The Dangers Of Colonoscopies

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The overuse of the procedure known as colonoscopies as a prophylactic for colon cancer, has not only become quite a fad in recent decades, but also a multimillion dollar industry.  Every year, over 14 million perfectly healthy individuals age 50 and up, submit themselves to this invasive procedure in the hope of receiving protection from colorectal cancer.  Do the benefits of this screening outweigh the risks involved?

Sometimes in this world, a treatment may be as dangerous as the disease itself.  I serve as a living testament to the severity of the damages possible with this procedure.  The many injuries that can be caused by colonoscopies, the anesthetics and preparation required for this procedure, is what I would like to cover in part 1 of this series.  (In part 2 we will look at the known effectiveness of colonoscopies as a weapon against cancer)

I would like to preface this by saying that colorectal cancer is a very real,  frightening and deadly disease, and I am in no way making light of that fact.  But, a colonoscopy injury can be as lethal and cause as much fear and suffering as colorectal cancer itself.  (For those who have not read my story, I lost all of my intestines due to a colonoscopy accident – NOT just my colon, but all of my small intestines too – a life-threatening condition known as short bowel syndrome.  I lived for six months without intestines and being fed and hydrated with the use of TPN, but my life was ultimately save with a very rare intestinal transplant.).

So the question here is, which one carries the greatest risk of actually happening to you in your lifetime?  Especially between the age of fifty to sixty?

Reported in this study from 2006; “The perforation rate reported from colonoscopies was 1 in 1000 procedures, and ‘serious complications’ occurred in 5 in 1000”.  According The Annals Of Internal Medicine’s report on colonoscopies, an estimated 70,000 (0.5%) will be injured or killed by a complication related to this procedure.  This figure is 22% higher than the annual deaths from colorectal cancer itself – the very disease the device was designed to prevent.

The average age for developing colorectal cancer is 71 [source].  The medical industry recommends screening starting at the age of 50 and as low as 45 for African-Americans.  So, for the first couple of decades, you are risking your life with a dangerous, invasive procedure to diagnose a disease that is far less of a risk at that age than the odds of being injured by the screening device.  I could stop right there, because that should be enough to make a critical thinker forget about this barbaric diagnostic tool, at least until the age of 65.  But, there is more – a whole lot more to consider, which leads me to believe we should search to discover a safer and more effective tool.

Many of the related injuries associated with colonoscopies go unreported or are never diagnosed.  Death from colon cancer will very rarely not be reported as the cause of death, so those are accurate predictions.  But, we have no idea just how high the actual number for colonoscopy injuries and death may actually be [more].  I am living proof of that.  The reason for the necrosis of my bowels was unreported because all priorities focused on saving my life, not what caused the decline.  Nowhere on my medical record is the reason for what caused my organs to die reported, so I doubt that I am part of those statistics, even though I am a victim of a colonoscopy.

Typically, a patient left untreated for as long as I was will die.  Had I died, the death report would say complications from necrosis of the bowels and mention nothing of the colonoscopy.  Perforations and other injuries from colonoscopies can be extremely difficult to diagnose and are often of little concern when the patient is dying.  We also have to consider that doctors and hospitals will rarely report an injury from a colonoscopy unless forced to.  It is up to the patient to successfully prove that the procedure caused their injury or resulting infection in a civil trial before it will be reported and logged.  The fact that few, if any, of these cases will see the light of day is covered in my post “Malpractice Law: reserved Only For The Frivolous”.

Even though statistics say that 70,000 people will be injured or killed by this procedure this year, the actual number is far greater.   But even if you go by only those that have been forced to be reported, the number of injuries are still significantly higher than the incidence of colorectal cancer.

One of the more dangerous outcomes of a colonoscopy is the one I was a victim of – a perforation.  Everyone considering this diagnostic procedure is required to sign a paper stating that they understand all of the injuries possible with this invasion of their organs with a mechanical device and the air pressure exerted in order to inflate the colon.  The list of the horrific complications, including death, should be enough to give anyone pause.  But, patients are immediately calmed when their doctors explains that these things are rare.  The favorite tool of compliance in the doctor’s arsenal is the phrase “I’m not worried about it”.  They’re not the ones about to have a metal tube shoved four feet up their pooper and they also understand that by signing that paper, you have waived all rights to legal compensation if injured.  Any wonder why they’re not worried?  As long as your insurance checks out, they won’t break a sweat.

Other than perforations, there are other dangers, including a list of possible reactions to the anesthesia (propofol) that is typically used during a colonoscopy.  Though rare, they can range from deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism to pneumonia.  Probably the largest risk with propofol is the fact that it suppresses your respiration.  If given too much, the patient can stop breathing.  This is why you should make sure that you have this procedure performed in a facility that is equipped to handle such a situation, in case you stop breathing.  No other cancer screening test requires a patient to be rendered unconscious to perform.  Because you will be unconscious, you will not be witness to the procedure, so the patient has no idea how well the procedure was performed or how much time the doctor took to examine thoroughly.  The insurance companies pay the same price whether the doctor takes 20 minutes or 2 minutes – the faster they can do them, the more procedures they can get paid for per day.  Most accidents happen because of fast and sloppy procedures.

There can also be complications associated with the colon prep required for the procedure.  This prep can include a 2 liter enema of synthetic laxatives administered about an hour before the procedure.  This is called the Mechanical Bowel Preparation (MBP) and is completely unnecessary, yet many doctors still use this in spite of the fact that it has been proven to create a high risk of thrombosis.  This cocktail of chemicals can cause everything from deadly electrolyte imbalances (which can lead to congestive heart failure), to possible thrombosis in the mesenteric artery, to kidney damage.  It is believed that I developed a partial occlusion in the mesenteric artery (which feeds blood to all of the bowels) following the prep.  I began to complain of intense abdominal pain directly after the MBP, yet the doctor decided to do the procedure anyway.

If this diagnostic procedure still sounds safe to you, we will also throw in the newest discovery that has come to light in recent years.  It is impossible to sterilize an endoscope!  This high-tech device cannot be boiled or steamed because high temperatures can destroy the sensitive electronics and optics.  There are many tiny nooks and crannies in and around the tip of the scope, which are difficult to clean, even by hand.  More importantly, is the channel which runs the length of the scope inside.  It is this port that the doctors insert the tools into.  This channel is less than a millimeter in diameter and tunnels over four feet through the endoscope.  Without boiling or steaming, I can not see how this channel could be sterilized (I will cover this in more detail in an upcoming post).

Recent biopsies of these scopes have revealed microscopic incrustation of fecal matter, tissue, blood, and mucus imbedded from previous patients.  At present, medical personnel bathe the scopes in a disinfectant solution.  They’re not scrubbed.  Not disassembled.  Not heated.  They’re rinsed in an ineffective bath of Glutaraldehyde, which if not rinsed off thoroughly, has been cited as a cause of toxic Colitis.  Properly cleaning an endoscope can take a lot of time and must be done by hand.  Given the fact that colonoscopies have become a volume business,  gastroenterologists have been known to cram in as many as 30 to 40 procedures per day.  With such a cattle-call styled business, just how much time is really spent cleaning the scope?

It is very possible, and clinically proven, that you can be infected by HPV (Human Papilloma Virus); HIV; Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Helicobacter pylori,; Hepatitis B and C; Salmonella; Pseudomonas and Aeruginosa; Flu Viruses and other common bacteria such as, E. Coli O157:H7 and Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease.  And the pathogens you may be infected with are typically going to be a hospital borne variety, which means they are strains that have been exposed to, and become immune to most antibiotics.  Leading microbiologists have advocated using sterile, disposable parts for endoscopes as well as the use of a condom-like sheathes for each new patient.  But, the manufacturers and health-care providers have resisted these solutions because of added costs.  Isn’t that nice?  These safety precautions are mandated in England, but not used here in the U.S..  The FDA even recognizes this problem here, but acts as if their present recommendations are effective – they have been proven not to be.

Following my transplant, I was required to undergo an ileoscopy, including biopsies, weekly to check for signs of rejection.  Patients are not anesthetized for this procedure because the scope is inserted into a stoma, rather than the anus, so it is painless.  I was allowed to watch the procedure on a television monitor.  They would fish a tool (similar to an alligator clip) through the instrument port of the scope (refer to image at the top of page), to tear off a piece of villi for a biopsy.  Each time I could see a tiny injury which would begin to bleed.  An open, bleeding wound near the tip of a scope which has been in many other colons and is unable to be sterilized – sounds like a real good medical practice.  Each time you undergo a colonoscopy they may clip out a piece of your intestine for biopsy or snip off a polyp.  There will be an open wound and mixing of your blood with whatever may be lingering on the end of that scope which has been in hundreds of other colons and is unable to be sterilized.

Because there is a small amount of internal bleeding after a procedure, this can be very dangerous to anyone on blood thinners or anti-coagulants, because the doctors do not hang around long enough to be sure that the injury heals.  An open bleeding wound within a dirty colon is not the safest thing and certainly a risk for infection, but there have been patient bleed out days or even week later from a wound that did not stop bleeding – especially in elderly patients or diabetics who do not heal quickly.

A few days after one of the ileoscopy, I came down with a systemic gram negative rod infection called pseudomonas, a very deadly pathogen to immunosuppressed patients.  The particular strain that I had contracted was identified as being multi-drug resistant, meaning it was certainly a hospital borne variety.  It nearly ended my life as I succumbed to septic shock and by the time the ambulance arrived at the ER, my blood pressure had dropped to 35 over 28 and I was unable to breathe on my own, so the doctors were giving me a very small chance of surviving the night.  I needed to be placed on a respirator, so I was knocked out and kept in a coma for two weeks by use of propofol, the same drug used for most colonoscopies, so don’t let anyone tell you that the drug used for the colonoscopy is just a mild sedative – it can place you into a coma and keep you there.

It is quite obvious now that I contracted that pathogen from the scope I had just received two days before (I failed so quickly because I was so immunosupressed from the transplant).  Seven months prior to that, I had been the victim of a perforation as the result of a routine colonoscopy, which ultimately cost me all of my intestines and nearly my life.  That is two near death injuries on just one patient within seven months from two endoscopes.

I met six other transplant patients in the last two years.  Three out of those six people, adding myself (making seven), had suffered a perforation from scopes and a fourth one had suffered a perforation in a similar invasive procedure.  Two of those patients died as a result of their injuries and I nearly died on two different endoscope accidents.  The third transplant recipient needed an emergency resection of her newly transplanted bowels because of a perforation from a scope.  The baby of our transplant family, a young woman only 28 years old, is fighting a Klebsiella sepsis at this time, which was most likely transmitted via a recent scope.   “Injuries and perforations from colonoscopies are rare” my ass!

Because of what happened to me and the manner in which the doctor lied to me about the rarity of these injuries is what has motivated me to study and investigate the subject for the last two years.  I have discovered that perforations are not as rare as the doctors would like us to believe.  But at a charge of $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 per procedure and the fact that some gastroenterologist can rush in as many as 30 -40 procedures a day, it is not hard to see a motivation to suppress the truth about the dangers and your risk of being perforated or infected by this medical fad.

From an a 2006 article in The New York Times;

… if our group is representative of an average group, you will see people (doctors) who take 2 or 3 minutes and people (doctors) who take 20 minutes to examine a colon. Insurers pay doctors the same no matter how much time they spend.”   It is often about quantity, not quality and your risk of being injured increases the faster the practitioner attempts to finish your procedure, not to mention the efficiency of the cancer screening falls dramatically when hurried.”

I hope that one day this killer will end up on the junk pile of quack medical devices from the Victorian Age, and I hope I can have a hand in placing it there.  This will not be easy.  The medical industry now has celebrities, such as Katie Couric, actively using their fame to promote this procedure as a life-saving miracle, rather than the barbaric medieval medical device it really is.  They used the fact that Katie lost her husband to colon cancer and swooped in on this grieving widow and convinced her this “snake oil” medical device could have prevented it.  I am sure that the fact that NBC is also owned by General Electric, a manufacturer of endoscopes, had little to do with sponsoring her televised colonoscopy and using her celebrity pitching skills to bring this killer to the forefront of common medical practices.

You may be thinking that I must have lost my mind, because after all, this procedure has effectively saved thousands of lives, or at least that’s what you’ve been led to believe by the medical industry and their advocates in the media.  But is there any more truth to this than the lie that injuries are rare?

Please read part 2 on this subject entitled; “The Effectiveness Of Colonoscopies On Cancer And IBD” and the introduction to this series entitled; “The Dangers In Modern Medicine“.

 


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275 Responses to The Dangers Of Colonoscopies
  1. Zakariah Lafreniere
    April 4, 2012 | 12:13 am

    This is a powerful post that may have just saved my life!

    • Wolverine
      April 4, 2012 | 11:01 am

      Thanks Zakariah. My advice to people is that if they must have a colonoscopy, to refuse the mechanical bowel preparation (MBP). This is not the oral solution, but the enema that many doctors require prior to the procedure. Clinical studies have proven that it is unnecessary. Similar studies have shown that 15% of patients will develop a deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism as a result of the MBP. About 1% of them will die of a coronary event. One study can be found here.

      It was the MBP that cause a thrombosis in my superior mesenteric artery, the vessel that feeds blood to the small bowels. It was only a partial occlusion and had the doctors found it earlier, my small bowels could have been spared. But the doctors chose to ignored my pain, elevated WBCs and difficulty breathing for more than 3 days and the bowels became ischemic from loss of blood flow. the clot could have just as easily formed in the lung or heart and I’d be dead.

      If a doctor or hospital requires the MBP, refuse it and find a doctor that doesn’t. Better yet, just forget about a colonoscopy altogether if you feel perfectly healthy and are strictly considering it for cancer screening. The risk is much higher of being injured or killed by the procedure itself than ever developing colorectal cancer (unless you have a family history of Gardener’s Disease). If you have IBD, insist on a sigmoidoscopy – much safer and just as effective at diagnosing IBD than a colonoscopy – and a lot cheaper, which is why the doctor will insists on the colonoscopy, so they can make more money.

      Like I said in my article, if I can save just one person from living the nightmare that I have, it will be worth the effort. So thanks for leaving the comment. It helps me to know that I may have spared one person from sacrificing their life so some gastroenterologist can buy a Mercedes.

      • Zakariah Lafreniere
        April 4, 2012 | 7:08 pm

        I am working on a prototype alternative involving a capsule sized “submarine” that the patient would take (either orally or rectally) and where the small sub would float through the colon relaying pictures and info to the doctor tracking it’s progress via remote control video and controller.
        You swallow this “micro-sub” capsule, and it simply does all the work without danger of reuse infection or perforation. It has its own light and hd video. As an artist I am sure you could sketch out a design…

        • Wolverine
          April 4, 2012 | 10:24 pm

          Zakariah, Believe it or not the endoscopy capsule already exists. A young women I met at the hospital where I got my transplant had the procedure done at one time. She said it was large and difficult to swallow. My transplant surgeons wanted me to swallow one at one point, but I forget why they eventually cancelled the procedure.

          They’re very similar to what you’re describing. They have an onboard camera and their own light source. I believe that they take images and record them to a microchip and the data is downloaded after the capsule is retrieved (yeah, you have to dig them out of the toilet). I’m sure that these will not replace colonoscopies because they don’t allow the doctors to chop and hack at polyps. It’s probably also much cheaper, so the doctors can’t charge $2,000.00 for their services. It would certainly be a lot safer.

          I wouldn’t spend too much effort on a prototype unless you have some ideas how to improve the ones that exist. You can read about them here

      • joe
        January 9, 2014 | 8:33 am

        Thanks so much for your personal and testimony on your procedure ! Yes, you are right about how the doctor’s say do this exam at age 50, am very skeptical about ths procedure like any other and for that reason I always do my research.

        Thank you again for your experience with this horrible procedure! God bless !!

        Joe

        • Wolverine
          January 10, 2014 | 4:38 pm

          Thank you Joe for your kind words. This procedure is far more dangerous than the media leads us to believe. There is every reason to be skeptical, especially if one reads the fine print on the Legal Release that everyone is required to sign to relive the doctor of any liabilities. It clearly lists all of the dangers, including instant death.

          They would not make us sign such a paper if these things had not happened in the past and are still ongoing. I am living proof that these dangers are real and by all practical means, I should not be alive. Most people injured the way I was have died, I am just one of the very rare lucky ones. If you want to call it lucky.

          I spent over two years in hospitals and underwent a very dangerous and nearly unheard of transplant to save my live. I am forever a slave of the medical system now and always will be. I do not hope this fate on anyone. Even though I survived, I will certainly die prematurely because of a colonoscopy. I was only 48 when the disaster happened and will certainly not live as long as I should have had this not happened. I doubt I will ever see my seventies, as my parents have.

          Because of the immunosuppressive agents I must take to live, coupled with the tremendous amount of radiation I was exposed to, I developed Multiple Myeloma – a rare, but incurable form of cancer. Though we caught it very early and it is in remission now, it will eventually return and ultimately take my life. And it all started because of a colonoscopy. Please consider this before submitting to one. Thanks again for your very kind words.

      • Alfred j. Ouellette
        April 24, 2014 | 2:25 pm

        you convenced me to cancel my colonoscopy. they never told me any of the stuff I read on this website. I know for certain none of my famly going back five generations have never had colon cancer. but my dr, scared me when he said he felt something in my rectum when he had his finger in there and told me I should get the colonscopy done but I’m very happy I found this website. thankyou to who ever posted this information… aint nobody going inside my body and messing me up with the posability of killing me..
        sencerly your living friend Al

        • Wolverine
          April 24, 2014 | 5:03 pm

          I would certainly never want to talk someone out of getting a procedure if they need one, it’s just that in today’s modern medicine, doctors are performing invasive procedures when there are absolutely no signs or symptoms of a problem (like routine colonoscopies just based on someone’s age and nothing else). The other problem is doctors ordering a far more invasive procedure than the symptoms call for.

          In many cases, such as your’s, where the anomaly is just inches within the rectum, a sigmoidoscopy would most likely do the trick and is far less invasive. Why push a scope four feet inside someone when the growth is just inches inside? The doctor will always claim that they want to do the whole colon because if there is one growth, there maybe many more, but that’s kind of like running all the way into the house to make sure the whole house is on fire, rather than just peeking in the door.

          If the sigmoidoscopy was to give a positive biopsy, then a colonoscopy may be necessary, but why take the greater risk first, especially when the anomaly is more likely a hemorrhoid? I think it has more to do with the fact that a sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy take the same resources and amount of time to perform, but the colonoscopy charges out at tens times the price. From a fiscal standpoint, the colonoscopy is the better choice for the doctor, for sure. Can you imagine if you were injured the way I was and found out it was just an internal hemorrhoid?

          Personally, I’m not sure I would want some doctor chopping away at any lesions inside me without first knowing what it is. There has not been ample studies done that prove that if a lesion is malignant, that hacking at it with the tools (which are not very sharp, like a scalpel) used in a colonoscopy do not allow malignant cells to metastasize to other parts of the body, but there have been some studies that suggest that this is a possibility, like the Telemark Polyp Study 1. The group who had regular colonoscopies and polyps removed had a 158% higher mortality rate from other cancers. This would certainly suggest that cancer cells could metastasize to other organs causing cancers far more dangerous than colon cancer (lymphoma, lung cancer, pancreatic, etc..)

          I always wonder why the colonoscopy is the only supposed cancer removal surgery which does not follow-up with chemotherapy to destroy free cancer cells? Kind of makes the whole thing seem like scam when it doesn’t follow any other cancer treatment protocols.

          Thanks for writing, Alfred. If you have concerns about that growth, you may want to look into a barium enema or sigmoidoscopy. Always play it as safe as possible and look into all of the options available, because doctors will always jump straight to the colonoscopy (even though there are no real studies that prove it’s effectiveness to date). It’s not that the risks are ridiculously high (about 2 in 1,000 result in a perforation), it’s just that when they go wrong, the damage can be so seriously devastating, even ending in death.

          Indirectly, the colonoscopy gave me cancer. Because of the massive damage to my bowels, I required an intestinal transplant, which requires me to be immunosuppressed (and exposed to a lot of radiation during the treatments), which ultimately ended up giving me Multiple Myeloma, a rare and incurable bone cancer. Thanks again for writing. Stay safe.

          • Laura
            January 6, 2017 | 7:35 pm

            Gut instinct has made me research this as my family doctor has mentioned a colonoscopy a few times. I am diabetic,had a hysterectomy with complications and everything screams at me not to have this procedure.Common sense tells me you don’t want to have cut and bleed in your colon because of the risks of infections. After reading about the lack of sterilization of the endoscope and the cavalier attitude of “it’s no big deal” and I’ve do over a 1000 colonoscopies a year, I have come to the conclusion this is factory production medicine and will not participate. Thank you for telling us your experience. It WILL save lives.

          • Wolverine
            January 7, 2017 | 9:28 am

            Hi Laura. Thank you for writing. I always figured the procedure was more dangerous than they let on, but the more I researched, the more I began to realize that there is absolutely no proof, whatsoever, that colonoscopies have ever done anything to prevent or reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. No clinical study has ever been done in the U.S.. Everyone just assumes it works. All evidence proves the potential for damage is far greater than any possible benefit. I am living proof of how catastrophic the damage can be. By all means, I should have been dead.

            Being diabetic, you have every reason to avoid this procedure. Diabetes typically slows healing, so any injury within the bowel could be very serious. Of course, any bowel injury is very serious and life-threatening. I think this is the most difficult thing to make people understand. There is no such thing as a minor bowel injury. Even the loss of a few inches of bowel can have a 60% or higher mortality rate. It is just not something to gamble with, especially for a screening procedure. I can’t think of any other cancer screening which places the patient’s life in immediate threat or that requires the patient to be sedated into unconsciousness?

            Thanks again for writing and I hope you continue to stay safe. Your gut instincts are good.

        • JoeInMidwest
          October 27, 2015 | 1:31 am

          I sense your MD felt a new Mercedes potential in your rectum. I’m happy you persevered.

          • Wolverine
            October 27, 2015 | 1:37 pm

            …and feels absolutely no guilt about it, but in fact still tells his future patients that he has never had an injury in all of his procedures. This is something they all like to claim, when in reality they have all injured or killed people. Unless they are new to their practice, all of these gastroenterologists have performed thousands of procedures and even the most conservative estimated rate of serious injuries are more than 5 in every 1,000 procedures. Unless a patient dies on their table during the procedure, they will never acknowledge the injury, since they all seem to bail on the patient as soon as someone starts to complain of any pain or other problems following the procedure. Thanks for commenting.

      • Ted Arterberry
        November 21, 2014 | 10:59 pm

        My mother had a colonoscopy procedure applied at an out patient center where the procedure was scheduled to take only 1 to 2 hours. She died immediately after the colonoscopy procedure. She did not wake up from the anestesia and when the doctors tried to wake her, she went into cardiac arrest. I need to know what legal actions I should take. She was laughing and joking one hour before the procedure.

        • Wolverine
          November 23, 2014 | 3:00 pm

          sorry I didn’t respond sooner. I’ve been down the last few days, it kind of goes with my condition (intestinal transplant).

          I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your mother. The hardest part of publishing this website is to hear so many stories of loved ones so suddenly lost because of an endoscope. It hits me hard, because I myself was nearly killed by that dangerous procedure. Although I didn’t die, it did destroy my life forever.

          As far as any legal action goes, I am sorry to tell you that you will probably meet dead ends pursuing any lawyers. Your mother had to sign a waiver before they will give a colonoscopy.

          This paper lists all of the bad things that can happen, including death. Most patients sign it because the doctors will lie and claim that those things rarely happen. The injury and death rates are hardly rare when you investigate the statistics, which are extremely conservative because many deaths and injuries go unreported.

          Present rates claim that 1 in every thousand colonoscopies results in a perforation (which often results in death) and 5 in 1,000 result in a serious injury of some kind. I do not consider this rare, especially given the fact that the real rates are probably at least twice that.

          The waiver that must be signed says that the patient understands the dangers listed and are waiving any right to pursue damages if injured or killed.

          I personally believe that waiver itself is evidence that many are hurt during this procedure, though some of the complications turn up days or weeks later and are not reported as being associated with the procedure.

          If injury and death were truly rare, it would seem more logical that the doctors would simply pay the damages on that small amount, rather than frighten patients away with that paper (as I’m sure some people have read it and ran away). Truth is, they cause so many injuries and death, it would break them to pay all the damages, so they make everyone waive their rights.

          Again, I am so sorry to hear about your mother. A perfectly healthy and vital woman cut down by a greedy medical system. It breaks my heart.

          I do wish you luck in finding a lawyer who will take the case and win the case. I had no such luck and I never tried to sue for the colonoscopy damage (because I had signed the waiver) I tried to sue for the three days the doctors left me in a hospital bed, ignoring the pain I was writhing in while all of my intestines (both small and large) were dying and did absolutely nothing.

          Then again, most attorneys were disinterested because the federal government had placed a $350,00 cap on malpractice suits on doctors and set a 2 year statute of limitation on all medical suits, so you need to move fast. Practically all other law suits have a 7 year statute (doctor do have special protection under the law, which is wrong, constitutionally speaking)

          I had spent over 14 months in hospitals, trying to survive and by the time I was healthy enough, all lawyers said I was too close to the statute. Furthermore, the costs of my care and transplant far exceeded the $350,00 and the insurance company can take the share that they spent from the winnings first. This would leave nothing for the lawyer or me, because the transplant alone exceeded a million dollars. Any lawsuit would not have been fruitful in my case, so I am left disabled with no income, except disability, which ain’t shit.

          You do not have these problems and may be able to collect a wrongful death suit, if they can find a way around that waiver (which is possible with the right attorney). I really wish you luck, even though I know that will never make up for your loss, especially since the maximum you will get is $350,000, minus the 33 and 1/3% the attorney will get.

          Thank you for writing and sharing your story. My goal is to get many of these stories documented so I can prove the danger and make it public and stop clinics and hospitals from using this procedure on healthy people and only reserve it for those who have symptoms of a GI problem. Thank you so much and my heart goes out to you and your family.

        • Ed
          December 16, 2014 | 12:03 pm

          Ted: I feel your pain. They killed my beautiful Mother too. Good luck with the lawyers; they are just another part of the filthy system which profits from suffering. They eat lunch with the doctors and care nothing for human life. They are the “Gatekeeper[s]” that Kafka speaks of. Justice is the last thing on their minds. I sincerely hope that they will advocate for your Mother, but I doubt it. Life is cheap to doctors and lawyers. Never believe, even for one second, that any of them give a damn about human life. They are filth, and only care about which model Mercedes to buy next. Our Mothers mean nothing to them. Law and justice have little to do with one another, just as the medical monopoly has little to do with health. We are on our own, brother, and the enemy is powerful as hell. They destroy lives with impunity.
          Thanks again to the Wolverine who has the stamina to care enough to run this website. Considering the hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed annually by the medical/legal dictatorship, it is amazing that people are not taking to the streets in protest. Iatrogenic death and injury are disgracefully common. At least Wolverine has the guts (no pun intended) to open his mouth. I wish more people had his bravery.
          Ed

          • Esther
            July 19, 2018 | 7:09 am

            I was very saddened by reading about losing your mothers. No one should lose because of malpractice by doctors or procedures that go wrong. I do want to say that while there are many lawyers that only care about money not all are like that. My husband is an attorney. He used to be a corporate attorney but he is in the plaintiffs side fighting for justice. It’s what makes him do what he does. He left a high paying job because it wasn’t meaningful and dug into our retirement funds to start up his practice to help others. While we were considering the decision to do this I had panic attacks every night because if the risks of starting something like this with 2 kids and mortgage. But I supported because he believes in justice and helping those who have been wronged. Please don’t give up on justice and that there are people out there for helping others for the sake of helping.

      • maria
        November 8, 2015 | 1:16 am

        I thank you so much for this article, I am 58 perfectly healthy (at least I think I am) eat organic and excercise, everyone tells me I should get a colonscopy, I dont want to , I prefer the cologuard test or the FIT test, but my mother has had colon cancer its a family history, but I choos to do any test but the cononlschpy , I dont want to take any chances in the doctors table

        • Wolverine
          November 11, 2015 | 1:52 am

          Thank you for taking the time to write Maria. You are right in the realization that you have plenty to fear about this procedure, because the dangers are many (if you haven’t read my story yet, you may wish to if you want to get an idea of the potential damage that can come from this ill-advised procedure.).

