Lorenz Reibling gives interview about real estate

by OrphanCrow 162 Replies latest watchtower scandals

OrphanCrow

Ron Lapin was born in Israel in 1942. The book No Man's Blood describes him as "an abandoned child" yet later in the book, it is revealed that Lapin's father was wealthy and spent little time with him (Lapin had a deep hatred of his father) When Lapin was in his teens (I think...the dates are unclear), he came to the States to live with his mother. That didn't work out - Lapin expected his mother and stepfather to pay for medical school for him but he claims that they expected him to join the military (questionable) so he put himself through medical school to fulfill his life long dream of cutting people open.
It was at this first facility that he worked that it became evident that Ronny liked to cut people - he was accused of doing unnecessary surgeries and as a result, was unable to find employment in New York because of his reputation of doing too many surgeries and his inability to get along with others. Of course, in the book No Man's Blood, Gene Church describes this as the other doctors being jealous of Lapin's skill and proficiency. Regardless, it was his inability to get hired in New York that led him to accepting a position out in California in 1973 at the California Hope Hospital.

The timing was advantageous - California, in 1974, reversed its decision to disallow osteopaths a medical license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathic_medicine_in_the_United_States#1962.2C_California

In the 1960s in California, the American Medical Association (AMA) spent nearly $8 million to end the practice of osteopathic medicine in the state. In 1962, Proposition 22, a statewide ballot initiative in California, eliminated the practice of osteopathic medicine in the state. The California Medical Association (CMA) issued M.D. degrees to all DOs in the state of California for a nominal fee. "By attending a short seminar and paying $65, a doctor of osteopathy (D.O.) could obtain an M.D. degree; 86 percent of the DOs in the state (out of a total of about 2000) chose to do so."[42] Immediately following, the AMA re-accredited the formerly osteopathic University of California at Irvine College of Osteopathic Medicine as University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, an M.D. medical school. It also placed a ban on issuing physician licenses to DOs moving to California from other states.[43] However, the decision proved to be controversial. In 1974, after protest and lobbying by influential and prominent DOs, the California Supreme Court ruled in Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California v. California Medical Association, that licensing of DOs in that state must be resumed.[44] Four years later, in 1978, the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific opened in Pomona, and in 1997 Touro University California opened in Vallejo. As of 2012, there were 6,368 D.O.s practicing in California.[45]
It didn't take Lapin long to run afoul at the California Hope Hospital, and in 1974, he had his privileges removed for conducting unnecessary surgeries. However, he managed to retain privileges at the Skyline Hospital for a brief time. But, in 1975, Lapin was again censured for doing unnecessary surgeries, this time on JW patients.

