he was stuck in bed on the day the Hospital Action Group had its celebration outside the hospital grounds once again when the hospital was finally handed back to the people of NSW in 2004, but he spent that morning harassing the local media, as was his wont, into speaking with the Hospital Action Group who were there from the beginning of the fight in early 1992.
He became actively involved in One Nation, and along with Marge Rowsell from Taree organised the original meeting in the Civic Centre when Pauline came to Port Macquarie and filled the Civic Centre to overflowing on a Tuesday morning. When Pauline moved away from One Nation so did Don. He was outraged by her jailing and worked as hard as he could writing letters etc to help raise awareness of the injustice often saying that if it could happen to such a public figure as Pauline, it could happen to any one of us, and that we each, on our own, must always fight against injustice when we are able…
When Pauline was released, fully exonerated he was over the moon.
Don and Therese moved out here to Craggy Island in early 2004. The sense of peace and beauty they both felt the first day they saw this place is still here with us and for Therese it is the essence of her husband and a fitting place for this service.
Becoming a Quadriplegic was bad enough, but Don was unlucky in that he was suffered constant pain and would comment on those few days when it totally lifted how good the day was. As the years went on this became much worse. His courage and endurance, still being able to be concerned about others, smiling, fooling about, being involved and interested and most of all never complaining, was truly wonderful to experience. It was heartbreaking at times when people did not understand his fragility and his exhaustion and bravery he showed by just facing the days at times.
The family are aware of the many roles Don played in life and on the small screen, where just the placement of a wig, or a hat and he would transform into little fat Eadie from Picnic at Hanging Rock which should now be known as “Picnic at Don Rock”…and his Mafia alter ego called “The Don” was done as seamlessly as he did everything.
There was the eighth day of the week “Don Day” which was a special day for the kids.
His force of personality and its many facets became something of a miracle to his family and especially Therese, Melissa and Alison. He was constantly concerned about their welfare, and that of the extended family, and he seemed to grow more compassionate, the more he suffered.
Melissa and Alison joke about the fact that they quickly learnt to never say they were bored because when they did he would give them jobs to do. Now adults they say they are grateful for this. He was fiercely independent and a gentle and concerned loving husband and father.
He passed away at his home on Thursday 17th May, two days before his eldest daughter Melissa and her fiancé Chris were due to be married. He had been in RNSH for 5 weeks and was flown home the night of his passing. Unable to speak because of the Ventilator for the past 5 weeks, when it was finally turned off, he softly talked and joked with those of us gathered for about two hours. He died with his family around him and was loved gently as he went with dignity and concern for others welfare the last things he expressed.
The manner of his passing after the terrible suffering he endured, will never be forgotten by those of us present, and has left us with no fear of death… none at all. Yet another of the precious gifts he left to those he loved. He was beautiful to the end and died quietly with his daughters and wife and other loved ones… in a quiet room... at home at last. He deserved such a peaceful seamless death to this life. His compassion and empathy for others; his sense of fun and stirring; his generosity; his unpredictability; his intense love of the natural world; so much, but more even was the love he held for his children Melissa and Alison, and his wife Therese. He loved them without conditions. Its known Don had his rough edges but the rough diamonds are always the best, and are always more precious
Thanks must go out to Therese’s sisters Veronica, Joan and Jackie for their support. Jackie spent the last day in the hospital with Don while the family drove home to meet the Air Ambulance. She went on the flight with him so that he always had someone with him he loved. Thanks to Carmel, Patsy, Mike, Rod, Neil and Renata, and Donna, and they know why.
The effort made by Don’s Doctor Dr Mark Stewart and the Air Ambulance and others made it possible for Don to have his last wish, which was to die at home.
He is survived by Therese his wife, Melissa and Alison his daughters and Ian his brother.
Goodbye for now our lovely Eadie… See you round like a rissole.
Melissa’s part
One things for sure this world will never be the same again without Don or better known as Noddy to Ali Mum and I.
Whenever I think of him it always makes me smile and a million memories come rushing to me. Each one making me happier. Dad had a wonderful sense of fun and a wicked wicked sense of humour. Which left a lot of people not quite sure, was he laughing at them? That made it funnier. Alison and I from a young age absolutely loved when he was being wickedly funny. Kids love it when someone can get away with saying and doing things naughty. Ali do you remember your first communion? I know mum and I sure do! Only 20 cents for a glass of water. We had some amazing times as a family, you couldn’t ask or wish for a better dad. He was always always there for you, and nothing was ever too much. The gap in our little family is going to be felt, but he is always with us, because he promised me once. I remember when dad was in hospital, his arms were tied with restraints, mum and I untied them and he stretched out his arms like he was going to fly away. I said jokingly, YOUR FREE! And he laughed and smiled it was the most beautiful smile. So I hope he is free and still has that beautiful smile, that I’ll never forget.
He deserves all the wonders of complete freedom and happiness.
Melissa Mackay
21.5.2007
Alison’s part
Where do I start, when trying to say goodbye, or a final “see you later” to you Dad? I know that you will always be with me & that I will meet you again, but for now you need to rest. I am so sorry for what happened to you at Royal North Shore Hospital, it was as you said “Shithouse”. We were lucky to have been with you at the end. I hope that you could feel all the love from us.
You & Mum gave us such a fun & rich childhood; there was always much laughter in the house. There are so many stories and great times that will always be with my heart. Thankyou for teaching me so many things its strange but I still remember each moment so clear when you taught me to tie my shoelaces, to dive properly into the pool, my times tables, telling the time on a real clock. All the times you watched me swimming by myself in the pool because I was always to scared jaws would get me if you weren’t watching. You would try to sneak away after a long while but I’d always catch you and you’d always come back out.
There were always lots of cuddles in our house, interesting games of monopoly, jobs if we admitted boredom, and there was always a right way to do jobs and a short time in which to begin them. That was just you though Dad and it became slightly amusing as we got older.
We have so many funny home videos of us four and others, but by far the best was our “Picnic at Don Rock!” you played Edie brilliantly and we have so many one-liners from it that will always make us laugh.
Thank you Dad for always being so helpful and kind to me. You always tried to make things better for me. All the phone calls over the last few years I will cherish. All the stories you told, all the silly voices we did. You taught me how to cope with things that were beyond my grasp, and always when the seriousness was over you’d get me chuckling again.
People tell me that I am like you in many ways and I am proud of that. You always taught me to stand up for myself too, which I am grateful for. You did so with such phrases as “Don’t take shit” and “are you gunna put up with that?” Dad you always taught me to be strong and fair. Two qualities that you have.
I will always love and cherish you, there have just been so many funny and warm times shared. I am so lucky to of have had a father like you, a friend like you and a teacher like you.
Take care Dad wherever you are right now, and always know how proud I am of you for who you are, how you lived, how you dealt with hardship’s, how you joked and how you loved.
I love you
Love always Ali
My apologies for absence.
It has been some time since I last posted here, but am pleased to know some people have maintained me on their links. Sadly my lovely husband became very sick in Jan/Feb/ March but it was something which could have been treated and could have still been with me.
My husband Don Mackay 1950 - 2007, had been a vigorous Fluoridation Fighter since 1989 when we first began to learn about it. Together we formed up the Hastings Safe Water Association (NSW Australia). He was the major cause of the Council held referendum (a representative poll held at a by election) in 1991 in which the people voted 62.5% against Fluoridation. Together we continued on fighting up till he became so very ill.
Unfortunately we were sent to Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney where they gave him surgery he would never survive, which the family and Don considered was dangerous and unnecessary. When that failed as it was always going to he had series of Respiratory Arrests and was so badly treated and neglected as he was dying that my main efforts now have been and are trying to get some small justice for him.
I think people need to know in detail what was done to Don who spent so much of his life fighting not just Fluorides but on many other fronts. I will post his eulogy in the next post.
This is a copy of the transcript of the Joint Select Committee into RNSHospital. It ended up being a whitewash, but am still fighting. The NSW Coroner is now seeking original notes from the Hospitals and Doctors involved, but I had to push them.
"
THERESE MACKAY, relative of former patient, sworn and examined:
CHAIR: You are appearing as a relative of a former patient, your husband?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, with my daughter Melissa.
CHAIR: Would you now tell the Committee your story?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, I have written it down, because he was in Royal North Shore Hospital
for 5½ weeks, so I wanted to make sure I did not forget anything. I hope you have read my
submission.
CHAIR: Yes, and it assists the Committee.
Mrs MACKAY: It is lengthy, but it was needed. No matter what happens here our family
will not give up on setting to right the appalling cruelty my husband and our children's father, Don, endured with so much dignity. I will follow through all the avenues I am able to take, some of which I have already begun. My husband, Don, went to Royal North Shore we thought to have a simple lung drain and biopsy. It was not an emergency operation. Dr (X) performed a lung drain and biopsy, but also an operation called pleurodesis. We had never heard of pleurodesis. We now know that you never do a pleurodesis at the same time you do a biopsy; a high does of talc is always suspect, you should never do it on someone who cannot fully expand their lungs.
Don had been unable to fully expand his lungs since 1982 because of quadriplegia. You
should not do it whilst there is any fluid in the lungs. Don would still have had fluid in his lungs as it was still draining after that surgery. These were all ignored. He had such marginal respiratory reserves and his state of health along with his quadriplegia meant that he was already quite debilitated before the unnecessary and dangerous surgery was done on him, so bizarrely soon after he arrived from Port Macquarie, as I was still driving down.
I will tell you next of what I and the family feel is criminal neglect he suffered in the almost
three days after his operation for which the cardiothoracic and the spinal deserve censure. They all missed the very visible signs of don's impending respiratory arrest from the failed pleurodesis. He was struggling to breathe and began to hallucinate, because, as I now know, there was a build-up of carbon dioxide in his system. His shoulders were going up and down and his tongue was moving in and out of his mouth as he tried to breathe. The cardiothoracic team's Dr said, "They were unconcerned", which I find amazing, and I have the notes. They did not seem to understand quadriplegia breathing, which makes it harder to breathe if you are sitting upright—the opposite of what it like for us. They should have.
They ordered him to be sat up in his wheelchair, he quickly got worse. About 2.00 p.m. I
begged them to help me get him back into bed. I was told to wait till the lift round at 3.30. The lift round turned up at 4.30. He was treated like an annoyance. I still see all this in my head. Every half hour I would go to whomever I could find to get help for my husband. Finally I had to go home. I was staying at the Greenwich, which is Rotary, close to the hospital. It had been a very long day and I wanted to be there to catch the doctors the next day. I said to call me at any time, I was only five minutes away. Anyway, we were fobbed off.