          There is no evidence that colonoscopies have any benefit at, since no scientific study has ever been conducted here in the U.S.. They just like to publish data analysis of “risk factor” reduction and call that a study. Risk factors are just made up sets of conditions which have little to do with the actual reduction in the incident of the disease. It’s all smoke and mirrors which the medical community has been using for years to cover up the fact that all their drugs and procedure do little to stop the disease. It’s all about achieving certain numbers and parameters and calling it victory, even though just as many, or in some cases more, people are dying from the disease; but hey, they reduced all those risk factors before they died.

          For example, we could say that every mole on the body has the potential to become a melanoma and not be lying, because even as unlikely as it may be, it can one day become a tumor. Any cell in the body can become a tumor for all that matter. A tumor is just a rogue cell which stops obeying the commands of the brain and hormones and begins gobbling up more than its predetermined amount of glucose, thereby growing and multiplying at an uncontrollable rate; so every cell can become cancerous. Now if someone can just figure out why they go rogue, we could cure the damned disease. Cures are not very profitable, so we just keep finding ways to discover more risk factors, even if we have to make them up, so we can create dangerous drugs and procedures to reduce these parameters.

          Basically, we can call every mole on the body a risk factor, so if we remove half the moles from the body, we can claim our procedure has created a 50% reduction in the risk factors for melanoma. Is this person really any safer from developing melanomas? Probably not. If they are going to develop it, they still will, but it sounds more impressive, as if we saved the lives of half the people who will get melanomas, but we did no such thing.

          The medical industry has gotten real good at this misleading sales pitch, especially with heart disease, but no matter how much they brag about their drugs reducing risk factors of heart disease by whopping amounts, 38%, 55%, to 80%, we still see that more and more people develop heart disease each years and more and more people will die from it. But they have to somehow make it sound like they are making some headway, even though they aren’t. Even weight can be considered a risk factor, because obese people are at greater risk, so they say. So even helping someone drop 50 pounds can let us brag a huge reduction in one of the risk factors.

          Even less honest is the bogus cholesterol theory. They claim cholesterol as a major risk factor, so they create drugs which reduce cholesterol by greater amounts than diet alone could ever achieve, but even though people now have lower cholesterol than ever in the history of the human race, they are still dropping like flies from HD. It’s more important that you achieve all the right numbers before you die, not whether you die or not. If cholesterol was truly the problem, we would have seen a major reduction in the actual disease by now, with half the population of adults being on some type of statin.

          You are also wise to realize that there is no real proof that a colonoscopy has any effectiveness as a diagnostic tool for anything, much less cancer.

          In the time I was in recovery from my intestinal transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital, I saw nothing but one failure after the next when it came to accurate diagnosis from endoscopic procedures. The injuries were many, because the sampling was much higher than normal would for cancer screenings. Patients were scoped once to twice per week to check for signs of organ rejection.

          This meant the procedures were being performed by doctors with far more skill (surgeons), far more educated and knowledgable of the intestines (the lead surgeons both held PhDs, along with their MD in gastric medicine and research) than the average gastroenterologist; and they were using a far more intricate and expensive endoscope, with much more powerful microscopic lens and powerful zoom capability, yet they still failed to make an accurate prediction about 75% of the time.

          The biopsies almost always came back from pathology with a different diagnosis than the doctor’s visual determination. Unfortunately, the doctors usually started treatment before pathology returned results (48 hours) which cost many patients dearly, me included. Twice the doctors diagnosed me in rejection and began treatment with powerful immunosuppressant agent, only to have pathology come back negative. These treatments were completely unnecessary and ultimately killed a percentage of my bone marrow. This is most likely the reason I now have Multiple Myeloma (Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow).

          There was also severe damage done in the short run from both of these wrong diagnosis. They unnecessarily ran my immune system lower than they needed to because the biopsies revealed I was never in organ rejection. Because of the damage to my bone marrow, I was unable to produce white blood cells for more than 6 months. Within that time period, I contracted a sepsis, and having no white blood cells, it took me deep into septic shock, where I had to be place in a coma and on a respirator for 2 weeks. I was so deep in shock my blood pressure dropped to 35/28, which should have caused brain and organ damage, but by some stroke of luck I did not suffer those.

          One woman was scope twice and given a clean bill of health by both scopes, even though she complained of abdominal pain. When she was rushed into emergency surgery, it was discovered that she had been perforated by the first scope and the result was all of her transplanted bowels had died and become necrotic. They had to be removed and she underwent a second transplant earlier this year. If the endoscope could not detect a problem when she had over 25 feet of dead intestines and her bowels had turned gangrene! What damned good is the endoscope as a diagnostic tool if they cannot see that the bowel is dead?

          You can see that the diagnosis for these situations following transplant was far more critical to get it right than a random cancer screening. This is why the transplant surgeons spent far more time on the procedures than the average gastroenterologist, who will typically try to cram in as many procedures as they can in a day. They know that only a small percentage of their patients might actually have cancer, so why would they spend a lot of time closely examining each one. No one can convince me that the doctor does not burn out by the tenth colonoscopy of the day and let their mind wander.

          Even though the transplant surgeons took more time, had more experience and education and used much better equipment, they still got the diagnosis wrong more than they got it right from my experiences. Not just my personal experiences; I saw many of the other patients have similar mistakes made from the endoscopic procedures and two of the patients died as a result of organ perforations from these ileoscopies (same as a colonoscopy, except the endoscope is inserted into the stoma, which is made from a section of the small bowel called the ileum.

          I can see no benefit from taking the risks associated with this procedure. There are far safer ways to detect cancers. From the failures I have seen from the endoscopes to diagnose anything with accuracy, I can’t help but believe that the entire fad of pushing these colonoscopies is strictly because of the money it can generate. Insurance companies do not even question paying up to $2,500 per procedure, even though no study has ever been conducted to prove it to be a valuable tool for diagnostics.

          Do not cave in to the pressures of your family and doctors. I never wanted the procedure and knew damned well of they dangers and refused it several times before I gave into the harassment from my family members, which was relentless. That is a decision that I wish every day that could take back. I figured the worst they could do was kill me, boy was I wrong. I could never have even imagined I could end up like the way I am. The last years of my life has been time wasted just trying to stay alive. I am still fighting to this day with the cancer. Thanks again for writing and I hope you can avoid ending up like me. Best wishes.

    • Debi
      January 29, 2014 | 11:40 am

      I sure wish I had read this before I had a colonoscopy last Tue. 1/21/14 which turned into a nightmare with a fever of 102 and a 4 day hospital stay. With no real explanation except ” these things sometimes happen ” I just experienced my worst health scare nightmare in my 48 years. NEVER ever will I have that procedure done again.

      • joe
        January 29, 2014 | 2:48 pm

        I am so sorry to hear about your experience you had to go through with this procedure. I have not done this myself because am very skeptical about this procedure and I am 53 already. I always do my research on all things before I move forward with whatever the issue may be. I hope you are feeling better now! So take care and rest.

        Joe

        • Wolverine
          January 30, 2014 | 4:13 am

          Hi Joe. It always pays to do research. I still do not understand anyone having this procedure when they are perfectly healthy. I knew the dangers and would have never had the procedure had I not been suffering severe ulcerative colitis and only went to the hospital for a blood transfusion (I had lost a lot of blood).

          I was really apprehensive about the colonoscopy and stalled a few days before giving in. I understood the risks, but the part that seemed inexcusable was the denial and cover-up the doctors began, which delayed any treatment for three days following the injury. They knew something was wrong, because my WBCs where over 60,000, but they didn’t want to admit that a colonoscopy could injure the patient.

          This delay ended up costing me all of my small intestines – this was something I did not think was possible with the procedure. I figured the worst case would be losing some colon. Because of the massive internal bleeding that was going on after the perforation — bleeding that went on for 3 days, my body was attempting to clot. This became obvious when looking at the blood reports over those days, where my blood platelets jumped from 200 to over 1,600. The bleeding must have been too massive at the point of injury, so my blood ended up clotting at the mesenteric artery, which is the trunk artery which feeds ALL of the intestines with blood.

          All of my small bowels died within hours and still nothing was done, except to give me stronger and stronger pain killers, which became useless against 28 feet of necrotic bowel. I shouldn’t have survived something like this – and the doctors were sure I wouldn’t. Many other people who have written me concerning injuries and death of loved ones because of a colonoscopy have expressed the same type cynicism from the doctors, where treatments were delayed as the doctors continued to deny that anything could have went wrong. In some of those cases, the patient died as a reult of the delay.

          This cynicism makes the whole thing even more frightening. If you do happen to be injured, don’t count on getting any immediate help – it seems to be the norm. Take care, and I don’t blame you at all for avoiding this useless procedure (has never been proven to save anyone from cancer), especially when you are having no problems with your colon. Thanks for writing.

          • joe
            January 30, 2014 | 11:05 am

            Am very sorry for what happened to you, I will pray and know God will be with you always. Yes I will stay away from this procedure due to I just don’t have belief in what doctors say about this procedure. GOD BLESS YOU.

            JOE

      • Wolverine
        January 30, 2014 | 4:36 am

        I am so sorry to hear about your experience with the colonoscopy, but happy that it wasn’t a much worse injury. I have gotten too many comments from people whose loved ones were severely injured or killed by the procedure. I believe that I have had over 15 people write to tell me about a family member who was killed by the colonoscopy.

        The “no explanation” part sounds familiar. To this day, the doctors offered no explanation as to what happened in my case, I eventually pieced it together by going over all of the hospital records, which we had copies of. That is unusual for a patient to get all of the records, but in my case it was requested by the transplant surgeons, so we were given copies at no charge, but because of the extensive hospital record that followed, it took me 2 years to go through all of it and see what had happened.

        I hope that your injury heals up perfectly fine. There are far more people injured by this procedure than doctors or the media will let on. Most of them are never reported, because there is no one to force them to report it. I am sure that your injury will not make the statistics, which is why I always claim that the injury rate is far higher than the rates published, which are still quite high. Statistics say that 5 in ever 1,000 people will be seriously injured by a colonoscopy and that 1 in every 1,000 people will suffer a perforation (a life threatening condition).

        I am quite sure the actual numbers are much higher, based on the fact that so few are ever reported, because there is no checks and balance system to make them be reported and many injuries are never associated with the colonoscopy because the symptoms show up several weeks or months later, especially the infections caused by this reusable surgical tool that cannot be sterilized.

        I am glad that you are okay now (I’m assuming that, I really don’t know it for a fact). The doctors seemed as though they were use to this – “These things sometimes happen” — yeah, far too often. I can’t wait until this ill-advised procedure is outdated. We have to have better technology than this. I certainly haven’t noticed a severe drop in colorectal cancer rates since they began using this device to skewer people. If it worked as advertised, we should have seen something significant by now?

        With the fever that you had, it is possible that you got an infection from the device. I received a very bad blood infection from one of the endoscopes they used to perform an illeoscopy after my transplant. Because I was heavily immunosuppressed at the time, it nearly killed me. I was in a coma for two weeks and unable to breathe on my own (I was on a ventilator). The endoscope cannot be sterilized in an autoclave (it would destroy the optics), so it is simply hand cleaned and used again and again.

        This is why we stopped reusing hypodermic needles by simply cleaning them and started using disposable tools or ones that could be sterilized under high pressure steam. Who would trust a surgeon to perform an operation with scalpels and hemostats that were just hand cleaned? This is the nature of the endoscope. It needs to go away.

        Take care.

    • Linda
      March 7, 2014 | 2:17 pm

      My mother in law not only got a blood clot within 24 hours after a colonoscopy, but then her kidney’s shut down and she lived out the next few months on dialysis. After seeing what she went thru it scared the hell out of me.
      And to make it worse they guy who performed it tried to blame it on her like she did something wrong.
      So they turned this once vibrant woman into a living skeleton who died a horrible death

      • Wolverine
        March 7, 2014 | 4:43 pm

        Hi Linda, I am having difficulty writing this reply as I literally have tears in my eyes. Your mother-in-law’s story hits too close to home. I too developed a clot in the superior mesenteric artery from the colonoscopy. This is the main artery that feeds blood to all of the intestines, so all of my small bowls died). Colonoscopies are infamous for causing blood clots – yet people are not told this (it’s probably in the fine print of the waiver everyone must sigh, but few people read that paper and just trust the doctor). I hate the fact that doctors typically blame the patient for their own failures, I have encountered this a lot.

        One girl in Australia (whose mother wrote me) said that the doctors blamed her for infecting her own TPN line! This is insane! When I was one TPN, the lines got infected all the time, because of the high sugar content, not to mention the vitamins, amino acids and minerals that are flowing straight to the heart. TPN lines get infected all the time and nearly killed me twice, I ended up in septic shock twice, with fevers in excess of 105.5º degrees F and blood pressures below 44/28. Doctors always consider themslves blameless in every thing.

        The doctor who nealy killed me with a colonoscopy felt any remorse and blamed anything but himself and was happy to bill us for his near deadly services. I have heard doctors blame people having heart attacks that it was because they were too fat and ate the wrong foods, or maybe they smoked a cigarette once in their life – anything to make the doctor blameless for being unable to save the patient.

        The worst part in my case was the way the doctors ignored my complaints of severe abdominal pain for three days while my organs died and went necrotic – I too should have been dead.

        I grieve for your mother-in-law and am so sorry for what happened to her and the horrible way she was treated. This is the kind of thing I am warning people about. Unfortunately, I get comments and emails like this at least once a week and it tears me up every time I read one and reminds me of the horror I went through.

        I am so sorry for your loss, but am thankful that you were willing to post it here so that others may be saved. Thanks you for writting this comment.

        • Ed
          September 17, 2014 | 4:03 pm

          My healthy, active Mother died from a blood clot before they even gave her the unnecessary colonoscopy. She was not within the age guidelines dictated by the USPSTF and JAMA because she was 79, yet her doctor repeatedly insisted that she was due for one in spite of her refusal and previous clean colonoscopy. Finally during one routine visit she succumbed and complied with the doctor. Fatal mistake. The doctor took her off a blood thinner, which she had been taking for a stent in her leg, to prepare for colonoscopy. A few days later, after her usual swim at the gym, she got a clot in her leg and died that very day, in my arms, while hospital staff basically ignored her (and my) complaints. She was educated, active, and ate healthy food. No symptoms of cancer at all. No need for the procedure, just pressure from the doctor. She had years of life left in her; but doctors saw gray hair and trivialized her death. And, of course, they looked for ways to blame her. Compliance with doctors seems to be a no-win thing: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I cancelled my insurance after her death. I already knew of a local man in his early fifties who died from perforation during colonoscopy, and tried to talk my Mother out of it, but I didn’t try hard enough. I can never forgive myself, and my life is now in ruins. I sincerely hope that anyone considering this stupid procedure finds this website. The fact that the doctors never told my Mother that she could have simply taken a fecal test without risk is unconscionable. Thanks to Wolverine and everyone for spreading the life-saving knowledge. I could kill myself for not finding and showing her this website before she followed her doctor’s fatal order.

          • Wolverine
            September 17, 2014 | 10:36 pm

            Hi Ed. I am so sorry to hear about your mother. You cannot imagine how deep these stories cut me, which is what makes publishing this blog difficult. I was told that my injury was extremely rare by the doctors, but after spending 7 months in the transplant hospital, where bowel transplant patients were scope weekly, I noticed just how frequently these patients were being injured and killed by these scopes.

            Since the actual cause of death will typically be due to an infection, blood clot or a patient bleeding out, there is no need for the doctors to include the colonoscopy as a cause of death or injury. This is why people are unaware of how frequently this procedure ruins people’s lives. Few people actually die on the table during the procedure and that would be the only way the doctors would report it as due tot the colonoscopy. Most people will suffer and die any days or even weeks later after the injury and this is how the dangers remain a secret.

            Having people suspend their blood thinners is standard for the procedure and also more proof of how common perforations occur. The patient is removed from anticoagulants for fear of them bleeding out when perforated. The problem is, doctors typically only have them stop the medication for two or three days, which would not be sufficient if a person were perforated. Once they began taking the anticoagulants a day or two later, any internal injury from the scope would again begin bleeding, which could take days or even weeks to become serious. The only advantage here for the doctor is that the death will not be blamed on the colonoscopy because it will occur more than a few days after the procedure.

            Stopping the anticoagulant was certainly a contributor to your mother’s death, but I would not doubt that the colon prep was not also a factor, since this cocktail of chemicals is notorious for causing blood clots, even in people who do not take blood thinners. When you put the colon prep (especially the mechanical colon prep) together with the cessation of anticoagulants, the possibility of a DVT was extremely high and the doctor should have known that. These procedures have become such a mass “cattle call” that the doctors do not look very closely at each case and that is why unnecessary deaths, such as your mother’s, occur.

            I am so sorry for what happen to you beloved mother, she sounds like a wonderful woman and did not deserve such treatment. Doctors will always blame the patient for any problems that they cannot resolve. Nothing is EVER the doctor’s fault, according to them. They will always find a way to blame the patient because they didn’t eat the right foods or take the medication correctly… anything to make the doctor blameless. It really angers me when doctors use this ploy, yet I see it all of the time.

            Doctors treat symptoms and never cure anything. I do not believe they even try to cure anything. Drug companies only research ways to relieve the symptoms of disease, because there is little money in curing a disease, but a lot of money in a lifetime of treatments. But even worse is the snake oil sales of their preventatives, like colonoscopies and statin drugs, two preventatives that have not proven to wrk in the least, yet everyone lines up for them (I would like to also include mammograms in that crowd). Even though we have seen no drop in the incidence of heart disease, colon cancer or breast cancer, people continue to spend money on these fake offerings. Worst of all, these treatments have very high risks and bad side-effects and may actually increase the amount of disease.

            I am so sorry for your loss and apologize for rambling, but the state of modern medicine infuriates me and I tend to ramble. Your mother deserved much better. Thank you for sharing your story (which I know was painful). Hopefully people can see the shear volume of people who have lost loved ones due to this dangerous procedure and realize that this procedure should be considered as one would a surgery and not just some harmless procedure like having an x-ray. Thank you.

    • Andy
      September 28, 2016 | 4:16 am

      Thank you so much for your article. You just saved me from that dangerous procedure.

    • Nicole
      May 24, 2017 | 5:46 am

      Hi… I just wanted your advice i haven’t felt right since my colonoscopy I had a week from yesterday. I’ve had a rash on and off every day I woke up and my right ear is clogged along with a painful deep cough and mucus. I’m 31 I’m terrified I’m going to head to hospital soon any suggestions are appreciated thank u

    • cleo lydy
      April 8, 2018 | 5:40 pm

      My husband died of a perforated screwed up colonoscopy. He was 69 a daily bike rider, player in a band and construction worker. He was not sick and went in for a routine colonoscopy where the doctor perforated his colon and he had repair surgery and the mal practice and sloppiness and the major 4 hour surgery killed him. He did not need the colonoscopy but his doctor pushed it. I am totally angy and his enjoyable life was cut short by this profitable unnecessary procedure, keep up the good work!

      • Wolverine
        April 17, 2018 | 1:26 pm

        Dear Cleo, I am so sorry for your loss. You cannot imagine how hard these stories hit me. I should have passed away just like your husband. A bowel perforation is such a serious injury and how doctors can put their patients at such a risk, just to make money is beyond me, but then again, I’m not a sociopath and I believe that many doctors are.

        Anyone who looks at another human being as a commodity, what they can get out of them to gain something, without any regard for that person as a living being is a sociopath by definition. A sociopath has no ability to feel empathy, they are somehow biologically incapable of putting themselves in someone else’s shoes.

        When I think of how many times my wife was told she was a widow. Times that the doctors told her I was beyond help and they would just keep me medicated until I finally passed, disturbs me so. She lived a holy nightmare, but your’s is worse. I can really feel for you and my wife even more so.

        I believe that these colonoscopies need to go away. There has never been one study that proved their effectiveness at stopping cancer. I seriously doubt they can.

        I can image just how hard this has hit you and I hope you know that my heart goes out to you. It was such a crime that your husband, who was so healthy and full of vitality, was cut down prematurely because of a dangerous procedure that doctors know carries high risks of injury and death, but continue to do it any way for the money.

        I am so sorry to hear your story. Unfortunately, I have had several people tell a similar story in these comments and it takes a piece out of me each time I hear them. That is the most difficult part of publishing this blog, but I continue to do so anyway in the hope of saving just one person from suffering what I did or what you and your husband did.

        No one can understand how I survived the things I did. I say “things”, plural, because there were many. Maybe helping to stop others from that fate is why?

        I have been able to help about a dozen people who had lost their bowel get in touch with intestinal transplant surgical teams, even after their doctors told them bowel transplant were impossible and didn’t exist (the same thing my wife and I were told many times). Even though that is a drop in an ocean, it has help give me some purpose for everything I have suffered.

        Keep telling your story to anyone who will listen. This is a horrible thing that happened to you, but maybe saving even one other person from suffering the loss you have had, will help you also find purpose in that devastating loss.

        Thank you so much for being willing to tell your story, even in the pain you are in.

        • Lora
          April 18, 2018 | 9:53 am

          I was extremely glad to see notification of this reply in my email box. I’ve been worried about you, esp. in regard to the struggle against Multiple Myeloma, because it had been quite awhile since I’d seen new writing from you online. I can’t find words that would adequately express how much I appreciate the info you provide! I have iatrogenic health problems that would have become much more devastating if not for the info you have shared. THANK YOU!

    • Julienne
      May 15, 2019 | 9:43 pm

      First and foremost I’d like to apologize for what had happened to your near death experience. It must have been such a traumatic experience that I couldn’t fathom the pain that you have suffered.
      Here’s the thing, I’ve been a GI nurse 11 years and I’ve only witnessed about 2 perforations in my entire career in GI. I have assisted doctors by giving medications and have done teching these procedures as well. Colonoscopies are such life savers because even though the death rate of this procedure may be more than the death rate of colon cancers the only reason for this is that it is because of colonoscopies that death from colorectal cancer is lower. As with everything, there are risks involved. I don’t know your endoscopist and his/her techniques and yet even the most experienced practitioner could make this mistake. There are a lot of factors that have contributed and led to perforating your bowel and the time it took for them to take care of it before it got worse. I just want to let you know that I’m not trying to belittle the awful experience you had but at the same time I have a lot of respect for how much colonoscopies have saved so many people from getting a mass/cancer and eventual surgery or even death.
      I just had a patient who went for his colonoscopy because he turned 50. When we did his procedure we found a big polyp and we removed it. The polyp came back invasive adenoma. So he has to get a resection of his colon and most likely has to get cancer treatments as well. But if this 50 year young guy didn’t go and he has young kids, he won’t be able to see his children grow up, finish school, get married and see his grandchildren. I know this is only one example and I could give more but what I’m trying to say is that this procedure is life saving and safe. Unfortunately, we are also human and human error could not be prevented sometimes. Sometimes too perforations happen because of lack of sedation and experience by the endoscopist.

  2. Krystal Williams
    April 4, 2012 | 8:20 am

    Another excellent post!

    The part about the endoscope being impossible to sterilize actually made me quite upset and angry. How can they reuse a tool like that on multiple patients? That is ridiculous. I’m sure they don’t tell people that the feces from the last, oh, 1,000 people they used the tool on may still be encrusted on the doggone thing.

    Man, this was an eye-opening post. I agree with Zakariah… this could easily save someone’s life.

    • Wolverine
      April 4, 2012 | 11:44 am

      Thanks again Krystal. The sad part is that in Europe they use disposable ends and condom-like sheaths, but in the U.S. doctors don’t because of the added costs. The Glutaraldehyde that they use to clean the scope can cause a toxic colitis. You can read about that here or just Google “Glutaraldehyde + colitis” and you will get plenty of information.

      No one to this day knows the cause of bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and UC – and there are some researchers that believe it may be caused by an undiscovered virus. If you’re getting a cancer screening, chances are good that the scope has been used many times on Crohn’s and UC patients (who get screened a lot). if they are found in the end to be viral diseases, they are being spread to perfectly healthy people getting cancer screenings.

      It really irritates me that doctors and the media claim that the benefits outweigh the risks. 90% of all people who undergo a colonoscopy are found to be cancer free, so were was the benefit for them? They risked their life on a dangerous procedure for absolutely nothing, except the illusion that they are now safe from cancer. This is also false as studies have shown that people who get negative results of cancer from colonoscopies still developed cancer at the same rate as those who never received colonoscopies. It’s simply a money making racket and people are dying or being left disabled as a result.

      It is my life’s mission now to see this procedure reduced to only sick people and stop being used on perfectly healthy people. There is no way, based on my research, that it is saving more lives than it is taking. Proof is that we have not seen any reduction in colorectal cancer rates in the last 20 years since this procedure became a fad, but we have seen an extreme rise in the incidence of IBD.

      I am always impressed by people like you that lost so much weight using diet and exercise. I met 2 women in Miami that decided to go the easy way and opt for gastric by-pass surgery – both lost all of their intestines as a result of blood clots from the surgery. Both women had to undergo multiple organ transplants (7 organs in all) and both were extremely young women in their early thirties and one of them was the mother of three small children. So you too are saving lives by teaching people that you can lose weight without resorting to bariatric surgery – another money making racket.

      Thanks again Krystal. Keep up the good work.

      • K
        May 31, 2013 | 3:01 pm

        I have had both done, and luckily no problems from them. My friend had an endo and got such a horrible infection afterwards he couldn’t even breath, eat, drink because his throat was so swollen 🙁

        • Wolverine
          June 2, 2013 | 2:43 pm

          Hi K. Of course not everyone will get injured nor experience any bad after effects. A large majority of people will experience some ill after effects, even up to months later, such as diarrhea, cramping and other problems associated by disbyosis. Some people, especially those on blood thinners can experience severe internal bleeding from polyp removals and tissue samples that continue to bleed long after the procedure and in rare cases, some people have bled out and died.

          About 5 in 1,000 people will experience some serious injury from a colonoscopy and about 1 in 1,000 will be perforated, that is a according to national statistics. I believe it is considerably higher, because I know many cases go unreported or undiagnosed, because they show up long after the fact and a recent colonoscopy is rarely something a doctor might look to as the source of a systemic infection, or even a localized infection, such as Clostridium difficile (C. Diff). Recently, I have been reading a lot about a new strain of drug resistant C. diff which has been found to be resistant to all know antibiotics. It has killed thousands and the numbers are growing.

          Of course, the CDC claims it has no knowledge of how it is being transferred and I have not heard one expert even suggest that it could be colonoscopies. Here, in this article from John’s Hopkins, they go on about hand washing (as if washing your hand after cleaning someone’s ass is not common practice – doesn’t anyone wear gloves anymore?), but this is how absurd they will go to avoid a much more obvious, but profitable, culprit. Remember, those endoscopes cannot be sterilized at all, just hand cleaned. Given the fact that C. diff is bred in the colon and any drug resistant superbug is typically borne in a medical facility, where it has been exposed to thousands of cleaning agents and antibiotics, it would seem reasonable to assume that it was inadvertently bred in a hospital or clinic and is being spread via endoscopes. It is now becoming a growing killer of humans through massive diarrhea. When will the CDC investigate the dirty handling of these scopes and the mass cattle call of procedures performed for profits? Why do doctors in the U.S refuse to use the disposable end pieces and condom-like sheaths, which cut into profits, which are mandated in Europe? As long as manufacturers, like Genreal Electric, the largest manufacturer of endoscopes, and others can grease some palms, it will be a while and many more will die.

          I am sorry to hear of your friends infection from the endoscopy and hope that he will make a full recovery. I believe that infections from this device are far more common than reported, because the infections can take weeks or even months to exact their toll. At that late a time after the procedure, few, if any doctors are going to relate it to the endoscope. Doctors are very good at diagnosing diseases and treating symptoms. They are very poor at curing anything, nor finding the source of any disease and many injuries – if they were police detectives, ours prisons would be empty shells, because their sleuth techniques are nonexistent. This is why injuries and infection from procedures like colonoscopies most often go untold. Think about it, when is the last time you ever heard or read about a doctor or researcher ever tag the source or cause of a disease? Diabetes? Arthritis? Crohn’s Disease? Cancer? Or even our greatest killer, Heart Disease? Not one single good hypothesis as to the cause of any of these diseases. So why would they connect an infection to a colonoscopy?

          There are thousands of deaths related to colonoscopies that will never make the statistics, because it can kill in so many ways and many time, months later or even years. I was saved by a transplant, but I really only bought some time. All the excessive radiation from CTs, X-rays, and fluoroscopes took their toll and I now have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. So even though cancer will be the cause on my death certificate, it was a colonoscopy that actually caused my death.

