[Magdalen] Bishop Cook: Another unfortunate piece of the story

[H Angus]

I'm sorry for the story of your friend, M. (Sorry, I don't recall your name.) Your friend's trajectory is sadly typical of an alcoholic.

Alcoholism is a disability, as Heather Cook's lawyer apparently said. But operating as a doctor while drunk, as your friend did, is a choice. Driving drunk is a choice, and so is leaving a man you hit to bleed to death beside the road. 

Heather Cook can turn it around, if she chooses. Many people find help in AA and NA, though it's far from a guaranteed "cure." There are doubtless other recovery programs that have success, too. I have seen people in AA who have committed crimes and acts almost as horrible as hers, who have nonetheless turned their lives around. It's very hard, but so very worth it. They are inspirations to the rest of us. We say and believe "No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others." Heather Cook can, if she gets clean and sober, use her own life's experience to help others. She can help in a way that, perhaps, she never did when she was toward the top of the social and church pyramid, arrayed in gorgeous robes and sparkling hats. I pray that she will.

----- Original Message -----
From: "m ichaudme" <michaudme at gmail.com>
To: Cantor03 at aol.com, magdalen at herberthouse.org
Sent: Wednesday, February 4, 2015 1:30:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Bishop Cook: Another unfortunate piece of the story

And nurses.

A former friend, now deceased, claimed nurses had it in for her (they
were jealous of her physicianship or physicianhood and so kept
reporting her up the line as drunk-on-the-job).

The fact that she *was* drunk-on-the-job was irrelevant, of course.
The nurses had it in for her. She may have been drunk enough to
throw up in the hospital parking lot, but swore she was fit to
practice. And those malpractice suits were just money-grabs.
Or so she assured us.

She ended up uninsurable, working in an emergency room somewhere.
After many a rehab, she died in her sleep, age 60-ish.
-M

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>
> Resident physicians are sometimes the catalyst to bring these  situations
> to resolution.
>
>