Where "I'll Fix Everything" Means Other People Will Die

In Austria, one member of a forensic crew working on Nazi-era psychiatric patients is confused:

Anthropologist George McGlynn said more than half of the sets of remains have broken bones, many of them unexplained in the patients' medical records. 

"Why is a stubbed toe talked about in three different (documents), but six rib fractures that cause terrible pain isn't even mentioned?" he asked.

I've got an answer he probably hasn't thought of:

Sheer incompetence. 

Let's look at the NewAge healthcare of today, through the eyes of our online cancer specialist, Orac, observing a "special" by NBC chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman:

Right at the beginning of the segment, we’re introduced to a breast cancer survivor named Diane Miller, who is portrayed as having endured the rigors of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and shown doing exercises in what is presumably her home. We are told that she has lymphedema, which is unfortunately a not-uncommon complication of breast cancer surgery, particularly when the cancer is advanced enough that it requires the removal of all the lymph nodes under the arm on the side of the cancer. It’s a major problem in breast cancer survivorship, because when it is bad it can seriously interfere with a woman’s quality of life. It is a complication of breast cancer surgery that, when it happens, is permanent, and it can happen at any time after surgery for the rest of a woman’s life. 

Not surprisingly, Ms. Miller is also a big fan of acupuncture in addition to exercise, and the next segment shows something that makes me cringe as a breast cancer surgeon, and that’s an acupuncturist sticking needles into her lymphedematous arm. It’s even worse than that, though. The acupuncturist is clearly not wearing any gloves! I kid you not! Yes, I did indeed cringe when I watched that segment. In fact, I more than cringed. I started ranting at the television set. Why was I so upset by this? It’s because lymphedematous limbs, because of the edema, are very susceptible to infection, and acupuncturists are not exactly known for their rigorous adherence to sterile technique. Indeed, in general we try to avoid as much as possible blood draws, IVs, and even blood pressure readings using lymphedematous limbs because they can cause problems; yet here, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, we see an acupuncturist blithely sticking sharp objects into a lymphedematous extremity after just doing a quick wipe with an alcohol swab and not even using gloves!

Conclusion: 

NewAge medicine hasn't changed much since The Third Reich.

This also could explain how Ann Romney can sit on the board of the New England chapter of The National Multiple Sclerosis Society while openly engaging in flapdoodle - NewAgers simply don't care. Which, as I've been telling you, shouldn't surprise anyone:

"I don't care" is their entire reason for existing,…