Читать книгу Who's Killing the Doctors? II - Alex Swift - Страница 12

Dr. Frank Martin, by word of mouth, slowly, over the years, had become well known for good care, much dedication even at odd hours, and much empathy and understanding of severely handicapped kids like those with cerebral palsy, autism, and other serious neurological impairments. His great reputation soon expanded into older adults severely disadvantaged, many of whom lived in protected environments -like the ‘state schools’ no longer in existence as of this writing- especially now in ‘group homes’ located all over the community – often to the dislike of the next-door neighbors. In cases of difficult transportation he even did house calls.

When seizures were the main management problem he was held by some as being the best in the area; when agitation and disruptive behavior were the main issue, whether at home or in school, he’d become according to some colleagues, wanted and unique, his practice then taking strong overtones of neuropsychiatry. This was so much so, that he soon -and for years- became the regular child neurology consultant in the local and private psych hospital. He was highly regarded there by the nursing, by the attending staff, and -through word of mouth- by the kids’ parents as well. When one day, after more than 30 years -against the state disciplinarians- he would need expert psychiatry colleagues to vouch for him as for his knowledge, skill, empathy and especially of sound mind, these were there for him without reservations, [but against the state’s ‘experts,’ the only ones that counted, the opinion of his own psychiatry colleagues was ignored and suppressed by OPC, by The Wolves].

Caring for young kids with neuro-developmental disorders also entailed dealing with special educational resources for them. As such, delayed kids at various ages go through all sorts of needs, exposures and modifying programs nearly from the time they are born through adulthood. If they are not crawling or sitting, standing, walking or talking when expected, these days, Early Intervention (E.I.) is started as soon as the concern is raised by the parent(s) or by the pediatrician. That usually means the three T’s: Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy. Before they turn five often some form of Pre-K is started in school with daily public transportation – often in a special, small-bus-with-driver-plus-attendant. And through age 20 commonly, Special Education is usually available and often enforced by schools.

When basic and medium-to-advanced academic learning seems in many kids stuck at some point with little progress demonstrated or foreseen, often Special Education is continued well beyond Middle School, even if reactive disruptive behaviors and school skipping appear. Alternative vocational school and practical apprenticeships are to this day offered to struggling students not early enough, and much too late in Dr. Martin’s opinion…

[As I will describe in the following cases, Dr. Martin had his own thinking about all this, and -being very outspoken about it- he would tell the parents, the referring pediatrician and the school how he would tackle each particular situation. His down-to-earth practical way(s) of handling them (by holding kids back, by apprenticeships with an early quitting of academia as early as age 15) often clashed with the establishment. It would eventually lead to his ruin with the State:]

5-A: Jane Luisins was a severely autistic, non-verbal girl, about 4 years old, from a town some 30 miles away. Mom was desperate that no progress was shown by her girl in spite of the intensive 3 T’s that were provided to her daughter by the local school, some sessions given at home, others in school. The father was beginning to feel overwhelmed by his wife’s demands that he contribute more of his time to the therapies provided (the school therapists insisted that they keep up with at home with their own physical participation). Dad was skeptical about much of that -which he saw as nonsense- and was a reluctant helper.

Dr. Martin told both parents of his own skepticism too about such massive intervention to make a difference, meeting of course with the approval of dad and the denial and hostility of mom.

Mom heard of a special center that specialized nearly exclusively in ‘massive stimulation of autistics’ -stimulation ‘always aimed at excellence’- center located at a good four hours drive from their home. So she made an appointment on her own -they did not require a doctor's referral or prescription- and instead of a the long drive, she flew there willing to pay out of her own pocket whatever the cost; medical insurance did not cover their service. Dad did not go, but unhappy, at least was willing to pay for their first trip and visit.

They saw mother and daughter at the center, happy with one more customer, receiving them nearly with a royal carpet treatment with a limo right from the airport. They were there early one morning, and after the initial paperwork formalities they got right into their 3 T’s evaluations by three (PT, OT and ST) specialists which led without interruption into their intensive therapeutic stimulation sessions -with their goal ‘towards excellence’- even before lunch.

