If you are keeping track of Carl Tuttle’s petitions, you are aware of his recent post about Vicki Logan, a long-time sufferer of Tick Born Illness who finally succumbed in 2002. The link above contains the seven page autopsy results after her insurer refused additional IV antibiotic therapy for Lyme Disease.
This is not the first time I read about Vicki and what follows is why her story should be a rallying cry to every MSIDS patient, doctor, and advocate.
I read her story in doctor Kenneth Liegner’s book, In the Crucible of Chronic Lyme Disease. Liegner’s book is a collection of writings and actual records he filed with various agencies relating to the paper trail involved for doctors fighting for patients with chronic Lyme. It also contains patient records, power points, letters to the editor, pictures of biopsies, and grueling, heart-felt narratives.
The book contains copious volumes of letters written on Vicki’s behalf – just short of begging for continual treatment for an obviously very ill woman who suffered grand mal seizures and a myocardial infarction. Her brain tissue showed cerebral vasculitis with prominent plasma cells which is a clue to the presence of spirochetes as seen in syphilis and Lyme.
Vasculitis is also common in Bartonella:
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/16/gardasil-vasculitis-msids/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/15/persistent-b-henselae-in-child/
For more information on Vicki’s case, Pam Weintraub’s book Cure Unknown contains the circumstances leading up to her death.
I heard Liegner recently at a Lyme Continuing Education Seminar in St. Paul. A humble, quiet man, he turns to music to relieve stress.
In his book Leigner addresses the oft quoted dogma that Chronic Lyme disease does not exist by surmising that these folks are either dumb, character-disordered, corrupt, sociopaths, and/or terrible doctors.
He also points out some “inconvenient truths” about the business model of managed care and the fact that chronic diseases interfere with predictable outcomes.
Liegner states that Raymond J. Dattwyler and Allan C Steere, both signatories to the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines which assert that chronic Lyme disease does not exist state exactly the opposite in patents, published scientific articles, and private letters.
Interestingly, it was Dattwyler who was expert consultant to Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield against Vicki Logan’s lawsuit which sought coverage for chronic Lyme.
Oops, that wasn’t disclosed in the published IDSA 2006 guidelines….
The book is power packed with these sorts of facts including details about a 2001 International Lyme Conference in New York where attendees were censored by having their microphones shut off whenever they brought up the issue of chronic Lyme disease. Wormser denied to Liegner that the event was CDC sponsored, which is an important detail as it possibly could have been opened up by legislators; however, distributed materials showed the event was in fact CDC-sponsored.
I’d turn to music too…..primitive music that requires beating things.
But the real zinger occurred when Liegner requested an autopsy on Vicki and the pathologist not only refused, he refused to even let an outside pathologist use the facilities to perform it.
The reason? Wait for it…..
……danger of infection to himself and his staff.
I thought Lyme disease was benign and similar to the common cold – easily cured with 21 days of doxy?
By now you know that Liegner wasn’t about to let the ball drop and found a way to get Vicki to the Chief of Neuropathology at Columbia Presbyterian where her autopsy results are now available to all. Without this critical step, propelled by Liegner, the pathologist at Hudson Valley Hospital would have successfully prevented medical knowledge of chronic and neurologic Lyme disease as well as the cause of her hypotension, a missed diagnosis of myocardial infarction.
In the 1800’s, Texans had the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo.”
For Lyme patients, advocates, and the doctors who dare to treat them, we have a battle cry too:
“Remember Vicki Logan.”
Interview with Dr. Liegner by Lyme Connection:
Synopsis of Book:
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=28845
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 