Medical Tourism and Medi-Coin - investing in bloodless medicine

by OrphanCrow 15 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow

    Meet Mr. Michael Columbus - a Jehovah's Witness who has a personal financial interest in keeping the Watchtower's noblood doctrine alive and kicking.


    Michael J. Columbus - Jehovah's Witness Extraordinaire.

    Linkedin profile.

    Summary of Columbus' accomplishments:

    For more than 30 years I have been involved in blood management. In 1998, I coordinated the establishment the world renowned Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital. After 10 years we reduced the annual cost of blood from $6.3M to $2.6M, and increased profitability to $10M net profit.

    In 2010, I founded medi-coin, the first international bloodless program in Bangalore, India. This venture provides bloodless medicine and surgery at a significant cost savings compared to health-care cost in industrialized countries.

    In 2011, I became an Adviser to the Board of Directors for Jah-Jireh Homes of America, a non-profit corporation established to provide assisted living care homes exclusively for the long-term care needs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Legacy Place Cottages located in Allentown, PA, are the first such homes in the United States.

    Currently, Mr. Columbus is a Sales and Leasing Consultant for Fox Honda in Auburn, New York.

    Columbus founded Medi-Coin in 2010.

    http://www.medi-coin.com/

    Directors of Medi-coin:

    Nadappan Varkey Paulose and Bernard Paul (or is that Paul Bernard - New York "executive coach"?).

    Michael Columbus' interests with Medi-coin included medical tourism to India.

    http://community.medicaltourism.com/m/profile?screenName=0ps1mmdcoeez0

    And...Medi-Coin has its own facebook page (which appears to be inactive now - last post was made in September 2014)

    https://www.facebook.com/wwwmedi-coincom-139878726022978/

    From The Times Of India Bangalore

    Date: 14/05/2010

    Bloodless surgery to provide relief
    TIMES NEWS NETWORK

    Bangalore: Bloodless surgery is a safe and effective approach for early recovery as well as to prevent complications of blood transfusion. Interacting with reporters at Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG) Ltd, hepatobiliary surgeon Dr Sanjay Govil, said: “Less than 20% of liver resections require transfusion. Earlier, it was considered that liver surgery was impossible without high volume of blood transfusion, but in reality, 80% of the liver related surgery doesn’t need transfusion. And, the objective of conducting bloodless surgery is to reduce blood loss.”
    To promote bloodless surgery, HCG has collaborated with Medicoin, a medical consultancy organization, for providing quality healthcare service for those seeking bloodless medical and surgical management.
    Cofounder of Medicoin, Michael J Columbus, said: “Performing a surgery without blood loss is bloodless surgery. US military is opting for bloodless surgery as the best and safe alternative in battle field where access to blood is difficult. Even in South Africa, where AIDS is rampant, bloodless surgery is considered as a safe option. In India, we are collaborating with HCG and our focus will be on research, training and to share expertise on appropriate blood management.”
    HCG, the company that Medi-Coin collaborated with, has recently went public with shares:
    Bangalore-based HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), one of the largest cancer treatment hospital chains in the country, has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with securities market regulator SEBI to float its initial public offer (IPO).
    Although the company is yet to freeze a price band, the proposed issue is expected to be worth around $100-130 million (Rs 640-840 crore), as per VCCircle estimates based on what it intends to raise through a fresh issue of shares.
    There is very little in current news about Columbus' medi-coin interests, but it may have changed its name somewhat ... I am a bit unclear as to what it is up to now.
    It might be this company now: http://medicoin.x10.mx/ but I am not positive about that. And...it could also be the Medicoin that conducts conferences for The Society for Regenerative, Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine India (SRAAMI).http://sraami.com/

    MEDICOIN 2015
    Longevity & Regeneration: A Novel Approach
    The 3rd International Indian Congress on Anti Aging, Aesthetics & Regenerative Medicine
    A Jehovah's Witness involved in a "society" that focuses on anti-aging seems to be fairly plausible - it fits with the notion of "living forever here on earth".
    Medicine and the Watchtower/JWs - such a fine, fine fit...how handy it is to have a religion that will back up "medical advice" for the profits of those JWs who are in the position to shake green hands.
    If you want to know the reasons why the WT blood doctrine has shifted and slid around so much, especially in the past 20 years or so....you would do best to follow the money. Money talks and bullshit walks. The blood doctrine of the WT, in all its shapes and sizes and confusion, is dependent upon how much money is to be made from it. The blood doctrine has ZERO to do with the bible and EVERYTHING to do with how much profit can be generated for the JWs who are invested in bloodless medicine.

  • steve2
    steve2

    Thanks OrphanCrow. Excellent OP.

    There's got to be $$$$$$$$$$$ in bloodless surgery otherwise its provision would shrivel and no qualified medical practitioner would want to use it.

