Steve Goldstein's Post of Today

[Guest guest]

I should feel gratified that Hazem Elariny's love-blinded loyalists

are so threatened by me that they find it necessary to mount a sleaze

campaign against me. I'm an infrequent poster–just one post every

couple of months or so–but I'm now being flamed to an extent I don't

believe I've seen happen to anyone on this list since I joined. I've

hit the big time.

I have made no secret of the circumstances under which I ceased to be

an Elariny patient. I have made no secret of my opposition to

Elariny's advocacy of the stand-alone sleeve gastrectomy.

I have not hesitated to post about both on more than one occasion.

So why, and about what, am I being " outed " ?

Steve Goldstein did not reply to my original post last week

about " the fallibility of surgeons. " (The point of that post,

ironically, was that a patient can have an experience with a surgeon

that's very different from someone else's experience with that

surgeon without either becoming blind to the surgeon's shortcomings

or attacking the other patient.) When M. posted a reply to my

post that showed she had apparently misunderstood me to say that

Elariny was no longer doing the BPD/DS, Steve posted a reply that

took issue with several of the points I'd made about Elariny's

practice--and then asked me if I was " still " pursuing a lawsuit

against Elariny.

I am not suing Elariny, and have not sued him in the past, as I said

in my reply to Steve's post. I then asked him to continue the

discussion with me privately–thus showing Steve more courtesy than he

had shown and is showing me.

Where had he heard that I was suing Elariny? In an informal, oral

discussion group, Steve replied. Who'd said it? Steve didn't

remember. How did that person acquire the information? From a post

to another list–and under a different name. Which list? Steve

didn't remember. What name? Steve didn't remember. How did the

person know that it was I posting under a different name? Steve

didn't know. Had he seen the post? Steve had not.

In other words, Steve had posted gossip to the list as fact, having

made no effort to verify his allegation before doing so. That's a

reckless thing for any responsible, intelligent adult to do; it's a

surprising thing for a list moderator to do.

Nor did Steve ask my permission to post my private e-mails to him to

the list.

Before this episode, Steve and I had exchanged a few friendly private

e-mails. If he really wanted to know if I was suing Elariny, why

post such a question to the list? Why not just e-mail me? Steve's

question was responsive to nothing I had written, to nothing anyone

else had written. When I first saw the question, I could think of

only one purpose for it: to batter my credibility as a critic of

Elariny, by imputing a financial motive to me. That suspicion is

now a certainty.

Steve's pluckings from Elariny's page on the AMOS website don't

substantiate his allegation that I am or ever was a litigant against

Elariny. They don't show that Miss CLF or Kay Bee Too is, are, was,

or were so involved, either. And, they don't explain why Steve saw

fit to target me in the first place. If we can't exchange

information and, yes, criticism about DS surgeons without fear of

being personally targeted ourselves, why are we here?

Steve's post doesn't disprove a single thing I said about the way

Elariny abandoned me after my surgery was canceled due to his

inefficiency. It doesn't make Elariny's sleeve gastrectomy any more

efficacious as a means to permanent weight loss. It doesn't make

Elariny an hour more mature or his judgment a whit better.

I am a witness to the way Elariny dismissed me from his care, and

Steve isn't, so he can't attack me for that. There's plenty of

evidence in posts on the DS-Elariny list from current Elariny

patients that he's encouraging people to opt for the stand-alone

sleeve gastrectomy, so Steve can't attack me for that. I cited

chapter and verse from the DS-Elariny list for my claim that Elariny

has offered to intentionally disable the pylorus, including Steve's

own contribution on the subject, so Steve can't attack me for that.

When you can't attack the argument, attack the person. It's an

ancient stratagem.

Nothing can be done here about oral gossip among members of a support

group, but when gossip about a member of this list is posted to the

list as fact, by a moderator, I say, " Foul. "

I haven't researched the issue of whether Elariny's disclosures to

Steve and possibly others constitute a violation of patient

confidentiality, but at the very least Elariny showed poor judgment

in the telling. Whoops! Fodder for another " negative " post!

And if you thought, Steve, that I would unsubscribe from the list, or

stop posting " negative " things about your favorite surgeon whenever I

see a need to do so–

Think again.