He then had the first respiratory arrest early in the morning. I had actually mentioned to them
to ring me if anything went wrong, like in the middle of the night if he called me I could be there in five minutes. I was told the next day by Norman, the man who was in the bed next to Don, that Don had called my name for three hours, but they did not call me. They had my number and my daughter Melissa's number.
After that respiratory arrest, Don was aware that he had no chance of survival because with quadriplegic lungs that is a really bad event. They never in spinal, and soon in intensive
care, noted their failures to act. They do not appear in any notes. The lack of observations and notesby spinal nurses is a disgrace.
He would spend five weeks in intensive care, where they tried to get him to breathe again by
extubating and reintubating him several times allowing him to come very close to further respiratory arrests before they would reintubate him. Shocking treatment for him to suffer and for us to have to watch. One time when they extubated him no-one took any notice of me when I told them that he was looking the same as he had in spinal pre-arrest. They just ignored me, apart from physio, who recorded this. Physio were always wonderful. Don went up to 50 breaths per minute, not written down anywhere of course.
We saw it on the monitor and the nurse got angry with us and said, "What are you worrying
about?" and either turned the screen away or switched it off. She said that his tongue going in and out rapidly, and I have never seen anything like this, was that he was trying to talk. In intensive care there was one nurse for one patient. Then all hell broke loose and we were hustled out again and he was reintubated yet again. One time when a nurse was suctioning don, a part of the equipment fell onto the floor. I think Melissa saw this. We saw that nurse pick up that bit and put it back in my husband's mouth: bold as brass. This was only days before golden staph and Klebsiella pneumonia invaded his lungs so disastrously.
My lovely husband laid in intensive care for five weeks with his arms tied to the bed, both
lungs now filling up with fluid constantly, body full of infection, sepsis they called it. He was full of excess fluid. He caught MRSA, that is golden staph, first in the arterial line then in his lungs and Klebsiella pneumonia in his lungs, candida albicans all throughout his mouth, in his urine and no doubt in his whole system. The place was filthy beyond words. There was no continuity of care with staff and much of doctors' and nurses' notes are illegible, which made this lack of continuity dangerously worse. The lack of hygiene in intensive care was shameful.
Infection control is almost non-existent. In isolation they use a throwaway plastic bib type of apron, which covers only about a third of your body and clothing. Apparently the staph and other dangerous germs do not go on the arms, sides and back of the body.
My sister, a renal dialysis nurse from Brisbane, was horrified. This was towards the end,
when she noticed they had turned off all his fluids but still had Don on a large amount of Lasix. Lasix drains fluid from the body. Anyone who has any medical knowledge would find this shocking. If she had not picked up on this, his last days would have been even worse torture than they were and he may also have endured the sickness that goes with full renal collapse. The nurse was reluctant to act on this and we had to go hunting for a doctor to have this rectified. It was hours before this was done and was not mentioned in the notes. Another time our eldest daughter, Melissa, was with us and we noticed that he was very nauseous from something. We saw that a lost of clear fluid was coming outof his mouth and running down to his beard. We called his nurse over so she could suction him so he did not choke. She was quite begrudging and on her way over complained she had just suctioned him.
So she suctioned him and then walked off. We tried to clean him up as best we could. Then it began again and we had to call her over. He was her only patient. She was quite angry.
We told her he was really sick and could she give him some Maxalon in the drip, as this
worked well on nausea for him. By this time the fluid was behind his neck, down behind his head and underneath his shoulders. He was cold and shivering and feeling really ill. Because he had so many tubes—I cannot remember how many; he seemed to have tubes and wires coming from everywhere— we asked her to help us clean him up because we were afraid of disconnecting something. She told us he would have to wait for the lift round. That was that. We cleaned him up and got under him as bestwe could and he watched our faces with the saddest eyes. How could she do this to him?
Theseincidents are not just odd ones out of the ordinary. Every day things like this happened. Occasionallyyou would have a really good nurse, and they deserve huge praise for having to endure the badnursing of the others. You see, none of the nurses had name tags, so you could never remember thenames the next day. It was one-on-one nursing, but if you are there long enough you might see threedifferent nurses a day looking after him. We were there for five weeks.
I have never seen such suffering like that. I am 53 years old and I have seen some terrible
things—three months with his sister as she died from cervical cancer horribly. I watched my own mother struggle with end stage cardiomyopathy and other things wrong. I was present during all of Don's original hospitalisation for seven months when he broke his neck in 1982. In between I have seen and experienced the worst of human cruelty towards him at times. His last 5½ weeks spent in Royal North Shore Hospital were just horrible torture to extreme, all of which should have been avoided had that doctor not done the original dangerous and unnecessary pleurodesis. But once done he should have been treated with compassion in intensive care. Royal North Shore caused the damage, but when he was overloaded on carbon dioxide and their hotchpotch of ever-changing medication and was hallucinating, many of them treated him as if he was an imbecile and with cruelty.
There were a few nurses and doctors who understood what was going on, and I wish I could
remember who they were. They have my eternal gratitude. They should all have been like that to any ill and suffering human being. On the days when the real nurses were on, Don would be so different. It made me wonder what happened to him when we were not there. He was unable to talk because of the ventilation tubes and eventually the trachea. Sometimes when I came in I could sense that something was terribly wrong and he tried to not allow some nurses to touch him when I was there. Others, the good ones, he would do his best to be co-operative when he was able.
We live now—Melissa and Alison, our other daughter, and one of my sisters—with five weeks of a horror movie inside our heads which plays over and over. Even as you talk to people the images seem to be playing in your inner vision. How much worse must it have been for my husband and my children's dad to have to, without choice, experience the dreadful suffering which was inflicted upon him, his arms tied to the bed for five weeks and mouth gagged by tubes?
Once he was diagnosed with golden staph Don was to spend the rest of his life, about 4½
weeks, in an internal pod-like room. This room had no natural lighting. I would turn the lights off to give his eyes a break from the bright fluoro light above his head. There was no halfway with this light; it did not turn down. The whole environment in this room was as if it was cut off from the outside. Only sometimes could we see a small patch of sky, and that was when we would ask if the curtain next door could be pulled back a little. On his last day there my sister was with him when a nurse came into the room and totally cut that room off by pulling the curtains right round his cubicle and across the door. She then sprayed right around the doorframe with some strong smelling chemical, asif he was already dead.
He just shrugged at this. This was shocking and the nurse offered no explanation.
By 14 May Don's lungs were drowning in infection, apart from all the fluid, which was
building up and being drained from the right and left pleural areas of his lungs. He was grossly oedematous—his body full of fluid. He had a pressure area, which he had never had in his life. He had sepsis in his body from all the infections. He had developed a condition called hypoalbuminaemia. He was unable to be weaned from the ventilator as a result of the damage done by the failed pleurodesis operation. They finally admitted that Don was dying, something he had accepted since those first days in intensive care. The intensive care and cardiothoracic doctors, because he was under both, should have given Don and us, his family, full disclosure of what they knew early on, as we discovered later in their notes. Five weeks of dreadful suffering would have been avoided. They lied to Don and us. To
admit the truth was to admit the failed pleurodesis, and they all bear responsibility for this.
In all the time since Don had been in Royal North Shore and with all that was going on, I
think that up until this time I had come across a social worker once. But we can find no notation about the meeting. Now when they decided he was dying, we were about to be drowned, almost assaulted in a sea of concern.
When it was explained to Don by a doctor that he was dying, her notes record, "He
looked at me as if to say, 'It took you that long to notice?' and expressed excitement at being able to go home to die." I had a bit of an ace card, I wanted to get him home and I think they wanted him out too. I asked was there any way we could get him to our home to die. He had always hated being in Royal North Shore and did not want to die there. It is unheard of what happened next. He was flown home by air ambulance to Port Macquarie on a ventilator, which would be removed, we were initially told, some time after Don arrived. Palliative care and others in Port Macquarie have never come across the likes of this in their whole careers. Royal North Shore said they would try to organise a ventilator from Port Macquarie for home so that Don could have some time there and then choose when to turn it off. He was told that it was likely he would die a couple of hours after turning off the ventilator.
That never happened.
Just before we left we were told they could not find one home ventilator in the whole of Port
Macquarie. Don just wanted to go home to die so that he could die in the place he loved, not Royal North Shore. He would have agreed to anything at this stage. So within minutes of Don arriving home, the ambulance began asking for the ventilator. His doctor allowed a small amount of time and disconnected it. Don put his arm out to hold it a bit longer. He was home with his loved ones. The doctor took his hand off the machine and firmly tucked it under the blanket. Don died a couple of hours later. So even that choice, the most sacred of human rights, was taken away from him by the orders of Royal North Shore and his own GP. I question the legality of that whole event.
The girls andI were just like robots by this time. I remember my face felt prickly and numb. The last four days ofthe time between 11 April and 17 May were bizarre. On reflection, it felt as if we were a part of an orchestrated event, and we are still puzzled by this time. Although Don wanted to be let die, the day he came home the girls and my sisters and I agreed that it felt like an execution.
I got a phone call a week or two later from Royal North Shore asking me how Don was going
after his discharge. I am now in touch with the Coroner's office, as it appears there should have been a Coroner's report done because Don died directly of the failed surgery. Royal North Shore would have known that, but his discharge got them out of that mess. This GP should have known that also. Once in intensive care Melissa and I heard Don state clearly something that still haunted us both. He had wanted the tubes out. Clearly he wanted to die. That was expressed all through the five weeks. Don wanted those tubes out. He knew he was dying. So he chewed through a tube—he did that a couple of times—when we were there one day. On the out-rush of the released air he looked at us and said clearly, "Help me."
We both have to live on with that desperate whisper in our heads for the rest of our lives. That was a shocking thing for a mother to see her daughter go through. I think the poor patients and their loved ones need to be considered first as a priority and those good nurses and good doctors be supported when they want to whistle blow. I do not know how a new hospital or even cleaning up a hospital, especially just before the inquiry, will stop what
happened to Don. He was killed not just by filth; he was killed by bad attitude and gross negligence.
God help us all. I just also want to mention a feeling I have. They put Don on a study called the NICE study. It is to do with insulin in intensive care. We started to be concerned that there was an element of research in the treatment of Don because of his disability. We cannot prove that. I only just recently got flowcharts from that.
I have one other thing. This photograph shows our family at Christmas. Don is in the centre
of his family. Even with all his disabilities he was the foundation of our family. Although he had fluid in his lungs he was not an emergency. This is a picture of Don taken with Melissa and I about three days before he went to hospital, and this is a picture of Don about six days after he went to Royal North Shore Hospital. This is a picture of Don in the early stages of Royal North Shore Hospital, before infection and before he was in that horrible room. I only just found that photograph on my sister's CD. She had taken it for a reason.
I thank Committee members for their time and patience.