    • Barbara
      September 16, 2014 | 3:57 pm

      I have an appointment to have this done which after reading this scared me to tears. In the paper work they mailed me states you need a Advance Directive which I have in case you die!!! That stopped me cold. So glad I read your piece. Going to cancel my appointment.
      Thank you!!

      • Wolverine
        September 16, 2014 | 9:38 pm

        Hi Barbara. Yes, that waiver they require everyone to sign should scare anyone away from the procedure, but the doctors are good at covering it up with bald-face lies. When I questioned all of the horrible things that could go wrong, which were written on that waiver they needed me to sign, the doctor told me it was just a formality and those things rarely, if ever happen anymore. Years later, after I finally had recovered from the 14 month nightmare that would become my life, I learned that what the doctor was saying was misleading. I guess saying something is rare is subjective, depending on what anyone considers rare — which is why the doctors never actually give any statistics.

        I discovered that the real statistics count that 5 in every 1,000 procedures will result in an injury of some kind and that 1 in every thousand will result in a serious injury, usually a bowel perforation, which in many cases is deadly. Few people survive what I did — I was just lucky, but it also took a total bowel transplant to return me to any type of life worth living. I do not consider 5 in 1,000 a rare occurrence. Had they given me that statistic, I would have refused to sign. Please take the words and warnings on those papers serious. If they truly were rare, no one would require each patient to sign away their right to compensation, they would simply pay the damages on those few cases each year and remain quiet.

        It is the fact that the injuries are quite common that they require everyone to sign a legal waiver. They could not afford to pay all of the lawsuits that would occur if they didn’t. My newest ploy to get out of these scopes (which the transplant doctors demand of all intestinal transplant patients), is to not sign the paper. Of course, they will not do the procedure if you do not sign. My excuse to them is if injuries are truly so rare, then you should’t fear doing the procedure without the waiver. Yes, I will sue the piss out of you if I am injured, but why do you sweat, when you claim that they almost never happen?

        It’s funny how the doctors expect us to gamble our lives on that which they are not willing to gamble their money on. That alone should say something about the reality of injuries and their frequency. This way, I am not refusing to undergo the procedure, I am only refusing to waive my right to sue if something should go wrong. If this procedure is as safe as they say it is, they should be willing to do that, right? But, they never are — so what does that say?

        All of the other intestinal transplant recipients follow the doctor’s orders and get colonoscopies every 6 months (my doctor gets real pissed that I refuse to sign the waiver and haven’t had a scope in 5 years). They claim the purpose is to look for signs of rejection in the small bowel, which means the endoscope goes farther in than a typical colonoscopy — all the way through the cecal valve and into the Ileum — that sounds far to risky.

        One of the woman I had befriended was perforated during a scope last year and complained of abdominal pain. The doctor did 2 more scopes and could find no problem. On the third scoping, they finally found the perforation and discovered that the leaking gastric juices had destroyed all of her small bowels, so she was rushed to surgery and all of her intestines were removed. She had to undergo a second full bowel transplant earlier this year and is luckily doing well.

        The problem is, there was nothing wrong with her first transplant, she was doing so well that she was competing in triathlons, yet her life was again crushed by an ill-advised colonoscopy when she was perfectly healthy and the doctors just wanted to peek around. I refuse these because twice after my transplant they made a wrong diagnosis based on an endoscope reading and I knew of two other patients who also had wrong diagnosis. In all cases, the biopsies came back the opposite of what the scope reading said — proving that the endoscope is unreliable as a diagnostic tool.

        But the real kicker had to be the 2 scope reading they did on the woman who had been perforated which came back with a clean bill of health. In the end, it was discovered that she had over 20 feet of ischemic, necrotic bowels and was only hours from death and yet two colonoscopies failed to find a problem. This was not the first time I had seen colonoscopies fail to diagnose a serious problem. Here’s the real question to ponder: If two colonoscopies failed to recognize more than 20 feet of digested, ischemic bowel, which had turned necrotic to the point of liquifying, how in the hell is anyone to believe that a colonoscopy is capable of finding an early stage tumor? A tumor smaller than a pea? The entire procedure is a money making scam, but it can ruin lives very quickly, as it did mine. I think you are wise for considering all of the dangers. Best of luck to you and thank you for writing.

  3. Andrea
    April 21, 2012 | 1:19 pm

    Es dificil dejar un comentario de esta informacion, ya que las palabras se agotan cuando se ve la realidad creada y aceptada por gran parte de la humanidad por temor a la engañosa mentira que defiende la enfermedad para poder justificar el tener que curarla.

    Este tipo de informacion es necesaria difundirla de manera consciente, sin enojo, mas bien reconociendo que informarnos es la puerta para que estas manupulaciones salgan a la luz.

    Gracias por compartirlo
    Andrea.

    • Wolverine
      April 21, 2012 | 3:31 pm

      Gracias Andrea. Lamento mucho que no hablo muy bien español. Le gustaría traducir sus palabras bonitas para mis lectores inglés. Espero que mi traducción es correcta:

      My Spanish is not too good, but I believe that Andrea’s sentiments are as follows:

      “It is difficult to leave a comment of this information, since the words are exhausted when we see the reality created and accepted by much of humanity for fear of the misleading lie that defends the disease to justify having to cure it.

      This type of information is necessary to disseminate it in a conscious way, without anger, but rather recognizing that information is the door for these manipulations to come to light.

      Thank you for sharing it”

      My reply:

      Thank you Andrea. I am sorry that I do not speak Spanish very well. I would like to translate your fine words for my english readers. I hope that my translation is correct.

  4. Kelly
    May 12, 2012 | 8:59 am

    Thank you for this very informative website. I am so sorry for what you must have gone through. My dad currently had a colonospy the doctor recommended. He is now very sick in icu-he is on a breathing machine for help with his breathing. His large intestine was punctured – and surgery was done right away. However now his lungs are filled with some fluid and he now has pneumonia. I am so scared and pray that he makes it through- This is the most horrific and terrifying procedure and I would not recommend anyone to ever have to go through this. I pray my dad makes it right now he is still stable- but we are unsure as to what may happen next.

    • Wolverine
      May 12, 2012 | 3:16 pm

      I am so sorry to hear about your father’s injury. This is the exact thing I am hoping to prevent with this information. My wife could relate to what you’re going through, as she watched and waited many hours while I was kept alive by a respirator. Like I said in the article, luckily we have those skilled and dedicated doctors to help patch us back together from the damage inflicted by the greedy gastroenterologists who are out for a quick buck.

      I won’t be happy until this idiotic procedure goes the way of blood letting. It is a barbaric practice that has no place in modern medicine and injures far more people than it ever helps. One in every thousand people who undergo this procedure will be perforated as your father and I were. Please keep me appraised of his condition. You can email me through the contact page if you would like to keep it private. I may be able to give you a lot of advice to improve his chances survival. I’m glad to hear he is stable and received surgery right away to save the rest of his organs.

      Don’t be afraid to talk to him, even if he is unconscious. My wife spoke to me the entire time I was in a coma and I’m sure it had an impact. The Propofol used to sedate patients on a respirator causes horrific nightmares. Hearing a familiar voice can help calm the confusion. The idiot doctors will tell you he can’t hear you, but how would they know? They’ve never been through it, I have. Just continue to support him. My heart is with him and your family at this time.

  5. Kelly
    May 12, 2012 | 4:35 pm

    Thank you for responding. I did send you a private message. Just hope you don’t mind some questions. I am so scared of what may happen. My dad is fighting so hard. He is 79 years old, and did not want this procedure done. He literally told us I’ll probably go in, but won’t ever come out-and that is the saddest part. Yet everyone including his doctor said this is a simple procedure. He had this done due to blood loss issues. Still they cannot find out why he has had blood transfusions in the past. I wish he would have never went in for the colonoscopy-we never dreamed this could happen.

  6. всички филми
    July 13, 2012 | 6:47 am

    Appreciation to my father who stated to me about this website, this weblog is actually awesome.

  7. www.cleanseyourcolon.org
    July 18, 2012 | 5:47 pm

    How long does it take to recover from Colon Surgery?

    • Wolverine
      July 19, 2012 | 1:04 am

      That can really vary depending on the severity of the surgery and considering any complications, like infections that can occur. I never specifically had colon surgery, except for the ostomy reversal, which only took a week to recover. The first two bowel resections happened within 5 days of each other and took over six weeks to recover from. The intestinal transplant took about seven weeks to recover, but then I had a bad sepsis and then a collasped lung, which required a lung resection to repair – so I was hospitalized for about seven months following the transplant.

      A normal colon surgery, like resection for diverticulitis, probably takes about a week to recover from, given that there are no infections or other complications.

  8. Jonathon Wentz
    August 21, 2012 | 5:36 am

    Thanks for the info. Wolverine! I always say research research research, and this time it may have saved my life! You see, I was scheduled to have this Colonoscopy procedure done 9-5-12. However I am 53 years young and plan to cancel first thing tomorrow. It is ironic that you mentioned Katy Curic promoting this as that’s what convinced me to have it done in the first place. Shame on you K.C. 🙁

    • Wolverine
      August 21, 2012 | 4:02 pm

      It’s rather shameless the way Katie used her husband’s untimely death to boost her career and make her employer (General Electric) a lot of money, especially since a mandatory colonoscopy at 50 would not have helped her husband (even if they were effective) because he died in his early forties. The colonoscopy procedure has not proven itself to be effective in cancer prevention and kills and injures far more people than it helps.

  9. k
    August 21, 2012 | 10:02 am

    Thanks for creating this web site, Wolverine. I have been considering getting checked for colon cancer by this dirty procedure, but I’ll wait til I am in my sixties, if I ever have it done.

    • Wolverine
      August 21, 2012 | 4:11 pm

      Smart move. Your chances of being injured by the endoscope are far greater than any chance that you will develop colon cancer – especially before the age of 70. Unless you have some disease, like Gardner’s Syndrome, that runs in your family or you’re bleeding out of your rectum, colorectal cancer should be the least of your concerns. Chances are much higher of developing diabetes or heart disease, which kill far more people than colon cancer.

      • Derek
        December 2, 2012 | 6:29 pm

        I want to second the thank you of the previous poster “k”!

        I too was considering doing a colonoscopy, well not immediately as I am 43 years old, but I figured I should do it sometime in the coming few years since it is touted as a good preventative measure. Well, now, I don’t think I will be doing it anymore. You may have saved me from a world of hurt. I have forwarded your website posts on to a friend of mine in the same age bracket and plan to do the same with my other friends; just to give them a heads up.

        Thank you so much for sharing your story. You are making a difference.

        • Wolverine
          December 2, 2012 | 8:07 pm

          Thanks for writing Derek. 43 years old is far too young to consider this procedure, unless you are having some major health problems (bleeding, weight loss or a family history of Gardner’s Symdrome).

          I was only 48 when I lost all of I my intestines to one of these endoscopes. No one should have their lives destroyed in their 40s or 50s screening for a disease that rarely strikes anyone before the age of 71. Enjoy your life while you can. Only by saving someone else from ruining their life at middle age can my disability and suffering have some purpose. Thanks for letting me know that my message is being received.

          And don’t believe that anyone will be their to help if you are disabled by such procedures. The doctors that injure you won’t help, The government won’t help (they actually hinder by not permitting those injured from suing the doctors responsible) and the economy is so bad, that you cannot rely on the benevolence of other people or organizations, other than family members.

          Thanks agin for the comment.

  10. Myrna Mirow
    August 27, 2012 | 1:05 pm

    Your post was forwarded to me from a question I asked on the Jack Kruse website.
    I was scheduled for a colonoscopy- for no reason other than my insurance company actually called me last month and said I could get one for “free”..I’m healthy, eat right, have no symptoms, or any family history of any gastric occurances or cancer.I had NO IDEA how lethal this is. I cancelled right after reading this….thank you so much for posting, and thank you Jack Kruse for being aware of your post and sending this link to me.

    • Wolverine
      August 28, 2012 | 12:16 am

      Hi Myrna, thanks for commenting. Most people don’t realize just how dangerous they really are. Even though the papers you would have to sign before they will give you the procedure list all of these risks, including death, the doctors will always lie and tell you that those things are extremely rare and signing the paper is just a formality. That contract is just you signing away your rights to seek damages from the doctor or hospital when something goes wrong. If those events were really rare, the doctors would not feel the need to have you sign such a frightening contract, because there would be so few lawsuits.

      Truth is, thousands of people are injured per year by this procedure and if they didn’t have people sign away any right to litigation, the doctors and hospitals would lose their asses paying for all the damages and wrongful death. If this procedure was not dangerous and extremely painful, they wouldn’t have to place the patient under propofol (a drug that suppresses respiration and cardiac function) to perform it. I am happy to hear that you canceled that dangerous procedure – especially in light of the fact that you live a healthy lifestyle and would have little to benefit and a lot to lose by undergoing this barbaric snake oil practice.

      I was unable to collect any damages from the doctors who nearly killed me with this procedure – even with the fact that they ignored my complaints of intense abdominal pain for more than 3 days following the colonoscopy, which resulted in all of my intestines dying. I have had a lot of people write and say they canceled their colonoscopy appointment. Given the fact that 1 out of every 1,000 people are killed or seriously injured by colonoscopies, I figure I will help save one life per every 1,000 people that forgo this procedure. Please help spread the news of my story so we can help save more lives. Thanks.

      • Jackie
        November 2, 2013 | 7:57 pm

        Dear Wolverine
        I am 68 and have been told by my family Doctor that I should have this Cancer-preventing procedure. I eat sensably and only weigh 100 lbs. I am terrified to have it because a friend of my son had it and they perforated his colon. I am on a blood thinner,so I bleed easily,anyway. I have lower belly pain ,but I never have diarreah.it feels like a pulled muscle. I eat anything I want and never have’heartburn’. I am terrified to have this procedure,especially now after researching those who have had complications. I am an active senior and still work 30 hours a week,as well as furious yard work,gardening,etc. Isn’t there a better way to treat what only MIGHT be colitis? Please e-mail me back,Thank-you,Sincerely taluvskids@att.net(Jackie)

        • Wolverine
          November 2, 2013 | 11:13 pm

          Thank you Jackie for your comment. I will write you a reply on an email, as you requested. You are very wise to do research before undergoing any invasive procedure – I applaud this commitment to your health. Thank you.

  11. Daphne
    October 31, 2012 | 10:31 am

    Wow. Is all I can say as I read thru this website. It is so informative. My father at 76 was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and had half of his colon removed…just yesterday. Now I am being told I have double the chance of getting this illness and to get more frequent colonoscopies. Where can I begin to research for myself the efficacy of the procedure and/or what screening or prevention would be best? Thank you so much for your time and energy to get this info out! Bless you.

    • Wolverine
      November 1, 2012 | 3:13 am

      Thanks, Daphne. I am sorry to hear about your father, you can imagine how I felt, not just losing my colon, but all of my intestines (small and large) at the age of 48. You may well benefit from colonoscopies because of the heredity, but be careful and don’t let the doctors scare you into taking unnecessary risks. After my transplant, I was required to have regular ileostomies (not as invasive or risky as a colonoscopy and no sedation is required), yet I was infected by one and nearly died within 4 days from the resulting sepsis – and I knew two other transplant patients that were perforated by these scopes and required emergency bowel surgery to save their lives. No matter what a doctor tells you, it is always a risky procedure and great care should be taken.

      After I survived the sepsis (I was in a coma and on a respirator for more than 2 weeks) I would no longer let anyone operate the scope on me that was not both an Attending and a Surgeon. Most people allow a gastroenterologist to perform the procedure, but not all gastroenterologist are trained in surgery and NEVER lose sight of the fact that a colonoscopy IS a surgical procedure. When I refer to being surgically trained, I mean that they should have the same training as a surgeon when it come to all the possible things that can go wrong. If someone is injured during a colonoscopy, time is of the essence. I lost my small intestines because the gastroenterologist was incapable of diagnosing what went wrong and I received no treatment for more than 3 days, even though I was in intense, abdominal pain, difficulty breathing and dangerously high WBCs. Had the problem been discovered quickly, I would not have lost the small bowels. I will never let a gastroenterologist without surgical experience perform an invasive scoping on me again.

      The first injury, which cost me all of my intestines (and should have killed me) was performed by a gastroenterologist who was not a surgeon. (remember – all of my intestines, not just the colon). The second injury (the systemic infection) was performed by a Fellow and even though he was training as a surgeon – he was not one at the time. After demanding that only surgeons could perform the procedure, I never had any more deadly mishaps.

      This procedure needs to always be taken very seriously, because like any surgery (done under general anesthetics) there are many things that can go wrong. If I ever need another scope, I would only allow it to be performed in a hospital, where all the necessary equipment to save my life are quickly available should anything go wrong. Most people have this procedure done in a clinic or gastroenterologist’s office as an outpatient. Luckily, I was in a hospital for the colonoscopy or I would be dead. I required an emergency operation to save my life (actually 2 surgeries within 5 days).

      The sedation typically used is Propofol, which slows down the respiration and heart rate. If given too much, the patient can easily stop breathing (propofol killed Michael Jackson) and a gastroenterologist’s most likely do not have respirators (there have been cases of people dying right on the colonoscopy table). Gastroenterologists are not required to have an anesthesiologist present (they sedate the patient themselves) and rarely will have the emergency equipment needed to save your life if you stop breathing.

      You can probably do more to protect yourself by not listening to the doctors when they tell you to eat a diet high in fiber. Doctors are not required to study nutrition, but always love to repeat whatever dietary advice that the mainstream media pushes, which is always paid for and provided by the large agribusiness (think Monsanto), who are the only ones who benefit from us eating diets high in indigestible fiber from beans, legumes and grains. Doctors historically recommended (and most still do) high fiber to people with Crohn’s and UC, but many of the patients claimed it made things worse (I had UC and fiber caused bleeding) – Many new studies have shown that this high fiber diet caused greater “flare-ups” because of the abrasive nature of psyllium fiber and the gas and bloating it causes. (source 1) (source 2)

      You can do more searches and find many studies and sources for the negative results of fiber on IBD sufferers, yet somehow doctors have refused to change their stance on the issue and will not listen to their patients, but continue to push the fiber because all of the advertising says so. Humans never ate beans or grains until only around 10,000 years ago (because they are toxic in their unprocessed or raw state), so humans couldn’t eat them until they learned how to process them. 10,000 years is a small amount of time (in evolutionary terms) and we have not adapted to eating grains, much less the indigestible husk that even animals refuse to eat. It’s only through heavy marketing from the cereal companies that fiber has been erroneously been given the “healthy” tag – no study has ever proven or backed up what the grain companies claim. You wanted a good source of information, I suggest reading some of the work at Konstantin Monastyrsky’s site – http://www.gutsense.org/crc/crc_colonoscopy.html

      He also has some good videos on the overuse of fiber here; http://www.gutsense.org/fibermenace/fm_transcript.html and the studies that have been performed concerning its so-called “health benefits”. Good stuff there.

      Humans get all the fiber they need from vegetables and fruits (and these are mostly soluble fiber, which is far less abrasive). Fiber from grains is mostly insoluble fiber and reeks havoc on the mucosa lining of the intestines (and why it causes so many farts). Keep your diet low in these and industrial seed oils (hydrogenated vegetable oils – including canola!) and you will lessen your risk of colorectal cancer.

      No one has proven that colorectal (or most other cancers) are genetically passed on. Like heart disease, the doctors see that a disease runs in families and always assume that association proves causation (which is false and unscientific), but what does run in families is similar lifestyles, occupations and diet – so how are we to know whether it was a gene or the diet learned from relatives? Until someone can isolate the cancer gene or can show a much greater correlation, I will not accept that all these diseases are congenital. (there are some cancers that have been proven to be hereditary, such as Gardner’s Syndrome. Besides being very rare, your father would have never made it to the age of 76 if he had Gardener’s, because the onset of colorectal cancer begins at a very young age – usually early 30s, and they will die before 50 without a multivisceral transplant). This is the only colon cancer proven to be congenital, all others are speculation and more likely tied to lifestyles.

      It’s not like I believe that there is no value in colonoscopies, I would just like to see them be treated like any proper surgery, with anesthesiologist, in an operating room, equipped with all the necessary equipment if something should go wrong and stop treating it like it was an x-ray. I think that everyone that performs them should have surgical training – it is a deeply invasive procedure within a human organ and far too painful to be performed without heavy sedation.

      I also believe that they use scare tactics to push healthy people into undergoing the procedure. No healthy person who feels well should undergo this procedure just for the hell of it. It’s pushed on everyone because it makes a lot of money and insurance companies will pay for it with no questions asked. It needs to be treated with the same precautions as any abdominal surgery and at this time it is not.

      Doctors have found that they can motivate people to do about anything by using the word cancer (and no doctor can tell that you have twice the risk as your father for the same cancer – not sure I would trust one that offered such a claim as fact). Yes, cancer can be deadly, but it also will not kill you instantly and a colonoscopy has that potential – I was nearly killed twice by scopes at the age of 48 and had to undergo a full intestinal transplant in order to stay alive (over 14 months in hospitals, 6 months on life-support and nearly half of those months were spent in ICU). So cancer is not the scariest thing you may ever face and a colonoscopy, done wrong, can screw up your life faster than any cancer ever could – and certainly end it faster. And just because I was able to survive what many people don’t, does not mean I am out of the woods – not by a long shot and will most likely never live to be as old as your father with my condition. My life was cut short by a colonoscopy.

      Please stay well and be cautious. If you absolutely have to have this procedure, take every precaution possible and do not let your guard down simply because the doctors will act as if it’s no big deal. Just read the paper that they will require you to sign, where it lists all of the things that can go wrong (including death) – they make you sign it because these things HAVE happened to many people, like me, and the doctors want to protect their asses – but take those things listed very seriously and take every precaution when preparing for this procedure.

      Thanks for writing and please feel free to write with any other questions that you may have.

  12. Jake
    November 5, 2012 | 9:08 pm

    This is so informative. I have a family history of colon cancer in my father and brother. They never had colonoscopy until they had symptoms. I was thinking about having the procedure but after reading your blogs I am absolutely going to refuse this procedure. The risks to me appear to far outweigh the benefits. I also agree with your apparent assertion that the only reason physicians perform this procedure is to make a profit. I also didnt know general anesthesia was used! Wow. I can only imagine what these doctors do to people when they asleep. I fear they will intentionally perforate my colon Thank you again!

    • Wolverine
      November 5, 2012 | 11:02 pm

      With your risks, you may benefit from the procedure, but always take every precaution and only allow it to be performed in a fully equipped hospital. I was luckily in a hospital. Had I been in some clinic or gastroenterologist’s private facility, I would certainly be dead. My biggest problem with the procedure is that they recommend that everyone have them, regardless of their risk factors and I think that is taking unwarranted risks.

      My second problem is that they are performed in facilities that are not hospitals and not fully equipped to save a patient if something should go wrong, as it did with me. With the exception of Gardner’s Syndrome, I don’t feel that any other colorectal cancers have been proven to be congenital. Yes, it can run in families, but so does heart disease which has never been proven to be congenital. There are too many variables, like the fact that family members also tend to share the same diets and lifestyle factors. Lung cancer may well run in families also, because smokers typically begat more smokers. Children pick up their parent’s bad habits.

      I personally believe that it is the bread and cereal companies pushing to get people to eat more grain fiber (something that livestock animals refuse to eat), because it is a cheap filler that used to be tossed away. Through massive lobbying and advertising, they have convinced the government and medical community to back erroneous claims that it can lower cholesterol and prevent colon cancer. Read the real studies, there is no proof of any of that. All that indigestible fiber is abrasive to the mucosa of the colon and takes on water and enlarges, causing constipation and diverticulitis.

      People who suffer heart disease typically will have children who are obese (like them) consume massive quantities of sugar and exercise little. Health conscious people will typically raise health conscious children. Doctors immediately want to make associations as being hereditary, even before they have been proven to be so.

      Since my transplant, I cannot tolerate psyllium fiber (insoluble, the type found in grains) and get plenty of fiber from vegetables and fruits (usually soluble). It is impossible that humans evolved to required enormous amounts of grain fibers when humans did not begin to even eat grains until around 10,000 years ago – that is a very small fraction of the time we have been around. Even ruminant animals (completely vegan), like cows, will refuse to eat psyllium fiber, so the cereal companies couldn’t even sell it to farmers. So they packaged it up and advertised it as super healthy for humans and we have seen all kinds of gastric problems on the rise ever since (Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Celiacs and other IBDs), and colorectal cancer. Grain fiber causes bloating and gas as the colonic bacteria ferment them. Bloating is not good for the colon. Human beings were not designed to be perpetual farting machines as these fiber cause.

      All the other transplant patients I met have been back in the hospital for bowel obstructions and I haven’t. The only difference is that they eat grains and I don’t. I believe that their obstructions are promoted by the high psyllium fiber the doctors told them to eat.

      Just always remember that colonoscopies carry more risks that the doctors will let on, though they will make you sign a paper listing all the dangers, including death. Take that paper serious. I should be dead. Few people will survive what I went through and not one of the doctors that worked on me can explain how I didn’t die. I am living proof of the dangers and statistics say the 1 out of every 1,000 people will be perforated and 5 out of every 1,000 will suffer some related injury. It only makes sense that it is much higher, because you know that not all cases are reported unless the patient survives and successfully sues the doctor, which is very hard to do after signing that paper. Most all deaths are buried under the carpet – dead men tell no tales – and are rarely reported. So be very careful.

      Yes, I was put to sleep during the colonoscopy. After my transplant, I required regular ileostomies, which are done through the stoma. There is no pain there, so I was completely awake and saw how the scopes are handled. they would bring them in wrapped in a terry cloth towel and just handed around from one person to another and then laid on my legs (with the towel under) while they accessed the stoma.

      The scary part is that the endoscope has a very small tunnel that runs the entire length of the device (somewhere around 4 feet) for inserting tools through. Though the tool is sterile going in, it is pulled back dragging a piece of tissue that has been removed for biopsy. You know that tissue has to scrape the side on the way out. An endoscope cannot be boiled or steamed, that’s a fact. It will destroy the sensitive electronics and optics inside. So how in the hell do they sterilize that tiny tunnel that is four feet long? They can’t. There have been cases in court where people have been infected from a dirty scope (source). So there is always a risk of infection. Again, I have to figure the numbers are higher than reported. How many people diagnosed with hepatitis or some other systemic infection is going to associate it with a colonoscopy they had months prior? Not many.

      The biggest problem is that doctors are notorious for dismissing any complaints from a patient following a colonosopy. My complaints were ignored for more than 3 days. Had they moved sooner, I would not have lost the small bowels, which was the life-threatening loss – humans can live without a colon. If you ever experience discomfort after a colonoscopy, seek help and never let a doctor convince you its just typical post procedure discomfort. Your life could depend on whether you get help or not. Internal bleeding from perforations are a big killer, especially for seniors who are on blood thinners.

      Thanks for writing.

  13. Tee
    November 27, 2012 | 12:55 am

    Great post! Wow! I thought my family member was the only one who suffered from a colonoscopy with life altering consequences……Found this while researching intestinal transplants and the whole TPN dilemma. I agree doctors don’t really talk about the risks in detail…my bigger question is why isn’t anyone promoting the virtual colonoscopy?

    • Wolverine
      November 27, 2012 | 2:58 pm

      Hi Tee. I am so sorry to hear about your family member and that another person was injured by this procedure. After I was injured, I became curious about the frequency of injuries. I also thought that I might have been the only one ever injured so severely. During my transplant, I met several other people that were perforated by endoscopes and were rushed in for emergency surgery; two of them died. Later I did research and learned that 1 in 1,000 people will be perforated and 5 in 1,000 will be injured in some way. I figure that so many injuries and deaths go unreported that the number must be quite a bit higher. Doctors are very good about not associating the injury with the colonoscopy in their records.

      Since I began publishing this blog, I’ve had a multitude of people, like yourself, post comments or write emails to me telling about injuries to themselves or a family member. Unfortunately, some of them died.

      I am more and more convinced that this procedure kills and disables far more people than it could ever save. Death from colorectal cancer is far less frequent than death from colonoscopies, statistically speaking. I have done the research and found this to be true.

      Virtual colonoscopy is not pushed because they claim it is not as accurate or detailed as a colonoscopy. Virtual colonoscopy is performed by a radiologist, so the gastroenterologist doesn’t make any money directly. At $2,000 per colonoscopy and the fact that they can cram in 20 or more per day, lends a lot of incentive for the gastroenterologist to request the colonoscopy, even in cases where a sigmoid scope could do the job. But sigmoid scope charge out at about a tenth of the cost of a colonoscopy, but take the same amount of time to perform. Is it any wonder why they insist on the colonoscopy?

