Letter to People Magazine re:Dr.Vicky Hufnagel article

May 21, 2002

The May 6, 2002 issue of People Magazine had a very one sided hatchet job on the

case of Dr.Vicki Hufnagel,MD. Dr.Hufnagel is a gynecological surgeon who has

written " No More Hysterectomies " , she states that 90% of the hysterectomies

performed are not necessary.She pioneered the field of Female Reconstructive

Surgery a kind of organ saving procedure that tries to limit the unalterable

changes concommitant with a full hysterectomy. Basically the female

repreoductive organs are not only used for reproduction. Overall health

continues to be effected by their removal. Bne loss frequently is accelerated,

cardiovaxcular disease increases in frequency, depression gains ascendancy and

the woman puts on weight and this only feeds basis for more severe depression.

You get the picture. The patient becomes a steady customer for more of those

" female complaints " and the patient doesn't even realize it's mostly the

surgeons fault. The slogan " if in doubt cut it out " increases the flow of income

for doctors, hospitals and drug compnies but jeopardizes women's health.

As you can imagine Dr.Hufnagel was strongly opposed by The American Colllege of

Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Her key role in helping to draft strict

Informed Consent legislation for Hysterectomies and an outspoken advocate of

patients qustioning their doctors and assuming the doctor only has the patients

interest as a consideration.

Reviewing her website www.drhufnagel.com has a lot of material on her case and

her therapy. Her site inverted her telephone number, which is actually

323-874-5530, in California Pacific Time.

Consumers Health Freedom Coalition

720 Fort Washington Avenue New York, NY 10040

212-795-6460

May 20,2002

People Magazine

1271 Avenue of the Americas

New York,NY 10019

To The Editor:

The article Diagnosis: Danger by and others in the issue of May

6, is appropriately titled Controversy, but is very unfair in its selection of

one sided presentation of some adverse outcomes without a full explanation the

circumstances and background of the campaign to discredit Dr.Vicki Hufnagel,MD.

Dr.Hufnagel was never given the full opportunity give her explanation of the

cases presented. The case of Rama Fox is the same person as Rama Haggerty who

lost her legal case against Dr.Hufnagel.12-0. Rama Haggerty lied before Judge

Neher and conspired to bring the court case she lost. Her credibility is very

questionable.

Even if your authors were pressed for time they could have at least looked at

Dr.Hufnagel's website www.drhufnagel.com where most of this information is

available easily to anyone intent on approaching the story with an open mind.

Nowhere does your article inform the reader that the California Medical Board

(CMB)

overrode the recommendation of its own Judge Neher, who after conducting a full

hearing recommended probation since no patient was harmed. The CMB displayed a

complete disregard of the facts adduced in two years of hearings and voted to

revoke Dr.Hufnagel's license without having the official transcript of the

entire hearing. The date the recording clerk completed the transcript is AFTER

the date of the CMB decision to revoke the license. This on its face, shows the

bias and motivation of the CMB. Subsequently the CMB was dismissed and

reconstituted when it was found to be acting arbitrarily in many other cases,

especially where doctors were challenging conventional medical orthodoxy.

The references to prior problems at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA completely

ignores the sexual harassment complaint against one Dr.Wade one of the doctors

on the staff. This complaint was determined to have merit by the Federal Equal

Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC). Cedars-Sinai was instructed to hold

a hearing, but covered up and never took action on the hearings and testimony in

which Dr.Wade admitted he had a sexual relationship with Dr.Hufnagel and asked

her to marry him. When she refused to marry him she was terminated. The

testimony of a nurse at Cedars-Sinai that a doctor could not be located sounds

very commonplace in a large hospital.

While you indicate Dr.Hufnagel has been a prominent figure in women's rights

issues, you do not explore this record and make it sound as if she is only

backed by feminist political allies who are not aware of her medical/scientific

malpractice. This leaves a false and misleading opinion. Dr. Hufnagel was

instrumental in helping to write the California Informed Consent for

Hysterectomy Law with State Senator Diane , now a US Congresswoman. The

practice of using exploratory surgery as non-threatening precursor to an

unwanted hysterectomy had been curbed. Dr. Hufnagel had strong opposition from

the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) particularly the

California chapter led by Dr.s White.. Threats and even physical violence

were witnessed and attested to. Your reporters did not feel this was relevant.

From reading the biased article a reader could ask " what is the controversy? " In

a 5 page article only 2 fleeting paragraphs are devoted to any satisfied

patients actress Candace Gross and nurse Tammy with favorable outcomes,

both of whom are selectively quoted to shed doubt on Dr.Hufnagel's legitimate

claim to reinstatement of her license.

Current Research confirms Dr.Hufnagel's opinion that Hysterectomy is frequently

overprescribed. Doctors at UCLA reviewed 497 cases of hysterectomies. They found

that where cancer is not involved, 70% were inappropriate. This was published in

Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2000:95(2):199-205.This is close to Dr.Hufnagel's

estimate of over 90%

European rates of hysterectomy are much lower and in the United States rates

vary widely by region. The southern states are much more likely to perform a

hysterectomy than in the northeast.It must be remembered that the gynecologists

critical of Dr.Hufnagel, are in fact competitive practitioners, providing a

lower quality service limited by the constraints of orthodox medicine. As long

as patients can be scared away from Female Reconstructive Surgery, these doctors

can keep on providing a severely debilitating and outmoded form of treatment.

Sincerely,

__________

Arnold Gore

May 21, 2002

For those of you who want to the send an email to the editor of People

Magazine the Email is editor@... you can use material from my letter if

you want or make up your own material.

Dr Hufnagel's website is www.drhufnagel.com it has some of the material I used.

arnold