CHAIR: Thank you for giving us such a detailed and efficient report.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Thank you, Mrs Mackay. I am sure that all members
of the Committee understand how harrowing it would have been for you, first, to write the submissionand, second, to come here today. You came from Port Macquarie to help us with our inquiry.
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, that is right.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Thanks go also to Melissa for being here. With respect
to the specific allegations of possible negligence in the treatment of your husband, have you referredthose matters to the Health Care Complaints Commission?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes I have, some time ago actually.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Is it following up on that?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes. The doctors just received my statement in the last couple of weeks and
so has Royal North Shore Hospital.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: I do not want to distress you any further.
Mrs MACKAY: I think I am beyond that.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: You did say, alarmingly, that in the intensive care unit
there was filth beyond words. Can you describe what you saw?
Mrs MACKAY: Okay. In the little isolation room—Melissa would remember that room—
when the nurses took off their little throwaway aprons they would throw them and they would either land in the garbage or they would not. The wards men who did the cleaning of all the wards—they would go from ward to ward cleaning them—would pick up those throwaway aprons. They would go around and pick up the aprons and put them in the garbage. The next moment they would put on same silly little aprons and they would go from bed to bed where there were people who did not have golden staph and people who did, or people who had other bugs, and they would do the lifting and the turning. They would lean over patients wearing these throwaway aprons, but the whole sides of their
bodies and their arms were bare. Do you remember that in the old days you had to wear a cloth that covered you from your top almost to the bottom of your feet if there was an infection? Now they wear something you would not wear to a barbeque. That was one instance. There was also blood on the floor, dirty sinks, dirty toilets and dirty windows. That does not make any difference, but the windows at Royal North Shore Hospital were just unbelievable. The windows in Parliament House are much cleaner. You could not
see out of them, which just added to the bad feeling. There was a dreadful bad feeling in that hospital. It felt dark. Basically, it was just filthy.
Let me give you another example. My husband was a very clean man and he always looked
after himself. We had nurses, but he was always careful with his hair and everything else. Ar RNSH Once in 5½ weeks he got his hair washed. Finally it got so bad that we asked a nurse to help. We tried to mop it with washers and stuff, but you have to understand the amount of tubing that Don had around him and the ventilation. We just did not want to cut anything off. One day when Melissa was with me we asked the nurse whether she could help us to wash his hair. The nurses had a little instrument that you could put under the head, like a hairdresser, that channels the water down. The nurse said, I do not know where the thing is", even though we had seen it and we knew it was there. The next moment we turned around and looked at her and she was looking at winter coats on the Internet. She noted in her notes on that day, which I have at home, "Relatives asked for hair washing, but it did not get attended to." That is the sort of filth. Don went for 5½ weeks and had just one hair wash. It is good to have your hair washed just for your own good feeling.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Absolutely.
Mrs MACKAY: It was shocking.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Did he have to have the lung drained and the biopsy at
Royal North Shore Hospital because of his quadriplegia?
Mrs MACKAY: No, it was done at home quickly in March, in radiology, but they could
only do a quick lung drain. They were afraid to drain it all because they did not want to collapse the lung. Our pulmonary doctor in Port Macquarie who could have done it—and Don would still be alive—decided to go into research and only does sleep apnoea now, so we have no pulmonary expert at Port Macquarie. If you have read the notes you will know that Don's GPs kept going on holidays, so there was a terrible lack of continuity. But when he came down to Sydney it was not an emergency, because I had had him at home.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: I know it was not an emergency but, because of the
lack of a doctor at Royal North Shore Hospital—
Mrs MACKAY: They could have done it at Port Macquarie but we did not have a proper
pulmonary specialist that was still practising.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: You said in your submission that your husband was
terrified of going back to Royal North Shore Hospital and that he swore he never would. You then stated: He said to me many times that he probably would not survive if he did. Every time he went there he ended up with MRSA in isolation and needed to be there much longer than expected.
Was it a primary fear that he had that he would get the infection again if he went back there, or werethere other factors?
Mrs MACKAY: He had his original accident in 1982 and the spinal unit was beautiful. It
was active and vibrant, if you could call it that, and there were doctors everywhere and the best of equipment. They nursed the new spinal patients in the spinal ward, not in intensive care. He did not go back until 1994 because he managed to stay well for so long. When he went back in 1994 you could see the deterioration; it was beginning to become filthy. He got the golden staph then. He went back in 1999 or 2000—I am not sure which year—and the same thing happened. Instead of going down for two weeks he was there for seven weeks, which is a long time out of your life, and he went again another time a year later. That was the last time. As got older his health was not that good and he knew every hit was going to hurt. He did not want to go down, but we could not avoid it. He could not get enough air into his lungs. Because of a lack of oxygen he was going to sleep at the breakfast table trying to have breakfast.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: Could you please tell the Committee what kind of advice you
were given about any formal complaint mechanisms that were available to you, because you
obviously had concerns about the care your husband was receiving? What was your experience with that process?
Mrs MACKAY: When Donald was in the spinal ward for three days before intensive care, I
was really concerned about the lack of treatment he was getting. I could see what was going on. I heard the lady before me state that, if you complained too much they ignored you, or somebody said that earlier. We used to say that they blanked you out. If you started to be too needy you got blanked out. That was the term that we used. I am sorry; I have forgotten the question.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: What was your experience?
Mrs MACKAY: I went to the patient's advocate downstairs whose name is Mr Rich. He
took my notes, which was fairly good, because I had them later and that helped a lot. I did not go to talk to the nurses because Don had a respiratory arrest, so he advised me to go and talk to the nursing unit manager in spinal on the day of Don's respiratory arrest, which was a pretty horrible day. I had to go downstairs and go through his mattress and everything, because they just left all his stuff strewn everywhere, and you do not leave behind a $2,000 mattress.
I went back to see the nursing unit manager and she was quite arrogant. I complained about
the lack of observation notes and the lack of everything. She said, "This is spinal ward. He came in under cardiothoracic. We are doing you a favour for having him." That was her response after my husband's respiratory arrest. She did not look into it. So I gave up on the patient's advocate and stuff like that. I just needed to be upstairs.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: Can you tell us what you think could be done in the future
handling of concerns and complaints that might help patients and their families so that they do not have the same experiences that you did?
Mrs MACKAY: It was such a disaster that I do not know where to start. There is no
explanation for what happened to Don. It is a systemic problem. I have to be honest: I have noticed a change in people's attitudes towards disabled people. There has been a big change and we are going backwards. In the 1980s people were much more open-minded and he was treated like a human being. But finally he was treated like an idiot. Because he could not get enough breath he was not making sense. He should have been treated. It was their fault; they mucked up the operation. They had missed the signs of respiratory arrest, so they punished him.
We had a term at home. We used to call them the punishment nurses. That is a big problem with the nursing. I know they are busy but there is a big problem with their attitudes to compassion.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: What about in terms of your interaction with the patient
advocate? How would you like to see that sort of service improved?
Mrs MACKAY: I would have liked to have seen him offer to come up with me when I went
to see the nursing unit manager. It was basically, "You go up there and do it yourself", sort of thing Other than that, he seemed to be ineffectual. I had the feeling that he was working more for the hospital than for the patients and their relatives. There was one person—and I cannot remember names; I wish I could because she was the only one person who I could say was wonderful—she was the chaplain on the floor of the intensive care. She would track you down every single day and she actually cared; she followed you up. But she had no other powers other than that. If they were all a bit more like her we would have good hospitals.
Dr ANDREW McDONALD: That was an excellent submission I read, thank you very
much, and you spoke very well. Your husband's medical condition appears to have been a very complicated one.
Mrs MACKAY: He was a quadriplegic. As the doctor who was here before said, you have
basically got to forget everything you know about your physiology and go back the other way. They breathe differently—there are a whole lot of things that are different; so it is specialised.
Dr ANDREW McDONALD: What sort of changes would you like to see made to the way
people like your husband are looked after, medically?
Mrs MACKAY: The observation notes in spinal—I cannot remember the exact times—there
is a huge distance in-between the observations. When Don was up in the chair it was not so bad; he was okay. When a quadriplegic is in bed they are totally helpless; they cannot press a buzzer; they cannot get a drink of water; they cannot read a book. Yet when Don was stuck in bed one time for six months I nursed him by myself, with a little bit of help from some nurses in the morning. If I went out to the clothesline I would run back in or I would hang them on the veranda line so I could hear: I never got outside his hearing because at any time he could have an event happen. I did that, and I am not patting myself on the back—all carers do this. We call it a hospital of one 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and most of us survive. I am sorry; I get a bit fed up hearing about the poor nurses and the poor doctors. It would be more important to think about the poor patients first as a priority, and that is not what I heard this morning. A few of us relatives are a bit upset about that, because the patients seem to be not as important as the staff. That is my attitude anyway.
CHAIR: We thank you very much for coming in and sharing your story with us. We
sympathise with you and your daughter over the loss of your husband who you loved very much.
Mrs MACKAY: I have not lost him; he is still there.
It has been some time since I last posted here, but am pleased to know some people have maintained me on their links. Sadly my lovely husband became very sick in Jan/Feb/ March but it was something which could have been treated and could have still been with me.
My husband Don Mackay 1950 - 2007, had been a vigorous Fluoridation Fighter since 1989 when we first began to learn about it. Together we formed up the Hastings Safe Water Association (NSW Australia). He was the major cause of the Council held referendum (a representative poll held at a by election) in 1991 in which the people voted 62.5% against Fluoridation. Together we continued on fighting up till he became so very ill.Unfortunately we were sent to Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney where they gave him surgery he would never survive, which the family and Don considered was dangerous and unnecessary. When that failed as it was always going to he had series of Respiratory Arrests and was so badly treated and neglected as he was dying that my main efforts now have been and are trying to get some small justice for him.
I think people need to know in detail what was done to Don who spent so much of his life fighting not just Fluorides but on many other fronts. I will post his eulogy in the next post.
This is a copy of the transcript of the Joint Select Committee into RNSHospital. It ended up being a whitewash, but am still fighting. The NSW Coroner is now seeking original notes from the Hospitals and Doctors involved, but I had to push them.
"
THERESE MACKAY, relative of former patient, sworn and examined:
CHAIR: You are appearing as a relative of a former patient, your husband?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, with my daughter Melissa.
CHAIR: Would you now tell the Committee your story?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, I have written it down, because he was in Royal North Shore Hospital
for 5½ weeks, so I wanted to make sure I did not forget anything. I hope you have read my
submission.
CHAIR: Yes, and it assists the Committee.