They bombarded the girl with colorful images, film, much direct talk, forced guided walks, even with touch-and-feel, and particularly with intermittent startling sounds that had the intensity of loudness of a gong in a boxing ring. That went on as well all afternoon. Convenient accommodations were next door. The same ‘stimulation’ went on from the very beginning the next morning till two hours before the return flight was due. In the last half hour mom was given detailed instructions to carry out the same at home, specified hour by hour, by which point she already had made extensive notes about what she was going to embark herself into -and her husband plus volunteer neighbors!- through the time of their next appointment when they would reevaluate the girl and assess her progress, again (and for a total of 6 similar visits) ‘always towards excellence.’

The issue of mom’s intensive efforts became well known in town and soon even caught the attention of the press, all praising mom for such ‘faith, dedication, hard work and endurance’ in spite of the little progress seen. Within two weeks after their return from the big city, tired of the demands, volunteer neighbors coming in and out of their house all day long, mutual marital alienation -‘and of the loud gong!’- dad had disappeared. Sad! Seemingly impervious to the massive demands of their time and their broken marriage, mom continued with it all as if nothing had happened. She acted as a happy martyr.

Dr. Martin got to see the family’s misfortune and demise two more times over the next 8 months. Over that time, he saw no perceptible progress in the girl’s communication as she remained non verbal, distant and aloof without eye contact. And his ‘non-supportive’ position to all that extraordinary intervention for the poor autistic girl was reported by a local teacher to the State Health Department, The Wolves: He does not believe in helping these kids! Dr. Martin is dangerous! He has to go!…

5-B: Harry Jamison was a developmentally delayed preschooler. He was 4&1/2 years old that winter and due for regular kindergarten the next fall. But mom knew he was not ready for school by a long shot though he was making steady progress. He was altogether about 1 to 1&1/2 years behind other kids of his age, still not interested in learning his colors, letters or numbers and not having yet started to pedal a tricycle. [Dr. Martin tells this writer with a chuckle that HIS KIDS were beginning to read by 2…]. When his mother tried to read stories to Harry out of toddlers’ books he’d look the other way. If she forcefully kept him at her side sitting on the couch as she was showing the pages identifying for him the animal pictures, he simply fidgeted, uninterested. He was just not ready though he was starting to become calmer and interested in watching the TV screen, especially if it had fast moving scenes.

Mom told all that to Dr. Martin. She also told him that he had been enrolled since age 3 in an Early Intervention program (where he was getting the 3-T’s) but that whenever she attended his sessions (‘just to take a look and learn myself what to do at home’) she did not see what was ‘the purpose of all that.’ Much of the so called ‘Intervention’ was just baby sitting, there was no interaction with other kids, no group activities that would engage him -he rather wandered by himself around the classroom or in the school yard when all were outside- and he was not paying attention when 1-to-1 ‘teaching’ or ‘therapy’ was attempted.

Yet in Dr. Martin’s observations and in his neuro-developmental examination of little Harry, he saw no major neurological diagnosis like C.P. or autism or even PDD (‘Pervasive Developmental Disorder’). He just saw the kid as basically a normal ‘late bloomer’ toddler and so he told his mother. ”As such, he told her, I believe that he has the potential to become a normal youngster and even a normal adult, even if he goes through school a couple of years behind.” He further told his mother that he would not have put him through all that ‘E.I.’ and that he simply would have let him grow up and mature at his own pace with plenty of love at home and without coercing him into activities and participation in learning as he was now forced to attend. Dr. Martin hammered these comments by reassuring her with the recent news (kept hidden in the US) that in some Scandinavian areas -where kids in high school show more proficiency than in the US- ‘school attendance was not started till 6 or 7.’ Mom felt happy to hear that.

Along the same lines, Dr. Martin further told the mother -a matter not easily admitted and shared among parents, considered sort of demeaning, as if your kids were slow- that HE, a doctor now, was once held back in elementary school (he had grown up in Western Europe) and had become a straight A student after that. That two of his own kids, now high achievers and PhDs, had attended just 1/2 day kindergarten, NOT intensive, “early stuff’. “Holding a late bloomer back simply sets him when he is ready at his own speed, so he feels more comfortable, instead of being pushed, struggling all along and trying to catch up,” he told her.