      (Biopsies to diagnose Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis can be just as effectively and more safely done with sigmoid. These patients are at much higher risk for perforations, because of the massive inflammation, bleeding ulcers or fistulas. Yet, the gastroenterologist will always insist on the colonoscopy even though IBD patients are at higher risk for perforations. It’s all about the highest revenue.)

      Thanks again for taking the time to write, but I am so sorry for the circumstances that prompted you to have to write. That’s just one more person who has written me about such a life-altering injury or death to them or their family member. I hope that your relative gets well soon.

      Eventually, I will count up all of the letters I have received from people who lost loved ones or were badly injured by a colonoscopy and publish it in a post, so people can see the frequency that these horrors happen to otherwise healthy people, who trusted their doctor and were killed or left in a very bad state.

      • Tee
        November 27, 2012 | 11:09 pm

        Thanks so much for responding. My family member is going on the 10th month in the hospital now after the colonoscopy. I’ll show them this site for inspiration on your survival.

        • Wolverine
          November 28, 2012 | 3:47 am

          Thank you Tee for the comment. I am stunned to find out that your relative has been in the hospital so long recovering. If you don’t mind me asking, did they actually lose some small bowels as a result?

          You can send me an email from my contact page, if you want to keep that private. I am the only one that reads my emails and anything written to me will never be published or shared with any third parties.

          I am really glad that you wrote. I hope that anyone who has known someone who was injured by this procedure would take the time to write a comment or email me, so I could collect a count of just how many people are actually injured by the procedure, because I know for a fact that it is much higher than than the 5 in 1,000 that is presently reported (because I know the vast majority go unreported).

          So I again thank you for taking the time to comment in the midst of all of the stress and suffering you are going through. Because the more comments that I get concerning people who were injured by endoscopes, the more it supports what I am trying to warn people about.

          With modern technology, this type screening can be made much safer for the patient, unfortunately they are probably less profitable for the doctors and therefore get less publicity. For instance, there is actually a small camera that you can swallow, which can take high resolution images of your entire digestive tract and is far less invasive. One of the woman I met at the transplant hospital had one done on her and the doctors were talking about performing that on me at one point. You can read more about it here.

          Why are we not putting more research into a less invasive imaging process like this?

          If your relative does need an intestinal or multivisceral transplant, don’t let the doctors tell you they’re impossible, I’m living proof, as is most of the people I met while at the transplant program at Jackson Memorial Hospital, that they are very successful. Most of the programs that perform them have higher than a 75% survival rate.

          My doctors tried with all their efforts to scare me away from the transplant and stay on life long TPN, even though they told me the TPN would kill me within 3 years. I will never regret the decision. I no longer have an ostomy bag and am nearly three years out and living a nearly normal quality of life.

          Thanks again for writing. please keep me appraised of your family member’s condition. I apologize again for the long rant, I just get fired up when I hear that someone else was injured badly by that damned procedure! I wish that injuries and deaths were actually half as rare as the medical industry has convinced people.

  14. Lisa
    December 6, 2012 | 9:02 pm

    Dear Wolverine,
    I think the reason you survived is to share your story!
    My doctor has been bugging me to get a colonoscopy for 7 years, and I always ask him: Why should I? Just because Katie Couric’s husband died of colon cancer? It is ridiculous the amount of influence celebrities have on the public. Her husband’s colon cancer has nothing to do with me.
    And now to read What happened you, and others! Horrifying!

    • Wolverine
      December 7, 2012 | 7:00 am

      Lisa, Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure that any of my readers actually understand just how high the mortality for these type bowel injuries are. It defies all odds that I am alive. Several people have written me and commented about family members who have been injured in a similar way by a colonoscopy, so far, not one of them have survived.

      Most people injured by this procedure to the degree that I was will not survive. Somehow, I did. Therefore I am one of the few that can tell my story and warn people just how bad one of these procedures can destroy your life. I’m not sure why people feel that cancer is a worse fate. Most of those that died, including myself who nearly died several times, were far too young to have had colon cancer. Colon cancer is extremely rare in people as young as Katie’s husband was when he died. Far more rare than getting injured by a colonoscopy.

      I believe that is why this procedure stays around, because dead men tell no tales. That’s why I am compelled to warn people. Only if a celebrity was injured or killed by this procedure would anyone care. I’m not a celebrity, so people can just shrug it off and say “sucks to be him”.

  15. Greg Auman
    December 10, 2012 | 11:20 am

    My self insured company this upcoming 2013 year has now required all employees that are 50 or older have a colonoscopy or you do not get the wellness incentive kcick back on your paycheck. Guess what? I just turned 50. This is abount $170.00 per month or $2040.00 per year of kick back I would be doing without in my budget if I ellect to not do as they request. I hate beeing forced to do something without options. I am perfectly healthy and have zero risk factors. I have never gone under sedative drugs or have had any kind of surgery. I am a vegetarian and I watch very closly as to what I eat. I do not take any drugs for anything. I do not believe in this invasive proceedure (colonoscopy) for a pre-screen process. I am trying to work with my insurance to allow other kinds of test that are not invasive as the colonoscopy. What are the better test to be able to satisfy insurances for recommendations? One of the test I have been researching is the virtual colon scan. I’m not crazy about radiation but it seems a better option than the colonoscopy? Any thoughts out there? Greg

    • Wolverine
      December 12, 2012 | 5:55 am

      Greg, I also am not a fan of all that extra radiation, but like you, I feel it is much better in the short run than a colonoscopy. I mean, there is a very slight chance that the RADS from a CT might give you cancer in 30 or 40 years, but a colonoscopy has a much higher potential of leaving you disabled or dead within minute or days.

      It really sucks that they can use monetary incentives to threaten or entice people to undergo such a dangerous procedure, What next a $50,000.00 kick-back for everyone that has a voluntary appendectomy? There is certainly an agenda to push this procedure on everyone – God help all of those who are mandated to receive it. Statistically speaking, that means that there will be more people end up like me – and no one should want to have to go through what I have been through nor continue living the nightmare that is my life.

      I wish you the best in your quest to get them to accept the CT colonoscopy as an alternative.

    • Ann
      January 30, 2013 | 4:07 am

      A virtual colonoscopy can also be done with an MRI instead of a CT, to avoid radiation. There is surprisingly little mention of this virtual colonoscopy option out there compared to CTs.

      And there is the camera capsule mentioned in earlier comments, an amazing technology that gets even less attention/availability.

      And although more mainstream than the above, still all too likely to not be mentioned/offered as an option, is the stool sample test. There are several versions of these: the old gFOBT is the most hassle for the patient and least accurate of the three, the FIT is low-hassle and more accurate, and the new DNA-based testing is the most accurate.

      Lastly, you could try for sigmoidoscopy, mentioned earlier in the comments; a less-dangerous version of a colonoscopy that only examines the more-accessible lower portions of the system.

      For any procedure requiring laxative cleanouts, taking probiotic supplements as soon as it’s over would be a good idea.

  16. Alessandro
    February 19, 2013 | 8:27 pm

    This was the most persuasive publication I’ve ever read in 28 years of my life. Thanks for taking the time to warn others of what you’ve been through. I hope you have “recovered” from such a troubling experience. If this happened in the US, which is believed to house the best hospitals in this planet, I wonder the risks I’d be taking if I’d immediately signed the form to undergo this exam in the interior of Brazil (where some buy their diplomas or take courses in Bolivia). As far as I don’t bleed again while evacuating(after increasing water intake it stopped!) I will not submit myself to such a risk.

    • Wolverine
      February 25, 2013 | 9:08 pm

      Thank you for your comment, Alessandro. I am doing remarkably well considering all that I had to survive and getting stronger everyday. I do believe the evidence exposes the high risks associated with the colonoscopy procedure. I understand that anyone suffering internal blood loss, severe chronic diarrhea, and sudden weight loss may have to take such risks, because these can be life-threatening conditions.

      Yet, I am in opposition to the present day money-making scheme of recommending colonoscopies to perfectly healthy people, simply as a precautionary measure, because the known risks of the procedure far outweigh any benefit that a person with no symptoms or illness could possibly receive. People are not being told that the risk of injury from the procedure itself are far greater than the odds of an asymptomatic person having colorectal cancer – which is actually very rare in people under the age of 70, yet it is being recommended for everyone age 50 and over.

      I also believe that there could be a far safer and less invasive technology for safely screening the GI tract if researchers were actually interested in finding one. But, as long as the truth about the dangers of present day colonoscopies remain hidden from the public, there will be no motivation to invent a safer procedure, especially given the fact that modern colonoscopies have proven to be so profitable and all research for it’s invention has been paid for a thousand times over, so it’s all profit for the manufacturers from here on.

      I hope that you can continue to heal from your past bleeding issues and do to require this procedure. It is amazing how well the human body can recover and heal when given the proper nutrition – I am a living testament to that. Believe it or not, he U.S. is far from one of the best health care system, according to WHO statistics – even though the U.S. spends the most money on health care. Stay well.

      • Michael
        March 16, 2013 | 10:28 am

        Dear Wolverine,
        Thanks for sharing your story – it was really informative. My doctor has asked me to have a colonoscopy because I have anemia – I am 68 – which surprised me because my health has been really good. My doctor referred me to a gastroenterologist who will perform the colonoscopy. He explained the procedure to me and the risks involved and that I would have the procedure done within a month. I am quite anxious about having the procedure done especially after having read your story and the horrific consequences of your colonoscopy. I haven’t had any symptoms apart from anemia which could be caused by iron deficiency. I am open to feedback, Wolverine!

        God bless you
        Michael

        • Wolverine
          March 17, 2013 | 1:48 am

          Hi Micheal. That sounds familiar – doctors jumping to the most invasive procedures first, based on absolutely no symptoms. A doctor did the same thing to my mother recently. She is 72 and tested anemic and the first thing the doctor did was schedule a colonoscopy, rather than the far more obvious suspect – the Nexium she has been taking everyday for years, which are notorious for causing anemia via B12 deficiency.

          I tried to tell her to check that before risking a colonoscopy, because she had absolutely no other symptoms (rectal bleeding, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal cramps) to suggest any colon injuries.

          You may have to consider it at some point, but there are a lot of more likely suspicions that could be ruled out first, especially if you are having no other symptom that would indicate bleeding from the colon (blackened stool, rectal bleeding, severe diarrhea, etc.). You may want to first have a blood test and have them, check your vitamin B12 and iron (ferritin) levels, especially if you have been taking any proton pump inhibitors (Nexium, Prilosec, Pepcid, etc.). Ultimately I was right and the Nexium turned out to be causing my mother’s anemia, unfortunately, only after she had submitted to the unnecessary colonoscopy. Luckily, she was not injured, but there is always a risk of serious injuries from these procedures.

          Even if you don’t take a proton pump inhibitor, still check the vitamin B12. It is quite common for people over 65 to lose the ability to absorb B12. Eating foods rich in B12 or supplements will not help, because they actually cannot absorb it. As we age, our stomachs make less acid. There is an enzyme called “intrinsic factor” which can only bind to B12 in an acid environment, when stomach acid is too weak (especially from the PPIs), intrinsic factor cannot bind to b12 and it cannot be absorbed.

          We cannot make red blood cells without vitamin B12, so anemia will always be the result. PPIs can also cause a lack of iron absorption and ultimately lead to bone loss. I would check these first, before assuming that you are losing blood somewhere, unless you take blood thinners or have low blood platelets (then spontaneous bleeding can be a risk). I always say go for the most obvious and less invasive tests first.

          Stomach acid is also the first line of defense against pathogens, so when it is low, bacteria, or fungal overgrowth can occur in the stomach and small bowels, which can also cause anemia. Once all of these have been ruled out, then you may have to consider more invasive actions, but I wouldn’t take the risk just based on anemia, when so many other things can cause anemia.

          Please let me know what you find out? Your doctor will probably still pressure you for the colonoscopy claiming that it is a good idea to also check for cancer at your age, but that decision is up to you.

          I only tell people the truth about how devastating injuries can actually be from these procedures, so they can at least make an informed decision, because the doctors will never tell you about the damage done to people like me and some others who have written me telling me of family members who have died from colonoscopy injuries. They will make it sound as if that never happens, but around 5 in one thousand people suffer a serious complication from a colonoscopy and one out of a thousands will be perforated (a serious, life threatening condition). As long as you know that going in, at least you’ll know what can happen and whether your condition warrants the risks. Thanks.

  17. Ronda Sansevero
    May 23, 2013 | 5:07 pm

    I wish I had seen this earlier. My 69 year old mother died two weeks ago tomorrow from a perforated bowel during a colonoscopy. She had it done to keep her health in check, and it killed her. The Dr. did not see his mistake and sent her home… she was in awful pain and went to the ER the next day, only to be told after 5 hours of waiting that her CT scan was clear and it was just gas pains. She was sent home again! The next night we called an ambulance because she was becoming disoriented along with her ongoing pain. She was septic and needed emergency surgery. She had a resection a few days later, but complications kept arising and keeping her in ICU… she suffered for over 4 months until we took her off life support. Even on her last day she was awake and fighting, but by then her kidneys and liver were failing, she had overcome 4 other bouts of sepsis… she kept trying but the doctors finally told us she wasn’t going to live and we were just prolonging her suffering. So we took her off the ventilator and dialysis. It was awful. I still can’t believe that what was supposed to be a ‘routine’ procedure to benefit her health wound up killing her. (Her death certificate did however cite bowel perforation in the cause of death… it said multiple organ failure due to sepsis due to bowel perforation during colonoscopy. I’m glad it cited that.) We are heartbroken as a family, my dad lost his wife of 48 years and is lost without her. I have two small children who she adored and she won’t get to see them grow up because of this.
    Thank you for your article, I will share it. I tell people don’t EVER let anyone dismiss your extreme pain after a colonoscopy, and think twice before getting the procedure done in the first place.

    • Wolverine
      May 25, 2013 | 3:04 am

      Ronda, your story is so sad and far too common. Since publishing this site, I have had a multitude of emails and comments from people who needlessly lost loved ones from this supposedly safe and life-saving procedure.

      Your mother’s story sounds so similar to mine, with exception of the sad ending. The doctors also ignored my complaints of pain and just continued to shoot me with more and more powerful pain killers to cover it up. At a point the pain was so bad they had to render me unconscious with the pain killer (I believe they resorted to porpofol when dilaudid would no longer cover the pain). They also gave me an X-ray, rather than a CT, the first day. they claimed to my wife (because I had been knocked unconscious) that there was no “free air”, so I didn’t have a perforation – I think they need a better test for finding perforations!

      I do not get very much traffic to this site, so the fact that so many people have written about the death and injuries of their loved ones is quite disturbing. Based on the amount of traffic I get, about one in every thousand visitors have lost a loved one to colonoscopies – that is an astounding number.

      I am so sorry and saddened by what happened to your mother and the grandmother to your children. Her death was so unnecessary and had she known the real dangers of that procedure, she would still be alive. Her story also angers me! Not only do the doctors and hospital lie about the safety of this procedure, but they have many in the news and celebrity endorsement, convincing people that it is a safe and effective way of early detection for colon cancer – both are a bald face lies!

      I will be publishing some more eye opening articles on the dangers of colonoscopies, including images from my many ileoscopes that I underwent after the transplant. I also hope to publish an article listing all of the letters and comments I have received about the great losses and suffering that many families have gone though.

      When I began publishing this site, I really hoped that I was a rare case (as I have been told by those in the medical industry), and that all the statistic I had gathered were wrong. Yet, given all of the letters and comments I have received, there is no doubt that the statistics are quite accurate and thousands of people are being killed by this procedure (around 1,400 people per year). The only rare thing about my case was that I somehow survived, I have discovered that 98% of those perforated will die. I came so close to death several time (4 times in septic shock, five times with pneumonia, 2 pulmonary edemas, a pneumothorax and more), how I am alive is a mystery to every doctor.

      I am sorry for your suffering and loss. Especially given the fact of how long it was drug out until the end. I hope that your family can receive some financial compensation for this tragedy. Unfortunately, I was unable to receive any damages for my huge medical costs, much less the incredible pain and suffering that both my wife and I endured, nor for the expensive medications I will be on the rest of my life, because I signed that damned waiver they make you sign. My heart goes out to you and your family and I hope you can find a gutsy enough attorney to fight that stupid waiver, if you decide to seek action.

      Please understand that the risks of a colonoscopy far out weigh any possible benefit. My other article “The Effectiveness Of Colonoscopies On Cancer and IBD” explains the real truth of the effectiveness of this procedure at finding cancer and the few studies done have not been promising for colonoscopies. It is a multibillion dollar business and the truths are protected and kept secret.

      Unfortunately, your mother and I (and the twelve others who have written me) found the truth the hard way. I wish my article could reach more people before tragedy strikes, but I just can’t get enough publicity for that. These people have deep pockets and own the media (NBC is owned by General Electric, the largest manufacturer of endoscopes, which are the scopes used for colonoscopies), just to show you what we are up against. I am surprised they haven’t shut this site down yet. I am way too small to catch their radar, but if I begin to get a lot of traffic, I am sure they will squash me like a bug. I gaurantee I will put up a fight though.

      Again, I extend my condolences and I am so sorry that you found my site too late. Best wishes and please, avoid this procedure unless you are really sick. It not something to get when you feel perfectly fine. Again, I am so sorry.

  18. Derek
    May 26, 2013 | 1:17 am

    Ben,

    I had a hellish bout with intestinal cramps and diarrhea that sounds similar to yours. It was episodic like yours. Mine was almost certainly a bacteria, parasite or virus. I caught it while traveling in Mexico and eating at questionable restaurants. Even years later I would get occasional relapses.

    The doctors never figured out what the bug was. My point is that you should get a second diagnosis. I may not be a doctor, but I can think logically, and unless they strongly suspect cancer for, say observing blood in your stool, you really don’t want to have a that procedure performed. At least not until another doctor confirms that, that would be your wisest step.

    Most doctors are not really all that good. I believe in mainstream medicine, but I know that most doctors are not the best practitioners of it. So you should do some research on your own. That is where the magic of Google comes in. You found Wolverine’s site because of it didn’t you? Look up Crohns or another inflammatory disorders. If you have Chrons how much will it help to have it confirmed by colonoscopy? You will still need to treat the disease. That requires experimenting with what you eat. Why not start there? Read up and experiment with your food intake and see if you get better.

  19. Dana Carpender
    June 19, 2013 | 11:47 am

    Wow, Dave, scary, scary stuff. My new internist is encouraging me to get a colonoscopy, especially since my dad had colon cancer, but I am now researching alternatives; there are some new blood tests that are considered quite accurate.

    And considering that Dad was the poster boy for bad nutrition and self-abuse, I’m not at all sure that his cancer is predictive for me.

    Again, thanks.

    • Wolverine
      June 22, 2013 | 1:14 pm

      Thanks Dana. Unlike some cancers, no one has ever identified a gene that causes colorectal cancer to be congenital. Just like heart disease, it can tend to run in families, but them again, so does bad lifestyle habits; like drinking, smoking and unhealthy diets.

      I never consider doctors to be scientists (practitioners at best), because they constantly violate the first rule of science – “association does not prove causation”. If doctors see an association, they quickly and boldly proclaim that A causes B, without ever considering any variables, something a real scientist would never do.

      Tom Naughton had a great illustration of the erroneous conclusions one can come to based on this unscientific approach. It goes like this:

      Drinking lots of water (A) causes frequent urination (B)
      Frequent urination (B) is associated with diabetes (C)
      Therefore, drinking lots of water causes diabetes

      What most doctors espouse is about as ridiculous and based on as little truth. When I see obese parents, chances are their children are also obese. Does this mean that obesity is genetic or that the children picked up the bad eating habits of their parents? Could be either, but doctors will immediately claim that genetics are involved. The fact that the parents shove a lot of junk food down their pieholes and the children follow suit is irrelevant. I think they want us to believe that we are predestined to disease, so we feel we need them more.

      I seriously doubt that colorectal cancer is genetic and even if there are mutations that are passed along, a proper diet can control the progression of the disease. One fact that is known, is that tumors can only use glucose as fuel (which is why the PET scan used to locate tumors relies on a radioactive isotope of glucose). The more fuel, the faster cells can reproduce.

      There has been no evidence that tumors can utilize ketones as fuel, like other cells can. So a low carb diet can certainly slow the growth of cancer, but don’t expect to hear a doctor say that, even though they order PET scans all the time. They have a hard time making associations when it goes against their beliefs, but leap to them when it is in alignment with what they want to believe. And so many people believe that they are scientists. Maybe cause they wear white coats, like real scientists.

      Even if the colon cancer is congenital, a colonoscopy certainly isn’t going to make a difference. There has never been one study to prove their effectiveness at stopping cancer and we certainly haven’t seen coloractal cancer succumb to a 50% decline in the last decade, even though colonoscopies have become the norm – especially since Katie Couric’s televised procedure. They simply make the claim and everyone believes it. Rad the second part of this essay, “The Effectiveness Of Colonoscopies On Cancer And IBD” and you may be shocked at the real studies.

  20. kate
    July 3, 2013 | 8:59 pm

    I agree with you completely. My dear mother had a colonoscopy during which they tore her bowel resulting in septicemia and a long term illness. The bag she wore destroyed her spirit, her quality of life and she died far too early as a result.My Md is not fussing for a colonoscopy as a “base line.: I told him not a chance, not unless I have symptoms. Thanks for putting out the information. Patients must be aware of the dangers.

    • Wolverine
      July 5, 2013 | 11:56 am

      Thank you, Kate. My heart goes out to your mother and family. That revenue generating device of the medical industry has brought too much grief to too many families.

      It has certainly shortened my life and destroyed the quality of life that my family and I once enjoyed. It was all so unnecessary and for absolutely no medical gain. I was cured of nothing by it, but badly (lethally) injured and required a two year comeback from a transplant that few have had and fewer have survived. I live in chronic pain and every day is a challenge.

      The massive amounts of radiation used on me during that time also caused an incurable cancer (multiple myeloma) that will slowly eat my bones away and ultimately kill me at some time in the near future.

      Yet everyday, more healthy people will submit themselves to this risky procedure, rolling the dice that they are not it’s next victim, in hopes of a prevention of colorectal cancer – something the device has never proven to prevent according to any clinical study nor reflected in national cancer statistics.

      There has been no significant drop in colorectal cancer since the years that this device has been implemented by the thousands. If it’s advertising and sinful hawking by greedy doctors were true, we should have seen at least a 1/4 drop in the rate of colorectal cancers – we have not.

      It is sad that people will die over a lie. Thanks for writing and for your courage to resist the great lies of the medical system, which kill more people than it saves. (Death from pharmaceutical drugs is the number one killer and death from medical errors are the third highest killer in the U.S. combined together, they are the single most killer of human being – all for money and profit – fact!)

  21. CatSnap
    July 15, 2013 | 5:47 pm

    I was scheduled to have my first “baseline” colonoscopy in 2 days. I have waited 6 months for this appointment, but got an uneasy feeling about it and decided to google the dangers of the procedure, if any. Thanks to this blog, and a few others, I have canceled the appointment and do not intend to ever have one done. The same with mammograms. A lot of modern day screening procedures seem to erode health while lining the pockets of the practitioners and medical corporate interests.
    Thank you for taking the time and investing in the welfare of so many lives you are reaching online.
    /hug for Wolverine and all those who have contributed.

    • Wolverine
      July 31, 2013 | 2:56 am

      Thank you for your words of encouragement. It seems to me that like any other dangerous procedure, these things should reserved for only those people who are suffering with symptoms or some other reason to suspect a problem.

      I mean, why not just give everyone a full CT scan every week to be sure there are no problems going on, even when they are perfectly healthy. These procedures are about as insane. They probably would recommend that people get yearly CT scans if it wasn’t common knowledge that radiation is deadly. They have been able to suppress the truth about the dangers of endoscopes.

      Once the truth ever gets out, there will be less people getting them and they will finally have to come up with a safer technology. I hope that I can help advance that forward by shedding some light on the dangers of these endoscopes. Thanks again and I hope you stay safe and healthy.

  22. Marra
    July 30, 2013 | 6:29 pm

    Wow! I am so moved by your story and how you survived! Two years ago (I was 64) I had some gallbladder pain and saw my doc. He referred me to a surgeon, who referred me to a G.I. doc, who insisted I have an endoscopy AND a colonoscopy together! I was scheduled for it and remembered how I’d been injured from a previous endoscopy a number of years earlier. I cancelled both! No symptoms warranted those tests. I changed my diet and no more gall bladder symptoms! God bless you, Wolv, and keep on passing the word around! I will join you in that as well!

    • Wolverine
      July 31, 2013 | 4:42 am

      Hi Marra. Thank you so much for your kind words concerning my survival. I am happy to hear that you were able to correct your problem with a change in diet. I wish more people could understand that many of their health problems come from poor diet. Unfortunately, most people do not know that their diet is bad, because the dietary recommendations given by our government are so bad and highly inflammatory.

      I have come to learn that many of the government recommendations are based more on the profits of agribusiness than our health. The USDA is pretty much owned by agri-giants like Monsanto and we are paying the price.

      I am sorry to hear hat you were injured by a previous endoscope, but glad to know you did not take further risks with more endoscopes. My transplant surgeons try to push me into getting scopes every year and get frustrated when I refuse, but I was nearly killed by a colonoscopy and am certainly not going to make that mistake again.

      I hope you remain healthy.

  23. Larf
    August 13, 2013 | 12:38 pm

    WOW.

    Thank you, Wolverine.
    Those bastards!!

  24. teresa toth
    October 15, 2013 | 11:13 pm

    Hello Wolverine, Thank you so much for the informative sad story of your experience. It is probably not pleasant to talk about but it sure helped us. My husband is 59 and had a colonoscopy at age 50–no problems. Since then, he fell out of a tree and lost his spleen. So when his dr, who knows his spleen status, told him to get a colonoscopy, I was suspicious. I found one article that told about an asplenic patient who died of sepsis after a colonoscopy after simply having polps removed. Called the endoscopy center, nurse checked with the dr and he said ‘no spleen, no problem, come on in’. Anyway, that was enough reassurance for my husband but after reading your accounts, I firmly put my foot down and made him cancel it. Your statistics where right (I checked them). Bigger chance of perforation than of cancer itself. And with no spleen (therefore reduced immune response), my husband would be a goner if any bad bugs got into his blood. Thank you so much for your story, as it may have saved my husband!

    • Wolverine
      October 17, 2013 | 4:47 am

      Thank you for writing Teresa Being immunocompromised will place a patient at a much higher chance of mortality should something go wrong. Being immunosuppressed myself, I know that even a very routine procedure can go septic and kill me within hours. I applaud you for doing the extensive research for your husband’s safety.

      You will rarely hear a doctor say that something is risky, no matter how high the injury statistic or mortality rates. They seem tho like the word “rare”, because it really says nothing and is very subjective. “Rare” is no longer good enough for me, I want to know that actual statistics, then I can decide whether that is rare. 1 in 1,000 is hardly rare in my book, especially given how many of these procedures are performed every week. I also know that these figures are only considering the injuries that are reported or realized at all.

      If a death certificate states the cause of death as “Sepsis”, “hemorrhaging” or “thrombosis”, it doesn’t have to say what caused those conditions – therefore many go unrealized. Only television doctors ever try to investigate to find out what actually caused something. If something goes wrong, it was probably something the patient did, according to doctors.

      If this colonoscopy is not necessary to save his life, then I agree that the risks are very high compared to what benefit he may gain from it. I have had too many people write to tell me about their loved one who went in for a routine colonoscopy and died as a result. That has to be so devastating, because they were in perfect health and just going for a screening and suddenly they’re dead, with no warning.

      I hope you will always continue to research any procedures or medications before blindly trusting a doctor. After all, if anything goes wrong, it is you, not the doctor that will pay the price. Please stay healthy and continue the good work in taking care of your husband.

  25. marco
    October 19, 2013 | 8:09 pm

    Hi Wolverine after reading almost every comment on this page I have some concerns for myself and wondering if I should even get the colonoscopy done. I’m 22 years old and have been experiencing blood in the stool a mere 5 times since the beggining of september. For the most part I am very curious to see the cause of my problem but after reading your website I am hesitating to do it. Please please let me know what you think and thank you so much. Hope you are doing well!