From this point onward, Lapin's medical practice appears to be exclusively JWs, and he would be involved in hospitals that were owned and operated by the JWs themselves. In 1981, Lapin was accused of malpractice:http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-16/local/me-5645_1_state-drops-case-against-doctor
Lapin, whose license to practice medicine has never been revoked or suspended, had been accused of gross negligence, ordering unnecessary surgery, incompetence and repeated negligent acts, after a board investigation.
The 1981 accusations by the state included allegations that Lapin had performed a hysterectomy on a woman with a normal uterus, tubes and ovaries and surgery on a man whose gall bladder was removed even though it was normal. Another alleged incident involved a hysterectomy on a woman after a written diagnosis of internal bleeding, even though other records indicated no internal bleeding.
The resulting investigation was eventually dropped in 1985/6:
State medical officials, citing an inability to prove their case, have agreed to drop all allegations of negligence and incompetence against Dr. Ron Lapin, an Orange County surgeon who became nationally known for his treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses by so-called "bloodless surgery."
In return, Lapin agreed to drop state and federal lawsuits seeking more than $40 million in damages for alleged violations of his civil rights during the 4-year-old state investigation of his practice.
There were two reasons given as to why the charges were dropped.Firstly, the investigators were unable to find outside expert opinion on Lapin's procedures.
Lapin's practice involving bloodless surgery--of benefit to Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse to accept blood transfusions on religious grounds--is "controversial," Wagstaff said. But his agency could not assemble sufficient medical evidence to support the charges, he said. "You need a solid outside medical expert, and we couldn't find one," Wagstaff explained.
Lapin would solve this problem for future practitioners of bloodless methods by founding the first journal of bloodless medicine. This was the beginnings of "evidence-based" research upon which the field of blood management got its legs. When the CMA couldn't find support for Lapin's procedures, Lapin simply established a journal to give his procedures and philosophies a space to be published and from there, a "credible" source for bloodless medicine.
Secondly, the cost of pursuing further investigation into Lapin was prohibitive. Gerald Garner, Lapin's shady lawyer, had done his job well - in response to the accusations of malpractice, he simply hit the CMA with a counter suit for millions of dollars. When you have no defense for your actions, a really strong offense is the best defense you can mount.
Al Korobkin, supervising deputy attorney general who handled the settlement, said Thursday that several years had been taken up in settlement negotiations. The state attorney general's office routinely supplies legal counsel to the board in proceedings involving medical licenses.
"What took a long time were extensive discussions about possible settlements," Korobkin said Thursday.
Wagstaff said lawyers from the attorney general's office advised that it would be "futile, time consuming and expensive to pursue" the Lapin case.
The hospital that Lapin practiced at in the early 80s that was owned by JWs, was affected by the investigations by the CMA:
The 45-year old Lapin, who is not a Jehovah's Witness, had been a leading surgeon at Esperanza Hospital in Yorba Linda, when a state health investigation into the hospital's surgical practices forced the ouster of the facility's management and led to its being taken over by St. Jude Hospital in nearby Fullerton.
In one of his lawsuits, Lapin alleged that when he moved his practice to Bellflower City Hospital, the state began an investigation of that facility as well.
Ron Lapin would establish Practice Associates Medical Group - affiliated with Coast Medical Plaza - and it was this medical group and hospital that was featured in George Dalgleishs' book, Bad Blood, which was published in 1989.
http://www.manitobaphotos.com/theolib/downloads/Practice_Associates_Medical_Group_1988.pdf
This is the hospital where Gerald Garner held the CEO position which he would pass on to his son. Years later, in 2004, after both Lapin and Garner had passed on, Coast Medical Plaza was levied a substantial fine for medicare fraud:http://www.integriguard.org/corp/newsevents/pressreleases/2004/2004-02-02.html
Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital in Norwalk and the estate of the former chief executive have agreed to pay the United States more than $4.1 million to resolve allegations that Coast Plaza and the former CEO defrauded the federal Medicare program, United States Attorney Debra W. Yang announced today.
Coast Plaza and the estate of Gerald J. Garner agreed to pay $4,106,735 to resolve allegations that the hospital and Garner defrauded Medicare, the taxpayer-funded health care insurance program for many of the nation's elderly and disabled.
Coast Plaza is an approximately 123-bed acute care facility, and Garner was the hospital's chief executive officer and chairman of the board until he died after an automobile accident in April 2002.
The settlement resolves a portion of a "whistleblower" lawsuit filed in 1999 by Raul Lopez, a former chief financial officer of Coast Plaza.
Whew...I told you this was going to take a while...I am not quite finished with Ronny, the bloodless butcher.I will return with some comments on his role in establishing the HLC in cooperation with the WTS. I apologize for the length of this material - I have tried to condense it as well as I can and there are many details I have left out that may come up later.
Londo111

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/215940/solon-association
It is interesting how Woodworth put in charge of the Solon Association...and he was the writer in the Golden Age who promoted all sorts of medical quackery. Before they were anti-blood, they were anti-vaccine.
OrphanCrow

It seems like part of my post got lost...damn those forum demons!
This is supposed to be inserted in my previous post just after "....he put himself through medical school to fulfill his life long dream of cutting people open." :
Ron Lapin spent 4 years at Indiana University and then went to work at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was while he was working there that he would spend his weekends at a research facility doing surgery on animals. Lapin really liked using the cauterizing knife that was used in these animal experiments and pressured the head of surgery to use the knife on humans but was told that it wasn't a suitable procedure to use on people.
Ah geesz...I spent so much time on this and now parts of my post have disappeared...damn...again...this is supposed to be inserted after "...It didn't take Lapin long to run afoul at the California Hope Hospital, and in 1974, he had his privileges removed for conducting unnecessary surgeries. However, he managed to retain privileges at the Skyline Hospital for a brief time. But, in 1975, Lapin was again censured for doing unnecessary surgeries, this time on JW patients." :