And of course the first thing mom did when she got home was to call the school - Sandwell Elementary- and tell them that she was going to keep little Harry at home from then on; that she planned to give her son herself all the stimulation he needed -and that he could handle- until HE was ready for regular school. Believing the specialist Dr. Martin, she thought that he was just a late bloomer and that he would mature at his own good pace without forcing things onto him. Well done!

“And Dr, Martin told you to pull him out of school?” the Principal asked her.

“Yeap! He did! And I am very happy with it and I feel he is right!.”

Needles to say, that created a commotion in school. In a teachers’ conference, only two teachers who knew the mother personally and felt she was a very capable woman, agreed with her decision of pulling him out of Pre-K. But most showed displeasure and even outrage. Sandwell school took mostly pre-schoolers and was heavily invested into Special Ed, Early Intervention, early stuff, the 3-T’s, etc. Cases like that of Harry Jamison would give the school and its programs a black eye…

And of course the Principal called the local Office of Professional Conduct (OPC, The Wolves) to hurt Dr. Martin. It brought against him ANOTHER complaint to the State Health Department!. He is bad for our area, for our schools. The man has to go! [Indeed, Dr. Martin was asking for it! I say]

5-C: A mother with a set of triplets, Mrs. Moulder, from a town some some 70 miles away, came one day with the three kids to see Dr. Martin. Actually she had had quadruplets but the fourth hadn’t made it beyond birth. The three were 7&1/2 months old. Mom was concerned that they were simply not up the level of the other infants attending the same nursery school. They were not babbling, they did not lough, hardly smiled, did not roll or sit up, lying most of the time on their backs, but seemed to her otherwise good looking and sort of happy. One of the three especially was not interested in anything, her eyes wandering aimlessly. The two boys were ‘a pinch more with it’ than she was.

Mom had had difficult time conceiving. She and her husband had tried locally every available aid to conceive, word-of-mouth suggestion, professional medical advice and had even entertained just adopting. Then they heard of a far away center that specialized in IVF (In Vitro Fertilization). It would be a very expensive proposition but they went for it… And it worked!

She did conceive via IVF (for five fetuses!) with her husband’s sperm. One died intrautero. Another did not make it more than a couple of hours after the C-Section that had been performed on the 8th month; the autopsy had revealed a severe congenital heart defect incompatible with life. Just three survived. But the three, a girl and two boys, were thriving slowly, not progressing at the speed of others of similar age. All three had a heart defect -just ‘a hole in the heart,’ no big deal- but had no other obvious physical anomaly. Their local pediatrician did not have a diagnosis for the parents and simply told them to just give them time.

Dr. Martin examined all three as they laid with just their diapers naked on blankets on the floor of his office. The physical and neurological parts, like measurements of their head, an eye exam, muscle tone and reflexes, were all unremarkable. That was simple and straight forward. The most important part for him was observing them as he talked to mom and she gave their history, and also hers and her husband’s family history. They clearly had limited eye contact, especially the girl, and in spite of Dr. Martin, on his knees, trying to stimulate them with toys, playing with their hands, tickling them, etc., he could not get them to look into his own eyes or smile and giggle. He thought at their age that was very worrisome.

Dr. Martin was particularly a stinker about pulling out of her mouth -nearly with forceps- health and ‘social function’ of as many relatives as she knew going back to second cousins. She seemed clearly reticent about giving all that history, probably guessing where Dr. Martin was leading to. And yes, she had a maternal first cousin with Down’s syndrome, another who had been a bit slow in school and only did menial jobs and her husband had an aunt said to have had C.P…

Dr. Martin was frank with her and told her that all three were autistic, especially worst, the girl. Mom had heard the word but no one had ever mentioned to her that her kids were so… He suggested to her to just keep loving them and holding them and talking to them often and also to give them time. ‘If they one day ‘pop out of the shell and open up, becoming normal kids -as some do- they will do so on their own,’ not with intensive therapy and stimulation though such was available in a number of places. He even gave mom the name and addresses of a couple of such centers specialized in autism (as in the previous case) if she wanted to contact them herself. He would send her and her pediatrician his consultation, so she could bring his notes to wherever she went.