Mrs MACKAY: It is lengthy, but it was needed. No matter what happens here our family
will not give up on setting to right the appalling cruelty my husband and our children's father, Don, endured with so much dignity. I will follow through all the avenues I am able to take, some of which I have already begun. My husband, Don, went to Royal North Shore we thought to have a simple lung drain and biopsy. It was not an emergency operation. Dr (X) performed a lung drain and biopsy, but also an operation called pleurodesis. We had never heard of pleurodesis. We now know that you never do a pleurodesis at the same time you do a biopsy; a high does of talc is always suspect, you should never do it on someone who cannot fully expand their lungs.
Don had been unable to fully expand his lungs since 1982 because of quadriplegia. You
should not do it whilst there is any fluid in the lungs. Don would still have had fluid in his lungs as it was still draining after that surgery. These were all ignored. He had such marginal respiratory reserves and his state of health along with his quadriplegia meant that he was already quite debilitated before the unnecessary and dangerous surgery was done on him, so bizarrely soon after he arrived from Port Macquarie, as I was still driving down.
I will tell you next of what I and the family feel is criminal neglect he suffered in the almost
three days after his operation for which the cardiothoracic and the spinal deserve censure. They all missed the very visible signs of don's impending respiratory arrest from the failed pleurodesis. He was struggling to breathe and began to hallucinate, because, as I now know, there was a build-up of carbon dioxide in his system. His shoulders were going up and down and his tongue was moving in and out of his mouth as he tried to breathe. The cardiothoracic team's Dr said, "They were unconcerned", which I find amazing, and I have the notes. They did not seem to understand quadriplegia breathing, which makes it harder to breathe if you are sitting upright—the opposite of what it like for us. They should have.
They ordered him to be sat up in his wheelchair, he quickly got worse. About 2.00 p.m. I
begged them to help me get him back into bed. I was told to wait till the lift round at 3.30. The lift round turned up at 4.30. He was treated like an annoyance. I still see all this in my head. Every half hour I would go to whomever I could find to get help for my husband. Finally I had to go home. I was staying at the Greenwich, which is Rotary, close to the hospital. It had been a very long day and I wanted to be there to catch the doctors the next day. I said to call me at any time, I was only five minutes away. Anyway, we were fobbed off.
He then had the first respiratory arrest early in the morning. I had actually mentioned to them
to ring me if anything went wrong, like in the middle of the night if he called me I could be there in five minutes. I was told the next day by Norman, the man who was in the bed next to Don, that Don had called my name for three hours, but they did not call me. They had my number and my daughter Melissa's number.
After that respiratory arrest, Don was aware that he had no chance of survival because with quadriplegic lungs that is a really bad event. They never in spinal, and soon in intensive
care, noted their failures to act. They do not appear in any notes. The lack of observations and notesby spinal nurses is a disgrace.
He would spend five weeks in intensive care, where they tried to get him to breathe again by
extubating and reintubating him several times allowing him to come very close to further respiratory arrests before they would reintubate him. Shocking treatment for him to suffer and for us to have to watch. One time when they extubated him no-one took any notice of me when I told them that he was looking the same as he had in spinal pre-arrest. They just ignored me, apart from physio, who recorded this. Physio were always wonderful. Don went up to 50 breaths per minute, not written down anywhere of course.
We saw it on the monitor and the nurse got angry with us and said, "What are you worrying
about?" and either turned the screen away or switched it off. She said that his tongue going in and out rapidly, and I have never seen anything like this, was that he was trying to talk. In intensive care there was one nurse for one patient. Then all hell broke loose and we were hustled out again and he was reintubated yet again. One time when a nurse was suctioning don, a part of the equipment fell onto the floor. I think Melissa saw this. We saw that nurse pick up that bit and put it back in my husband's mouth: bold as brass. This was only days before golden staph and Klebsiella pneumonia invaded his lungs so disastrously.
My lovely husband laid in intensive care for five weeks with his arms tied to the bed, both
lungs now filling up with fluid constantly, body full of infection, sepsis they called it. He was full of excess fluid. He caught MRSA, that is golden staph, first in the arterial line then in his lungs and Klebsiella pneumonia in his lungs, candida albicans all throughout his mouth, in his urine and no doubt in his whole system. The place was filthy beyond words. There was no continuity of care with staff and much of doctors' and nurses' notes are illegible, which made this lack of continuity dangerously worse. The lack of hygiene in intensive care was shameful.
Infection control is almost non-existent. In isolation they use a throwaway plastic bib type of apron, which covers only about a third of your body and clothing. Apparently the staph and other dangerous germs do not go on the arms, sides and back of the body.
My sister, a renal dialysis nurse from Brisbane, was horrified. This was towards the end,
when she noticed they had turned off all his fluids but still had Don on a large amount of Lasix. Lasix drains fluid from the body. Anyone who has any medical knowledge would find this shocking. If she had not picked up on this, his last days would have been even worse torture than they were and he may also have endured the sickness that goes with full renal collapse. The nurse was reluctant to act on this and we had to go hunting for a doctor to have this rectified. It was hours before this was done and was not mentioned in the notes. Another time our eldest daughter, Melissa, was with us and we noticed that he was very nauseous from something. We saw that a lost of clear fluid was coming outof his mouth and running down to his beard. We called his nurse over so she could suction him so he did not choke. She was quite begrudging and on her way over complained she had just suctioned him.
So she suctioned him and then walked off. We tried to clean him up as best we could. Then it began again and we had to call her over. He was her only patient. She was quite angry.
We told her he was really sick and could she give him some Maxalon in the drip, as this
worked well on nausea for him. By this time the fluid was behind his neck, down behind his head and underneath his shoulders. He was cold and shivering and feeling really ill. Because he had so many tubes—I cannot remember how many; he seemed to have tubes and wires coming from everywhere— we asked her to help us clean him up because we were afraid of disconnecting something. She told us he would have to wait for the lift round. That was that. We cleaned him up and got under him as bestwe could and he watched our faces with the saddest eyes. How could she do this to him?
Theseincidents are not just odd ones out of the ordinary. Every day things like this happened. Occasionallyyou would have a really good nurse, and they deserve huge praise for having to endure the badnursing of the others. You see, none of the nurses had name tags, so you could never remember thenames the next day. It was one-on-one nursing, but if you are there long enough you might see threedifferent nurses a day looking after him. We were there for five weeks.
I have never seen such suffering like that. I am 53 years old and I have seen some terrible
things—three months with his sister as she died from cervical cancer horribly. I watched my own mother struggle with end stage cardiomyopathy and other things wrong. I was present during all of Don's original hospitalisation for seven months when he broke his neck in 1982. In between I have seen and experienced the worst of human cruelty towards him at times. His last 5½ weeks spent in Royal North Shore Hospital were just horrible torture to extreme, all of which should have been avoided had that doctor not done the original dangerous and unnecessary pleurodesis. But once done he should have been treated with compassion in intensive care. Royal North Shore caused the damage, but when he was overloaded on carbon dioxide and their hotchpotch of ever-changing medication and was hallucinating, many of them treated him as if he was an imbecile and with cruelty.
There were a few nurses and doctors who understood what was going on, and I wish I could
remember who they were. They have my eternal gratitude. They should all have been like that to any ill and suffering human being. On the days when the real nurses were on, Don would be so different. It made me wonder what happened to him when we were not there. He was unable to talk because of the ventilation tubes and eventually the trachea. Sometimes when I came in I could sense that something was terribly wrong and he tried to not allow some nurses to touch him when I was there. Others, the good ones, he would do his best to be co-operative when he was able.
We live now—Melissa and Alison, our other daughter, and one of my sisters—with five weeks of a horror movie inside our heads which plays over and over. Even as you talk to people the images seem to be playing in your inner vision. How much worse must it have been for my husband and my children's dad to have to, without choice, experience the dreadful suffering which was inflicted upon him, his arms tied to the bed for five weeks and mouth gagged by tubes?
Once he was diagnosed with golden staph Don was to spend the rest of his life, about 4½
weeks, in an internal pod-like room. This room had no natural lighting. I would turn the lights off to give his eyes a break from the bright fluoro light above his head. There was no halfway with this light; it did not turn down. The whole environment in this room was as if it was cut off from the outside. Only sometimes could we see a small patch of sky, and that was when we would ask if the curtain next door could be pulled back a little. On his last day there my sister was with him when a nurse came into the room and totally cut that room off by pulling the curtains right round his cubicle and across the door. She then sprayed right around the doorframe with some strong smelling chemical, asif he was already dead.
He just shrugged at this. This was shocking and the nurse offered no explanation.
By 14 May Don's lungs were drowning in infection, apart from all the fluid, which was
building up and being drained from the right and left pleural areas of his lungs. He was grossly oedematous—his body full of fluid. He had a pressure area, which he had never had in his life. He had sepsis in his body from all the infections. He had developed a condition called hypoalbuminaemia. He was unable to be weaned from the ventilator as a result of the damage done by the failed pleurodesis operation. They finally admitted that Don was dying, something he had accepted since those first days in intensive care. The intensive care and cardiothoracic doctors, because he was under both, should have given Don and us, his family, full disclosure of what they knew early on, as we discovered later in their notes. Five weeks of dreadful suffering would have been avoided. They lied to Don and us. To
admit the truth was to admit the failed pleurodesis, and they all bear responsibility for this.
In all the time since Don had been in Royal North Shore and with all that was going on, I
think that up until this time I had come across a social worker once. But we can find no notation about the meeting. Now when they decided he was dying, we were about to be drowned, almost assaulted in a sea of concern.
When it was explained to Don by a doctor that he was dying, her notes record, "He
looked at me as if to say, 'It took you that long to notice?' and expressed excitement at being able to go home to die." I had a bit of an ace card, I wanted to get him home and I think they wanted him out too. I asked was there any way we could get him to our home to die. He had always hated being in Royal North Shore and did not want to die there. It is unheard of what happened next. He was flown home by air ambulance to Port Macquarie on a ventilator, which would be removed, we were initially told, some time after Don arrived. Palliative care and others in Port Macquarie have never come across the likes of this in their whole careers. Royal North Shore said they would try to organise a ventilator from Port Macquarie for home so that Don could have some time there and then choose when to turn it off. He was told that it was likely he would die a couple of hours after turning off the ventilator.
That never happened.
Just before we left we were told they could not find one home ventilator in the whole of Port
Macquarie. Don just wanted to go home to die so that he could die in the place he loved, not Royal North Shore. He would have agreed to anything at this stage. So within minutes of Don arriving home, the ambulance began asking for the ventilator. His doctor allowed a small amount of time and disconnected it. Don put his arm out to hold it a bit longer. He was home with his loved ones. The doctor took his hand off the machine and firmly tucked it under the blanket. Don died a couple of hours later. So even that choice, the most sacred of human rights, was taken away from him by the orders of Royal North Shore and his own GP. I question the legality of that whole event.