Ron Lapin had found his calling in the JW community. It was on these patients that he started using the cauterizing knife - the knife that he had been told was unsuitable for human subjects. Cauterizing kives for surgery had been around for some time already for use in veterinary medicine - a problem with the knife was the smoke that resulted when the flesh was burned instead of cut. Lapin later made modifications to the knife, adding a light and a suction to remove the smoke from the surgical area.
It was in the JW community that Lapin finally found a place to feed his addiction to cutting flesh. Entering the operating theatre without the safety valve of having blood to back him up was the ultimate thrill for him. He was like the tight rope walker who needed the extra thrill of walking across a chasm without a safety net. Entering the operating theatre without blood was an intense adreniline rush and operating on JWs was the pinnacle of his addiction. The JWs had found their perfect surgeon - someone who liked what he did under the guise of "helping" those poor unfortunate souls who couldn't get reputable doctors to operate on them. And Lapin had no problem with letting them die for a lack of blood - he just wanted to be able to cut people open and the JWs were happy to find a high priest that would help them engage in their ritualistic sacrifical behavior.
It was around this time that Ron Lapin was approached by 3 JWs with a proposition. They had established an insurance company and they offered to insure him and his practise. Their insurance company offered policies exclusively to JWs - in fact, it was only offered to JW couples where both were baptized members in good standing. Ron Lapin was on his way. He had backing and he had patients.
Dr. Herk Hutchins was one of the three JWs who approached Lapin. Hutchins would later become Lapin's surgical assistant in the operating theatre, but claimed that he had been operating on JWs for 35 years without blood. I find this claim to be very interesting - it places his surgical practice back to the early 1940s and I wonder what methods he used at a time that other doctors had little technology or the desire to deal with a group of people whose rare disorder was a cultural construction rather than a medical one. 35 years of operating on JWs without blood should be a medical feat that deserves to be in the medical records, yet there is nothing mentioned anywhere in medical literature that addresses Hutchins' methods or practice.
*Londa - good link and info. I will respond to your post after I finish with the bloodless butcher. :)
OrphanCrow

I apologize for the choppiness of my last posts - I don't know why the material I had posted about Ronny's smoking knife disappeared from my first post about Lapin.
Ron Lapin's practice of "bloodless" surgery came at a time when some bloodless methods had already been established by surgeons like Denton Cooley and by surgeons in Canada. During the 70s, Cooley was doing heart surgery on JWs without the use of blood (he used hemodilution procedures that wouldn't get "official" approval until years later). The same thing was happening in Canada - JW patients who required surgery were subjected to "alternative" procedures that wouldn't get "official" approval until much later. Also in Canada, the early prototype for the HLC was being trialed - this system would morph into the modern day HLC with the help of Ron Lapin. And possibly influenced by Lapin's buddy who wrote his biography - Gene Church had experience in forms of corporate training techniques like Mind Dynamics.
A textbook in use by the blood management industry is Basics of Blood Management by Petra Seeber, Aryeh Shander. After a discussion about Cooley and his work with JW patients in the 60s and the doctors who were influenced by Cooley's successes, the book says this:
This laid the foundation for organized “bloodless programs.” One of the hospitals with such a program was the Esperanza Intercommunity Hospital in Yorba Linda, California, where a high percentage of patients were Witnesses. Dr Herk Hutchins, an experienced surgeon and a Witness himself, was known for his development of an iron-containing formula for blood-building. Among his team was the young surgeon Ron Lapin. Later, he was famed for his pioneering work in the area of bloodless therapies. Critics labeled him a quack. Nevertheless, he continued and was later honored for opening one of the first organized bloodless centers in the world, as well as for publishing the first journal on this topic, and for his efforts to teach his colleagues. During his career, he performed thousands of bloodless surgeries.
The key word in the above account is "organized". It was through Lapin's alliance with the JWs that the organization of the HLC came to fruition. The book No Man's Blood reveals his work with the JWs to refine an organized system of referrals to bloodless doctors.
From the NATA website:
...Ron Lapin, a California surgeon, who operated on several thousand Witness patients during his surgical career. Moreover, he was the first to recognize bloodless medicine and surgery as a speciality or discipline. Based on this belief, he created the first bloodless medicine and surgery center in Bellflower Hospital in California in the late 1970s early 1980s in response to the demand for his services. He also published the first journal in the field and made the first efforts at training and credentialing physicians. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the parent organization of the Jehovahs Witness religion, recognized the importance of providing educational assistance to physicians who were willing to treat their members. Early. Informal efforts at education and communication were given structure in 1988 with the introduction of the Hospital Information Services branch of the watchtower in Brooklyn. This group of individuals has become one of the primary sources of information regarding transfusion alternatives to the medical community.
Somewhat contradictory to the above information, In the textbook Basics of Blood Management, it is revealed that the HLC was established before 1988:
In the early 1960s, representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses started visiting physicians to explain to the reasons why transfusions were refused by the Witness population. They often offered literature that dealt with techniques that were acceptable to Witness patients, informing physicians of the availability of so-called transfusion alternatives. In 1979 the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses announced the formation of Hospital Liaison Committees.
Those "representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses" in the 60s and 70s, along with the help of Glen How and Associates, throttled the Canadian medical system, and forced health care providers into adopting bloodless procedures such as hemodilution and early cell saver technology. Once those alternative procedures were established as acceptable, Ron Lapin was an ideal candidate for the WTS' entry into the public world of "blood management" by helping with the organization of the HLC. And he rose to the occasion, contributing his part to establishing institutions that would train many of the people who would later become the founding members of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management.
Vidiot