    • Wolverine
      October 21, 2013 | 4:32 pm

      Sometimes in these cases it may be necessary to risk the procedure. It is the random screening on perfectly healthy people that I believe needs to stop. If your problem is IBD related (Crohn’s, UC, etc.) a sigmoidoscopy could do just as well, with far less risk of injury. Only if the doctor has other evidence of cancer should he opt for a colonoscopy.

      If you must undergo the procedure, please be sure to do it in a hospital setting, where all of the necessary equipment is available should something I go wrong – that includes emergency abdominal surgery. If perforated, time can make the difference of surviving or not. Don’t have it performed in a clinic or gastroenterologist office – they are not equipped to handle potential emergeies that can arise.

      I would opt for the sigmoid scope first, far less invasive. If the doctor seems reluctant it is because both procedures take the same amount of time, but the colonoscopy can charge out as ten time the cost. That is his/her motive.

      As far as the bleeding goes, you can tell al lot by the color of the blood or stool. If the blood is bright red, like a fresh cut on your hand, then the source of the bleeding is near the end of the colon, even possibly a hemorrhoid or anal fissure. The darker the blood looks, the further up in the GI tract is it coming from.

      Typically, bleeding from the stomach or small bowels will not show up as blood, but instead the blood is turned black from the bile and enzymes reciting with it. A black stool is cause for alarm, but some medications can turn a stool black – Pepto Bismol is notorious for turning stools black in color.

      If the blood you are encountering is bright red, chances are the source of bleeding is located in the rectum or anus. It is possible that it is an internal hemorrhoid or anal fissure, especially in light of the fact that you have not made any reference to other symptoms, like abdominal pain, sever diarrhea or bloating. If id was a IBD, like UC or Crohns Disease, you would most likely be doubled over in sharp pain before or during a bowel movement. Have you experienced any of these symptoms?

      Being the source of the bleeding seems to be located in the rectum or anus, a sigmoid scope would certainly be sufficient to find the source. If the bleeding continues or increases, you ought to find a doctor that will perform a sigmoidoscopy. I would not submit myself for a colonoscopy unless the sigmoidoscopy fails to diagnose the problem.

      A sigmoid scope is only inserted to the sigmoid section of the colon, which is just past the rectum (about 18 inches). A colonoscopy is inserted the entire length of the colon (about four feet), where the operator must have to negotiate four or five very tight and unpredictable turns.

      I wish you luck and hope your problem is minor.

    • Donna
      October 30, 2013 | 8:59 pm

      Dark blood in the stool usually means the blood is coming further up the digestive tract like the stomach. Fresh blood is likely from the intestines but doesn’t mean you have cancer. You could have IBD or are constipated. Hard stool can cause bleeding. Hemorrhoids can cause bleeding and can be caused from constipation. In any case, I agree with Wolverine. At your age especially, a sigmoidoscopy is less risky. Don’t rush into a colonoscopy.

  26. Jessica
    November 17, 2013 | 9:29 pm

    Thank you for your vast information on this topic and sorry for what it caused you.
    After reading your story I was googling and found this article, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/28/us-cancer-screening-colorectal-idUSBRE98R05T20130928
    Would like your input on it.

    • Wolverine
      November 22, 2013 | 3:59 am

      Thanks for the information. A very interesting, but vague article since they speak of studies, but provide no links to how the test were performed or what variables were considered and what controls were used. It quite easy to achieve certain results when that is your goal (there was an obvious omission of injuries and deaths due to the procedure). The results that they are boasting are in complete contrast to the Telemark Polyp Study 1, which is one of the largest (and ongoing) controlled study on the effectiveness of colonoscopies for cancer. In the Telemark study there was a very slight advantage in the endoscope group (around 2%), unfortunately, there was a 148% higher rate of “all cause deaths”, signifying that the endoscopes cause other damages not yet known – possibly by breaking free cancer cells which metastasize to other organs which can be far more fatal. Lymphoma, lung or pancreatic cancers have a far higher mortality rate than colon cancers, so free cells from a snipped colon polyp could actually find its way to those organs, since chemotherapy is not typically a follow-up to polyp removal as it is for most other cancer removals (in order to kill stray cancer cells). There were higher rates of other deaths besides cancers, which was really mysterious, but a 148% raise in mortality is not an insignificant number that should be ignored.

      Secondly, the article mentioned nothing of the injury rates from colonoscopies, which are much higher than reported. There are very few cancer screening procedures that ask the patient to put themselves at risk of instant death, colonoscopies are unique in this attribute. National statistics now report 5 serious injuries per 1,000 procedures and about 1 perforation in every 1,000 procedures. Mortality rates can be very high in cases of perforations.

      Because of the nature of many injuries, a great number go unreported or undiscovered. For instance, a person can bleed out from an internal injury many weeks after a colonoscopy or even succumb to a systemic infection many weeks or months following a colonoscopy, given that the endoscope cannot be sterilized and is reused many times. It is the only surgical instrument that I know of that is neither sterilized or disposed of after each use.

      I have seen the way these things are handled and have an upcoming article where I will provide pictures taken during the procedures performed after my transplant via an ileum stoma. In these images, you can see that the instrument is transported wrapped in a plain terrycloth towel (how sterile is terrycloth?) and tossed on the bed or the shelves of the mobile unit.

      Infections are far more common than is reported. In recent years there has been a very drug resistant strain of C. difficile which has become quite deadly and the CDC claims to be baffled as to how it has been spreading so fast. This must be a major cover-up. It does not take a genius to at least suspect the endoscopes as a possibility, since it is only hand cleaned after use because an autoclave would destroy the device and they are too expensive to dispose of. Modern endoscopes in the U.S. do not even have disposable parts which contact the tissues (endoscopes in Europe demand this feature). 113 veterans had contracted HIV in a VA Hospital in Miami as a result of contaminated endoscopes. There were more than 11,000 veterans who were exposed to the virus by equipment that the hospital has admitted was improperly cleaned. You can read more about this case here:

      http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-02-27/health/fl-va-suits-colonoscopy-20110227_1_colonoscopy-equipment-endoscopic-equipment-suits

      I have some pretty damning information that will be upcoming based on the evidence I acquired during my procedures and investigations, but I have also receive a lot of inside information from a party who works in the medical supply industry and approached me as a whistleblower. The other misleading part of that article was the constant mention of over-diagnosis of cancer in the mammograms and prostrate screening, claiming that the over-diagnosing in the colon screening is far better – that may be true, but what they didn’t mention was that under-diagnosing is the larger problem in colon screenings.

      The large dangling polyps, typically removed during colonoscopies, are the least likely lesions to ever become malignant. It is the large flat lesions that are more than ten times likely to become dangerous and they are impossible to remove with the tools on an endoscope and most often missed during the screening, which is why the mortality rates for the colonoscopy group as compared to the control group were not really statistically significant – around 2% in the Telemark Polyp Study 1. Here is one article about this:

      http://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20080306/flat-lesions-linked-to-colon-cancer

      I have more information on the effectiveness of this procedure as a cancer screening tool in the second part to this article entitled “The Effectiveness Of Colonoscopies On Cancer And IBD” and I will have much more detailed information coming up in some follow-up articles real soon. The information that I have been provided by the whistleblowers inside the industry have been shocking to say the least and every bit of it has been verified.

      http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/2776

      Thanks again for the information. I wish they would have included the risk factors and injury reports – as usual, that is always suspiciously missing in these article promoting this procedure. I know for a fact that the injuries are at least twice as high as they report, because it is not always easy to link the injury with the procedure, especially when it is an infection. Then there is the fact of just how devastating the injuries can be.

      If someone’s life depends on having this procedure, there is no doubt that the risk may be warranted, but the industry now expects (they even used the word “pressure” in the article), every one 50 years or older, even if they seem perfectly healthy. This is insane. I have had more than 25 people write to tell me about loved ones who died as a result of a routine colonoscopy. People who had no health problems, but just following the advice to get a screening for the “piece of mind” and died from complications.

      Then there are people like me, whose lives were destroyed when there was nothing seriously wrong with me prior to the procedure. Now I have cancer, Multiple Myeloma, as a direct result of the colonoscopy. Because of the transplant and the powerful anti-rejection drug Campath, which killed back much of my bone marrow, the new marrow grew during the time of many CTs, X-rays and other radiation imagine, which mutated it. The Multiple Myeloma resides in the bone marrow and is capable of dissolving bones. It is an incurable cancer, yet I never had colon cancer, but the screening test eventually gave me cancer, not to mention having to survive the rarest organ transplant that very few people survive.

      I met many other people getting transplants from being injured by colonoscpies and other dangerous ambulatory procedures, such as bariatric surgeries and even liposuction. A couple of the recipients that survived their transplants were injured later by the mandatory endoscopes which were performed weekly – two of them died from their injuries.

      Just a few years ago, these same people were promoting the mammograms and prostate exams as being life-savers and endorsing everyone to get them, now they are telling people to avoid these as they have been proven more risk than reward, but instead are hawking the much more profitable colonoscopy as being the life-saving device with little risk – LOL. At what point do we decide they are recommending dangerous procedures and raking in the ash before the truth of the dangers become common knowledge. It won’t be long before the truth on colonoscopies comes out, especially when the unsterile endoscope is undeniably linked as the delivery system for this new deadly C.dff (death by diarrhea) and why it is being transferred so swiftly. By then, they will be redirecting people to a new money making procedure that they will claim is much safer.

      This is very similar to the way the medical experts told everyone in the 1970s to replace the saturated fat in their diet with the deadly transfats, which were far more profitable to food industries. Once the dangers of transfats could no longer be denied (to the millions of people who died from heart disease as a result) they began redirecting everyone to the new hybrid rape seed lipids called Canola and claim that it is the safest fat to consume, with absolutely no evidence to support this as the rape seed was a poisonous plant which they bred to lessen the toxins, not to mention the extraction process which requires lots of heat and petroleum solvents – and everyone bought into the lie and now believe that a man-made food, which has never been consumed in mass quantity by any civilization is the secret to a long healthy life. No long term studies have been done, but dammit, everyone heard it said on the television news, multiple times, so it must be true – forget about the time they were wrong about transfats and millions of other things.

      Things have been really hectic for me recently, but I really hope to publish some of these new articles before the year’s end, so please keep an eye out for them. There will be some irrefutable evidence and imagery contained within. During my initial injury and throughout my 14 months in the hospital for two bowel resections, three bouts of deadly sepsis, a bowel transplant and a perforated lung which required a lung resection to repair, my wife took hundreds of photographs.

      When I started this blog I refrained from publishing many of these images, because they are extremely disturbing and an invasion of my privacy. I fear that I have began to consider publishing some of these pictures in the near future, because words just cannot describe what I had to survive through (there are pictures were I literally look dead – TOTAL SKELETON). I fear that many will not take the potential damage of this procedure seriously without seeing the hell it can reek on someone’s life – on many lives, as my wife and family suffered greatly also. It is often too difficult for my wife and I to look at some of these pictures, which is another reason I have never published them.

      The article you sent fails to mention risks at all. When asked, doctors will always downplay any dangers. The gastroenterologist who nearly killed me, told me that perforations were ‘unheard of”, then handed me a legal paper to sign which stated that I understood all of the risks, which were listed in clear english. It listed all types of internal bleeding, infections and even death, which is quite unfair when the doctor is telling you the exact opposite.

      Here’s my thinking. If these risks were really that rare, why would they demand that you sign a waiver, forgoing any legal right to collect damages. If they were really rare, it would be wiser to have no waiver and simply pay for the very few injuries, rather than scare away many potential customers. They would lose more money from the smart people who refuse to sign the paper and forgo the procedure, than the two or three injuries they would have to compensate for in a year (since there is a federal cap of $350,000 on damages from a doctor – which is nothing compared to what this procedure generates for the medical industry).

      The truth has to be that the injures are far more common and the doctors and hospitals would be wiped out paying all of the damages. If you refuse to sign the waiver, they will not perform the procedure. The entire thing is crooked. That doctor did over 3 million dollars worth of damage to me – that’s just in medical costs, not including lodging, travel, pain, suffering, lost wages – just in sheer medical costs. Yet, our government thinks that $350,000 is all the damage a doctor can do. It’s all a big joke and a huge gamble for anyone who has no symptoms and is feeling healthy.

      The article did also mention the fecal occult blood test. That is a perfectly acceptable non-invasive test which should always be the precursor to a colonoscopy. That test can detect any molecules of blood cells in the stool, which at least provides some evidence of bleeding. That could warrant at least a sigmoidoscopy, but not necessarily a colonoscopy, because many times rectal bleeding is from hemorrhoids or anal fissures. A sigmoidoscopy is less invasive, inserted to the sigmoid, around 18 to 20 inches inside. A colonoscopy extends the entire length of the colon, around four to five feet, with many twists and turns – some level of injury is inevitable, it just depend on the severity of the injury and someone on anticoagulant medications could continue to bleed for weeks after an injury or polyp removal and no one would know.

      Anyway, these are some of my thoughts. I really didn’t feel like they presented very much evidence to support their claims and certainly provided no links to the details of the supposed studies. I just know that I am the luckiest man to be alive. It just seems pretty insane to risk death for a cancer screening, (which has not been proven to be very accurate) when you’re perfectly healthy, but they never tell you about the death part. It is written in the waiver that you must sign, but your doctor will always tell you that those don’t happen. Screw what the doctor tells you – believe what the waiver says.

  27. Lucky Joestar
    December 23, 2013 | 6:04 pm

    This plague of useless medical procedures, including colonoscopies, is why doctors should be paid a flat monthly salary. If you’re a salaried doctor, you can keep your bills paid without scaring your otherwise healthy patients into risking their lives on pointless tests. If your patients are healthy, you’ll still get paid the same. That’ll just be more time to sit in your office playing video games or something like that. After all, wouldn’t you rather have your doctor killing CG people playing CounterStrike than killing real people with colonoscopies?

    Also, we wouldn’t have made it this far as a species if our survival depended on shoving cameras up each other’s rears.

    • Lisa
      December 23, 2013 | 8:40 pm

      Who would be paying this monthly salary? Probably Big Medicine! They could come up with lots of other risky procedures that their employee doctors would have to perform or lose their jobs. Idiot!

      • Wolverine
        December 24, 2013 | 6:19 am

        The most frightening foresight that I have is this govenment mandated healthcare we are about to embark on could well demmand that everyone get regular colonoscopies, based on corporate profits and the fact that the medical industry has both the government and the general public convinced that this procedure can safely prevent colon cancer – even though there has never been a study that showed a significant advantage of colonoscopies.

        And colonoscpies are not the only medical practice I can forsee getting this treatment. I can easily see mandates for everyone with a total cholesterol over 100 to have to take statin drugs, again, because they’re conviced there is a benefit and it will save money by preventing heart disease. They could threaten to fine people and even take away their benefits if they do not comply – they may even use blood test to confirm that the drugs are being taken and not tossed in the garbage (where they belong)

        People should have the freedom to choose whether they believe that a drug or procedure is safe or beneficial to them, but I gaurantee that the government will take away that freedom in the name of disease prevention, therefore saving the government money. We also know that it doesn’t take much evidence to convince government agencies that these profylactic medications are effective – and of course, perfectly safe – Hah! Our modern medicine has not proven that they have the ability to prevent ANY disease – they just claim they have.

        Thanks for the comment.

      • Lucky Joestar
        June 17, 2017 | 10:48 pm

        Who said Big Medicine would pay the salary? Most countries have their governments pay doctors’ salaries. Governments aren’t entirely responsive to the people, but at least the people get to choose who runs them. Corporations are even less responsive than that, as only stockholders choose their directors.

        Also, that ad hominem at the end makes your argument less convincing.

    • Wolverine
      December 24, 2013 | 7:01 am

      These risky and unnecessary procedures could be reduced if the doctors were held accountable, especially if they injure the patient.

      If you are injured by a faulty medical device or pharmaceutical, there is no limit to the amount of damages that can be sought. If you are injured by a doctor, there are plenty of deterrents in place to cause attorneys to shy away from any legal action, including caps on the damages set by the federal government at a ridiculously low $350,000.00. Corporations can be sued for tens or even hundreds of millions.

      In today’s medical prices, $350,000.00 doesn’t pay for much and leaves no room for an attorney’s commission.

      Doctors are aware of the fact they they practice with near impunity. People still sue doctors, but only for cases where the damages and medical bills are minor, so there is room left in the 350k for the lawyers. If you are seriously damaged or killed, forget it – no attorney will touch the case. This is why doctors feel free to perform these dangerous test – of course they also make the patient sign a legal waiver before they will perform these procedures in order to cover their asses.

      The fact that they make you sign such a waiver should tell you something. If injuries were truly rare, they would forgo the legal paper (which I’m sure frighten some people away from having the procedure). The truth is that they would be wiped out by the amount of lawsuits if they didn’t require that paper to be signed, because there are a lot of people injured by many of these so-called safe procedures.

      Even if the doctors were paid a straight salary, there would be plenty of incentives given to them from the drug companies and manufacturers of medical equipment (endoscopes, radiology imaging machines, etc…) the authorities seem unable to stop the flow of money from these corporations to the doctors. Even when they cut off the cash flow, these corporations give the doctors gifts, high paid speaking engagements and exotic trips and such. They will always find a way to corrupt the system.

      I believe it would become less of a problem if they remove all the extra protection under the law that doctors enjoy above all others. Even though money would not give me back my intestines, nor take away the pain and suffering I had to endure and still do, it would really help me with the costs of the continued treatment I must have and the very expensive medication I am on for life, but more importantly, it would have been a good spanking for that greedy doctor.

      Doctors like him have no conscience or guilt, so hitting them in the pocket book is the only way to make them behave. As far as he knows, I’m dead. The last time he ever saw me, I was in critical condition and not given much chance of survival by the doctors and surgeons.

  28. Helen Gregorio
    January 4, 2014 | 8:40 pm

    What’s Dr. Oz opinion on colonoscopy testing

    • Wolverine
      January 5, 2014 | 3:25 pm

      I am not sure, to tell you the truth, because I cannot stand to watch that clown. If you read my article “The Magical Land Of Oz” you will see where I stand on him and why.

      I would imagine that he recommends colonoscopies, because he himself underwent one a few years ago and precancerous polyps were found and removed (so much for the idea that his diet protects the colon from cancer, unless he doesn’t follow his own diet). Like most doctors, he listens to the hype and has never done the research needed to discover the dangers which are kept very quiet.

      Me and another woman, who lost her mother to a colonoscopy, attempted to reach Oz’s producers to see if they would be willing to cover my story and her mother’s. It was no surprise when they did not return our calls. Oz would never cover anything that would place any modern medical practice in a bad light, even if it is the truth and people are dying.

      He promotes a lot of bad stuff and it’s obvious why – look at his sponsors. He is certainly not going to admit that grains are not healthy for most people (like those who suffer ciliacs disease), when so many of his advertisers are manufacturers of cereals and grain products. He’s just another celebrity, and I never take advice from celebrities.

  29. Connie Harrigan Lee
    January 17, 2014 | 3:15 pm

    I recently heard, through my daughter that my ex-husband was in the hospital for 2 weeks due to a colonoscopy causes puncture. He had 3 operations. Did he and his insurance have to pay for the hospital stay and the 3 surgeries? I am almost 70 years old and have had 3 or 4 colonoscopies in the past and my gastroenterologist is now pressuring me to get another even though I have no medical problems that suggest a need for the procedure. It is my recollection that I never even had a polyp removed in the previous colonoscopies. It is my understanding that I will have to sign a waiver before the procedure, so I will be putting my life at risk and then will have to pay for all health care expenses should the doctor screw up. I have medicare so I pay 20% of hospital and surgery expenses. That is a lot of money for a 2 week hospital stay and 3 surgeries. Do I have all of this right?

    • Wolverine
      January 17, 2014 | 7:00 pm

      Yes Connie, you will have to sign a legal Waiver, which waives all of your rights to seek damages, should you be injured or killed by the procedure. Not only was I held responsible for all of the surgeries and hospitalization as a result of the colonoscopy injury, but the gastroenterologist was also paid for the botch job he performed, nearly killing me by ignoring my complaints of pain for three days and his ensuing cover-up of the damage sustained.

      The waiver will list all of the possible damages, including death, that are associated with this procedure and by signing, you are acknowledging that you understand that this is a high risk medical procedure and are therefore waiving any right to damages. The entire paper is a lie, because most patients are not told any of the dangers associated with the procedure and are in fact usually told by the doctor that these injuries rarely ever occur – which again is a lie.

      Most gastroenterologist will claim that they have never caused an injury to any of their patients, yet there is no way for them to know this as complications often show up several days to weeks later and the patient rarely seeks help from the gastroenterologist, but are often rushed in for emergency surgery at a hospital ER. The gastroenterologist who butchered me was not aware of whether I lived or died, because last he saw me, I was in critical condition and not expected to live. He never followed up with the doctors to know whether he killed me or not – I doubt he really cared to know. That way, he could tell his next patients that he never injured anyone. This is how they continue on and live with themselves.

      Since colonoscopies have never been proven to be effective at diagnosing cancer early, there is really no reason to risk your life on something that has no proven benefit, but a lot of proven risks. Your damages could well be more than a 2 week stay in a hospital – if you even survive a perforation at all. I spent more than 14 months in hospitals following the damage done to me. Because the doctors ignored my complaints of pain, the delay in stopping the massive internal bleeding caused by the perforation cost me all of my intestines. According to the blood records over those three days, my blood platelets more than quadrupled in number (my body was trying to clot the bleeding; platelets beyond 1,600) – I’m not sure how the doctors overlooked the platelet numbers (I have examined the records many times from those days). As a result, the clot formed in the Superior Mesenteric Artery (SMA) which is the artery which feeds blood to all of the intestines.

      Without blood, all of my intestines died in minutes. By the time I fell into a coma and was rushed in for surgery, all of my intestines were necrotic. Without a transplant, I would already be dead. This is a very dangerous medical procedure and probably has a role to play if someone is actually sick. But, for a perfectly healthy person to submit themselves for this procedure just seem too high of a risk for little to no benefit that the procedure offers. Your ex-husband id very lucky to survive this perforation – most don’t.

      Of course your gastroenterologist is pressuring you to have the procedure – it’s the way he/she makes the big money. Colonoscopies are the best revenue generating procedure in a gastroenterologist’s arsenal. If you don’t sign the waiver, they will not perform the procedure. Hmmmm, I wonder why they won’t just risk doing the procedure without a legal waiver, if they really believed that the procedure was safe and people rarely get injured. Notice how they expect you to risk your life on something that they are not even willing to risk their money on? If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense and exposes the fact that they know how often people get injured.

      My transplant surgeon is always pressuring me to have regular scopes, but I refuse to sign the waiver. If he believes that the procedure is as safe as he says, then he won’t have a problem doing it without the legal protection. Didn’t take him long to back off, especially when I was able to point out all of the patients who were injured by the scopes – I guess he didn’t realize that we patients talk to one another. One poor woman is now awaiting a second transplant, after surviving the first one since 2008, but they had to take all of the transplanted bowels out after she was perforated by a colonoscopy and the ensuing infection caused the organs to be rejected. There are two transplant patients that I knew who were killed by perforations from scopes.

      The transplant patients get perforated more often, because they are required to have colonoscopies more often (every six months), unless you’re me. I haven’t had one in over three years. Ever since the reversal surgery (which reconnected the large and small intestines, which got rid of the stoma, which was safer to scope through). I will not ever have another colonoscopy unless I am having some sort of health problem, like bleeding or obstructions or something. I have told the surgeon that I refuse to submit to that dangerous procedure when I fell perfectly healthy.

  30. Sidney Barth
    February 20, 2014 | 2:38 pm

    I will be 79 in two months. My Dr says I need a colonoscopy, my stool sample was posative for blood. Also, an endoscopy. My feeling is that it will just cause more problems. I could fill the page with my Medical issues. In pain all the time, and from what I’ve read, I don’t want anything to do with any of it. I take a lot of pills(prescribed). They get me through the day. I have “0” faith in Dr’s. “sometimes these things happen attutude. My father died because of wrong diagnosis. I was nine years old at the time. TOO MANY MISTAKES!

    • Wolverine
      February 20, 2014 | 5:26 pm

      Hi Sidney. These are always the toughest decisions. When doctors are recommending colonoscopies to perfectly healthy people (completely asymptomatic of any problems) it seems like a no-brainer to say “skip the colonoscopy, because the risks far outweigh any possible benefit.”, but in a case where there is blood found in the stool, the answer is not so simple.

      Blood in the stool can be very tricky, because it can be something as harmless as an internal hemorrhoid, or signs of something more serious, like Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease or even cancer. If it is UC or Crohn’s related, there would be more symptoms other than just the presence of blood, like severe abdominal cramps, excessive diarrhea and dramatic weight loss (plus, these usually develop at a much earlier age in life).

      I had internal bleeding happening within my colon from Ulcerative Colitis, yet I still regret the decision to allow the colonoscopy. I initially refused the procedure, but eventually caved in to pressure from family members and the doctors.

      The transplant surgeons recommend, or more accurately, demand, that the recipients undergo regular endoscopes (every six months), but I have been refusing them. I usually just avoid them by not calling to schedule, but there have been several times that the surgeons have confronted me about it and I always remind them of the patients that they have injured with those scopes.

      I don’t believe that the doctors thought that the transplant recipients would keep in contact, but we do. Why not? There are so few of us in the world. I know of recipients who have been seriously inured by the endoscpes – two of them died as a result.

      One of the poor women has recently been re-listed for a second transplant. She told me that she began to complain of problems following one of these scopes earlier last year and the doctors continued to tell her that nothing went wrong. They actually scoped her two more times, based on her complaints – it wasn’t until the third scope that they realized that her colon had been perforated, which she claims began to digest the rest of her bowels. Her organs were found to be in rejection. necrotic and fused together and had to be removed immediatelly. Now, she is living on TPN and awaiting a new set of organs.

      This is really quite sad, because she received her initial intestinal transplant in 2008 and had never had any rejection issues. She was probably the one recipient who received the most attention from the media, because she had competed in several well publicized marathons, just a few years after her transplant! This is why I will continue to refuse that procedure unless I have the symptoms of a serious problem. After all that I have survived, I am not going to be killed by a completely unnecessary endoscope.

      If you feel the need to have a procedure done, I would opt for a sigmoidoscopy first. It is far less invasive and would be able to detect any internal hemorrhoids or anal fissures (these are the more common cause of rectal bleeding). Only if that fails to yield any answers would I even consider the colonoscopy. I hate to think about how many colonoscopies are performed each year just to diagnose a hemorrhoid or even worse, just how many people have been seriously injured by an endoscope that was performed because of a bleeding hemorrhoid.

      I hope you have good luck in finding the problem and hopefully without having to submit to such a dangerous procedure. I wish I could offer more help, but it is really up to each individual to weigh the risks against the amount that they are suffering. If you do not feel comfortable getting the procedure, then by all means, don’t get it. I wish I would have went with my gut feeling on the original colonoscopy. Every fiber of my being told me it was a wrong move – I will never go against my gut feeling again.

      Thanks for writing and for your story.

  31. KMK
    April 29, 2014 | 5:45 am

    Wolverine, I experienced extreme pain and pressure in my lower left abdomen after a colonoscopy 5 yrs ago. I also had a VERY strong tingling in that area – so strong that one day I thought it was my cell phone vibrating in my pants pocket…plus had terrible constipation. My bowel habits changed drastically from that procedure. Dr kept saying nothing is wrong. Tried 3 day liquid diet three separate times, low residue diet, and antiobitcs. The liquid diets reduced the pain & pressure, but as soon as I ate solid food,the pain / pressure return. T!he buzzing fade away’ but the pain/pressure remain and bowel habits/stool never returned to normal. Had a sigmoidoscopy one year laterand was told no pro.blems were found. Well, something is wrong, and it as caused by the colonoscopy. Was told I could consider exloratory surgery to find out what’s wrong. I take probiotics every day + miralax to keep the worst of the symptoms away’ but cannot get this trouble off my mind’ and the pain / pressure NEVER goes away. So sorry for your lengthy troubles – guess I am “lucky” by comparison.

    • Wolverine
      April 29, 2014 | 3:56 pm

      I am so sorry to hear about your injury, unfortunately, cases like your’s probably make up the greater part of the colonoscopy injuries and the reason why I say so many go unreported. Injuries from colonoscopies do not always become serious right away, many of them can take days, weeks, months or even years to show up, which is why these injuries are not always associated with the procedure. Then there are issues, like your’s, that go undiagnosed – not because there isn’t an injury, but because of modern medicine’s lack of ability to diagnose such injuries.