The girls andI were just like robots by this time. I remember my face felt prickly and numb. The last four days ofthe time between 11 April and 17 May were bizarre. On reflection, it felt as if we were a part of an orchestrated event, and we are still puzzled by this time. Although Don wanted to be let die, the day he came home the girls and my sisters and I agreed that it felt like an execution.
I got a phone call a week or two later from Royal North Shore asking me how Don was going
after his discharge. I am now in touch with the Coroner's office, as it appears there should have been a Coroner's report done because Don died directly of the failed surgery. Royal North Shore would have known that, but his discharge got them out of that mess. This GP should have known that also. Once in intensive care Melissa and I heard Don state clearly something that still haunted us both. He had wanted the tubes out. Clearly he wanted to die. That was expressed all through the five weeks. Don wanted those tubes out. He knew he was dying. So he chewed through a tube—he did that a couple of times—when we were there one day. On the out-rush of the released air he looked at us and said clearly, "Help me."
We both have to live on with that desperate whisper in our heads for the rest of our lives. That was a shocking thing for a mother to see her daughter go through. I think the poor patients and their loved ones need to be considered first as a priority and those good nurses and good doctors be supported when they want to whistle blow. I do not know how a new hospital or even cleaning up a hospital, especially just before the inquiry, will stop what
happened to Don. He was killed not just by filth; he was killed by bad attitude and gross negligence.
God help us all. I just also want to mention a feeling I have. They put Don on a study called the NICE study. It is to do with insulin in intensive care. We started to be concerned that there was an element of research in the treatment of Don because of his disability. We cannot prove that. I only just recently got flowcharts from that.
I have one other thing. This photograph shows our family at Christmas. Don is in the centre
of his family. Even with all his disabilities he was the foundation of our family. Although he had fluid in his lungs he was not an emergency. This is a picture of Don taken with Melissa and I about three days before he went to hospital, and this is a picture of Don about six days after he went to Royal North Shore Hospital. This is a picture of Don in the early stages of Royal North Shore Hospital, before infection and before he was in that horrible room. I only just found that photograph on my sister's CD. She had taken it for a reason.
I thank Committee members for their time and patience.
CHAIR: Thank you for giving us such a detailed and efficient report.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Thank you, Mrs Mackay. I am sure that all members
of the Committee understand how harrowing it would have been for you, first, to write the submissionand, second, to come here today. You came from Port Macquarie to help us with our inquiry.
Mrs MACKAY: Yes, that is right.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Thanks go also to Melissa for being here. With respect
to the specific allegations of possible negligence in the treatment of your husband, have you referredthose matters to the Health Care Complaints Commission?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes I have, some time ago actually.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Is it following up on that?
Mrs MACKAY: Yes. The doctors just received my statement in the last couple of weeks and
so has Royal North Shore Hospital.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: I do not want to distress you any further.
Mrs MACKAY: I think I am beyond that.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: You did say, alarmingly, that in the intensive care unit
there was filth beyond words. Can you describe what you saw?
Mrs MACKAY: Okay. In the little isolation room—Melissa would remember that room—
when the nurses took off their little throwaway aprons they would throw them and they would either land in the garbage or they would not. The wards men who did the cleaning of all the wards—they would go from ward to ward cleaning them—would pick up those throwaway aprons. They would go around and pick up the aprons and put them in the garbage. The next moment they would put on same silly little aprons and they would go from bed to bed where there were people who did not have golden staph and people who did, or people who had other bugs, and they would do the lifting and the turning. They would lean over patients wearing these throwaway aprons, but the whole sides of their
bodies and their arms were bare. Do you remember that in the old days you had to wear a cloth that covered you from your top almost to the bottom of your feet if there was an infection? Now they wear something you would not wear to a barbeque. That was one instance. There was also blood on the floor, dirty sinks, dirty toilets and dirty windows. That does not make any difference, but the windows at Royal North Shore Hospital were just unbelievable. The windows in Parliament House are much cleaner. You could not
see out of them, which just added to the bad feeling. There was a dreadful bad feeling in that hospital. It felt dark. Basically, it was just filthy.
Let me give you another example. My husband was a very clean man and he always looked
after himself. We had nurses, but he was always careful with his hair and everything else. Ar RNSH Once in 5½ weeks he got his hair washed. Finally it got so bad that we asked a nurse to help. We tried to mop it with washers and stuff, but you have to understand the amount of tubing that Don had around him and the ventilation. We just did not want to cut anything off. One day when Melissa was with me we asked the nurse whether she could help us to wash his hair. The nurses had a little instrument that you could put under the head, like a hairdresser, that channels the water down. The nurse said, I do not know where the thing is", even though we had seen it and we knew it was there. The next moment we turned around and looked at her and she was looking at winter coats on the Internet. She noted in her notes on that day, which I have at home, "Relatives asked for hair washing, but it did not get attended to." That is the sort of filth. Don went for 5½ weeks and had just one hair wash. It is good to have your hair washed just for your own good feeling.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Absolutely.
Mrs MACKAY: It was shocking.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: Did he have to have the lung drained and the biopsy at
Royal North Shore Hospital because of his quadriplegia?
Mrs MACKAY: No, it was done at home quickly in March, in radiology, but they could
only do a quick lung drain. They were afraid to drain it all because they did not want to collapse the lung. Our pulmonary doctor in Port Macquarie who could have done it—and Don would still be alive—decided to go into research and only does sleep apnoea now, so we have no pulmonary expert at Port Macquarie. If you have read the notes you will know that Don's GPs kept going on holidays, so there was a terrible lack of continuity. But when he came down to Sydney it was not an emergency, because I had had him at home.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: I know it was not an emergency but, because of the
lack of a doctor at Royal North Shore Hospital—
Mrs MACKAY: They could have done it at Port Macquarie but we did not have a proper
pulmonary specialist that was still practising.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: You said in your submission that your husband was
terrified of going back to Royal North Shore Hospital and that he swore he never would. You then stated: He said to me many times that he probably would not survive if he did. Every time he went there he ended up with MRSA in isolation and needed to be there much longer than expected.
Was it a primary fear that he had that he would get the infection again if he went back there, or werethere other factors?
Mrs MACKAY: He had his original accident in 1982 and the spinal unit was beautiful. It
was active and vibrant, if you could call it that, and there were doctors everywhere and the best of equipment. They nursed the new spinal patients in the spinal ward, not in intensive care. He did not go back until 1994 because he managed to stay well for so long. When he went back in 1994 you could see the deterioration; it was beginning to become filthy. He got the golden staph then. He went back in 1999 or 2000—I am not sure which year—and the same thing happened. Instead of going down for two weeks he was there for seven weeks, which is a long time out of your life, and he went again another time a year later. That was the last time. As got older his health was not that good and he knew every hit was going to hurt. He did not want to go down, but we could not avoid it. He could not get enough air into his lungs. Because of a lack of oxygen he was going to sleep at the breakfast table trying to have breakfast.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: Could you please tell the Committee what kind of advice you
were given about any formal complaint mechanisms that were available to you, because you
obviously had concerns about the care your husband was receiving? What was your experience with that process?
Mrs MACKAY: When Donald was in the spinal ward for three days before intensive care, I
was really concerned about the lack of treatment he was getting. I could see what was going on. I heard the lady before me state that, if you complained too much they ignored you, or somebody said that earlier. We used to say that they blanked you out. If you started to be too needy you got blanked out. That was the term that we used. I am sorry; I have forgotten the question.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: What was your experience?
Mrs MACKAY: I went to the patient's advocate downstairs whose name is Mr Rich. He
took my notes, which was fairly good, because I had them later and that helped a lot. I did not go to talk to the nurses because Don had a respiratory arrest, so he advised me to go and talk to the nursing unit manager in spinal on the day of Don's respiratory arrest, which was a pretty horrible day. I had to go downstairs and go through his mattress and everything, because they just left all his stuff strewn everywhere, and you do not leave behind a $2,000 mattress.
I went back to see the nursing unit manager and she was quite arrogant. I complained about
the lack of observation notes and the lack of everything. She said, "This is spinal ward. He came in under cardiothoracic. We are doing you a favour for having him." That was her response after my husband's respiratory arrest. She did not look into it. So I gave up on the patient's advocate and stuff like that. I just needed to be upstairs.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: Can you tell us what you think could be done in the future
handling of concerns and complaints that might help patients and their families so that they do not have the same experiences that you did?
Mrs MACKAY: It was such a disaster that I do not know where to start. There is no
explanation for what happened to Don. It is a systemic problem. I have to be honest: I have noticed a change in people's attitudes towards disabled people. There has been a big change and we are going backwards. In the 1980s people were much more open-minded and he was treated like a human being. But finally he was treated like an idiot. Because he could not get enough breath he was not making sense. He should have been treated. It was their fault; they mucked up the operation. They had missed the signs of respiratory arrest, so they punished him.
We had a term at home. We used to call them the punishment nurses. That is a big problem with the nursing. I know they are busy but there is a big problem with their attitudes to compassion.
The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: What about in terms of your interaction with the patient
advocate? How would you like to see that sort of service improved?
Mrs MACKAY: I would have liked to have seen him offer to come up with me when I went
to see the nursing unit manager. It was basically, "You go up there and do it yourself", sort of thing Other than that, he seemed to be ineffectual. I had the feeling that he was working more for the hospital than for the patients and their relatives. There was one person—and I cannot remember names; I wish I could because she was the only one person who I could say was wonderful—she was the chaplain on the floor of the intensive care. She would track you down every single day and she actually cared; she followed you up. But she had no other powers other than that. If they were all a bit more like her we would have good hospitals.
Dr ANDREW McDONALD: That was an excellent submission I read, thank you very
much, and you spoke very well. Your husband's medical condition appears to have been a very complicated one.
Mrs MACKAY: He was a quadriplegic. As the doctor who was here before said, you have
basically got to forget everything you know about your physiology and go back the other way. They breathe differently—there are a whole lot of things that are different; so it is specialised.
Dr ANDREW McDONALD: What sort of changes would you like to see made to the way
people like your husband are looked after, medically?
Mrs MACKAY: The observation notes in spinal—I cannot remember the exact times—there
is a huge distance in-between the observations. When Don was up in the chair it was not so bad; he was okay. When a quadriplegic is in bed they are totally helpless; they cannot press a buzzer; they cannot get a drink of water; they cannot read a book. Yet when Don was stuck in bed one time for six months I nursed him by myself, with a little bit of help from some nurses in the morning. If I went out to the clothesline I would run back in or I would hang them on the veranda line so I could hear: I never got outside his hearing because at any time he could have an event happen. I did that, and I am not patting myself on the back—all carers do this. We call it a hospital of one 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and most of us survive. I am sorry; I get a bit fed up hearing about the poor nurses and the poor doctors. It would be more important to think about the poor patients first as a priority, and that is not what I heard this morning. A few of us relatives are a bit upset about that, because the patients seem to be not as important as the staff. That is my attitude anyway.
