Don't the cops have more important things to do in Miami? On Christmas Eve, "a team consisting of 12 FDA Special Agents, 6 Miami Dade Police Department Detectives, 2 DOH Investigators and 2 Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Investigators" raided the Miami Maternity Center following a 10 month investigation by the ULA (Unlicensed Activities Unit) who alleges "The ULA investigation disclosed that the pills being manufactured at MMC were from the dehydrated, placentas of various birth mothers. The organs would be ground up all together inside of a coffee grinder and placed into gelatin capsules by MMC staff members. The ULA investigation also disclosed that as many as 10 to 15 placentas at a time were being placed in layers inside of the MMC dehydration machine creating a cross contamination hazard." The law enforcement officials seized all of the MMC's patient records since 2006, computers, frozen placentas, dehydrated placentas, dehydrator machine, grinding device, prescription pads, billing records and all potential biohazard items.
OK, I understand why they wouldn't want the MMC to comingle placentas, but A 10 MONTH INVESTIGATION AND A RAID? Don't they have something better to do? Couldn't they just do an inspection of the center, check out how they do the dehydrating and encapsulating process, and be done with the whole thing? I'm not an expert in this, but wouldn't the dehydration process kill any blood-borne pathogens in the placentas? I would think the health risks involved in comingling the placentas would be negligible (if there were any health risks at all) Why do they need all of the patient records? What about HIPAA? If I were a client there, regardless of whether I had my placenta processed by them, I would be furious that the feds had my medical records!
For those of you new to the idea, some women choose to dehydrate and encapsulate their placentas. Ingesting placenta is thought to help with postpartum depression, increase milk supply, and even help with menopausal symptoms. If you go to http://placentabenefits.info/index.asp you can learn more about encapsulation and the benefits of doing so.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I'm with you on this one. If I were a patient I'd be ticked off about them having my medical records!!! Secondly, if I had hired the clinic for dehydrating and encapsulating my placenta, and if I already ingested it, I would just get over it. You know, it sucks they weren't very controlled about it, but, get a grip people! We probably ingest way more gross stuff just by eating McDonalds!
Kim, did you ever think that the 10 month investigation is probably about more than placenta pills? There is so much more to this story than you know. Hopefully soon it will all come out. One of her staff has been arrested and is going to trial in 2 weeks for practicing healthcare without a license. She knew this and allowed this woman to give care to her clients. It's a matter of public record. That is only the tip of the iceberg. Go on the DOH website and ACHA and look at the multiple complaints made against her over the years. They are outrageous and numerous. Sometimes where there's smoke there's fire. There's alot of fire here. I love midwives and midwifery care, I wouldn't choose anything different. Having said that, I will not condone what this woman does to moms and babies.
Post a Comment