      There are many people who notice that their digestion is just never really the same after a colonoscopy. Sometimes it clears up after a time and other times it never clears up. There are so many different problems that can go wrong during one of these procedures and the hard-truth is that doctors are just not that good at diagnosing a problem until or unless it becomes life-threatening.

      For more than three days the doctors could not find anything wrong with me and went as far as to claim I was just hamming it up to either get attention or to scam for pain-killers (yes, doctors can be extremely cynical). I was lying in a hospital bed with over 25 feet of dying and necrotic intestines and the doctors still couldn’t find a problem.

      By the third day, they finally realized there was really a problem because my white blood cells had exceeded 60,000 and my BP was falling like a stone. I was taken to the ICU, but they still did not know what was wrong. Even when they took me to surgery, they had no idea what to do, but had decided they needed to do something or I was going to die. The surgeon, who was called in, was totally blind-sided when he opened me and found that most of my colon was still fine, but nearly all of the small intestines were dead and necrotic (as a matter of fact, he wondered how I was still alive)

      I point these details out in order illustrate just how poor our modern medical skills are at diagnosing even a serious problem, yet somehow people are still convinced that a doctor is going to find cancer in some really early stage using a colonoscopy. I think that most people are convinced that modern medicine is far more advanced than it actually is. Mine is not an isolated case either.

      Last year, one of the other transplant patients was injured during one of the colonoscopies. She began to complain of abdominal pains following the colonoscopy, so the doctors performed another colonoscopies and found nothing. She continued to complain, so they did a another colonoscopy and still found no problem. It wasn’t until the third (actually the 4th, if you include the initial procedure which injured her) that they found the problem.

      They found that her bowel had been perforated and the leaking gastric juices had started to digest her intestines, which also started her into organ rejection (because she was transplant). She was rushed into surgery and her bowels were removed (all, both large and small). She now awaits a second bowel transplant. All of her bowels were dying and two colonoscopies could not detect a problem! How does anyone have any faith in this procedure being an effective diagnostic tool? Mostly because people do not know these type stories.

      I have had many other people who have written me with stories much like yours. They know that something went wrong during a colonoscopy, but the doctors cannot find the problem, so they continue to suffer with no treatment. The worst part is also the mental stress that goes along with this. I understand what it is like to know that something serious is wrong with your body and no one will believe you because the doctors can’t find the problem. So, people like yourself are suffering that stress along with the pain and digestive problems that can become chronic after an injury from a colonoscopy.

      Just because a doctor cannot find a problem does not mean there isn’t one, as I and the other transplant recipient I wrote about are living proof of. Both her and I had extremely life-threatening injuries and the doctors were unable to diagnose that anything was wrong, so what chance does someone with a lesser injury have of getting a diagnosis? (we were both only hours away from death)

      I wish there was a way to make people understand just how poorly our modern medicine is at diagnosing even serious problems. Too often, serious injuries from colonoscopies are not found until an autopsy and sometimes they are even missed then.

      I really hope that your problem clears up. It is very hard to know what went wrong, because there are so many different things that can go wrong during this procedure. Unfortunately, unless your injury was to manifests itself in some really serious, life-threatening way, I doubt the doctors will ever find an answer. I am sure something went wrong, most people know when something isn’t right inside of them. Since it was over 5 years ago, I doubt that there is something life-threatening awaiting to erupt inside you, which is probably the only good news I can give you.

      Just be careful about allowing the doctors to do more and more invasive procedures in an attempt to find out what this problem is. You had mentioned adhesions. I developed some really chronically painful adhesions as a result of the surgeries and I have sought help for them. I have also been warned that any attempt to remove those adhesions could also create more adhesions, making the problem much worse. This is why I really hope that your issue clears up on its own in time, but after 5 years that wouldn’t seem highly likely, if it hasn’t gotten even remotely better over the years.

      It is less likely it is adhesions, because those are typically the result of a more major surgery than a colonoscopy delivers, but I do not doubt that your bowel was perforated slightly. There are many people who suffer a perforation during a colonoscopy which are not major enough to threaten their life and do heal on their own in time.

      I agree with you that whatever it was, it did not heal properly and created some scar tissue or nerve damage. With the associated constipation, there is a danger that the injury caused enough scar tissue to form a stricture. If it hasn’t turned serious in 5 years, it probably won’t, but if you ever experience serious constipation which causes a lot of pressure or sharp abdominal pains (cramps), get to an ER. A stricture can be life-threatening if it causes a blockage – strictures were one of the greatest threats facing the transplant patients. Scar tissue can form around the bowel, not allowing it to expand. If a bowel gets blocked and stops moving, serious complications and even death can result if immediate medical attention is not sought.

      The way you describe the symptoms, a stricture is not out of the question. You said that the liquid diet relives the pain and pressure, but solid food brings it back. Have you noticed whether large amounts of fiber, especially insoluble fiber, (which takes on water and expands), makes the symptoms worse? If so, there could be a narrowing somewhere along the colon. I doubt that a colonoscopy (or endoscope, like used in the sigmoidoscpy) can diagnose such a stricture. I know that one of the other transplant recipients I know had some bad strictures and the doctors were unable to find them with an endoscope. A barium enema would probably be the best way to diagnose something like that. Have the doctors tried a barium enema yet?

      I really wish I had some better answers for you, but I am very glad that you were willing to write and share your story. I thank everyone who has written about family members they lost to this procedures and those, like yourself, who were injured and suffer every day because of a colonoscopy, and worse yet, the doctors won’t believe that they are suffering.

      • KMK
        April 29, 2014 | 4:21 pm

        Thank you kindly for your comments and for sharing your story. The atrocities that were perpetrated on you are astounding, what a terrible tragedy (putting it mildly) and really makes one wonder what is being done about true “quality” of care, especially when it appears no one is even reprimanded for the terrible mistakes. I have noticed that insoluble fiber bothers me more now than before I had that colonoscopy. I did have an abdominal ct scan, but of course it did not reveal anything wrong. Thanks for the suggestion of the barium enema. If I get brave enough to visit another gastroenterologist, it is something I can discuss with them. Good luck to you, as you try to stay as healthy as you can, for as long as possible.

  32. KMK
    April 29, 2014 | 5:51 am

    PS: I can,t help wondering if some injury ocurred and healed badly causing scar tissue or adhesions with a nearby organ. Don,t know where to turn to get help’ or if iwill just have to live with this forever.

  33. Christi
    May 21, 2014 | 3:55 pm

    Wolverine’
    I am so sorry for all you’ve had to endure. God Bless you. He has big plans for you!
    My mother is 53 shes is scedualed for a colonoscopy in like 2 weeks. I DO NOT want her to have it. Ive been doing research and I am apalled by what Ive found out! I was so happy when her proceedure got canceld the 1st time. Shes on a lot of medications and has some heath issues that weve explained to the doctor and his staff. (A gastrologist that she was referred to back in april) NO ONE CARES. The one nurse was rude and stupid. My mom had a small very minor heart attack last september. She also has bloos issues and has has a clot in the past. she is on asprin and perscription blood thinner. (Anagrylide). Im also worried the some of the other meds could not be absorbed properly and either not work or become toxic. Her mother had colon cancer early this year but she lives in an other country and has a completey different life still and medical history. My mom has a very trying year and the doctor said her stomach problems we propebely from stress. She had an endoscopy today and all is well. Ita that damned colonoscopy that has me scared.

    • Wolverine
      May 22, 2014 | 2:35 pm

      Hi Christi, I can certainly understand your reservations about the colonoscopy for your mother. There are surley a lot of risks that go along with this procedure, especially for anyone taking anticoagulants. When my colon was perforated during the first colonoscopy, I was bleeding intrenally for 3 days and the doctors ignored my complaints of abdominal pain.

      Over those 3 day, my condition worsened. Each blood test they ran, showed that my white blood count contined to go higher and higher (reaching 70,000, when normal WBC is around 7), so they knew there was a problem, but were unable to find it.

      The thing I noticed on the daily labs were the blood platelets were elevating at an alarming rate, doubling each day until the hit 1,500 (normale platelet count should be around 240). This was because my body was trying to stop the massive bleeding. Unforunately, the clot developed in the superior mesenteric artery, which is the main blood supply to all of the intestines. Without blood, all of my small bowels died, I went into septic shock and fell into a coma and the stupid doctors could still not find anything wrong with me – this is how bad they are at diagnostics.

      Modern medicine is very good at fixing catastrophic events that happen (they place stent or perform a triple by-pass to save heart attack victims, they can transplant organs that have failed), so I give them a lot of credit there, but most people believe that because so many great things have been accomplished there, that modern medicine is just as good at diagnosing and preventing disease – this is where they are mistaken.

      I witnessed all this first hand and need to write an article on it and try to make people understand that we are no more advanced at diagnosing illness than doctors were 100 years ago – even with all their fancy technology like, CT and MRI imaging, mammograms and colonoscopies, they still can’t diagnose a problem until the patient is in serious trouble and some of these diagnostic procedure carry many risks.

      During the 14 months I was in hospitals I saw this a hundred times. Patients would begin to complain after transplants and the doctors could not find the problem until the patient finally crashed and then it was an emergency to save their lives.

      Last year, one of the other tranplsnt recipient as injured during a routine colonoscopy (perforated) and she began immediately complaining of pain. The doctors did three more colonoscopies and couldn’t find anything wrong with her.

      On the final colonoscopy they discovered that her colon had been perforated and that the leaking gastric juices had begun to digest all of her transplanted small bowels, which threw her into organ rejection. She was rushed to surgery and all her intestines were removed and she now living on TPN and awaits a second bowel tranplant. Yet she was perfectly fine prior to the procedure, which was only routine – now she facing a life-threatening surgery.

      Her story was so similar to mine. In both cases, we had over 25 feet of necrotic (dead) intestines and the doctors were unable to find any problem, even with all of their fancy equipment – 2 patients just hours from death and according to the doctors they were fit as a fiddle and ready to go home – up until the point that both of us crashed and were sent for emergency surgery.

      The irony is that most people have been convinced that doctors are as advanced in diagnostics as they are in treating or curing serious conditions, which is untrue. How are they going to find some cancer in a very early stage (smaller than a pea) using the same technology that was unable to see that 98% of 2 people’s bowels were dead and necrotic? This is why I claim that the colonoscopy is nothing but a scam.

      Twice after my transplant the doctors did ileoscopes and claimed my organs were in rejections and both times the biopsy came back negative. The only thing an endoscope affords a doctor is the ability to visually see the inside of an organ. This organ (colon) is always covered in inches of mucus (that is what protects it and houses the beneficial microbes that keep it healthy), so it is far from a clean surface, even after their very aggressive prep cleansing. They have no idea what they’re looking at – this is apparent by the fact they couldn’t see that the organs were dead.

      They also stink at disease prevention. I have seen no evidence that any of their prophylactic treatment, procedures or medications have any impact on those disease, but most people believe whole-heartedly in them, not looking at the bigger national picture, which clearly illustrates they don’t work

      A couple of quick examples: statin drugs do lower cholesterol (they block the pathway in the liver for manufacturing LDL cholesterol, unfortunately, they inadvertently block the pathway for Co-Enzyme Q10, which is necessary for muscle health and is why you hear people complain of muscle weakness and pain who are on statins).

      If high cholesterol causes atherosclerosis and statins lower cholesterol well (and they do) and over half of the adult population over 40 years old are taking a statin drug, then it is safe to say the people living now have the lowest cholesterol than ever in human history (which is true, because statins lower cholesterol far lower than is natural for a human) — Then why is Heart Disease still our number one killer and growing higher each year? If cholesterol was truly the problem, we should have seen heart disease cut in half, at least! Obviously high cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease – inflammation is, but doctors do not treat the inflammation.

      Statin drugs became the highest selling drugs of all time, they sell more statin drugs than all other drugs combined, so there is a 30 billion reason to keep the myth of cholesterol going, as long as people still accept this outdated, erroneous theory. If the truth that inflammation, not cholesterol, was to be main stream news and everyone stopped their statin drugs, the pharmaceutical companies profits would cut in half – so you can see why the lie must continue, even though it is not lowerig heart disease, but does cause a type of Alzheimer’s disease and can cripple people with the muscle deterioration.

      Again, If colonoscopies have saved thousands of lives (this has yet to be proven in any clinical study) and since the year 2,000, when GE and Katie Couric began hyping the hell out of this dangerous procedure, nearly ever doctor pressures their patients to undergo this procedure once they reach 50 years of age. So, for the last 14 years, tens of thousands of people have signed on the have this procedure – if it was as effective as advertised, why have we not seen a significant drop in colorectal cancer mortalities, as a matter of fact, they have risen some in those years.

      In the same manner, breast cancer continues to be one of the highest killers of women, even since women were all encouraged to get regular mammograms. In fact, the women who have mammograms, tend to have a higher rate of breast cancer, because radiation is a cancer causing poison – I believe that a mammogram is just an invitation to get breast cancer.

      Yes, modern doctors have pulled off great miracles when it come to saving people in critical condition, people who would have died twenty years ago, but it seems that the person has to crash before the doctor can find the problem — This is probably why they have gotten so good at fixing catastrophic disease and injuries, because they can never find the problem until it is catastrophic.

      The real problem is that many of the drug treatment and invasive procedures used to locate or diagnose a problem, are snake-oil medicine at best and ineffective, but seem to carry life-threatening risks with them.

      So any one opting to have a colonoscopy is placing their life at risk for a procedure that has been known to fail at it’s intended design. The longest ongoing clinical study called the Telemark Polyp Study 1 has shown little to no advantage to colonoscopies. The group receiving the regular colonoscopies with polyp removals have come down with colon cancer at the same rate as the control group, who have no colonoscopies. The oddest thing is that the people in the group who had colonoscopies and polyps removed had a 158% higher mortality rate for all cause diseases,especially other cancers.

      I personally believe that this would indicate that the cancer cells broken free during polyp removal travel the bloodstream and metastasized to other organs, often times to organs that creat a much worse and harder to treat cancer. Colon cancer is far down the list of killers in the U.S., even among cancers. If the cells from the colon settle in the lungs, pancreas, lymph nodes, brains, liver, etc., you now have a far more aggressive cancer that is much harder to treat and has much higher mortality rates. 158% higher mortality rate is a very significant statistic.

      It’s like they’re trading their easy to treat colon cancer, which grow slowly, for pancreatic cancer, which is usually a death sentence. That is why other cancer surgeries require a follow-up treatment of chemotherapy, to kill any loose cells. Why does the colonoscopy not require the chemo when polyps are removed? See even doctors do not consider this a cancer tool or they would follow all other cancer protocols. Add in the fact the the endoscope cannot be sterilized and you have all kinds of risk of contaminating patient with c.diff, hepatitis or other infections. The benefits do not come close to offsetting the risks associated.

      When your mother goes to have the colonoscopy, she will be given a legal waiver to sign. That waiver will list all of the things that can go wrong. It will also state, that by signing this waiver, the patient understands all of these risks (including death), but is still willing to take that chance and have the procedure – this paper releases the doctors from any liability if your mother is injured or killed.

      The doctor will simply tell her not to worry that it’s a formality and nothing ever goes wrong – He is lying. The first time a gastroenterologist admits the truth that they have injured or killed a patient, their career is over – who would allow a doctor to do such a procedure if he admitted he killed 3 people and injured 50 others, but the realty is that he did, no matter what he says. The doctor who nearly killed me still tells his patients that he has never injured anyone. That’s because he bailed after the first 2 days I began to complain. He did an x-ray and said there was nothing wrong with me and was off my case. He even signed me out to go home from the hospital, when in reality I was hours from death. It was a group of hospital doctors and surgeons who had to step in and save my life.

      I believe that all gastroenterologist do the same. Once a patient begins to complain, they tell them they are being ninnies and making a big deal of nothing and bail. The doctor who did my colonoscopy told my wife that I was dramatizing the small discomfort that follows the procedure, he even went as far to say that I may have been hamming it up to get pain-killers (that’s how cynical doctors can become.)

      In reality, I was in excruciating pain at the time as we found out that I had over 25 feet of dead bowels inside me – you can’t imagine the pain (I was literally asking someone to shoot me or knock me out with a baseball bat and was serious. Anything to stop the pain, because I could not stand it another minute, yet I was still ignored. My blood pressure had dropped to deadly levels and I was in septic shock and was rushed to the ICU finally, yet the doctors still didn’t know what was wrong.

      Sorry for the rant – back to the legal paper: They would not have a paper like that if injuries were not common. If the injuries were as rare as they say, then they would simply pay damages for those rare cases that only happen every couple of years – this would spare them from possibly frightening some patients away with the scary things listed on that paper. The reality is, they are far more common and they could not afford to pay all the lawsuits they would get if they didn’t get that paper signed to protect them.

      What I do now is this. I do not refuse the procedure. (As intestinal transplant, I am supposed to get a colonoscopy every six months to check for signs of rejection, even if I am symptom free.) I simply refuse to sign the waiver. When the doctors tell me how rare the accidents are and that they never seen them happen,

      I answer back, oh then there’s no fear in doing the proceeder without the paper? You’re asking me to put my life on the line with this procedure (the paper itself even says that you could die during the procedure), but you are not even willing to put your money up at risk? Why won’t you risk your money if the injuries are so rare? Why should I risk my life on something that you are unwilling to risk you money on.

      I figure this way if they do it an injure or kill me, my wife will at least get a good settlement. I should have gotten a settlement before, not because of the perforation, I knew the risks, but because I was ignored for 3 days – 3 day of excruciation pain and septic shock, where I knew I was going to die, yet no one was doing anything.

      My life is more precious to me than their money is to them, so if they won’t risk their money, then you know how likely it is that an accident will happen (chances are, they have injured many patients already, how do I know this? Because most gastroenterologists will boast that they have done tens of thousands of these without incident – liars. That would defy all statistics.

      Statistics say that 5 in every 1,000 people will be seriously injured during a colonoscopy and 1 in 1,000 will be perforated and I know the numbers are much higher, because only a fraction of injuries are reported. Chances are that they bailed on the inured patients, just like they did me, this way they can still claim no one was injured, because last they saw the patient, they were in fine health (at least according to them, but you have to remember that a patient can be screaming in pain with WBC in the 60,000 range, high fevers and even in septic shock, but if the doctor can’t find anything wrong, they will claim the patient was in good health.

      Your mother’s troubles are not a good mixture with a colonoscopy and I fully understand your concern. If she were perforated, as I was, and bleeding internally, no one would know until she was in critical condition. Even if she began to complain, the doctors would most likely not find the problem (because they stink at diagnosis) until there was real trouble and internal bleeding could go on for weeks, meaning they would say it was not the colonoscopy that did it – this is why so may injuries are never reported, because a patient bleeding internally can be many days or weeks before showing a problem. After that much time, the doctors will never associate it with a colonoscopy and probably not even ask if she had underwent one recently (which should be the first question, but they won’t)

      I know how difficult it can be to talk sense to a loved one who puts all their faith in doctors also. My mother worships doctors and takes tons of different drugs. Any procedure they ask her to undergo, she is quick to schedule and hop into that machine. She is also been damaged many times by doctors, which is one reason I have always been suspicious of doctors and these invasive procedures.

      I wish you luck in getting her to at least understand the dangers, so she can be prepare for any problems that will arise. She will have to stop taking the anticoagulants a day or two before the procedure. If it’s a heparin based drug, it will only take a day to be out of her system, if it is Warfin based drug (like Coumadin), it could take many days or even a week to be gone. (chances are if it is oral, it is a Warfin, if it is a subcutaneous injection (in the stomach, thighs or butt) it is a heparin drug. Warfin drugs are far more dangerous and cary a higher risk of bleeding out. I can’t imagine what would happen if she were perforated, didn’t know it and started back on the Warfin! She could bleed out in a matter of days.

      Even worse, if she was on thrombolytics, which I doubt, they are so dangerous, they are usually only use in hospitals to dissolve existing blood clots. About 50% of the patient given thrombolytics bleed out and die. Very scary drugs.

      I will probably use the bulk of this reply to write an upcoming article, I have a lot more I could write on this subject. Because of all the advancements in medicine, people believe doctors are good at anything they do. Trying to get people to understand that they suck at diagnostics and prophylactic treatments to prevent disease is a difficult task. Millions of people take statins everyday, living with the horrible side effects (muscle weakness and pain, memory loss and others) believing that they are being protected from HD no matter what crap they continue to eat.

      Just as may people on statins have heart attacks and undergo triple by-pass surgery as people who don’t take them, Statins are a 30 billion dollar a year scam and so are colonoscopies. If a doctor cannot accurately spot tens of feet of necrotic bowel with a colonoscopy, nor accurately tell if an entire organ is in rejection (being attacked by the immune system), then what use is this device? It’s just a visual examination through a fiber optic lens. Doctors can’t even visually look at a patient’s outside and tell what’s wrong, how is that any different than looking at the inside of an organ (especially given that may cancer begin on the outside of the intestines and would not show up during a colonoscopy and the flat lesion that are ten times more likely to become malignant cancer are impossible to spot during a routine colonoscopy. This dangling polyps they enjoy cutting out and claiming victory over cancer are usually about 88% benign and no more of a threat to your health than a mole on your ass. But it makes a good show for the doctor, when he can show the patient the pictures he took inside them of the nasty dangling growths and give then great relief by talking them he removed them. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

      On of the transplant recipient I met had Gardner’s Disease (which causes colorectal cancer at young ages, as young as mid 20s). Her tumors were wrapped around the outside of her bowels, so they were not visible to all the colonoscopies she underwent. They cancer was finally detected by a PET scan and all of her digestive organs were replace with donor organs (6 organ transplant, stomach, spleen, pancreas, duodenum, small and large intestine)

      I’m sure you will not be able to convince your mother not to get the procedure, just as I can never convince my mother. Just please keep me in touch, especially if she has any problems following the procedure (abdominal pain, passing blood with her stool), because those doctors will ignore her complaints, but I may be able to steer her to where she can get help.

      When I originally published this site, I had decided not to put up images of me for a couple reason. I didn’t want people to think I was going for the sympathy or shock value and it is not easy for me to have to go through all the pictures my wife took (hundreds), because many of them are very sad, depressing and make me relive some of the horror. My wife and I have decided to begin publishing many of those images so people can see what a colonoscopy did to me. I will put up many warnings, because some of these images will be shocking and in many of them I look literally like a corpse, I do not look like something living. I wish I had them up already, because looking at them could give your mother a different opinion on the safety of this procedure and just how devastating an injury from one can be. I will try to get some up in the next week or so. Hopefully she will get to see them before undergoing this dangerous procedure.

      Thanks for writing and I wish you the best of luck to both you and your mother. Sorry for the long reply, but I wanted to get down many of the ideas that I can use in an article and cover this in greater detail. Thank you for your patience and I hope the best for your mother.

      David “Wolverine” Smith

    • Donna Marie
      May 23, 2014 | 2:33 pm

      I would definitely convince her to NOT do the colonoscopy. Unless she has blood in her stoll, her stomach problems are likely diet related and nothing else. My recommendation is lots of probiotics, digestive enzymes, and no gluten, soy, corn, red meat, and dairy (except butter and plain yogurt). She should eat a diet of mostly vegetables, poultry, wild caught fish, eggs, healthy fats (olive oil, coconut oil, and butter), and non-gluten grains like rice, millet, and quinoa. I bet most of her problems go away. This diet is anti-cancer and will lower cholesterol. By the way, high cholesterol does not cause heart attacks. Trans fats and a high carb diet causes most heart problems. People with high cholesterol have a lower risk of dementia. The brain is mostly fat and thrives on cholesterol. Block cholesterol and what is going to happen to your brain? People who take statins are risking not only dementia but many other problems as Wolverine mentioned. Just another money making scheme.

    • Donna Marie
      May 23, 2014 | 2:35 pm

      Sorry its blood in her stool not stoll.

  34. MD
    May 31, 2014 | 11:16 am

    I’m so glad I read this. Thanks so much.

    • Wolverine
      June 5, 2014 | 8:58 am

      I am so sorry I missed replying to this for this long. Thank you MD. I always love to get comments of encouragement, especially after all I’ve been through. Thanks you again for writing and you encouragement.

  35. Karen
    June 10, 2014 | 2:53 pm

    My husband had a colonospy in December 2013 he’s 50 and this was his third one. He also has cancer nasopharengyl carcinoma this a recurrence for him. My husband had a PET scan and they saw something kind of thicking so the gastro dr. and the oncologist decide yes he needs it done, meanwhile the day before this procedure he had 7 hours of chemo and they expected him to do the fast well he really couldn’t do that with chemo he did eat some light stuff and then did the cleanse. Neither one of us had a good feeling that morning. So he goes in when he when he came out this was in the dr. office, he was in terrible pain so they lay him down thinking he couldn’t pass the gas. This went on for a while the pain got worse the dr. was getting nervous. My husband threw up. The dr. called the ambulance we the dr. called a surgeon who was excellent they put a catheter in my husband, they gave him morphine wasn’t working, they stuck a tube down his nose. The surgeon told me he thought that the colon might have gotten torn during the procedure and my they would have to take out a part of the intestine and he would need a colostomy bag. This was all horrible nightmare. My poor husband has not been through enough with chemo and radiation now this.

    Anyway, he was brought into the hospital at 11:00 that morning and by 10:00pm that night he was in surgery the was sure it was a tear till them went in and his appendix was perforated a perfect hole right in the middle of it was going septic when the dr. came out of surgery he showed me the pictures you could see all the poison inside of him. He spent days in ICU they had to put a breathing tube in when he came out of surgery. He was 12 days in the hospital. The whole thing was very scary and I can say I’ll never get one no way. We thought we had a law suit I called a lawyer and he said he wouldn’t take the case because it would be too hard to prove.

    • Wolverine
      June 11, 2014 | 3:11 am

      I am so sorry to hear about what you and you’re husband have went through. More people are injured by this procedure than most people realize. I figure that eventually the truth will come out, but I wonder how many people will die or be seriously injured before it happens. It will probably take a celebrity getting injured or killed before the media will actually report anything bad on this procedure.

      I thank you for sharing your story. I have had so many people write in with horror stories concerning a colonoscopy and one of their family members. I am thankful for each person that is wiling to share their story as I have shared mine. Maybe if I get enough different stories people will begin to see that death and injuries from this procedure are not rare, they are simply ignored by both the media and legal system.

      I do understand what you mean about the lawyers. I thought for sure I would have a case, not because of the perforation, but because the doctors delayed treatment for more than three days, which cost me all of my small intestines.

      Again, I am so sorry to hear about your husband’s unfortunate experience with this colonoscopy and I also hope his cancer treatments are successful. I went through chemotherapy and radiation treatments for Multiple Myeloma last year, which was further complicated by the fact that I am an intestinal transplant recipient. My cancer is now in remission and I hope the same for your husband.

      P.S.

      (I understand the “Horrible Nightmare” that you speak of as I lost not part, but all of my intestines, both large and small. My first ostomy was a Jejunostomy, because I only had 10 inches of intestine off of my stomach. After the transplant, I had an Ileostomy for a year before they could reattach the transplanted small bowel with the transplanted colon. I hated having a stoma. Never had a colostomy. I’m glad too, because the jejunum and ileum come before the colon, so the output has the smell of vomit, not nearly as pungent as the stool smell of a colostomy — because leaks are inevitable. The jejunostomy was worse than the ileostomy because the output was only inches from my stomach, therefore still quite acidic, so any leaks started burning my skin within a minute or two.)

    • joe
      June 11, 2014 | 11:53 am

      I’m very sorry to hear this about your husband , I will pray for him to get well and know God will watch over your husband. Joe

  36. Lymer
    June 27, 2014 | 1:11 am

    My sister had her colonoscopy last June 23rd. Her intestine was punctured. Her organs failed to function and she is now in coma. Is there a chance that she will recover. She lives in Germany. I am very much worried because we very far from her.

    • Wolverine
      June 27, 2014 | 7:01 pm

      Hi Lymer. Thank you for writing and sharing your story. I am so sorry to hear about your sister. I try to warn people that colonoscopies do not always go bad, but when they do, it’s really bad and often life-threatening. I also had multi-organ failure following my perforation, which ultimately resulted in the loss of all of my small bowels. Has your sister been in a coma for an entire year or has she only fell into a coma recently? It’s hard to say what her chances of recovery are without knowing more details of the damage.