CHAIR: We thank you very much for coming in and sharing your story with us. We
sympathise with you and your daughter over the loss of your husband who you loved very much.
Mrs MACKAY: I have not lost him; he is still there.
Labels: Death of a great man.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Arsenic in my Fluoride? CDC admits Yes
Published on Monday, March 12, 2007
by Healthy News Service
New York – March 12, 2007 -- Trace amounts of arsenic are found in fluoride chemicals added to drinking water supplies, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website. (1)
Fluoridation is a controversial attempt to reduce tooth decay in tap-water consumers.
Fluoridation chemicals - sodium fluoride, sodium fluorosilicate, and fluorosilicic acid (FSA) – are all derived from the manufacture of phosphate fertilizer, reports the CDC. Trace amounts of unwanted contaminants, such as antimony, barium, beryllium, arsenic and others, are allowed to rema
in in fluoridation chemicals before flowing through America’s faucets (2) The CDC reports, tests by National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) revealed arsenic was present in sample batches of FSA. When trace amounts were present, the treated water had an average of 0.43 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic, with a high of 1.66 ppb attributable to the fluoride additive. (2)
The NSF sets the allowable level of arsenic in fluoridation chemicals at 2.5 ppb. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) of arsenic in treated water is 10 ppb, set by the Environmental Protection Agency. But the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) of arsenic in drinking water is zero (5) and is based on health risks; however, the actual level permitted (MCL) is above 0, to account for difficulty in removing it or in measuring it. (6)
"No water company should purposely be adding arsenic to water supplies –even when it’s attached to a chemical perceived to be beneficial," says Beeber.
Trace levels of arsenic in drinking water increase a person's risk of developing cancer, according to a report from the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences. "People drinking water containing just one part per billion of arsenic have an increased risk of developing bladder or lung cancer of one in 1,000," reports New Scientist magazine. (3)
In an analysis of 25 states, the National Resources Defense Council found about 8,000 U.S. water systems, serving 57,000,000 people, contained arsenic levels at 1 ppb or higher.(4)
"Fluoridation has proven useless in fighting tooth decay in America’s low-income population as the recent unfortunate ‘tooth-decay’ death of a 12-year-old Maryland boy living in a fluoridated area has proven," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. "No child is or ever was fluoride-deficient. But many are dentist-deficient," says Beeber.
"Besides, modern science establishes that fluoridation is ineffective at reducing tooth decay, harmful to health and a waste of taxpayer money," says Beeber.
"We're glad the CDC finally admits that arsenic can be found in fluoridation chemicals. But CDC should go further and list all undesirable chemicals and impurities allowed in the fluoridation chemicals, and make it publicly known so consumers truly can make an informed choice," says Beeber.
Contact: Paul S. Beeber, Esq., President and General Counsel, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. nyscof@aol.com
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
Fluoridation News Releases tinyurl.com/6kqtu
Tooth Decay Crises in Fluoridated Areas http://www.fluoridenews.blogspot.com/
Fluoride Action Network www.FluorideAction.Net
Fluoride Journal www.FluorideResearch.Org
References:
(1) U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dep’t of Health and Human Services – Water Fluoridation – Guidelines & Recommendations – Water Fluoridation Additives (accessed March 11, 2007) http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/wfadditives.htm
(2) April 24,2000 letter from NSF International to State of Florida, Department of Public Health http://www.fluoridealert.org/NSF-Letter.pdf
(3) New Scientist, "Trace arsenic in water raises cancer risk," by Emma Young, September 14, 2001 http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1300
(4) National Resources Defense Council, "Arsenic and Old Laws." Chapter 1 - Arsenic has been found at levels of health concern in the tap water of tens of millions of Americans in 25 states http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/arsenic/chap1.asp
(5) www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic/index.html
(6) www.fluoridealert.org/thiessen-statement.pdf
Provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 3/12/2007
Published on Monday, March 12, 2007
by Healthy News Service
New York – March 12, 2007 -- Trace amounts of arsenic are found in fluoride chemicals added to drinking water supplies, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website. (1)
Fluoridation is a controversial attempt to reduce tooth decay in tap-water consumers.
Fluoridation chemicals - sodium fluoride, sodium fluorosilicate, and fluorosilicic acid (FSA) – are all derived from the manufacture of phosphate fertilizer, reports the CDC. Trace amounts of unwanted contaminants, such as antimony, barium, beryllium, arsenic and others, are allowed to rema
in in fluoridation chemicals before flowing through America’s faucets (2) The CDC reports, tests by National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) revealed arsenic was present in sample batches of FSA. When trace amounts were present, the treated water had an average of 0.43 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic, with a high of 1.66 ppb attributable to the fluoride additive. (2)
The NSF sets the allowable level of arsenic in fluoridation chemicals at 2.5 ppb. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) of arsenic in treated water is 10 ppb, set by the Environmental Protection Agency. But the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) of arsenic in drinking water is zero (5) and is based on health risks; however, the actual level permitted (MCL) is above 0, to account for difficulty in removing it or in measuring it. (6)
"No water company should purposely be adding arsenic to water supplies –even when it’s attached to a chemical perceived to be beneficial," says Beeber.
Trace levels of arsenic in drinking water increase a person's risk of developing cancer, according to a report from the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences. "People drinking water containing just one part per billion of arsenic have an increased risk of developing bladder or lung cancer of one in 1,000," reports New Scientist magazine. (3)
In an analysis of 25 states, the National Resources Defense Council found about 8,000 U.S. water systems, serving 57,000,000 people, contained arsenic levels at 1 ppb or higher.(4)
"Fluoridation has proven useless in fighting tooth decay in America’s low-income population as the recent unfortunate ‘tooth-decay’ death of a 12-year-old Maryland boy living in a fluoridated area has proven," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. "No child is or ever was fluoride-deficient. But many are dentist-deficient," says Beeber.
"Besides, modern science establishes that fluoridation is ineffective at reducing tooth decay, harmful to health and a waste of taxpayer money," says Beeber.
"We're glad the CDC finally admits that arsenic can be found in fluoridation chemicals. But CDC should go further and list all undesirable chemicals and impurities allowed in the fluoridation chemicals, and make it publicly known so consumers truly can make an informed choice," says Beeber.
Contact: Paul S. Beeber, Esq., President and General Counsel, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. nyscof@aol.com
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
Fluoridation News Releases tinyurl.com/6kqtu
Tooth Decay Crises in Fluoridated Areas http://www.fluoridenews.blogspot.com/
Fluoride Action Network www.FluorideAction.Net
Fluoride Journal www.FluorideResearch.Org
References:
(1) U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dep’t of Health and Human Services – Water Fluoridation – Guidelines & Recommendations – Water Fluoridation Additives (accessed March 11, 2007) http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/wfadditives.htm
(2) April 24,2000 letter from NSF International to State of Florida, Department of Public Health http://www.fluoridealert.org/NSF-Letter.pdf
(3) New Scientist, "Trace arsenic in water raises cancer risk," by Emma Young, September 14, 2001 http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1300
(4) National Resources Defense Council, "Arsenic and Old Laws." Chapter 1 - Arsenic has been found at levels of health concern in the tap water of tens of millions of Americans in 25 states http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/arsenic/chap1.asp
(5) www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic/index.html
(6) www.fluoridealert.org/thiessen-statement.pdf
Provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 3/12/2007
Labels: arsenic in fluoride CDC admits
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Hi,
This just came down today. The effects of fluorides on llivestock is well documented and accepted by agricultural departments and farmers world over. According to the Health Department, Federal and State Governments and Medical bodies we human beings are the only mammals unaffected by fluorides...(curious?).
Compliments
Therese Mackay
President of the Hastings Safe Water Association Port Macquarie Australia
tmackay@tsn.cc and dmackay@tsn.cc
European investigation into Castlecomer farm gets green light
Kilkenny Advertiser 31/1/07
By Naoise O' Donovan Coogan and Mike Burke in Bru
A bid by a north Kilkenny farmer to secure a European investigation into problems which have been ongoing on his farm for 16 years, has been successful.
Dan Brennan brought his case before the petitions committee of the European Parliament in an effort to persuade them to conduct an independent investigation into the mysterious health problems affecting his dairy herd.
The c ommittee has asked the Commission to undertake a full review of all the scientific reports carried out on the farm to date.
Mr Brennan told the Kilkenny Advertiser yesterday evening (Tuesday) that he was delighted that his case is to be investigated by the European Petitions Committee as he was at his wits' end.
"This was a final attempt to try and sort out the problems that are affecting my cattle on my farm. They have experienced stunted growth and have not thrived in years. There is something wrong and I have been down every other avenue in an attempt to discover what the problem is. The Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency have not been helpful and have passed the buck and walked away from the problem while I have to continue on as I am. It has been very frustrating for me and my family over the years trying to figure out what the problem might be, so I am delighted that finally the committee will now investigate this case."
Dan Brennan has a 170-acre farm outside Castlecomer, close to the location of the Ormonde Brick factory on the outskirts of the town. Yesterday he expressed his concerns to the Chairman of the committee about the emissions coming from the stack at Ormonde Brick. He told the committee that he believed that emissions of hydrogen fluoride from the stack had been in breach of an integrated pollution control licence. He added that at various times, he also believed that the company had been non-compliant with the terms of their license with respect to fluoride and chloride results.
However, the Chairman of the committee said any suggestion that emissions from the brick factory are responsible for Mr Brennan's predicament were purely speculative at this stage as the case documented on the petitions form had not yet been established. He added, "it is important however, that the applicable community legislation is fully implemented in order to protect health and the environment."
The Chairman then gave a commitment to visit Mr Brennan's farm when the committee was visiting Ireland to investigate a different case.
Mr Brennan's herd mysteriously lose weight, animals have stunted growth, milk yields from the cows is significantly down and dozens of calves have died. Also, it has been noted that around the farm, over 100 trees have died. There have also been rumours that trees in the nearby golf club have died and samples were sent to be tested by the club. It is unclear as to whether or not other farmers in the area are also experiencing similar problems to Mr Brennan.
The Environmental Protection Agency has examined emissions from the nearby brick factory, but the company says the EPA and Department of Agriculture investigations have shown no link between the plant and the problems on the Brennan farm.
Mr Brennan said that one way or the other he is happy that the case will be examined at European level.
"I accept that they cannot make a decision without coming to see my farm. I am a lot more positive today - I think there is hope again for the future."