She did call the center specialized in autism at the University of Chichester, a good three hours away from her home. They wanted his consultation before she went there, not knowing that she was going to bring it along; they called Dr. Martin in person to ask him for it. They were concerned -to get paid, one presumes- ’that she had not been referred by a physician’ as mom had just made the appointment on her own.

“Don’t you think those kids badly need our special services?” they asked him.

“Well, I’ll leave the judgment of that to you; after you see them and work with them,” he answered in a brief phone conversation with the center’s intake clerk.

Dr. Martin was aware already that his negative feelings about extraordinary intervention for autistics were already known in Chichester… He was also aware of the organization ‘Autism Blabbers’ (or something like that, and that TV-aired commercials emphasize how crucial it was -for successful intervention- for autistics to be diagnosed ‘as early as possible.’ The average diagnosis then was usually made at age two. Yet Dr. Martin could detect it much earlier, as in the Moulder triplets, but did not think it was so crucial to find it that early. In his opinion, if an autistic child pops out of his isolation shell at some point, he does it on his own, regardless!

The Director of the Center for Autism of the U. of Chichester had already reported Dr. Martin to OPC, the State Health Department, The Wolves, as dangerous!

Some four years later Dr. Martin would hear from Mrs. Moulder that her triplets were still ‘slow’ (still autistic), several years behind in their speech… He’d been right!… But The Wolves -or elementary schools- would never accept that…

5-D: Dr. Trist was a known G.P. who lived and practiced in a suburban town not far from Dr. Martin. He too, as the Moulders above, (5-C) had in his family a set of autistic twins. Both had been delivered by a C-Section that otherwise went on uneventfully. Things went well for them in the first six months or so, but Dr. Trist, their father, began to be concerned after that when they were slower than his charts said they should as far as not sitting by six months, crawling by nine, standing by ten or walking by 12 to 15 months. They were making some sounds by a year but no articulated words… “Give them more time before you worry. They are probably just late bloomers” had told him the boys’ pediatrician (actually quite in line with Dr. Martin’s opinion).

But Dr. Trist was not satisfied with just give them time. He knew of Dr. Martin as a trusted and knowledgeable specialist and he had referred to him his own patients with various issues. So he asked him to take a look at his own twins when they were 18 months old. He knew they were already developing too slow and he needed to get a diagnosis that would at least put his and his wife’s fears at rest one way or another.

Dr. Martin greeted his colleague Dr. Trist in his waiting room. The Trist twins, both boys, were sitting in a double, interconnected stroller that was being pushed by mom. Right in the waiting area Dr. Martin noticed that they were not focusing their eyes on any of the many colorful distractions -figurines and paintings- that were in all his walls with wooden toys and stuffed animals purposely strewn all over the floor. They were not looking at him either even though after the initial hand shake to the parents Dr. Martin was quickly trying hard to engage the boys’ eyes. That was really all it took Dr. Martin to nail the diagnosis of autism right in his waiting room, though he had already suspected it when Dr. Trist himself had called him on the phone two days earlier with his concerns and had made the appointment to bring them to him.

In his consultation room, with blankets laid on the floor by their mom, as with other infants checked for developmental concerns, the boys were placed on their bellies. Dr. Martin was given the kids’ perinatal history -the planned C-Section in the 8th month- their birth weight -about 4 lbs each-, that they were up to date in their shots without unusual reactions, and the family history. Dr. Trist did volunteer before his wife that SHE had a niece in her teens who was ‘just a pinch slow in school.’ Dr. Martin’s guessing by the girl’s age, her grade and the Special Ed she was attending, he judged that her IQ probably hovered in the 60s; she had no precise diagnosis; they were just told that ‘perhaps she had a touch of C.P.’

