Anesthesiologist Caught and Exposed

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This is really hard to listen to if you put yourself in the patient’s shoes who woke up after a colonoscopy and realized he had recorded the whole procedure. He didn’t mean to do so, but he did it by accident. And what he hears is shocking.

Dr. Tiffany M. Ingham is as unprofessional, cold and callous as they come and worst of all, she came up with a fake diagnosis to give the man even more hell he didn’t deserve when she said, “I’m going to mark ‘hemorrhoids’ even though we don’t see them and probably won’t.” Then she put the diagnosis in the man’s chart!  She flat out lied!

The victim was awarded $500,000 in a lawsuit, however, no discipline actions have been taken against Dr. Ingham, which I find really disheartening. This is a woman who gave the oath to do no harm, and she clearly violated that. She shows no respect for this patient whatsoever.

Sadly, most patients don’t know who they will get as an anesthesiologist when going under for a medical procedure or surgery. They typically don’t tell you who it will be, and you rarely see them.  Or if you do, it’s only at the very last minute when you can do nothing about it!

If you live in Florida, news reports say she is now living down by you and working there now. If you have to go under, I would certainly recommend that ask who your anesthesiologist is ahead of time so you can avoid this one. She clearly has serious issues that I don’t think will be resolved even by the exposure of this incident.

48 Hours: Bruce Beresford-Redman

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I have yet to watch 48 Hours from last weekend, but I have heard and seen that Bruce Beresford-Redman has been convicted of killing his wife Monica in Mexico in 2012.  You can watch the show above. If the link doesn’t work, you can click here.

I teach this case in my class and wrote about it on my blog back in 2012 when this case came to light that I did not trust Bruce.  Now a jury agrees.

Yet Bruce is still clinging to his innocence. I’m really curious to see if he makes more slips in this show!

You can read my original analysis of Bruce back in 2012 here.

Bruce was convicted on March 12, and given a light sentence of only 12 years.

Things That Cross My Mind

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If there is one thing that I do incessantly it is try to understand the world around me. I am endlessly curious. If a group of people “A” do one thing, then why do others do “B”? What motivates them? What is their truth?

Like everyone, I am watching the news on Ebola very closely trying to gauge how it could impact me and our world. As someone who travels for a living, I need to know what is going on so I can take the necessary precautions to protect myself, and keep me and my business healthy.

One element that has me very curious right now is the bio-hazard cleanups that occurred in four Ebola cases that we know of here in the U.S. And it raises questions for me, and leaves me with no concrete answers to understand.

We have been told that the only way Ebola is transmitted is through direct contact with body fluids. And we’ve also been told that Ebola can only live on surfaces for a short period of time. I suspect these are both truths from what we know to date. I have little reason to doubt anyone about this at this point.

I did some digging and found the longest studied documented case of Ebola surviving on another substance was 6 days.

So when someone comes down with Ebola, why are we severely gutting their apartments?

See what they did to Amber Vinson’s apartment here.

I can understand saying the apartment is a danger zone and banning people from entry for a week or two, and cleaning out perishable foods and liquids, and any contaminants such as blood or vomit, but to remove 53 barrels of waste material and call it hazardous from a small apartment is unsettling. They removed nearly everything.

It seems completely inconsistent and has me scratching my head in curiosity.

Also, I wouldn’t think they would want to send anyone in for a week to make sure we don’t further contaminate people unnecessarily.  Why take undue risks that aren’t necessary?  Let the virus die if it is there.

If they just did a basic sanitation and closed and locked the door for two weeks, you would think that would be sufficient, but by the actions we see people doing, they don’t believe it is. And who makes these decisions?  What are the laws? Are we just reacting out of fear?  What is the truth here? Is there fear Ebola could be spread through the air?

Then I was shocked to read the fiancee of the doctor in New York City, Morgan Dixon, went back to the apartment they shared with Craig Spencer, the first NYC doctor to return from Africa and get Ebola.  After a 1-day bio-cleanup in his apartment, she returned there again.   You can surmise if she was able to return to that apartment to live in it, it obviously wasn’t nearly as stripped as what we saw happen to the Texas for the nurses apartments, without question.

Why the differences?

And so I ask what is the truth here? Are people simply reacting in panic? Is this only going to happen in apartments to alleviate fears of the remaining residence? Is this overly cautious behavior?  Or is there more to this?

Can we continue to do this if we get a bigger outbreak?  Is this reasonable?

Right now I do not have the answers…I am watching closely to learn more.

