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Dear NFRA Supporters,
In a decision reached at a hearing in Raleigh, North Carolina, January
25, 2003 the North Carolina Medical Board indefinitely suspended Dr. Michael
Rosner's medical license. He will be eligible to reapply for his
license in six months. Dr. Rosner is a neurosurgeon and has been exploited
by the media as doing surgeries to "cure" fibromyalgia and CFIDS.
Dr. Rosner has never performed a surgery as a treatment for FM/CFIDS.
He has only helped patients who have had true neurological conditions
that warranted treatment. Anyone wishing to help Dr. Rosner win his
case may do so by e-mailing us at nfra@firstpac.com.
Following is the letter the National Fibromyalgia Research Association
sent in support of Dr. Rosner and his work:
December 5, 2002
Mr. David Henderson
North Carolina Medical Board
1201 Front Street, Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27609-7533
Dear Mr. Henderson,
As an organization, the National Fibromyalgia Research Association (NFRA)
has existed for ten years in which time we have diligently worked to try
to discover more answers to the perplexity of this complicated, little
understood illness. We do not advocate craniectomy or cervical spinal
cord decompression surgery for fibromyalgia. However, we do advocate better
neurological examinations – the one taught in medical school –
for people suspected of having fibromyalgia. The sad fact is that many
people given the diagnosis of fibromyalgia are from that point forward
isolated in a special corner by the medical field and branded with a psychological
illness that covers every symptom known to mankind, regardless of whether
that symptom is actually part of fibromyalgia or not. Once a doctor sees
the term fibromyalgia in a patient’s history, very relevant symptoms
and signs of other illnesses are overlooked and help that might be available
to other people suffering from such ailments is purposely withheld by
very well meaning physicians. Such is the case with a rural Oregon FM
patient who repeatedly visited her family practice doctor complaining
of abnormal abdominal pain, whose symptoms were lumped into the fibromyalgia
category and who was turned away several times by that physician. Finally,
on her last visit when she was lying on the doctor’s office floor
unable to stand, she was admitted to the local hospital where tests were
done and emergency surgery undertaken to remove a gangrenous gallbladder.
This same scenario happens with cervical myelopathy and Chiari malformation patients who have been diagnosed with FM. When these patients enter the neurosurgeon’s office and FM is found in the their medical histories, the soft neurological signs found in a lackluster neuro exam are attributed to FM and the person is told that fibromyalgia is the culprit. Often if a patient enters the same neurosurgeon’s office without an FM diagnosis and the same neuro exam is performed, the doctor might see enough problems to warrant an MRI, which would reveal the reasons for the abnormal neuro exam. This patient may very well qualify for surgery and get the needed help required to relieve the discomfort caused by cervical myelopathy, giving them a chance for a much better quality of life. Unlike some of his peers, neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Rosner is extremely diligent in examining and charting these patients. His detailed neurological evaluations have revealed that many of these people lack a gag reflex and have numerous neurological abnormalities including numbness and tingling in the extremities, abnormal reflexes, sight problems, severe headaches at the base of the skull, Romberg sign, hyper-reflexes, muscle weakness and atrophy, bowel and bladder problems, abnormal gait, etc. It is only then that he calls for MRIs and further tests to ascertain true neurological conditions that might warrant surgery.
NFRA’s association with Dr. Rosner began in September 1997 when he was invited to present his work at our researchers’ symposium in Portland, Oregon. Since that time many advances have taken place concerning this area of thought. In January 1999, NFRA teamed up with Presbyterian Health Care and presented a symposium about these issues in Charlotte, North Carolina. Neurosurgeons, Dr. Thomas Milhorat from Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Dan Heffez from Chicago and Dr. Rosner presented their work relevant to these issues at that meeting. Neurologist Roger Kula from the State University of New York and rheumatologist, Dr. I. Jon Russell from the University of Texas Medical Center at San Antonio were also presenters at this meeting. Several Charlotte neurosurgeons were in the audience as well as other medical professionals. In the past three years NFRA has exhibited at six national neurological surgeons meetings. Luncheon or breakfast educational presentations regarding these neurological conditions have been made at every one of these conferences. Also, several posters have been displayed and a couple of podium presentations have been made regarding this information. Dr. Thomas Milhorat, head of neurosurgery at the State University of New York is in the process of opening a Chiari Institute in Brooklyn, the world’s most renowned center for the study and treatment of Chiari malformations. He has made the offer to evaluate people with FM to ascertain whether they have a Chiari malformation at this new clinic. Dr. Peter Jannetta, the neurosurgeon who perfected the trigeminal neuralgia surgery procedure, held a workshop regarding this new information at the University of Pittsburgh this past April. Immunologist, Dr. Dedra Buchwald, along with Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, head of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of Washington, were awarded an NIH Grant to study this issue.
If 1% of the 6 million (a conservative figure) FM patients in the United States actually have cervical myelopathy and/or Chiari malformations causing there symptoms, 60,000 people could be overlooked who might benefit from decompression surgery. If the figure jumps to 10%, it is 600,000 patients and if it is 20% more than 1 million people might qualify for help that is now being denied.
This year as in years past NFRA has received several memorial donations for FM patients who have committed suicide. These people had lost all hope and were so overburdened by their illness they felt they could not go on. It would have been wonderful if they could have had the opportunity to have an evaluation for the possibility of cervical myelopathy and/or Chiari malformation. Maybe one of them would have qualified for surgery and gotten the help they were so desperately seeking.
So, on behalf of millions of fibromyalgia sufferers, thank God for Dr.
Michael J. Rosner. He has opened the door to thought and possibilities
that had been overlooked by his peers. His compassion and willingness
to sacrifice his medical career to help his patients should be commended
not reprimanded. Today there are hundreds of lives that have been touched
by his genius and there will be millions of future lives dramatically
altered because he has stepped up to the challenge and has upheld his
oath as a doctor to help his patients.
Sincerely,
FMS Activist FMS Activist FMS Activist
Jack Scott |
Rae Marie Gleason |
Janette Pruitt |
cc: Mr. Mike Schulz, Park Ridge Hospital
Leslie Boyd, Asheville Citizen Times
Leigh Kelley, Times- News
Earl Peacock, MD, JD
National Fibromyalgia Research Association
PO Box 500, Salem, OR 97308