Dr. Martin wanted to see how the boys crawled or scooted around. But they didn’t. On their bellies, they did not prop themselves up on their elbows to look at things or at each other. After a while, they did roll over on their own without help -a 3 to 4 month milestone-; but they were already 18 months old!… They did not move around once they were on their backs. And the room was quiet, without giggling or a child’s words or laughter; only the adults’ intermittent talk was heard. The hard findings of the physical and neurological examination were normal. The twins did not have odd facies, unusual muscle tone or reflexes, their heads were not too big or too small, they had no birthmarks, their eye grounds were fine and in a still photograph they would have looked like a perfect pair of adorable young toddlers… But they did not show visual interest or face-to-face focusing. They were clearly autistic to Dr. Martin. No doubt. And moderately so, unfortunately. And so he told the parents.

“I feared that,” said his colleague Dr. Trist. “I was guessing they might be autistic but I kept talking to myself out of it. I did not want to scare my wife. Any ideas what might have caused it?”

“That is a contentious point this days,” said Dr. Martin. “There is so much talk in the Media about it being caused by this and that event during the pregnancy, especially by a case of subclinical maternal Rubella… and now specially by the Pertussis immunization… But I don’t believe that. You may know perhaps that the British doctor whose research pointed in the 1980s to the Pertussis vaccine as the cause of autism was disbarred, his research discredited as having much of its data been made up… I’ve entertained myself for a long time that it is nearly exclusively genetic, but this is also sensitive issue to tell everybody… I have seen over a hundred cases in all these years, and have no other theory as for its cause. I have my case load all charted out and I’m ready to publish a paper with my findings, but I am not sure I will send it…”

Dr. Trist and his wife got quiet, without words. A subtle air of defensive hostility to such comments was sensed by Dr. Martin. After a while, they asked him about Early Intervention and he told them of the many programs available through the local public schools, especially at Sandwell Elementary. He also mentioned for them the out of town centers specialized in autism, one in the state, two hours to the west; the other at 4 hours drive south of the border. He did not share with them his skepticism of the value of such programs… He thought that in time they would judge that themselves.

Dr. Trist did not have much else to say before they left, but a day later he called Dr. Martin to thank him for the visit and to share with him his own conviction that it all had been caused by ‘just complications of a twin pregnancy with so much fluid’…

Until then, Dr. Trist used to send his patients for a neurological consultation to Dr. Martin. But that stopped then. He never sent him another patient though his own G.P. colleagues continued to do so regularly. Ah well… Another enemy?…

5-E: Not too long ago Dr. Martin heard of a new wave of instruction and communication with- and for autistic kids. It was called ‘Eased Communication’ (or ‘Helped, Facilitated’ or something like that). It was shown by the local Media with actual demonstrations about how well autistics -who otherwise had been left as unapproachable- could communicate, even at a high intellectual level. The local University had its psychologists so enthused about such ‘eased’ interaction with autistics that it had created a whole new department with full space facilities in one of its buildings that had been till then underused.

A 19 year old autistic, Henry Duffy, was being a phenomenon and proof of remarkable progress with such new communication and one Spring, the local TV showed one of his sessions and how he was graduating ‘from regular high school’ (wow!) and he was even heading for college with the assistance of Eased Communication.

[Case repeated here as in Dr. Lee’s painting #19 in the book “FRANKLY,” to which this is its Sequel]

This entailed his special ‘communicating aide’ to work with him one-to-one by his side at all times and a special small word processing lap-top computer (with a screen and a key board, of course). The idea was that, as the student, sitting with his right hand over the key board, his aide, by simultaneously ‘supporting’/guiding his right elbow, Henry would tap the correct key he needed to answer on the screen questions posed to him. In this format, Henry had shown quite a proficiency. He was ready to graduate and even go to college! Wow!

But Dr. Martin was skeptical of the whole thing. He thought the whole ‘Eased Communication’ thing might just be a made up hoax, just wishful thinking. The issue had come up in one of the regular monthly meetings of the local county pediatric society that Dr. Martin attended regularly. A colleague of his, a Dr. Ellen Rose, had mentioned to him that she knew Henry Duffy as he was a pediatric patient of hers in her part of town. In fact, she reminded Frank Martin that HE too had evaluated Henry a few years back and had even been the one who had diagnosed him with Autism.

“I wonder if I can attend one of his ‘eased’ sessions in school, just as an observer.