      Here in the U.S. there are several hospitals that have successfully performed multi visceral transplant. One woman I met when I was getting my transplant was getting a seven organ transplant. I know there are a few hospitals in Europe who are now offering intestinal and multi visceral transplant, but I don’t know whether any of them are in Germany. If her organs are failing, a transplant may be the only option for making a full recovery. At this point, I don’t know if she is in the coma because of the organ failure or because of a sepsis. I was twice in comas from systemic infections. A sepsis can often cause multi organ failure.

      I wish the best for your sister and will answer any question that you may have. The more details I have, the more accurate I can be with what things you may expect or look for. Feel free to contacting me by using the contact page. (I made the stupid mistake of having my email address posted here. Had to remove it, because every robot spider zeroed in on it and I was flooded with tons of spam advertising. This is why I must use the contact page, which encrypts my email address. I apologize for the inconvenience and wished to save those, who I know are ill and awaiting transplants, the extra steps, but I cannot better answer your questions when I accidentally trash your email because it ends up buried in hundreds of advertisements for penis enlargement tablets and offerings on how I can get a Harvard degree online in 60 days. Again, I apologize, but will have to ask you to take the extra steps to use the contact page. Thank you.if you have more questions. I do hope your sister a full recovery very soon and again thank you for sharing the story. Many people have written me about loved ones injured by a colonoscopy. By sharing your story, more of my readers can see that I am not an isolated case of a serious injury from this ill-advised procedure.

  37. Kyla
    July 8, 2014 | 9:53 pm

    Wolverine, thank you so much for sharing your story! I recently had a colonoscopy (turned up nothing) which resulted in a pelvic infection. The day after the procedure I became very ill and had to go to the ER with a fever of 102. I was ultimately hospitalized and given IV antibiotics. I’m sure this is a very rare complication but nonetheless it happened.

    Here’s the kicker, my Ob/Gyn (who recommended the colonoscopy in the first place and who agrees it gave me the infection) said when I get my next one in ten years all I have to do is take antibiotics before the procedure so I don’t sick again. Seriously?? There is no way I’m getting another colonoscopy unless my life depends on it -and even then probably not.

    • Wolverine
      July 9, 2014 | 1:33 am

      Hi Kyla, I doubt that your life would ever depend on it, since colonoscopies have never been proven to do anything, other than make a lot of money for doctors and the manufacturers of the endoscopes. One of the women I met at Jackson, who had an intestinal transplant two years before mine, was perforated by a colonoscopy last year during a routine scoping. They did two more colonoscopies when she complained of abdominal pain and found no cause for the pain. Upon the third colonoscopy it was discovered that her colon had been perforated and the leaking gastric juices has digested all of her small bowels, so she was rushed to the OR where all her bowels were removed and she now awaits a second transplant.

      The take-away message here is that she had over 25 feet of necrotic bowels and two colonoscopies failed to find a problem — she was hours from death and got two clean bills of health from the colonoscopies, yet we are asked to believe that this same procedure can detect cancer smaller than a pea?

      This is not the only story I have encountered where a colonoscopy failed to diagnose a pretty serious problem. The record for detecting organ rejection on intestinal transplant recipients was dismal. Twice I was told I was in organ rejection from the endoscopes, when the biopsy results came back negative. Another recipient was told her bowels looked healthy and fine, only to have biopsies come back showing that she was in severe organ rejection — The delay in treatment nearly cost her her life. None of us recipients had much confidence in the ileostomies.

      Your injury is not that rare, but the doctors will always claim that these things are rare, because no one would get the procedure if the truth be known. This is why I publish this blog and appreciate people like you who are willing to share their stories, so that others can see that the rate of death and injuries is far higher than reported.

      Very few of the people awaiting intestinal transplants had lost their native intestines to disease. There were a few who had lost their bowels to Crohn’s or cancer, but the greater majority had lost their intestines to complications following medical procedures, like bariatric surgeries, gastric by-pass, liposuction and colonoscopies. All of these procedures are advertised as safe and injuries rare. I guess the word “rare” is subjective and really says nothing. 10 out of 1,000 colonoscopies ends in a perforation (a life-threatening condition). I do not consider this “rare”, given the fact that thousands of these procedures are done every day in the U.S.

      Because of a conflict of interest, the dangers of colonoscopies is very difficult to expose the truth, since the largest manufacturer of endoscopes (the device used in colonoscopies) is General Electric, who also owns NBC and many other news media outlets. Thank you again for sharing your story. I hope you have a full recovery from your infection.

  38. Linda
    July 9, 2014 | 11:47 pm

    I know 3 women that have died after having colonoscopies, one personally. All 3 from perforations. My husband had to go to the emergency room from severe bleeding a few days after a colonoscopy and a family member fainted and had to be taken by ambulance the day after his colonoscopy. So many people have no idea how dangerous these tests are.

    • Wolverine
      July 11, 2014 | 8:56 am

      Wow, I think that speaks for itself about the rarity of injuries. Thank you Linda for sharing these stories. I knew many people who were injured or killed as a result of colonoscpies, but that was because I met so many intestinal transplant recipients, all of whom were required to get ileoscopies weekly for the first year following the transplant. Having this procedure that often make the injuries quite frequent and apparent.

      I was injured twice myself, the first being the cause for the loss of all of my intestines — the second was a sepsis introduced by an ileoscopy. Around 5 in every 1,000 procedures ends in a bowel perforation and that’s only considering the injuries that are reported, which only account for a fraction.

      Unless a patient present irefutable, smoing-gun, type evidence, which proves beyond a doubt that the colonoscopy was the cause of an injury or illness, the doctors will deny it. This makes sense when you consider that the minute they begin to take responsibilty, colonoscopies becme a thing of the past. Who is going to submit to one when they know that their doctor has injured or killed several people before them? The doctor who nearly killed me still claims to his new patients that his record is clean.

      It becomes really frustrating when you realize just how ineffective this device is at diagnosing anything. We saw intestinal transplant patients in severe organ rejection, yet the ileoscopy was unable to detect any problem and one woman had over 20 feet of necrotic bowels and two colonoscopies found no problem. If the damned device cannot detect 30 feet of rotten guts, how can ayone believe that it can find a tumor smaller than a peppercorn? It provides no benefit worth the risk. Thanks again for commenting and for these stories. I have had so many good people willing to share similar stories, which just further illustates how much injury and death surround this ill-advised procedure.

  39. Linda Brumbach
    October 1, 2014 | 2:38 pm

    Thank you for writing this, and I’m sorry for what you went through. My mother has a routine colonoscopy at age 69. She was a registered nurse and was doing all she could to maintain her health. She has the procedure on January 8th, 2013. a very long story short. after being ignored by the doctor of her complaints of stomach pain a day after the procedure she was went to the emergency room, she had a cat scan done and it showed negative for perforation. 24 hours later, as my mother was still in pain and being told it was just gas. she couldn’t answer questions appropriately and was confused on top of all of that pain. We called an ambulance and a second hospital diagnosed her with a perforated bowel and sepsis. this was January 10th.
    after 15 stomach surgeries and being in the Trauma unit on a ventilator for 4 months one week and one day my mother passed away on May 10th, 2013.
    My mom was the center of our universe and had 8 grandchildren the youngest at the time was 1 year old. My father and her would have celebrated 50 years of marriage this December.
    Thank you for allowing me the platform to vent. But for obvious reasons this topic is very important to all of us.

    • Wolverine
      October 1, 2014 | 6:07 pm

      Thank you, Linda for sharing your story in this time of great pain, but it is only though the willingness to share these stories that others can hopefully wake up, if by no other reason than the to the sheer quantity of these inexcusable experiences of heartache. As I was reading your story I felt a knot in my stomach and lump in my throat as your beloved mother’s story was far too familiar.

      I suffered the near identical story, with the exception of the outcome which differ for reasons we cannot begin to understand. I can’t help but feel guilty for evading what so many others do not and I would be singing with your courageous mother right now, except for blind luck. Why the different endings we will never understand, but the one unmistakable similarity the lethal reputation of the endoscope and the even more dangerous attitude of the doctors who wield it. How many more stories would have a different outcome if the doctors were not so quick to go into defense mode, spring-boarding to complete denial that their machine could injure anyone, resulting in delayed treatment for conditions that cannot afford a second of delay?

      The modern criteria of diagnosing a bowel perforation by searching for “free air” via radiology following a bad colonoscopy has failed in your mother’s case, mine and who knows how many countless others. If the doctors are going to continue to mortally wound people with this ill-advised procedure, they should at least develop a better tool for diagnosing the damage they create to exact treatment as fast as possible. This is what the doctors were looking of with the CT scan, but they fail to believe that the lack of “free air” is not a “clean bill of health” on a patient who is presented with severe abdominal pain following a colonoscopy. The same happened in my case and when they found no air, they claimed my pain imaginary and ignored me for the next 2 days, even in light of elevated white blood cells in the 60,000 range.

      The strangest part is that the endoscope itself has a horrible tract record of diagnosing its own damage. An intestinal transplant recipient I know was perforated last year during a colonoscopy, and two more colonoscopies failed to not only diagnose the injury, but was even unable to diagnose the resulting necrosis of all her small bowels several days later — This woman was just hours from death due to dead bowels and the colonoscopy gave her a clean bill of health? So, why are we encouraged to get this procedure again? To diagnose colorectal cancer in early, and hopefully treatable stages? Really? A device that is incapable of diagnosing over 20 feet of necrotic bowels is suddenly going to spot a tumor, which would have to be smaller than a grain of rice to really make a difference. It’s all a big joke — on us and its not a funny one.

      The endoscope was used extensively as a diagnostic tool in post intestinal transplant procedures and the success of properly diagnosing organ rejection, necrosis and ischemia were no better than guessing. I was twice treated for organ rejection based on endoscopic procedures, only to have the biopsies yield negative results days later. These are medical conditions far easier to detect than early stage cancer and yet the endoscope proved to be more of a problem than solution. It does generate a lot of money and therefore anchored at the foundation of all diagnostic procedures of the GI tract. I saw so many failures of endoscopes during those months that I could wrote volumes of rants, but I will refrain from doing so on this occasion.

      Instead I would like to extend my deepest apologies for your incredible loss. I understand that you are beyond stunned at this particular time, as we never expect to lose a loved one following what we are told is a perfectly safe and routine procedure. I am nearly five years beyond the event that would destroy my life, and am still stunned at the situations that this “safe” procedure can cause. Thank you again for the courage and willingness to share this story in your time of grief and I hope that such stories can become less common as people begin to see that these are not just stories, but real lives, completely wrecked by a procedures which has not proven to diagnose anything, other than your bank account. I am both angered and saddened by this news. Please pass my condolences on to your father, who is rightfully inconsolable at this time. I’m sure that you are doing your best to support him throughout this experience, but what can you say? I am without any meaningful words that could help. Thanks again, and bless you and your family.

  40. Thom
    October 11, 2014 | 4:43 am

    Thanks for this post. Your story and some of those in the comment section are all incredible. I wish I’d seen them before I signed the consent form.

    My doctor performed a hemorrhoidectomy and a colonoscopy on me on the same day. A week after the surgery, my sutures had apparently been absorbed too early and I almost bled to death in a bath of my own crap and blood. By the time I was admitted, I was barely concious.

    Four units of blood and about five weeks later, I was able to return to work and was feeling pretty good for a day or two until I woke up with a sharp pain in my lower left quadrant. That was two weeks ago. I’ve been in pain pretty much constantly since. At this point in my recovery, I expected to be back on my bike again, enjoying the cool autumn air.

    The day I saw my family doctor for my ultrasound results, it was getting better. He told me it was diverticulitis and that if it didn’t continue to get better, I should fill the prescription he gave me for two antibiotics (cipro and metronidazole). Since I’m allergic to them, I can’t take them. Hoping there’s an alternative, because I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. And I’m afraid of repeat flare-ups.

    A previous colonoscopy (sigmoid), about eight years ago revealed diverticulosis. I’m wondering if that first colonoscopy is how I acquired H. pilori. That was terrible because the antibiotics used to treat it caused permanent damage to my ears.

    My doctor said I need to eat more fibre to avoid diverticulitis. So sick and tired of hearing this. I eat a high fibre diet and have all my life.

    I can’t take any NSAIDs (again, allergies), so opiates are the only pain control I can use. I didn’t bother asking for any, though. The constipation associated with them would probably kill me.

    The pain is getting worse and it’s the beginning of a long weekend. If it gets much worse, I’ll be visiting the ER yet again. I’ll try to make it to Monday, after the family visits.

    For now, A toast… To agony!

    • Wolverine
      October 11, 2014 | 9:23 pm

      Hi Thom. I am sorry to hear about your problems. There is a lot of evidence that a high fiber diet can cause diverticulitis. It’s like many other bogus theories that doctor refuse to let go of. Everyday, people with low cholesterol have heart attacks, so doctors continue to drive their cholesterol lower and lower with drugs and yet they continue to have heart attacks. Instead of considering that their theory is wrong, they figure that they simply have not driven levels low enough.

      In the same manner, as people continue to develop more and more digestive stress, the doctors believe that increasing the fiber more will somehow help. They just keep recommending the same treatment, even when it is clearly not working. Doctors will do one of two things — blame the patient for not following orders (blaming patients is one of their go-to solutions to all problems) or thinking that their treatment needs to be more aggressive. Considering that their treatment is wrong will never enter the equation.

      In many cases, their traditional treatments are causing the problem, which is why we see a rise a in many of these conditions and diverticulitis is one of those. I believe there is sufficient evidence that the modern push for more and more fiber is at the heart of this epidemic.

      At what point does the fiber consumption stop? When people are eating a bail of hay per day? Humans are not, and never were, a grazing animal. We need very little fiber in our diets. What fiber we get from fruits, nuts and vegetables is sufficient to maintain intestinal health. For the most part, we only require a small amount of fiber, which is fermented, creating butyric acid to feed the local cells lining the colon. This does not require pounds of phyllium fiber from grains husks to achieve.

      Many doctors still recommend high fiber diets to people with Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis, even though patients complained for years that the high fiber made the symptoms worse. It took many years before clinical studies were done and proved that a high fiber diet worsen these symptoms. Even mainstream medical sites, like webMD, have begun to include grain fibers as a trigger UC. (and you can imagine how much irrefutable evidence it took to get such mainstream entities to change their stance on something they have been recommending for years)

      http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/ulcerative-colitis/creating-an-ulcerative-colitis-plan

      This information was available for years, but the mainstream was very slow catching on (or unwilling to admit that had been wrong before). Obviously, many doctors are even slower — your doctor appears to be one of the slow ones. Most people want to believe that their doctor is up on all the latest, but it is seldom true. Most doctors are decades behind on the latest medical advances. I had over 30 different doctors tell me that intestinal transplants were not possible, experimental at best, when in reality they had been successfully performed for more than 20 years. That should give you an idea of just how slow information moves through the medical community.

      If you were to continue on your high fiber diet, or increase your fiber intake, your symptoms will worsen, I can guarantee that. Do not use any fiber supplements, such as Metamucil, because these are nothing but indigestible husks from grains and very distressful on the digestive tract. You can find a lot of really useful information at Konstantin Monastyrsky’s (author of the book “Fiber Menace”) website:

      http://www.gutsense.org

      Mr. Monastyrsky has probably done more detailed research in this area than anyone else I have ever seen. The motivation for recommending a diet high in psyllium fiber was based more by agribusiness profit than human health issues. The doctors are just as susceptible to corporate advertising than anyone else and simply follow along with USDA recommendations. Psyllium fiber has always been a by-product of the grain processing industry. I guess they needed to find a way to market it, rather than just throw it away (there are probably other industrial uses for it, but these would not generate much money — not nearly as much as they can sell it for if they can convince everyone it is uber-healhy).

      Psyllium fiber was added to animal feed, but he animals refuse to eat it. This should tell us something. Ruminant animals learn quickly to associate this fiber with pain. A massive amount of insoluble fiber, like psyllium, causes a lot of bloating in these animals, so if they smell it in the feed, they will avoid it. The same result happens in humans. The fiber causes massive amounts of bloating (the gas is a by-product of the bacteria which ferment the fiber). Insoluble fiber also takes on water and swells, which can cause obstructions in the intestines.

      All of this heavy fiber has also resulted in enlarged stools, which lead to anal fissures and hemorrhoids. You can see that there are many problems associated with a high fiber diet, especially a diet high in insoluble fiber. Most people do not realize that there are different fibers. Soluble fiber can speed intestinal motility (this is the fiber found highest in prunes, which gives them the laxative effect) and insoluble fiber will slow intestinal motility (this fiber is found higher in dates, which can cause constipation).

      For this reason, I use dates and prunes to adjust the fiber in my diet, depending on my needs. The fiber in grains husks is far too highly concentrated for any diet. Of course, I do not eat grains at all. If I were you, I would certainly avoid taking any grain fibers. If you still wish to eat grains, I would avoid whole grains, at least until your intestines have time to heal. Humans need very little fiber in our diets. If someone needs pounds of fiber to have a bowel movement, there is a more serious problem — one that fiber will not fix. It has also been proven that people can become dependent on high fiber to have bowel movements, in the same way that people have become dependent on laxatives.

      It is certainly possible that you received an infection from the endoscope. It is impossible to sterilize an endoscope and I believe that many pathogens are being transported from one host to another through the use of this. I really need to publish another article which I was working on. The article details the design of the endoscope and why it is clearly impossible to effectively clean. Because there is a channel within the scope, which runs the entire distance (about 4 feet long), which is the canal they insert the tools they use. Anyone who sees how this is made would realize that there would be no way to properly sterilize this channel, yet this is the very portal where all of the tissue samples will be pulled through. I can’t even imagine how this device was ever approved for use on humans, but I’m sure it took a lot of palm greasing to achieve.

      I thank you for your story and am sorry for your suffering. I certainly hope that your issues can be resolved and that you will not need any further endoscopic procedures. They carry far more risks than people know.

  41. Christian Margaret
    November 12, 2014 | 1:22 pm

    I praise the Lord, Wolverine, for your warning to others to not have a colonoscopy! I add my sorrow for your horrible experience, and I pray that Jesus will richly bless you for unselfishly teaching others about the dangers of a colonoscopy. Maybe, God used you to spare me from this potentially hurtful procedure, because I had scheduled to have one…but I am now going to cancel this!!!

    I am, also, thankful to the many people, who have replied to you, and shared how they, or a loved one were seriously hurt by having a colonoscopy.

    In closing, please let me share a testimony, that can save millions!!!!!!

    Whether, or not, your life is joyful, or terrible on Earth now, you can have happy victories here, and you can have eternal happiness in Heaven, when you leave here! God loves everyone, and that is why He sent Jesus to become God Incarnate and to die for our sins, so you can be saved!

    Yes, Jesus arose three days after dying on a cross to pay our sin debt, and to show us victory over death.

    If you don’t want Hell, a place of eternal misery, after you die, please pray to God, turn from your sin, and ask Jesus to come into your heart to become your Lord and Savior. John 3:16 King James Version (KJV)

    16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

    In the Bible is recorded a conversation between Jesus and a man named, Nicodemus.
    (This is the Lord’s message to everyone!)

    John 3:2-5 King James Version (KJV)
    2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

    3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

    4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

    5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

    This Christmas, I pray that everyone, who reads this post, will know the true meaning of this special day.

    God’s only begotten son, Jesus, was born to a virgin woman, Mary, and the baby’s purpose was to grow among men to teach them the love and commandments of God and to become the human sacrifice for all mankind’s sin. Jesus came to become your Savior!

    But, not everyone on earth will receive His Divine gift of eternal life- only those who repent of sin and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved!

    In God’s Word, the Bible, Jesus says in
    Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

    Many people have been falsely taught, that if they do church rituals and strive to be good, this will be enough to get them to Heaven. How sadly wrong they are!

    Ephesians 2:8-9 King James Version (KJV)

    8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

    9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

    Merry Christmas, Everyone! I pray that you have the Gift of Jesus in your heart and that you are joyfully, ‘Born Again’ in Him!

    Thanks, again, Wolverine, for letting me share the “Good News”, that Jesus saves!

  42. Philippa
    November 30, 2014 | 12:07 am

    Thanks for speaking out Wolverine. Two weeks ago, after having a horrible prep, I turned up at a clinic for a routine colonoscopy I signed the waiver, got undressed, put on a hospital gown.and climbed onto the bed. The anesthesiologist came in and asked some questions. I told him I’d had water that morning, and the prep hadn’t done a total clean. We’ll just wait a half an hour more, he said breezily, to let you digest. Upon questioning, it turned down that even with ‘twilight’ sleep, I would be sufficiently comatose that if the water reversed up my throat, I would choke.. Delaying the procedure by half and hour, would not subsntially reduce that risk. But.. It was a risk, the anasthesiologist said, he would be prepared to take.
    Not I! I said, and I jumped off the bed, I got dressed and was out of there.
    I found out later that any remaining fecid material would negate or obscure any findings during the scope, and it would have to be done again. What do you think of that, Wolverine? Did they need my business so much that they were prepared to take a risk on my life? Well, I guess so, since I signed the waiver releasing them from liability. I’ve since read all your material and definitely decided to not to go through this invasive procedure. Only in crackpot society would it be okay to push a 4 foot long wire in and around the bends of your insides and say it’s for your health! Only rivaled by the idiotic practice of sticking needles into the flesh of a newborn.

    • Wolverine
      December 1, 2014 | 1:02 am

      Thanks for commenting, Philippa. That glass of water may have saved your life, or it could have cost you your life had you not told the doctors about it. I sadly had a reader post a comment just last week about her mother who died from the anesthesia during a routine colonoscopy. Her daughter said that she was laughing and joking with her just an hour before the procedure.

      How rare this type event is would be contingent on a person’s definition of “rare”. This is where the doctors play the patients. They never quote statistics if questioned about all the horrible things listed on the legal waiver, they simply toss out the undefined word rare.

      5 in 1,000 people does not seem “rare” to me, especially when you considered how many thousand of these procedures are performed every week and the fact that the majority of injuries and infections are either never reported or never linked to the procedure. Chances are good that if you do not actually die on the table, the doctors will not link the injury or death with the colonoscopy. I guess to a doctor, if less than half the patients are killed, it is rare.

      I’m happy you were not injured and have decided to do more research on this procedure. The more I researched the endoscope, the more I wondered how this device was ever approved for use on humans? What other screening procedure has to render a patient unconscious to perform? I just cannot recommend this procedure for anyone who is not suffering a serious GI problem.

      You said that even a small amount of feces can render the procedure useless, in all reality it is just a useless diagnostic tool anyway. Last year, one of the other intestinal transplant patients had a routine colonoscopy and her bowel was perforated. She was given 2 more colonoscopies when she began to complain of abdominal pain and both came back clean — no visible problems. She crashed and was rushed into surgery where it was found that all of her bowels, both large and small, were necrotic.

      If a colonoscopy was unable to diagnose over 25 feet of dead bowels, how are we to believe that they will find a tumor smaller than a grain of rice? It’s all just smoke and mirrors, a fancy machine they can collect $2,000 a pop from insurance companies for using. I’m quite sure the endoscope kills far more patients than it saves, especially since I am convince they save no one. Twice, I was misdiagnosed for organ rejection by endoscopic procedures and two other patients I knew were also misdiagnosed.

      I’ve never known the procedure to correctly diagnose anything and I saw a lot of endoscoppic procedures, since all intestinal transplant patients were required to have ileooscopies weekly and I was at that hospital for 7 months. It seemed that every time we turned around, another patient was being perforated or misdiagnosed by this procedure. It’s really a total piece of crap, but generating a lot of money.

      I just wish that more people will have a chance to research and learn the real dangers of this procedure before being injured or killed. Thanks again for writing and sharing your story. It will give people a little more to think about.

    • Coco
      January 4, 2015 | 4:04 pm

      Ugh, that comment about sticking needles into the flesh of newborns gave me the most horrid flashback to Hell Hospital, when that one newbie nurse tried to find a baby’s vein….for two whole hours….in the dead of night…

      ~shudder~

  43. Philippa
    December 1, 2014 | 9:07 am

    Thanks for writing, Wolverine. My original GI complaint was acid reflux. No response to that by the gyno…other than don’t eat late at night…instead told to have a routine colonoscopy. My best friend urges me every day to have one. So I’ve done a ton of research, One of the most salient facts is that the c-scope does not examine the right side of colon. Cannot see flat lesions which are mostly on the right side. My question to you is…would you recommend an annual fecal test (for blood) and a sigmoidoscopy? If there is no blood in feces, is an internal test even necessary? Thanks.
    Also, there is a huge scientific controversy. The 2012 study trumpeted in the NY Times that c-scopes save lives, has been criticized as being full of bias.

  44. Philippa
    December 1, 2014 | 11:11 pm

    Wolverine, first of all, I want to say how sorry I am for all you have gone through, and how courageous you are to share your experiences as a warning to us all. On June 10th you wrote ‘ It will probably take a celebrity getting injured or killed before the media will actually report anything bad on this procedure.’
    How prophetic your words were. Endoscopies go down the throat, and are often done in conjunction with colonoscopies (I had the double treatment myself 10 years ago). As we know, the comedienne Joan Rivers died from an endoscopy and had been given Proponol.One expert said that about 1000 patients die every year from endoscopies. But it’s probably more.

    • Wolverine
      December 3, 2014 | 8:20 pm

      Thank you Philippa. The media responds quickly to anything that injures a celebrity. Since Joan was killed by her injuries, it was only going to get so much media attention. Americans have such a short attention span, they forgot it after a week. I think that it would take something similar to what happened to me to really get some attention.

      I can’t imagine all of the press I would have gotten if I had been a celebrity. I was literally in hospitals for more than 14 months and for all that time, my life stood in the balance every day. If a celebrity was in that situation, it would headline the news daily for 14 months, which would really drive the dangers into the heads of people. People also often forget that there are fates worst than death. I’m not saying that mine is worse than death, though I often wondered prior to the transplant and for quite a while after. I am still not what I used to be.

      It could have been much worse. There were several occasions when I was in shock (4 different times), that my blood pressure was so low for so long that the doctors told my wife I may suffer brain damage when I wake up. I could have ended up a vegetable that my wife had to take care of and struggle with the decision whether to pull the plug or not. These colonoscopies can easily render someone into that condition or any complication from an injury can have a similar result. I have had a few people write me about loved ones who ended up that way from a colonoscopy. I believe that all of them eventually passed away.

      People have no idea of the risk they are taking. The number of injuries and deaths are at least 3 to 4 times higher than they report. Those endoscopes can injure in so many different ways that it is impossible to always link them with an ilness, especially since they cannot be sterilized and can easily pass infections. These can take a while to manifest, so they are rarely, if ever , associated with the procedure.

      No one is asking the questions, which is why we have no answers. Few people know that this device cannot be sterilized — most people probably assume it is. When asked, doctors admit that it cannot be sterilized, but claim it is well cleaned by hand. Yet, they will not explain this cleaning procedure. I think many people would be alrarmed if they knew. Everyone is unconsious when the procedure is done, so they have no idea about it. I was not sedated in any way for the ileostomies following the transplant (which are painless, unlike colonoscopies) and saw just how dirty this procedure is.

      I certainly don’t hope that a more relevant celebrity is injured in a fashion as I was, where their life hangs in the balance every day for an extended period of time, but that is what it wouldtake before more people demanded answers to just how dangerous this procedure really is.

  45. coco cabana
    December 22, 2014 | 5:30 am

    If you or your child are having gastrointestinal issues that aren’t responding to the treatment your doctor recommends, please pay careful attention:

    We have four children, ages 23, 19, 10 & 9. When our 10-year old son was seven, he experienced an abrupt change to his stooling habits; specifically, he suddenly began soiling his pants, and it was black and smelled toxic. My husband and I didn’t even know what to make of it, for he had been potty trained normally like the rest, and he was otherwise normal behaviorally. He also experienced episodes of acute abdominal pain and vomiting. I thought he might be constipated and gave him some chewable Pedialax, which had no effect.

    I took him to our family doctor, whom we had selected from a list of providers based on proximity to our home; since he was in family practice, I selected him to be our family’s doctor, and I never had any complaints with him prior to this. When I told him what was going on with our son though, he said it was constipation, and suggested I give him MiraLAX.

    So I did, and it affected no change other than making our son very nauseous. We continued with this for a time, and of course all the while, the warning label on the box had me worried: “do not use for more than seven days”, “not recommended for use in children”, “if this product fails to produce a bowel movement or causes cramps and pain, discontinue use”. Those types of things, and I wondered if I should continue to give it.

