Butchered By "Healthcare"

by Robert A. Yoho

HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE "HEALTHCARE," THE LARGEST AND MOST CORRUPT INDUSTRY IN AMERICA
✪ Learn what works. ✪ See through the lies. ✪ Handle hospitals. ✪ Find trustworthy doctors. ✪ Master your drugs and quit them with confidence. ✪ Consider holistic medicine
Healthcare is the top cause of all our overdue debts and personal bankruptcy. Our medical spending per person is double that of other countries', but fully half the treatments are ineffective or harmful. Immense, predatory industries such as angioplasty and coronary artery bypass surgery victimize us. These procedures cause complications and deaths, but few patients survive even a day longer. Most back and endoscopic knee surgeries are equally worthless. Seventy percent of us are on prescriptions, and 20 percent take over five. One in six uses psychiatric medicine, which commonly causes irreversible brain damage and premature death. Millions are now addicted to prescription opioids. Fifty-thousand people die each year from overdoses.The FDA allows big Pharma to falsify the studies required to patent drugs. These corporations hire armies of ghostwriters to stuff websites and medical journal articles with marketing lies. Finding the truth is now nearly impossible. But all this gets overlooked as the companies pay billions of dollars in criminal settlements nearly every year. Money short-circuits everyone's integrity, but there is an alternative. Patients and doctors can still prevail. Learn the system, and you can too.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Medicine, Medical, Science

364 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2020

About the author

Dr. Yoho is 66 years old in 2020. He spent three decades as a cosmetic surgeon after a career as an emergency physician. His generalist training gives him perspective and allows him to avoid favoring any medical specialty.
He has had little dealings with hospitals, big Pharma, or insurance companies before he wrote this book. No one has ever considered him a “whale” prescriber or device implanter. He retired from medical practice in 2019.

ABBREVIATED PROFESSIONAL CV:
✪ American Society of Cosmetic Breast Surgery: fellow, trustee, officer, and past-president.
✪ American Board of Cosmetic Surgery: passed board exams and twice re-certified. 
✪ American Board of Emergency Medicine: passed board exams and twice re-certified. 
✪ Fellow, American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (inactive).
✪ New Body Cosmetic Surgery Center: founder & director (inactive).
✪ American Association Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) accredited surgical/medical practice for over 25 years.

ABBREVIATED CLIMBER CV: 
✪ El Capitan, Half Dome (Yosemite): 24-hour ascents 
✪ Free ascents of Astroman (11.c) and Crucifix (12.a) 
✪ First ascents in Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Devils Tower
✪ Solo ascents to 5.10c

Reviews

[Sasha Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a poorly written, misleading, independently published book.

In 2013, two of Dr. Robert Yoho's cosmetic surgery patients - both women in their 30s - died in his surgical center as a result of non-life saving, unnecessary surgery.

An autopsy of K.P. showed perforations of the pleura, as well as rib fractures and hemorrhaging. The manner of death was likely caused by "trauma" caused by the surgical procedure and also the patient died of "cardiac dysfunction caused by arrhythmia due to hypertensive cardiomyopathy.” Toxic levels of lidocaine were found.

A Medical Board of California document gives details of three other Yoho patients, M.B, O.J., and M.A. (one dead, two harmed), and states Yoho performed elective cosmetic surgery on a patient with congestive heart failure. Much more negligence is listed.

In his book, Butchered by "Healthcare," Robert Yoho seems comfortable attacking elements in the medical field except the branch he participated in, which is full of undue risk and scams. Sure, sure, he aptly skewers psychiatry and says we must get rid of bad therapies, but fails to mention liposuction and fat transfers, which cause long-term health and contour problems or kills people; these practices are misguided and not medically or humanistically efficacious.

Yoho writes of one of the women who died due to his surgery, "The family of the woman with the fat embolus never sued because they had no chance of winning. It was an unpreventable risk of the procedure."

The way to prevent death by fat embolus is to not do risky, non-life saving surgery. A fat embolism is a glob of fat that gets into the bloodstream. It is problematic when the glob is too large to pass through a blood vessel, causing it to get stuck. 100% of the Zucker rats in a study experienced embolus in the short and long-term post liposuction.

Yoho writes he felt guilty and was sleepless for a bit during the lawsuit, and his wife was concerned they would have to give up their practice. According to his quote by Camus, it seems Robert Yoho found within himself an invincible summer. Well, some of his patients are dead, and others harmed, so no invincible summer for them.