Do you think, Ellen that I can call the school psychologist and inquire about that? Perhaps you can ask his parents if that would be OK with them.”

“I think that’s a great idea, Frank. I am all sold into this ‘Eased Communication’ and it will be great for you to have one of those sessions with Henry to convince you.”

They set up one day for Dr. Martin to come to Henry’ school to attend a demonstration. The doctor happened to know in that school also the Henry’s supervising psychologist, a woman whose kid with ADHD had also seen Dr. Martin a couple of years earlier and was for that taking Ritalin.

In an empty classroom, in the middle of a long bench table was an open and ready to be used ‘easing’ communication computer. There were two chairs in front of it, one exactly in front of it, the other to its right. Henry was sat in front of the machine and his special ‘easing aide’ sat to his right and supported with his own hands Henry’s right elbow. Dr. Martin had given his aide written questions to ask –and asked the aide to write HIS answers in a separate piece of paper. So the session went:

“How many legs has a dog?” the aide asked

“f-o-o-r” Henry typed slowly taking a good 5 seconds per key. [he probably meant “four,” the ‘o’ key being not far from the ’u’ in typewriters].

“Is your house about a mile from the school?”

“y-r-s” was Henry answer. [for “yes”, again, the ‘r’ being close to the due ‘e’]

“What’s the Capital of France?”

“p-a-e-u-s” he typed [we presume for “paris,” the ‘e’ being in the key board close to the ‘r’ and the ‘u’ close the the ‘i’; and he couldn’t do capitals with one hand]

“And the Capital of Canada?”

“t-i-f-i-n-t-p” [the 3 ‘o’ being hit wrong each time: ‘i’ then ‘i’ and then ‘p’; we presume for “toronto,” which was the prepared hand-written answer by his aide. Obviously neither of them knew that the correct answer was Ottawa. Most likely therefore his aide had ‘guided’ Henry’s elbow to hit ‘the approximate keys’ of the wrong answer that Henry, if he really was ready for college should have known!]. And as in “Paris” he could not capitalize the first letter as that -normally a two-hand command for most of us-, his aide could not help him “aiding only “one elbow” of Henry. His aide credited his answer as correct anyway, as he had the other two previous words, in spite of the fact that many of the hits were just ‘approximate hits.’

Etc, etc. as the session went on for about half an hour. To Dr. Martin, Henry was only hitting 30 to 50% of the correct keys, and only of the words his aide knew, which means that HE was not entering the answers, his aide was, and controlling Henry’s arm only by the elbow, with poor accuracy. The whole ‘Eased’ thing -as far as that session showed him- was indeed a hoax to Dr. Martin and so he told his parents, the school psychologist and the pediatrician Dr. Ellen Rose.

From then on, neither that school psychologist nor Henry’ pediatrician ever sent any more patients to Dr. Martin; they were probably ticked off at him. He was indeed positioning himself with his broad but evolving knowledge and unique, even extreme views -positive on the genetics of most human illnesses but negative on the value of most forms of ‘therapy’- into very risky territory that eventually would endanger his practice, his reputation and perhaps even his profession and livelihood..

5-F: Mindy Springville was a 14 year old girl who was struggling in school, a regular public school. She was already two years behind, only in 7th instead of 9th grade. Other kids were not kind to her; to make things worse, she was on the chunky side, which brought humiliating mockery from her peers. She could not help it: Everybody at home was quite heavy. She began to skip school. She attended counseling, which was not doing much for her. But being only 14 with mandatory school attendance, she was considered delinquent; if they did not clamp down on her to attend classes regularly, her parents were threatened with removing Mindy from their household and placing her in a foster home.