 

Dateline: The Charleston Affair

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Did you catch Dateline this week? It profiled the strange and bizarre story of Chris and Nancy Latham. The two were in the mist of a divorce in South Carolina. Chris was a well-to-do banker for Bank of America and a well respect man in the community.

One night on the bad side of town, a patrol officer pulled over a car that had turned off its lights in while still driving. Yes, the cops were on to something, but much more than they realized.

The driver inside was 39-year old Aaron Wilkinson, and he was with his wife and dog. They were from out-of-town. Wilkinson admits that he was looking to buy drugs, but when the cops searched his vehicle, they found a loaded gun. Oddly, Wilkinson confessed to being pulled into a murder-for-hire plot. The plan, he said, was for him to kill Nancy Latham. That’s why he was in town. He had a “hit” file, if you will, which detailed everything about Nancy’s life. It caught everyone’s attention that this was a very serious and urgent matter as Wilkinson said.

The story then takes some incredible twists and turns.

Wilkinson says he didn’t want to do it, but he was being put up to it by his friend Samuel Yenawine who was at one time his cellmate in a Kentucky prison. He said he feared Yenawine, who had already killed someone.

We find out the Chris Latham’s new live-in girlfriend and secretary at Bank of America, Wendy Moore, was married to Samuel Yenawine. And Moore met with Wilkinson and Yenawine to give them the important documents to carry out the hit. She also gave them three separate payments–two under her name and one under an alias.

Wendy’s story? She said she was just giving Yenawine money to purchase a vehicle for their children, who resided with Yenawine.

This was an intriguing case of “whodunnit”.

Who was telling the truth? Who was the real mastermind behind it all?

I believe Aaron Wilkinson told the truth for the most part that Samuel Yenawine roped him into the situation and that he was afraid of Yenawine. Yenawine was truly someone to fear. I also believe he didn’t want to kill Nancy Latham. I believe that. He had a conscience. He was a troubled man, but a smart man.

I don’t believe Wendy Moore at all nor do I believe Chris Latham. Wendy Moore wants us to believe she is this sweet poor soul who did nothing wrong. It was absurd. And Chris Latham is a smart guy. He knew exactly who to use to get things done and keep his distance.

When I listen to the jailhouse tapes, the one who seems to be controlling the situation between Wendy and Chris is Chris. I believe he was ultimately the mastermind behind the murder for hire plot, but I don’t believe Wendy was innocent in this either. She clearly took an active part by choice.

I went back and read the news reports on the story, and Nancy Latham believes that when she discovered Chris’s affair with Wendy, had she disclosed it and testified about it in court, it would have cost Chris his job because an affair was against company policy. Furthermore, she believes that with the expensive divorce, removing her from the equation would have eliminated a lot of financial burden for Chris as well. This makes complete sense.

Thank goodness for Nancy that Aaron Wilkinson confessed and everything unfolded like it did.

Shanesha Taylor Leaves Kids in Hot Car

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Shanesha Taylor claims desperation as the reason she left her kids in the car in Arizona when she went into a job interview. She left two very young children, 2-years and 6 months, in their car seats with the windows cracked only an inch with the keys in the ignition. When the children were rescued, it was already 100 degrees inside the car.

This week prosecutors dropped felony charges, if she attended programs for parenting and substance abuse.

I am troubled by Shanesha’s responses in this interview. The way Shanesha talks about the babysitter and the reason she didn’t have one is hot for me. You can clearly see her speech patterns change, and what I call “thinking-on-her-feet behavior”. She doesn’t appear to be recollecting what actually happened. This is a huge red flag.

I seriously question if she ever had a babysitter.

When Matt Lauer asks Shanesha, “Despite the circumstances, did you act reasonably and responsibly?”

Listen to Shanesha’s response.

She says “That’s a difficult question”.

What??

I can understand she may have made a bad decisions because of stress, but I don’t understand not owning up to it now–especially considering she is getting a second chance!

She doesn’t yet own what she did was dangerous, and furthermore her answer shows no emotional compassion (regret/remorse) that she nearly killed her kids with her poor decision making at a supposed time of “crisis”.

With this response, I am worried for Shanesha’s children. People only make changes when they are willing to own up to their shortcomings and claim the errors that they made. No one is perfect, but given a second chance if she cannot clearly see what she did was the wrong choice, she has a high propensity to make the same decision again, and this next time could cost her children’s lives.

I am also sad that so many people stood up to help her when she shows no remorse or compassion for her children, the danger she put them in, and for her bad judgements.