On the Los Angeles Superior Court website as of Dec. 9, 2020, I count twelve cases of medical malpractice that were brought against Yoho in that county. In California with MICRA tort reform, it is a Herculean feat to get a medical malpractice lawyer, so I imagine more people had problems from the unnecessary surgeries.

Lipectomy (the act of cutting out fat) is the medical term for the removal of body fat. Fat tissue, an endocrine organ, can be suctioned out, chemically dissolved, cut out (as in breast reduction), and removed via laser and cooling methods. No matter the avenue, the end result is the same: the patient is left with fewer sub-Q fat cells. This leads to cell hypertrophy, increased visceral fat, and health and contour problems.

“A quarter-century after the nation’s plastic surgeons received what amounted to carte blanche to perform liposuction, a new analysis suggests that the procedure is no safer than it was back then. Making matters worse, the researchers said, the surgery has been oversimplified in the popular media... Throw into the mix an ample supply of seemingly unscrupulous physicians and state regulators who do not appear ready to crack down on them, and the result is a recipe for national disaster.” ~ Michael Vlessides, Clinical Anesthesiology

The harm from liposuction is under-reported, minimized, and not acknowledged. Lawyers say liposuction cases have bad outcomes often, patients can't get at the truth because the surgeons hide their bad reviews, fellows cover for each other, jury perception is it was “elective,” juries are biased against plastic surgery victims, and the attorneys say cases aren’t financially worth it to them due to MICRA, the antiquated Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act in California.

Liposuction regulations are not based on science. Dr. Gutowski, a plastic surgeon from the University of Illinois said, "Some states, like California, have passed liposuction legislation based on a guideline, but there's no data behind it. No science." Much of the harm occurs in the years following the procedure, as the body struggles with the effects of losing part of an organ that plays a role in metabolism.

The Los Angeles coroner's report shows 100 percent of deaths due to liposuction (1999-2019) were to females; average age less than forty-eight years old. Lipo is financially driven and doctors do not disclose true risks. People are coerced into having it through false imagery, strong advertising, and lies on websites set up to sell.

The Health Technology Advisory Committee, a non-partisan group formed to study liposuction harm, said: “Death and disfigurement due to liposuction should be a matter for serious public concern."

“Since liposuction is an elective, pay-out-of-pocket procedure, data is not collected as to how many procedures are performed, the complexity of procedures, or the resultant complications.”

“Clear, important statistics on fatalities and complications from private offices or surgeon-owned surgery centers may be withheld.”

“The increasing number of liposuction procedures has led to a growing number of iatrogenic fat tissue deformities, in addition to those of traumatic and disease-related nature.”

For a real book about health care I recommend "Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill," by Robert Whitaker and I suggest finding the Liposuction research paper online to learn the truth about that harmful scam.

[Gregory Favazza · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fake Cosmetic Surgeon Gets Patients Killed #Veteran Confronts Doctor LIVE | #triggerwarning #botched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wgf...

[BethK · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.

Healthcare costs eat 20% of the US GDP, with expenditures about 10% higher than all US Federal taxes combined. Most healthcare – as in over 50% - is useless. It’s ineffective, barely effective, or often speculative. A large number of things we are treated for are a result of advertising. Indeed, television commercials are filled with ads for medications, and no more information than “Ask your doctor”. This is disease mongering – many of these so-called diseases didn’t exist until someone had a cure – and test – for this (pseudo) disease. This has gotten to the point where people everywhere are talking about their diseases, pseudo-diseases, medical tests, and test numbers, while commonly taking 10 different prescription medications each day. Fifty years ago, this was considered “boorish” conversation, engaged in by a few hypochondriacs. Death rates of numerous things are staying steady, but there are a lot more patients. Over the past few years, average age of death has shortened. We are certainly not getting what we are paying for! Loose Money, Corruption, Poor-Quality Healthcare is the "triad" in the American healthcare system of the early 21st century.

We have many tests and procedures said to “save lives”. However, these do not change all-cause mortality, or some might even lower it. What good is it to have a test and treatment for one disease only to increase your odds of dying sooner of something else?

This has also impacted the science. Industry pays for most studies, and even if they are found to be worthless, the data is retrospectively analyzed to find relationships between unstudied variables. There may be thousands of these pairs or triads of relationships, and chances are that something appearing significant will seem to be significant – but isn’t.