Mom had known Dr. Martin as she had brought Mindy to see him two years earlier seeking help for assumed LD and ADD. He had tried her on Adderal -which had helped only a pinch academically- but on which mom was happy that Mindy had lost a good 30 lbs. Now he wanted the doctor to see Mindy again to see if he had up his sleeve some other form of help for her daughter…

He thought the situation presented itself in practical terms sort of helpless as the girl was not progressing in her math and reading beyond a 6th grade level and no medications he could prescribe were going to change that. Deep down Dr. Martin thought that the girl’s effective reading and math level were not even at 4th grade. He was very frank with her mother and told her that he would not object to Mindy quitting her ‘academic’ school if she could be placed in some sort of vocational setting. But that was not available for kids in 7th grade… Before the visit was over he told her mother that he would call the school psychologist -Mindy’s counselor- and try to arrange a meeting with her, the Principal and Mindy’s teachers, meeting that HE was willing to attend at his own time (unpaid, of course; Mindy was on Medicaid, which meant her long visits to see him -for a piddly reimbursement- were at a net loss for him).

The meeting was arranged. Along with Mindy’s teachers, a large number of school officials also attended, plus Mindy’s parents and Dr. Martin. All sat around a large, rectangular table. Her regular teacher, her aide and her counselor got to talk. They were out of solutions to offer. The Principal suggested that the school could increase the tutoring time with her 1-to-1 aide. ’But school attendance has to be enforced.’ He insisted.

Then Dr. Martin talked. He suggested to reduce her school attendance hours to just half a day in school/half a day at home and to eliminate further insistence upon math and reading, giving her instead during her school hours some exposure to available vocational ‘aide’ options such as nurse’s aide, teacher’s/pre-school aide, bus aide, housekeeping/janitorial aide, and some exposure -not to miss a hidden potential- to arts and crafts. Mom in the meantime would work at home on her reading and writing through periodic easy assignments sent by her regular teacher…

Mom, sitting at one end of the table, listened to him with signs of approval. The Principal was very reluctance to allow such (it would entail less teaching and disruption plus one more bus ride in the middle of the day); yet her regular teacher, her aide and the psychologist were for it… After much discussion and whispering among all, they finally agreed with Dr. Martin’s proposal. The Principal seemed reassured by hearing from the psychologist that the girl most likely would quit any way by 16, just 15 months away, quite legal then. The doc further suggested that in the next academic year when the girl would be 15, that she could spend her school hours in the District’s ‘Voc-Tech’ school to see if they could detect any inclination towards a particular skill. In the rest of the day she could also be employed in the fast food industry and the like.

As a follow up 6 months later and entering the next academic year at the end of the summer, her mother reported to the doctor how much better her daughter was doing, how she was even looking forward to re-start school, how her school skipping in the last trimester of the previous year had stopped, that she had continued to lose weight and that there no longer fights reported by anyone. Hurrah!!!

But Dr, Martin recalled how tough the Principal had been with him. How he had been opposed to his unconventional suggestions. How, after that meeting, the Principal had told him that he was becoming very unpopular with many other Principals too for often recommending special services be terminated for learning disabled kids, for suggesting early school quitting for teenagers who were behind and for being against Early Education for toddlers… [by then, Dr. Martin was already aware of his growing unpopularity various schools’ officials.]

A Superintendent of a large school district an hour away from Dr. Martin who had learned of Dr. Martin’s early fame for being so good with kids with LD, ADD/ADHD and PDD, and who used to have her teachers refer to him students with learning and behavior issues, had invited the doctor to give a conference to her staff. Delighted, he volunteered (for no pay in spite of the 3 hours-plus it would involve). The conference, to expand on his unorthodox views on Early Education, early ‘vocational’ training for teenagers, the genetic origin of most learning issues, etc., was an apparent success, the doctor being bombarded with questions all along -as he actually invited interruptions- till he finished… But at the end, after a brief pause, all of a sudden, with no more questions, he stepped out briefly; ‘I’ll be right back’…

Understandably, -did the Superintended tell the teachers NOT to ask him any more questions? Indeed when he returned and invited more questions, there was… Total silence. He never heard again from anyone in that school district. [And so even Dr. Martin anticipated. He realized that with his openness he was cutting his own throat. That they had talked to OPC…

Dr. Martin’s reputation had gone way up over the years -nearly thirty- as one of the best in treating children with all sorts of neurological, school and developmental issues… But then, at the turn of the Millennium, he was quickly approaching a cliff, precipice. OPC, The Wolves, were begging to form a circle around him for a sure kill…]