  • Skedaddle
    Skedaddle

    This is verrrrrry interesting! Thank you!

  • ILoveTTATT2
    ILoveTTATT2

    OrphanCrow, what is your take on Aryeh Shander?

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    Ilove: OrphanCrow, what is your take on Aryeh Shander?

    Shander, huh?

    Lol! I would say he is president of the Jonadab class.

    Seriously, Shander is the 'hero' of bloodless medicine. He is the one who co-authors the textbooks for blood management and promotes blood management all over the world. And the one who steps up to the plate whenever the JWs need an "expert" to be their muscle in court. He is like the "cult leader" for the bloodless cult.

    He looks good, he does his job well, he is a great spokesperson for bloodless surgery/blood management/bloodless medicine...AKA Transfusion Free medicine.

    That is the new "catch phrase" of the bloodless world - transfusion free. Which, of course, is another one of those loaded and misleading terms that has become part of the bloodless repertoire.

    Bloodless surgery is not transfusion free. A patients own blood is transfused back into them - it is how hemodilution works - a large portion of your blood is drained out and replaced with synthetic fluids. After the surgery is finished, your blood is transfused back into you. The same with cell savers - your blood is sucked up and put through a filtration system (fat cells and bone chips removed...handy, huh?) and then all that squeaky clean blood is transfused back into you.

    steve2:
    There's got to be $$$$$$$$$$$ in bloodless surgery otherwise its provision would shrivel and no qualified medical practitioner would want to use it.

    Oh yes. There is $$$$$ in bloodless surgery. Biotechnology does not come cheap - it is one of the most volatile markets that an investor can play in.

    Artificial blood is considered the Holy Grail of the blood industry. If effective artificial blood could ever be developed, it would be incredibly valuable to military and to areas where blood has been tainted. Which, of course, is what is happening right now - Africa is a huge market for Hemopure. The WT thought they had the tiger by the tail with that one - they offered the JWs to the US Army to test Hemopure.

    The Jehovah's Witnesses were to be the testers for Hemopure, and they still are the ones who push it to market. That is what the FDA compassionate use does. Never mind that the side effects and risks of artificial blood exceed that of "real" blood....of course that is never told to the poor unwitting JW sheep that are purposely led to the slaughter.

    The goal of bloodless medicine is to create technology that will theoretically allow a person to "live forever". Sound familiar? And that technology costs money. Big money.

    Haemonetics, the company that manufactures the cell saver, went from being this tiny little company back in early 70s, making a little machine that could harvest stem cells - to accommodate that wonderful breakthrough when stem cells were discovered in '68 (those Canadians, eh?). A handy little side job that those cell harvesters were able to do was....keep the odd Jehovah's Witness or two alive. Cell savers were also valuable for large blood loss surgery - ortho and heart surgeons adopted the use of them readily back in the 70s to reduce the amount of blood needed.

    Haemonetics, formed when Baxter bought out American Hospital Supply, first promoted their cell saver machine by giving hospitals the machine to use. And so the company grew and they developed all sorts of modifications for their cell savers - filtration systems, etc....and new little machines for sucking up blood. And now, they have a big chunk of the global market for blood collection devices. Their products are used all over the world.

    Oh yeah. There is money in bloodless surgery and such. What is rather humorous is the way that the bloodless world, in the late 80s and into the 90s, had $tar$ in their eyes and all of them were saying "this is the way of the future! Bloodless surgery will be the golden standard of care for the entire world!"

    But instead...the world did not embrace the bloodless mantra, the holy grail failed when the FDA strangled the clinical trials, and the bloodless world had to re-group. Blood management became the golden ticket and they have been milking that cow ever since.

  • under the radar
    under the radar

    Let's see... from profiteering opportunist taking advantage of incredulous followers of religious charlatans to car salesman. In some ways, just a difference without a distinction.

    Would you buy a used car from such a man?

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    If there's any truth to rumors about shadowy figures pulling the GB's strings from behind the scenes, this asshole is a prime candidate.

    I wonder if he has a seat on the WT corporate board of directors?

  • Diogenesister
    Diogenesister

    LoL under the radar!!!!

    Orphan Crow my blood pressure rises every time I read one of your posts....but I'm grateful all the same.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Diogenesister - "...my blood pressure rises every time I read one of your posts..."

    Whatever you do, don't tell this guy.

    He'll figure out some way to factor it into his portfolio. :smirk:

  • steve2
    steve2

    The procedure you mention in your OP, OrphanCrow, involves the reuse of the patient's own blood "lost" during the operation.

    Doesn't the organization forrbid this type of procedure on grounds that once blood leaves the body it is not to be transfused back, as in autologous blood transfusions?

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