Londo111 - "Before they were anti-blood, they were anti-vaccine."
Figures.
Londo111

And anti-aluminum…that was like the Devil’s metal, the cause of all sorts of maladies. But they were all for strapping on a radium belt to cure pneumonia, or using radio waves to diagnose and treat illnesses.
The Golden Age had an astounding amount of wackiness. There were several articles written denying Newton’s theory of gravity.
Vidiot

Creating media that promotes WT ideology, whilst tailoring and presenting it as though it's from external unbiased sources.
x
Once again, for the newbies, lurkers, and trolls...
...if you have to cheat do defend your beliefs, your beliefs don't deserve to be defended.
Bill Covert

Yes OrphanCrow that is what I rember as to the 200 complaints from State of Calif. Consumers Affairs, unnecessary suguries.
That JW Insurance Co I think was called "New World Life" or something like that, in-laws had it.
Interesting I have a friend who was raised a JW but realized it was not for him, he is a ER doctor. He said all ER Rooms have the JW Blood book but not for the purpose of educating the doctors but to educate the JW patients as to their own churchs list to what is acceptable blood parts. Prior to the book the JW patients were ignorant of what was approved and what was not, hence the whole ER Room procedure was halted and precious time was lost as the patient had to go and consult their church elders. So the book has been well received as to its ability to stop vast amounts of time being tied up from getting elders permission for ER procedures.
OrphanCrow

Londo: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/215940/solon-association
It is interesting how Woodworth put in charge of the Solon Association...and he was the writer in the Golden Age who promoted all sorts of medical quackery. Before they were anti-blood, they were anti-vaccine.
And anti-aluminum…that was like the Devil’s metal, the cause of all sorts of maladies. But they were all for strapping on a radium belt to cure pneumonia, or using radio waves to diagnose and treat illnesses.
The Golden Age had an astounding amount of wackiness. There were several articles written denying Newton’s theory of gravity.
Yes, the Watchtower magazine promoted the religious doctrine of the Society and The Golden Age was the platform for many of the Society's men to promote their personal interests and investments. The magazine was born in a jail cell, apparently, while Rutherford and his cronies were rubbing shoulders with other criminals, and it became the "trumpet blast" that was heard in 1919, that special year that designated the Society as the special instrument of Jehovah himself.
As per the Society's usual behavior, The Golden Age was first passed off as an "independent" magazine and was often criticized by the outside world for being an instrument to promote the financial interests of those who had invested in the Watchtower Society. At that time, shares were bought in the Society - the more money you invested, the more shares you had in the Society and therefore, the more influence on what was published.
Woodworth was one of the editors of The Golden Age and his influence was already apparent in the Society's publications. Both Clayton Woodworth and George Fisher, the co-authors of The Finished Mystery, were textbook writers for the International Correspondence School - a method of study that uncannily resembled the Watchtower learning format. There is one source that claims that Woodworth was an owner of the ICS, but I have never been able to confirm that. However, The Golden Age published articles that concerned subjects/professions that were offered as classes through the ICS, sometimes even mentioning that a person could study those professions at home. Woodworth also had interests and investments in transport companies.
Another interesting character that was actively involved in the Society's affairs during that time was William Hudgings. He would have been the one where articles on the theory of gravity would have originated - he published books on Einsteins' theory of relativity in the 1920s. Hudgings would later leave the Society after the 1925 shakeup and would file a patent for a medical device in the early 30s - for an "asshole flusher" - a device that would pave the way for some of the modern day colonics machines. The patent was filed through Health Products Corp. of America.
The anti-vaccine stance that was promoted by the Watchtower Society revealed the close alliances that existed with them and the alternative practices like the chiros and osteopaths - the doctors and medical practices promoted by the Society were solidly anti-AMA. The stand off between the American Medical Association and the alternative camp continued to played out over the years, and the struggles of the CMA with Ron Lapin during the 80s were simply a continuation of those battles.
Examining the interests and activities of the early Watchtower Society members reveals the pattern of behavior that has not changed since that time - the Society still exists for the same purposes as it did back then: to make money for those so privileged as to be part of its power base.
KiddingMe

Thanks for the research. Very interesting.

Lorenz Reibling gives interview about real estate

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