Mr Brennan was in Brussels with two local vets, Tom Slevin and Michael Lambe along with Green Party Deputy Leader, Mary White.
Cllr White said that she was delighted with the outcome of yesterday's hearing.
"I very much welcome the decision of the EU Petitions Committee to keep this petition open and to come on a fact-finding mission to Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer.
"Anyone who has visited the farm will be shocked at the small size and state of the cattle. It is obvious that there is a serious problem affecting the farm which has been attributed to non-farming practices and which also affects the trees on the farm. It took me six months of research to put this case together on Dan's behalf and we have come to Brussels because the statutory agencies in Ireland have failed this farmer."
This just came down today. The effects of fluorides on llivestock is well documented and accepted by agricultural departments and farmers world over. According to the Health Department, Federal and State Governments and Medical bodies we human beings are the only mammals unaffected by fluorides...(curious?).
Compliments
Therese Mackay
President of the Hastings Safe Water Association Port Macquarie Australia
tmackay@tsn.cc and dmackay@tsn.cc
European investigation into Castlecomer farm gets green light
Kilkenny Advertiser 31/1/07
By Naoise O' Donovan Coogan and Mike Burke in Bru
A bid by a north Kilkenny farmer to secure a European investigation into problems which have been ongoing on his farm for 16 years, has been successful.
Dan Brennan brought his case before the petitions committee of the European Parliament in an effort to persuade them to conduct an independent investigation into the mysterious health problems affecting his dairy herd.
The c ommittee has asked the Commission to undertake a full review of all the scientific reports carried out on the farm to date.
Mr Brennan told the Kilkenny Advertiser yesterday evening (Tuesday) that he was delighted that his case is to be investigated by the European Petitions Committee as he was at his wits' end.
"This was a final attempt to try and sort out the problems that are affecting my cattle on my farm. They have experienced stunted growth and have not thrived in years. There is something wrong and I have been down every other avenue in an attempt to discover what the problem is. The Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency have not been helpful and have passed the buck and walked away from the problem while I have to continue on as I am. It has been very frustrating for me and my family over the years trying to figure out what the problem might be, so I am delighted that finally the committee will now investigate this case."
Dan Brennan has a 170-acre farm outside Castlecomer, close to the location of the Ormonde Brick factory on the outskirts of the town. Yesterday he expressed his concerns to the Chairman of the committee about the emissions coming from the stack at Ormonde Brick. He told the committee that he believed that emissions of hydrogen fluoride from the stack had been in breach of an integrated pollution control licence. He added that at various times, he also believed that the company had been non-compliant with the terms of their license with respect to fluoride and chloride results.
However, the Chairman of the committee said any suggestion that emissions from the brick factory are responsible for Mr Brennan's predicament were purely speculative at this stage as the case documented on the petitions form had not yet been established. He added, "it is important however, that the applicable community legislation is fully implemented in order to protect health and the environment."
The Chairman then gave a commitment to visit Mr Brennan's farm when the committee was visiting Ireland to investigate a different case.
Mr Brennan's herd mysteriously lose weight, animals have stunted growth, milk yields from the cows is significantly down and dozens of calves have died. Also, it has been noted that around the farm, over 100 trees have died. There have also been rumours that trees in the nearby golf club have died and samples were sent to be tested by the club. It is unclear as to whether or not other farmers in the area are also experiencing similar problems to Mr Brennan.
The Environmental Protection Agency has examined emissions from the nearby brick factory, but the company says the EPA and Department of Agriculture investigations have shown no link between the plant and the problems on the Brennan farm.
Mr Brennan said that one way or the other he is happy that the case will be examined at European level.
"I accept that they cannot make a decision without coming to see my farm. I am a lot more positive today - I think there is hope again for the future."
Mr Brennan was in Brussels with two local vets, Tom Slevin and Michael Lambe along with Green Party Deputy Leader, Mary White.
Cllr White said that she was delighted with the outcome of yesterday's hearing.
"I very much welcome the decision of the EU Petitions Committee to keep this petition open and to come on a fact-finding mission to Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer.
"Anyone who has visited the farm will be shocked at the small size and state of the cattle. It is obvious that there is a serious problem affecting the farm which has been attributed to non-farming practices and which also affects the trees on the farm. It took me six months of research to put this case together on Dan's behalf and we have come to Brussels because the statutory agencies in Ireland have failed this farmer."
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Next week I am going to down to Sydney (Australia) to begin to have my teeth fixed...by fixed I mean to have all the Amalgam fillings removed and to get rid of t root canal which has been troubling me ever since the local dentist convinced me I had to have one... In Austrailia the best known specialist dentist who does this properly, ensuring you don't cop toxic loads of mercury when they drill out the old muck is dr Robert gammal. I have his link here and on this blog permanently. Before going to Sydney for this which i have been wsaving for and hoping to have done for ages... I had a look at the web site... of the clinic. It is excellent and has really up to date information of health issues caused by dentistry...and fluorides... I hope you will get as much out of this site as I have. There is always something new to learn every day. http://www.bcd.com.au/
Labels: Dr Robert Gammal's excellent web site.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Yet another nail in the coffin of Fluoridation has been reported from Israel which began introducing artificial Fluoridation in the '80s. A health committee is recommending fluoridation be stopped until the matter is appropriately researched. The reason for the study being: "not a single definitive study demonstrates that the process has any benefit for dental health" and "adding fluoride might even be harmful."
When mandatory fluoridation was introduced into Israel four years ago a storm blew up in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament): apart from the protest against enforcing fluoridation, points were raised about harm to the environment and health. Professor Adin (Israeli Health Committee) said that the committee will recommend removing the requirement to add fluoride to the water and that every municipal authority will be permitted to make its own decision. "It is assumed that adoption of this (committee) recommendation will result in most local authorities (in Israel) ceasing to add fluoride to the drinking water for the time being.”
Israel joins most of the world community in this view. Australia as one of the most heavily fluoridated countries on earth still has high decay rates, as much in Fluoridated Western Sydney as in fluoridated Melbourne. Studies have shown no difference in decay rates in fluoridated and unflouridated areas. The Israeli Government was unable to find one single definitive study demonstrating the efficacy of Fluoridation in stopping tooth decay.
At this stage with country after country rejecting Fluoridation it would be wise governance to bide time and wait to see the outcome of the multitude of studies, the weight of which can no longer be ignored by the health authorities who at senior level appear more interested in protecting their own jobs and prestige than in looking out for the health of the population they are well paid to protect.
Our high rate of Water Fluoridation means we are out of step with the rest of the countries of the world most of whom have rejected water fluoridation for health and environment reasons.
Therese Mackay President of the Hastings Safe Water Association
When mandatory fluoridation was introduced into Israel four years ago a storm blew up in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament): apart from the protest against enforcing fluoridation, points were raised about harm to the environment and health. Professor Adin (Israeli Health Committee) said that the committee will recommend removing the requirement to add fluoride to the water and that every municipal authority will be permitted to make its own decision. "It is assumed that adoption of this (committee) recommendation will result in most local authorities (in Israel) ceasing to add fluoride to the drinking water for the time being.”
Israel joins most of the world community in this view. Australia as one of the most heavily fluoridated countries on earth still has high decay rates, as much in Fluoridated Western Sydney as in fluoridated Melbourne. Studies have shown no difference in decay rates in fluoridated and unflouridated areas. The Israeli Government was unable to find one single definitive study demonstrating the efficacy of Fluoridation in stopping tooth decay.
At this stage with country after country rejecting Fluoridation it would be wise governance to bide time and wait to see the outcome of the multitude of studies, the weight of which can no longer be ignored by the health authorities who at senior level appear more interested in protecting their own jobs and prestige than in looking out for the health of the population they are well paid to protect.
Our high rate of Water Fluoridation means we are out of step with the rest of the countries of the world most of whom have rejected water fluoridation for health and environment reasons.
Therese Mackay President of the Hastings Safe Water Association
Labels: Israel rejects fluoridation
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Important Information re WHO's most current concerns re fluoridation and fluorides... it is clear with the studies coming out in quick succession that the authorities overseas are finally expressing alarm but softly soflty... recently I was sent information ofrom a firm of US Lawyers who are ofering to proceed with litigation on behalf of anyone who has develloped Osteosarcoma as result of Fluorides. Their link is http://www.waters-kraus.com/ ...it begins..
From Hastings Safe Water Association
Therese and Don Mackay
News-Medical.Net
• Home Page
New World Health Organization publication - "Fluoride in Drinking-water"
Disease/Infection News
Published: Tuesday, 21-Nov-2006
Printer Friendly
Email to a Friend
Millions of people are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water contaminated from natural geological sources. As a result, many suffer conditions ranging from mild dental fluorosis to crippling skeletal fluorosis. With the problem continuing to be unrecognized and neglected, guidance is sorely needed.
Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases, all the enamel may be damaged. In skeletal fluorosis, fluoride accumulates in the bone progressively over many years, leading to stiffness and pain in the joints. In severe cases, it can cause changes to bone structure, calcification of ligaments, and crippling effects.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) publication, Fluoride in Drinking-water addresses this urgent need, providing the latest scientific evidence on the occurrence of fluoride, its health effects, methods to reduce excess levels, and analysis techniques.
Guidance is particularly needed because fluoride is found in all natural waters at some concentration. Low concentrations are good for teeth, but excessive concentrations can lead to debilitating disease, such as skeletal fluorosis, which has devastated some communities. In China alone, more than 10 million people are estimated to suffer from skeletal fluorosis.
While the global prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis is not entirely clear, it is known that water is normally the major source of fluoride exposure, with exposure from diet and from burning high fluoride coal also major contributors in some settings. Fluoride occurs at elevated concentrations in many areas of the world including Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Asia. One of the best known high fluoride areas extends from Turkey through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, northern Thailand and China. However, there are many other areas with water sources that contain high fluoride levels and which pose a risk to those drinking the water, notably parts of the rift valley in Africa. Many of these areas are arid and alternative sources of water are not available.
This suffering caused by high levels of fluoride can be prevented. Although removal of excessive fluoride from drinking-water may be difficult and expensive, low-cost solutions that can be applied at a local level do exist. Methods outlined in the monograph include: use of crushed clay pots, bone charcoal, contact precipitation, or use of activated alumina (absorptive filter). It is important that local authorities consider the causes of fluorosis carefully and choose the best and most appropriate means of dealing with excess fluoride exposure taking into account the local conditions and sensitivities.
Fluoride in Drinking-water is one out of a series of WHO monographs, which address the management of other chemicals in drinking-water, such as arsenic or cyanotoxins.
http://www.who.int
New WHO report tackles fluoride in drinking-water
21 NOVEMBER 2006 GENEVA -- Millions of people are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water contaminated from natural geological sources. As a result, many suffer conditions ranging from mild dental fluorosis to crippling skeletal fluorosis. With the problem continuing to be unrecognized and neglected, guidance is sorely needed.
Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases, all the enamel may be damaged. In skeletal fluorosis, fluoride accumulates in the bone progressively over many years, leading to stiffness and pain in the joints. In severe cases, it can cause changes to bone structure, calcification of ligaments, and crippling effects.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) publication, Fluoride in Drinking-water addresses this urgent need, providing the latest scientific evidence on the occurrence of fluoride, its health effects, methods to reduce excess levels, and analysis techniques.
Guidance is particularly needed because fluoride is found in all natural waters at some concentration. Low concentrations are good for teeth, but excessive concentrations can lead to debilitating disease, such as skeletal fluorosis, which has devastated some communities. In China alone, more than 10 million people are estimated to suffer from skeletal fluorosis.
While the global prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis is not entirely clear, it is known that water is normally the major source of fluoride exposure, with exposure from diet and from burning high fluoride coal also major contributors in some settings. Fluoride occurs at elevated concentrations in many areas of the world including Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Asia. One of the best known high fluoride areas extends from Turkey through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, northern Thailand and China. However, there are many other areas with water sources that contain high fluoride levels and which pose a risk to those drinking the water, notably parts of the rift valley in Africa. Many of these areas are arid and alternative sources of water are not available.
This suffering caused by high levels of fluoride can be prevented. Although removal of excessive fluoride from drinking-water may be difficult and expensive, low-cost solutions that can be applied at a local level do exist. Methods outlined in the monograph include: use of crushed clay pots, bone charcoal, contact precipitation, or use of activated alumina (absorptive filter). It is important that local authorities consider the causes of fluorosis carefully and choose the best and most appropriate means of dealing with excess fluoride exposure taking into account the local conditions and sensitivities.
Fluoride in Drinking-water is one out of a series of WHO monographs, which address the management of other chemicals in drinking-water, such as arsenic or cyanotoxins.
Employment Other UN Sites Search Suggestions RSS Privacy © World Health Organization 2006. All rights reserved
This PDF is from the WHO and could have some important informaiton... it is 144 pages http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/fluoride_drinking_water_full.pdf
From Hastings Safe Water Association
Therese and Don Mackay
News-Medical.Net
• Home Page
New World Health Organization publication - "Fluoride in Drinking-water"
Disease/Infection News
Published: Tuesday, 21-Nov-2006
Printer Friendly
Email to a Friend
Millions of people are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water contaminated from natural geological sources. As a result, many suffer conditions ranging from mild dental fluorosis to crippling skeletal fluorosis. With the problem continuing to be unrecognized and neglected, guidance is sorely needed.
Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases, all the enamel may be damaged. In skeletal fluorosis, fluoride accumulates in the bone progressively over many years, leading to stiffness and pain in the joints. In severe cases, it can cause changes to bone structure, calcification of ligaments, and crippling effects.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) publication, Fluoride in Drinking-water addresses this urgent need, providing the latest scientific evidence on the occurrence of fluoride, its health effects, methods to reduce excess levels, and analysis techniques.
Guidance is particularly needed because fluoride is found in all natural waters at some concentration. Low concentrations are good for teeth, but excessive concentrations can lead to debilitating disease, such as skeletal fluorosis, which has devastated some communities. In China alone, more than 10 million people are estimated to suffer from skeletal fluorosis.
While the global prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis is not entirely clear, it is known that water is normally the major source of fluoride exposure, with exposure from diet and from burning high fluoride coal also major contributors in some settings. Fluoride occurs at elevated concentrations in many areas of the world including Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Asia. One of the best known high fluoride areas extends from Turkey through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, northern Thailand and China. However, there are many other areas with water sources that contain high fluoride levels and which pose a risk to those drinking the water, notably parts of the rift valley in Africa. Many of these areas are arid and alternative sources of water are not available.
This suffering caused by high levels of fluoride can be prevented. Although removal of excessive fluoride from drinking-water may be difficult and expensive, low-cost solutions that can be applied at a local level do exist. Methods outlined in the monograph include: use of crushed clay pots, bone charcoal, contact precipitation, or use of activated alumina (absorptive filter). It is important that local authorities consider the causes of fluorosis carefully and choose the best and most appropriate means of dealing with excess fluoride exposure taking into account the local conditions and sensitivities.
Fluoride in Drinking-water is one out of a series of WHO monographs, which address the management of other chemicals in drinking-water, such as arsenic or cyanotoxins.
http://www.who.int
New WHO report tackles fluoride in drinking-water
21 NOVEMBER 2006 GENEVA -- Millions of people are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water contaminated from natural geological sources. As a result, many suffer conditions ranging from mild dental fluorosis to crippling skeletal fluorosis. With the problem continuing to be unrecognized and neglected, guidance is sorely needed.
Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases, all the enamel may be damaged. In skeletal fluorosis, fluoride accumulates in the bone progressively over many years, leading to stiffness and pain in the joints. In severe cases, it can cause changes to bone structure, calcification of ligaments, and crippling effects.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) publication, Fluoride in Drinking-water addresses this urgent need, providing the latest scientific evidence on the occurrence of fluoride, its health effects, methods to reduce excess levels, and analysis techniques.
Guidance is particularly needed because fluoride is found in all natural waters at some concentration. Low concentrations are good for teeth, but excessive concentrations can lead to debilitating disease, such as skeletal fluorosis, which has devastated some communities. In China alone, more than 10 million people are estimated to suffer from skeletal fluorosis.
While the global prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis is not entirely clear, it is known that water is normally the major source of fluoride exposure, with exposure from diet and from burning high fluoride coal also major contributors in some settings. Fluoride occurs at elevated concentrations in many areas of the world including Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Asia. One of the best known high fluoride areas extends from Turkey through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, northern Thailand and China. However, there are many other areas with water sources that contain high fluoride levels and which pose a risk to those drinking the water, notably parts of the rift valley in Africa. Many of these areas are arid and alternative sources of water are not available.
This suffering caused by high levels of fluoride can be prevented. Although removal of excessive fluoride from drinking-water may be difficult and expensive, low-cost solutions that can be applied at a local level do exist. Methods outlined in the monograph include: use of crushed clay pots, bone charcoal, contact precipitation, or use of activated alumina (absorptive filter). It is important that local authorities consider the causes of fluorosis carefully and choose the best and most appropriate means of dealing with excess fluoride exposure taking into account the local conditions and sensitivities.
Fluoride in Drinking-water is one out of a series of WHO monographs, which address the management of other chemicals in drinking-water, such as arsenic or cyanotoxins.
Employment Other UN Sites Search Suggestions RSS Privacy © World Health Organization 2006. All rights reserved
This PDF is from the WHO and could have some important informaiton... it is 144 pages http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/fluoride_drinking_water_full.pdf
Saturday, November 18, 2006
HMMMI thought the meaning of the 33 foot sculpture (pictured below) recently erected at Grand Rapids - the home of the world's first mass fluoridation experiment - by the West Michigan Dental Association, was quite clear.
Regards
Dennis Stevenson
Firstly, at the right of the picture is a patient. That they are a dental patient is obvious from their mouth being wide open. As their tongue is all the way out, obviously they are screaming. We'll get to why they are screaming in a moment. Gathered around the patient are 5 dentists. Equally obviously, as there are five dentists and not just one, it must be a training session, as only one dentist is required to extract whatever money a patient might have.
The two dentists on the left can be seen to be senior to the other three, as is clearly shown by their height. The tallest dentist is the lead instructor and his colleague, on his immediate right, is the 'watchdog'. I'm sure all of us are aware that when a dentist speaks at a public meeting, there has to be another ADA approved dentist in the audience to report on what the first dentist says.?Naturally the same requirement exists when dentists are being trained. Though it is almost preposterous to consider that any ADA approved dentist would tell the truth (remember what happened to Mel Gibson in the movie Conspiracy Theory) the ADA is ever vigilant to ensure that no dentist should mention, even accidently, that fluoridation is anything but "absolutely safe and effective". Though it seems silly and is extremely unlikely to occur, imagine the repercussions if a dentist told students that fluorosis was chronic fluoride poisoning of the 'whole body' and not just a 'minor cosmetic effect' on teeth only?
Which leads us into exactly what the trainee-dentists were learning at the time the picture was taken. This is revealed by the attitude of the students. You will note their proximity to the patient: this shows that the 'cosmetic effect' of dental fluorosis is being discussed and specifically, the vast fees that can be made from gluing white plastic covers over the fluorosis disfigured teeth of patients - at $600 to $1,200 per tooth. This is, of course, why the patient is screaming.?
However, you can imagine why the trainees are so excited. Not only have they just learned how much they can charge patients, but they have also discovered that fluorosis, or 'egg-shell white' mottling as they prefer to call it, is a never-ending source of money, provided they keep promoting fluoridation, as this is what causes the mottling. Now they realise how they can easily pay cash for a new premier Mercedes every year, not to mention the endless golf and wonderful conferences sponsored and paid for by Mars Bars Pty. Ltd.
You will also notice at the bottom left side of the picture, almost hidden behind trees, is what can just be seen of a car window. The window, exactly positioned so that it has a clear view of the meeting through the trees, looks black. However, expanded digital film analysis reveals that state of the art video equipment is recording everything that is being done at the meeting. This is another requirement of Sigma-Delta-Sigma, the secret society of dentists, which dentists are on a blood oath never to mention. You may recall the deputy President of the NZ Dental Association who accidentally acknowledgedly that the society exists before he realized his error and stumbled out with "My membership of any organisation has got nothing to do with your interview." Have you ever seen him again?
Something to also be seen in the photograph is the golden path. Because of poor reflection, this shows in the photograph as a white section on which the dentists are standing. This is always there when dentists are being trained to ever remind them of the dental brotherhood and the riches that await them if they obey the 5 Golden Rules.
You will notice one of the dentists, the smallest and most junior one, has the 5 Golden Rules written on his back. Enlarged, they read:
1. I promise to always pretend I and brother dentists are doctors though we are not medically qualified and do not have doctorates.
2. I promise to protect any brother dentist who kills a patient with mercury or a topical fluoride treatment.
3. I promise to?charge every patient extras for: cleaning, topical fluoride treatment and x-rays and to never reduce fees or disclose to outsiders how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I make annually.
4. I promise never to publicly debate fluoridation but only to forever repeat the dental mantra "Fluoridation is absolutely safe and effective". I will always vehemently deny that fluoride is a rat poison.
5. I promise to follow the 50 year old published advice from the American Dental Association to always denigrate and ridicule those who speak against fluoridation, no matter how well qualified they are.
Hopefully this brought a smile to your lips...it did to ours but we are too easily amused.