The book goes into a number of causes for this, including the method for remuneration, there being no way to find out what you’re paying or agreeing to pay. Another reason is the number of organizations, including corporations and government agencies who pay for various things, at various rates.

The loser in all of this is the patient – both with their health and monetarily.

[David Burns · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author has done exactly what he suggests the medical consortium is doing ... he is exaggerating and making judgement calls without sufficient knowledge of the details. The implication that ALL doctors are crooks and ALL hospitals are complicit, and ALL big pharma companies are together plotting our demise at their profit is too overwhelming to be real or even partially understood. Right now, I am doing the same thing and I do so to make a point. I cannot imply that I know all the answers nor do I intend to find them. What I want to say is that anyone, me included, who does "over-the-top", "bigger-than-life" comments, is losing his or her audience.
I too am fed up with the treatment and slow delivery of goods and services, but shouting down the entire conglomerate of suppliers does no good and even detracts from finding positive solutions. For 15 years, I have been seeking a solution to foot pain which seems to have no reason to exist. The medical system has "milked" my insurance companies for tens of thousands of dollars to no avail. Then, finally, my doctor called and made an appointment for me in my own home. I am ambulatory and could very easily gone to her office. She wanted to look me straight in the eye to tell me that she has run out of options and most likely I have a phantom pain which would be there if I had no foot or no leg. Wow, grim news, but what an awesome doctor!!! She is not in the category of doctors who are mentioned in this book. I know too, that there are many like her. Taking them all down in a single sentence solves nothing and I could not finish this book due to the over done statements which are throughout this book. Have fun with it if you will, but I do not recommend it to anybody. There is far more benefit in reading almost anything else.

[Shana Market · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read. Although I have always second guessed things and wanted to know more than just the "research behind" things, but also who and/or what companies are putting the data out there, this book has really opened my eyes. What many people call science is just data put out there by ghostwriters funded by the big drug companies. Follow the money. Psychiatric drug costs are outrageous. Those drugs are handed out like candy. Many doctors get kickbacks and positive reinforcement from handing these out. This book really makes you question what doctors are asking you to do. Be your own advocated. Research. Do NOT jump on every surgery, medicine, therapy, and/or treatment/test that the doctors want you to do. Follow the money and follow the facts. A must read!

[Billy Buttons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Butchered by “Healthcare”
Author: Robert Yoho MD

Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 19
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 9/10
Cover: 10/10
Of the 19 readers:
18 would read another book by this author.
19 thought the cover was good or excellent.
19 felt it was easy to follow.
19 would recommend this book to another reader to try.
Of all the readers, 9 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘subject knowledge’.
Of all the readers, 4 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘writing style’.
Of all the readers, 6 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘clarity of message’.
19 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
19 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.

Readers’ Comments
“It seems to me that the American health system is broken. An old pal of mine who lives in the US just discovered she wasn't covered for pregnancy costs and she expects the final bill for having a baby to be in the 10s of thousands! How lucky we are in the UK to have the National Health Service; we might complain about it but anything's better than the American system. I thought this book was informative, well-written, and will be of help to many Americans.” Male reader, age 52
“This is not only a fascinating read, it's rather horrifying too. Of course, where there's money to be made, corruption will follow. And it's no different in the medical profession. I'd recommend this to anybody trying to navigate the costly American health system. It might help them not get so badly ripped off.” Female reader, aged 41
“I lived in North America for 20 years and I agree wholeheartedly with this author. It's refreshing to see somebody trying to shine a light on such a corrupt system.” Female reader, aged 52
“A system of self-interest superbly dissected by this author's book. A thoroughly fascinating read that seems well-researched.” Male reader, aged 50

To Sum It Up:
‘A compelling and thought-provoking analysis of the American health system and all of its flaws. A FINALIST and highly recommended!’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

[Katherine Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more provocative accounts, but one of the best, if you want the inside scoop detailing what the industry of healthcare is really like in our day and age. It's a sad state of affairs, I'll warn you.

this is not an easy book to read, particularly for those in healthcare just trying to do their part for the patients who enter through their doors, but it serves as a warning to all, both the good and the bad actors on both sides. Pick it up. You'll see.

[Kelly Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone finally speaking up!

Excellent truth about the healthcare industry that we cherish so much, and most people depend on these days. Everyone needs to know the truth about it. I loved this book for spelling it all out!

[Best Indie Book Award · Rating 5 out of 5]

🏆 2020 BIBA® Health/Medical Ethics Winner!

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is informative. That being said, I learned nothing new.