    So, we went back to the doctor, who very breezily explained to me that our son had “childhood fecal retention disorder”, that he was “holding in his poop” because he had suddenly become “afraid to poop”, and he directed me to give our son a dose of MiraLAX in the morning and a dose of DulcoLAX at night. This diagnosis really irked me, and I just really knew that it was wrong. But I went ahead and did what the doctor ordered…again, with seemingly no effect, no change, no improvement.

    I would bring our son back to the doctor several times; sometimes, I would take him to the urgent care facility, and no one could tell me what to do. The suggested remedies became more invasive as I tried suppositories and then enemas, following the doctors’ instructions — nothing worked. The soiling continued, requiring our son to wear pull-up pants every day. This basically went on for nearly three years, and when I questioned it, the doctor continued to ascribe a behavioral cause for our son’s symptoms. I, too, was told to increase the amount of MiraLAX, and that he might have to take it for the rest of his life.

    My research indicated that the symptom of black stools is either because of an iron-rich diet, bismuth medications, or bleeding in the small bowel; it also indicated humans cannot exert any control over the small bowel. We asked our son to describe what was going on; of course, since the topic was all about poop, he was embarrassed and hesitant to talk about it…but also because it was difficult for him to find the words to accurately explain what he felt was going on inside of him…after all, he’s still a child, not Doogie Howser, MD.

    My son and I are/were very close, I loved him so much, we had such a good relationship, we had a very close bond. All I wanted for our son was for him to feel better and to go back to how he had been before this suddenly happened to him. By now, he was getting ready to enter the fifth grade, and after that it’s middle school, and I just wanted him to be free of this health complaint. We agreed that the next time he had acute abdominal pain, we would go to the emergency room at the hospital so they could look at it with all their diagnostic machines and whatnot and figure out once and for all what was wrong and fix it.

    When it happened again, I took him to the local “Childrens Hospital.” They asked, “what brought you here today” and as I began to provide the history and describe my son’s symptoms they began to look at me funny…quizzical and skeptical. They decided to admit him, and that was the beginning of 12 days in Hell. They ignored everything I said, putting him on a clear liquid diet and literally pumping Go-Lytely into him to “clean him out.” He got so sick, vomiting ceaselessly, and still no poop.

    Occasionally, they would ask me what *had* worked, and I told them a “milk and molasses” enema. They jumped on it, and administered a rapid succession of enemas, and my son was in so much pain and so sick, and nothing worked to “clean him out”, there was still so much stool inside of him according to the x-rays. They decided to do a manual disimpaction, believing that a lump of hard stool must be blocking things up…but that was not the case either. They subjected him to an endoscopy that was just…I don’t know. It was so *aggressive* when they couldn’t get it to go down past this one section of his stomach, they just kept trying to force it through, and it didn’t work. My son got so sick as they poke and prodded him everywhere in every way, trying to force the laxatives down, even though I had already explained that none of the oral laxatives had any effect.

    My son lost so much weight; the staff kept urging me to leave the hospital for some “me time” and I didn’t want to leave his side, I was just so afraid for him. The hospital assigned a “social worker” to us, a do-do bird who shadowed us everywhere we went. I did not fee free to take my son from the hospital. In the time we were there, my son was placed under general anesthesia four times. When after everything they did my son continued to “not respond to therapy as we had anticipated” they said he was going to be there for at least five more days and ordered the placement of a PICC line for direct nutrition.

    This PICC line went straight to his heart. They placed in the after noon of day 10. In the early morning hours of day 11 a nurse came in to flush out the line, and my son cried that it hurt. The nurse rolled her eyes, commenting on his “anxiety” — she put in a call to the doctor, who gave her the go-ahead to give our son a dose of Ativan to calm him. And then she pushed the Ativan in and nearly killed him; she induced congestive heart failure, and my son almost died right in front of my face, and I will never forget the sight, I will never forget the moment.

    I cried out that she had overdosed him and she denied that she had, and another nurse led me out of the room and told me if I didn’t be quiet and calm down they would prevent me from re-entering the room. I assured them that I was perfectly calm and that if my son was going to die, I was going to be sure to watch him go and take note of everything I saw. I spent the next several hours holding my son, so afraid; after three hours of babbling and seizures he finally fell asleep.
    In the morning, those quacks walked into the room all smiles, remarking on how great our son looked, and that they felt it was just a stomach bug and as soon as he passed some stool he’d be ready to be discharged!! I couldn’t believe it. After some time, he passed a little orange-ish turd, and they shoved the discharge papers in my face to sign…but I recognized the smell, linked it to a smell I had detected on a stray kitten’s poop…we had taken in this little stray kitten three years earlier…

    Long story short, my research led me to wonder if my son had something called Helicobacter Heilmannii — look it up, its a bacteria you can catch from your cat or your dog, and it causes all kinds of gastrointestinal disorder. It is treatable with a two-to-three week regimen of antibiotics and stomach acid reducers…but left untreated, it causes lymphoma of the gastric mucosa. I asked our doctor to test our son for it, and the test came back positive, and I was elated. Finally, a real diagnosis!

    But the hospital had already started a horrible, nightmare train a’rollin…the doctors there claimed I had “medically neglected” my son, that if only I had given my son MiraLAX as the doctor had recommended, my son would never have had to come to the hospital at all; they reported me to child protection services and told them I had Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, and that I had deliberately sickened my son because I enjoyed the secondary attention I got from the doctors from my son’s illness. CPS came and took our 10 year old son and our 9 year old daughter away. Two months after his removal, our son suddenly began stooling normally again, and everyone pointed to it like, “see, all we had to do was take him away from his mom, and he got better.” But it was because of the antibiotics he had just finished taking before they removed him from our care…

    And that was eight long months ago…we get one four-hour visit with our kids every month, and two phone calls per week…the dependency and neglect system is so corrupt and evil…CPS told my husband they would return the kids to him if he divorced me…we’ve been married 24 years…we miss our kids so much…the hospital and CPS have destroyed my life, stolen my from me and my heart and my whole world are broken.

    • Donna Marie
      January 1, 2015 | 7:56 pm

      It is so risky to take a child to the doctor these days. I can’t even imagine how you feel. After spending years trying to help your son, your son and daughter are taken away. The hospital and doctors need someone to blame for their screw ups. So before you sue them (which you should), they call CPS and make up crap. That way you are busy trying to get your children back instead. Munchausen’s Syndrome sounds like a made up disease so hospitals and psychiatrists can blame parents when they screw up. That’s so ridiculous that someone would make their child sick to get attention from doctors. How can they take your child away without giving you an independent psychiatric evaluation? It should be someone who has no connections to CPS or the hospital. You need to find a really good attorney to not only get your children back but to sue the incompetent doctors and hospital. This seems to be happening more and more. We are losing complete control of our children. It all starts in the public school system. Children are taught compliance and government obedience. They are allowed birth control and vaccines in some states without parental consent. We need to take back control before it is too late. I will pray for you and your family.

      • Wolverine
        January 3, 2015 | 6:12 pm

        Thank you for helping to support her Donna. Those kind of stories can really break your heart.

      • Coco
        January 4, 2015 | 3:57 pm

        Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

        So far as finding a good attorney, it’s very hard; good attorneys are expensive, and the story is detailed, and most of the families to whom this happens are already poor and on Medicaid…although moms who dare question the doctor’s orders: consider yourselves warned.

        Furthermore, CPS endeavors to bankrupt aned systematically impoverish families — especially the resistant ones — who are often left penniless and homeless in their seemingly futile effort to defend themselves against all the false allegations.

        CPS presents parents with a lengthy “treatment plan” that details a number of classes, evaluations, drug testing, therapies, and “in home family preservation” services they must take if they even wish to see their children again. Then parents are presented with a “combined agency informed consent and release” form and ordered to sign it.

        The court took our refusal to sign as evidence of contempt, and sentenced us each to 30 days in jail; the head kangaroo then agreed to suspend the sentence…*if* we signed the release on the spot.

        But somehow, it is only through our consent…because in smaller print tucked into the text, the signator is told they have the right to rescind their signature and revoke their consent if done within writing and within 10 days; and so I have exercised my right.

        Whatever comes next, all I know is that to sign is to absolve the doctors of all liability; it is to say that it was all in my son’s head; it is to say that all along, it was nothing that a little bit of MiraLAX each day wouldn’t have fixed.

        And I will not shoulder that burden, or consent to what they’ve done to my family.

        • Coco
          January 4, 2015 | 4:09 pm

          …nothing a little bit of MiraLAX wouldn’t have fixed…MOM.

    • Donna Marie
      January 1, 2015 | 7:58 pm

      I wish you a Happy New Year. I pray that in 2015 you will get your family back together. 🙂

    • Wolverine
      January 3, 2015 | 5:50 pm

      Thank you for sharing your story. I am so sorry I have taken so long to reply. This is a truly sad story for sure and I have experienced some of the anti-constitutional powers that have been bestowed on many of the social service branches of the government. Worse part is that there is very little legal recourse against them, which violates the very civil rights given to us by our founders. I am really not sure why so many people seem ambiguous towards this abuse of power and break down in our legal system. Most americans have lost the real definition of what freedom is about.

      Your story sounds like something out of a nightmare. I am sure that soon we will be unable to make any decisions concerning our children’s health, especially as the government gains more and more control over the health care system. This is very frightening, because the government bases most of their health information on data supplied by pharmaceutical companies and other who have a special interest. The present day government health recommendations are not only wrong for the most part, but actually counter-productive and often dangerous. The recommendation of low-fat diets, statin drugs, antidepressants for children and the push for preventative health care, which too often included deadly invasive procedures. It will not be long before a government run health care system begins to mandate drugs, like statins, and procedures, like colonoscopies for everyone in the name of prevention.

      I wish you the best of luck in getting back your children. I know how difficult it can be to reverse these types of injustice.

  46. Philippa
    January 3, 2015 | 6:27 pm

    This was indeed the story of nightmares, Coco, and reading about your little boy was heartbreaking…i pray your family will be reunited.
    In terms of my story (refusing to have the colonoscopy under anesthetic, while actually on the hospital bed and prepped) I subsequently asked to have stool test done. This is a very simple non invasive test that they’ve made easier than ever. This was at my suggestion, not the doctor’s. Negative results. Why could this not have been suggested by the doctor in the first place? The idea of state mandated invasive tests is horrifying. When I was waiting for the colonoscopy, that I didn’t have, the impression of the older folk waiting silently to have theirs, has remained in my mind…as sheep.

    • Wolverine
      January 3, 2015 | 7:23 pm

      Of course they would push the colonoscopy, the “Occult Blood Fecal Test” cost less than $200.00 to run (most of which goes to the laboratory which runs the test) and a colonoscopy charges out at about $2,000.00 a pop and most gasteroenterologists can perform 20 to 30 procedures a day. Makes you wonder how thorough the test is done, when done so quickly. The things most don’t understand is that the doctor makes the same amount whether they spend 10 minutes or 30 minutes on the procedure. Most of these clinics cram in as many as possible in a day, which can only increase the frequency of injuries, hurrying through each procedure.

      Unfortunately, sheep is the right analogy. No one has ever questioned or researched whether this procedure actually can diagnose cancer early. What little research that has been done on this procedure has so far suggested that it doesn’t. We have certainly not seen a drop in colorectal cancer rates since these colonoscopies began being recommended to everyone over 50 (over 20 years ago). But, the sheep never ask these questions, in the same way they take their statin drug everyday (while their muscles begin to ache and their memories begin to fade) and never stop to think about the fact that heart disease has only increased over the last 20 years, even though human beings have lower cholesterol than ever in history (thanks to statin drugs). If cholesterol was truly the problem, we should have seen a stark drop in the rate of heart disease.

  47. Philippa
    January 4, 2015 | 4:18 pm

    A 2013 study came out to say that colonoscopies reduce cancer by 70% but then surprisingly, concludes that
    ” There is no reason, based on the knowledge we currently have, that you should switch to a colonoscopy if you’re getting a FOBT every year,” said Doubeni.”
    http://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20130304/colonoscopy-cuts-advanced-cancer-risk-by-70-percent-study

    I rest my case, Wolverine.

    • Wolverine
      January 5, 2015 | 7:46 pm

      Hi Philippa. Thanks for the comment, but something doesn’t sound right. I’ll bet the article said a 70% risk reduction (which means absolutely nothing, since “risk factors” are usually completely made up criteria). A 70% drop in the “event” of colon cancer would be international headlines everywhere and the disease would be nearly wiped out of existence.

      If this were truly the case, I would be endorsing the procedure, even in light of my near-death injury. But I have yet to find any study which shows anywhere near that kind of proof of any effectiveness of colonoscopies.

      This is exactly the “take-away” they want the average person and media to have when they publish these deceiving numbers. They’re not lying, just stretching the facts to their max.

      For example, high cholesterol is considered a risk factor for heart disease, even though this has never proven to be true. Statin drugs lower cholesterol well, in fact they can lower it to unnatural numbers (lower than any human’s body would allow without a drug intervention). Since statins are given to about 47% of adults, we can safely say that humans now have lower cholesterol than ever in history, yet we are having more heart attacks.

      Obviously cholesterol is not the villain, but statin drugs account for more than half of the gross revenue of drug companies (selling more than all other drugs combined – a 38 billion dollar a year business), so there is a lot of motivation to continue the lie that high cholesterol causes heart disease. People still believe it, even though we have seen no reduction in the amount of heart attacks, but they can claim that they have created a massive reduction in the risk factor for heart disease, since they believe cholesterol to be a major risk factor and their drug reduces cholesterol.

      By using their criteria, you could make a case and achieve similar results for just about anything. Many cereal companies claim that their cereal is “Heart Healthy”, because it contains “HeartHealthyWholeGrains”, when grains have never been proven to be healthy for the heart, in fact, history would show that grains may contribute to heart disease, since most grain eating civilizations have a higher rate of diabetes and heart disease.

      Weight alone is considered a risk factor for heart disease, so anything which helps you lose weight can claim to be heart healthy, but plenty of thin people have heart attacks, so weight may or may not contribute (certainly there are other contributors). I would say that weight is a very small risk factor (unless morbidly obese), but they will use such things in determining risks. They’re not interested in facts, not are they interested in lowering the event of such diseases, only their made up risk factors.

      The other trick they are fond of is publishing the “relative” risk reduction, rather than the “absolute” reduction — and this is not a small difference. I am not a mathematician, but I have read articles written by those who understand the deceitful way these numbers are published. They will claim that a statin drug reduces the risk of a heart attack by 38% (relative risk), but the absolute risk is only something like .1%, usually not even beating the margin of error (which should be considered in any equation).

      Since those in the media do not understand the math, they run off and publish it as if heart attacks have been reduced by 38%, but such a reduction would be headlines of every newspaper in the world. We have only seen an increase in heart disease in the last 20 years and statins have been handed out like popcorn throughout that time. If they worked at all, we would have expected to see a drop.

      I’m sure this is the same slight-of-hand used in the publication you read on colonoscopies. Just because a doctor can look inside, does not mean they will find most cancers. Look how many people die each year from skin cancer, many more than die of colon cancer, yet doctor can freely examine the skin and still miss malignant tumors, because a cancer must be found in very early stages to make a difference and are not always visible to the eye until too late.

      Now you must also consider that the skin is not covered in a 1/4 inch layer of mucus — the colon is and must maintain that. No matter how much prep for cleansing they give you, it can never wash away the mucosa or the organ will immediately begin to ulcerate. The loss of mucosa is what causes Ulcerative Colitis.

      Do you know how advance a tumor must be to push through the mucosa? Quite large. Sure the doctors love to cut out very large polyps from the colon and claim victory over cancer, but these are rarely malignant. In fact, if a tumor that large was malignant, it would be far too late for the patient. The small, flat legions are 20 times more likely to be malignant and these are rarely found during colonoscopies.

      I’m sure that 70% reduction was based on risk factors, which can be completely fabricated. The largest clinical study on colonoscopies (The Telemark Polyp Study 1), has shown no discernible reduction in the event of cancers in patients who had regular colonoscopies and those who had none. In fact, those who had the regular colonoscopies, with polyp removals, suffered a 158% higher mortality rate when “all-cause” deaths were considered.

      The biggest reason that I know that this cannot be a reduction in colon cancer is because of the miserable failure at diagnostics I saw while recovering from the intestinal transplant. Patient were given a Ileostomy weekly. The ileostomy uses the same endoscope as a colonoscopy. The only difference is that it is inserted into the patients stoma (which is a piece of intestines left protruding through the abdominal wall), rather than the anus. Because it is inserted into a stoma, it is painless, so we were not sedated,

      A colonoscopy is so painful that the patient must be heavily sedated, often times rendered unconscious. This ileostomy was supposed to help determine whether the patient was in organ rejection or not and unlike most colonoscopies, they used a much more powerful endoscope, which had a zoom lens, so they could magnify the villi hundreds of times.

      On two different occasions, I was told that the doctors thought it looked like my organ was in rejection. In both cases, the biopsy came back negative. Two other woman patients I knew were told that the scope visual showed that their intestines were doing just fine. In both cases the biopsies came back positive for severe organ rejection. These were hardly harmless mistakes.

      In the cases of the woman, they received delayed treatment for the rejection, which nearly cost them their life and my case was even worse. Because the biopsies take 48 hours to return, the doctors were so sure that they were seeing it right, they began treatments with very powerful immunosuppressant drugs (chemotherapy drugs, actually). As a result they killed back a percentage of my bone marrow and cripple my bodies ability to produce white blood cells.

      As a result of this, I went septic, crashed and nearly died. I was in a coma for 2 weeks and my right lung was perforated in the rush to put me on a respirator, because I stopped breathing. So, you can see that it is important to get this diagnosis right, far more important than a cancer screening, yet the doctors were seemingly always wrong. This proves to me that the scope is ineffective.

      These were higher trained doctors (intestinal transplant surgeons) than your average gastroenterologist and were using a much more powerful endoscope than those typically used in colonoscopies and still failed to make a proper diagnosis based on their visual findings. These were also transplant patients, who often die from organ rejection, so these doctors were being far more cautious than someone performing a standard cancer screening would.

      I have one more story to tell. Last year, while having a routine colonoscopy, one of the woman patients had her colon perforated. She complained of severe abdominal pain and two more colonoscopies were performed — both came back with a clean bill of health. The doctors claimed they could see nothing wrong, even though she had a gaping hole in her bowel. She finally began to crash and went critical. She was rushed into surgery, where it was found that the resulting peritonitis from the perforation had caused all of her bowels to die and become necrotic. All of her bowels (small and large) were removed and she had to undergo a second transplant earlier this year (she survived and is doing well).

      This endoscope cannot find 25 feet of necrotic (dead) bowel, yet I am to believe that they can spot a tumor smaller than a grain of rice (which is how small a malignant tumor would have to be found to give any advantage)? I’m sorry. I have seen nothing but one failure after the next by endoscopic procedures to diagnose even major problems. Problems that should have been far easier to see than a tiny tumor would be.

      There is no way in this world that colonoscopies have reduce colorectal cancer by 70% or even 7%, I would be surprised if they can achieve a .07% reduction in colorectal cancer based on the diagnostic failures I have seen. I’m sure the publication seemed to be saying that, but it had to be some slight-of-hand talking about risk factors. Whenever you read the term “risk” in one of these publications, ignore it. It means nothing. Risk factors can be completely made up or based on hunches.

      • Philippa
        January 6, 2015 | 8:36 am

        You are absolutely right, Wolverine, and thanks for your deconstruction of the maths and the ‘risk factors’ . In fact, the article demonstrates why you shouldn’t have a colonoscopy. “Although colonoscopy is widely used as a screening test for colon cancer, there is little research that proves it is effective in reducing colon cancer deaths, according to the study authors.”
        I should have included that in last post.
        Also this huge hint from the authors “”Let me just say there are other factors beyond the evidence that are driving the use of colonoscopy in the U.S.,” said Doubeni. “No other country uses colonoscopy for screening purposes as much as the United States, although Germany comes close,” he noted.

        And this, to cap it off, “Dr. David Bernstein, a gastroenterologist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., said the [2013] study had a critical design flaw. “Making assumptions that any cancers that were found would have been seen 10 years prior doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It doesn’t prove that these cancers didn’t occur two years ago.”

        So..smoke and mirrors as you say. A misleading headline (Colonoscopy May Cut Advanced Cancer Risk by 70%), but a text full of reasons why you shouldn’t have the procedure. I do hope your health is improving. You are doing a wonderful service for those like myself who felt like they were being pushed into an unnecessary procedure.

        • Wolverine
          January 6, 2015 | 3:36 pm

          Philippa, thank you for that information. It seems that so many studies that I read have flaws which defy any rule of real science. It makes you wonder if these flaws are accidental or by-design. Modern scientist love to jump to erroneous conclusions, completely ignoring the first rule of science — “association does not prove causation”. In all modern studies, it seems that anything associated with a disease must cause it.

          I had a feeling it was talking about their fabricated “risk factors”. It’s really funny that you mention that the article went on to admit that even with these made-up risk factor reductions, the procedure has still not proven to be worth the risk.

          They love to write of the cancer risk factors, but fail to mention the real risks of being killed or injured by this useless procedure. It’s not like cancers have a large flashing neon sign over them, they are very hard to spot in early stages (stages that would give an advantage).

          Most people look at their own skin many hours in a week and still melanomas go undetected until it is too late, yet they believe that some doctor can spend five or seven minutes inside their colon, looking through a tiny port of a scope and detect a malignant cancer?

          As soon as we see the word “risk” associated with a study result, we should know to ignore it. If they actually had a reduction in the incident of a disease, they would just report it, not how they reduced a risk factor. Truth is, most of these diseases (heart disease, diabetes, IBS and all forms of cancers) have been on the rise for many years, but hey, who cares, they have found a million ways to reduce the risk factors, even if more people are dying from the diseases.

          When it comes to injuries, they love to simply use the word “rare”. That’s just a subjective term and means nothing. What is rare? Well, I don’t consider 5 in 1,000 to be a rare event (that is the rate of colonoscopy injuries). Does anyone consider car accidents to be a rare event in the US? No. Yet, every 5 in 1,000 people who drive today will not be in an accident — it is far less common than that.

          If every 5 in 1,000 people who drove had an accident, our roads would be littered with wrecks and no one would drive. Now, what if they told you that 1 in every 5 of those wrecks would be a serious life-threatening crash — would you drive? Well, the national statistics on colonoscopies is that 1 in 1,000 will result in a perforation, which is a very serious, life-threatening injury. No one would want to drive a car if these were the statistics, yet they line up for colonoscopies, because the doctors consider those numbers to be classified as “rare”.

          Thank you for your thoughts. I have been doing pretty well. I have ups and downs and most recently have had some problems (a chronic low-grade fever I can’t seem to shake). I won’t complain though. The only other surviving member of the intestinal transplant recipients at Jackson in 2010 is in critical condition and she may have to undergo a second intestinal transplant in the months ahead. There were 7 of us to start and only her and I remain. I am really hoping that she can turn around in the next weeks, but she has been hospitalized for the last 4 months and her bowels have shut down from chronic rejection.

          This is where doctors kind of piss me off. Her bowels are no longer working (she is being fed intravenously by TPN) and her health is failing because they are ischemic and need to be removed, but the doctors say she wouldn’t survive the surgery to remove them. Yet, they keep saying they will give her a second transplant in February. What makes them think she can survive that if they think she can’t survive the removal?

          It seems to me her only chance would be to remove the ischemic bowels, so she could then get stronger and have a chance of surviving the other transplant. Her immune system is constantly attacking that other bowel, so she will never get stronger as long as they’re inside her! Doctors can make no sense sometimes. Thanks again to you Philippa and best wishes to you this new year.

  48. Jim
    January 8, 2015 | 8:16 am

    Hello Wolverine,I’m keeping you and all of people in my prayers. I just turned 50 and for the past 2 yrs, my doctor has reminded every visit,that I need to get a colonostemy when I turned 50.I am obese and have controlled high blood pressure,severe arthritis and ven ous insuffiency in both legs.I see him every 3or4 months for a follow up and have blood work done every 6or7 months.My blood work is fine. Only minor concern,is my good cholesterol is a little low.I don’t have any blood in my stool or any pains in my lower area, so I,m trying to figure out why this test is necessary? I have no history of cancer in my family,yet my doctor almost nags me about this procedure. Your opinion please?

    • Donna Marie (ND, CNC)
      January 9, 2015 | 2:00 pm

      Jim,
      Your doctor should tell you to change your diet and exercise. Forget about the colonoscopy and the cholesterol. A colonoscopy is risky and cures nothing. Most polyps are benign. Cholesterol is needed for the brain and for hormones to synthesize. There is no bad cholesterol. Statin drugs will cause muscle damage, memory loss, and loss of libido. Sounds good? If you are obese and have arthritis, your body is full of inflammation. That is your problem. Cholesterol comes to the rescue to protect arteries from inflammation. To counter inflammation, you need to go on a low-carb, low-gluten diet, low dairy (except plain yogurt and butter). Eat all you want of eggs, poultry, fish, nuts, seeds, plain yogurt, lots of vegetables, fruits (whole, not jams or juices), and good fats like olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and butter. Stay away from processed foods, junk foods, vegetable oils, sugar, artificial sweeteners, red meats (unless wild game or grass fed), and modern wheat. Have no more than 2 servings of grain or grain products per day made from brown rice (rinse well before using), quinoa, spelt wheat, or oats. Drink water or tea mostly. One cup or two cups of coffee a day is fine. Walk every day for at least 30 minutes. Toxins store in fat so when very overweight people start losing weight, they may feel worse at first before they feel better due to toxins leaving fatty areas. If you do, just take vitamin C every few hours and drink plenty of water to flush them out faster. You will be a new person in no time. Good luck!

      • Wolverine
        January 9, 2015 | 8:59 pm

        Thank you for your reply to Jim. You pretty much said everything that I would have said. Sometimes it’s like banging your head on a concrete wall, because so many billions have been spent to convince everyone that high cholesterol causes heart disease. Since the brainwashing starts from the time we’re born, it can be nearly impossible to get people to ignore their cholesterol numbers and focus on reduction of inflammation. Thanks again Donna.

        • Donna Marie (ND, CNC)
          January 12, 2015 | 8:23 pm

          You are very welcome. I understand the frustration. Unfortunately, my father died from eating margarine and vegetable oil diet. He had a total cholesterol of 170 when he died of a massive heart attack at age 61. Although, there have been studies proving that there is no correlation, I still see people on talk shows selling low-fat diets.

          • Wolverine
            January 24, 2015 | 4:48 pm

            Unfortunately my father is going through all that now. He had a heart attack over 10 years ago and of course, they began to drive his cholesterol lower and lower. I could never convince him that was the wrong answer. Hell, I could never convince him that there was no such thing as good and bad cholesterol — you know, that evil cholesterol that your body makes to get you when you’ve been bad? I just can’t convince people that the good cop, bad cop shit was some marketing campaign of the drug companies, cooked up on Madison Avenue somewhere. Cholesterol is cholesterol. LDLs and HDLs are the proteins which carry cholesterol because it is a fat and insoluble in water (which blood is mostly water).

            Both proteins have their role and neither is good or bad. I could never convince my dad that very little of his serum cholesterol came from his diet, which is why it took medication for the doctors to get his cholesterol that low — his liver makes most of his cholesterol and every cell in the body can make cholesterol if it has to because cholesterol is that important! Our brain and nervous system is made from it and 90% of the hormones in our body are made from cholesterol — without it, we die! Shit, most doctors do not understand it. My father claims that one of his heart doctors wanted him to give up meat and told him that vegetarians have no cholesterol in their blood…. what? He may have misquoted the doctors, but I have heard crap more stupid and scientifically wrong come from doctors.

            I attempted to explain to him that the statins block the pathway for the manufacturing of cholesterol in his liver. It also inadvertently blocks the production of CoEnzyme Q10, which uses the same pathway and is necessary for muscle health — hey, isn’t the heart a muscle? This is why people on statins often suffer muscle pain. Here is the reason the low-fat crap will die a slow death: Cholesterol lowering drugs account for more than 30 billion dollars per year for the drug companies — outselling all other drugs, COMBINED!! This goes far beyond just greed.

            If the truth about cholesterol became common knowledge, everyone would stop taking statin drugs and the profit to the drug companies would drop more than 50%! How fast do you think people would dump their stocks if they suddenly began to be worth half of what they were yesterday? Think of it. We are talking a major meltdown of the US economy. The ripple effect would hit the insurance companies and all of the communication companies who rely on drug companies for more than half their advertising revenues. There is no telling just how devastating that could be, so there is every reason in the world for Wall Street and the US government to continue the lie that cholesterol causes heart disease and diabetes.

            It all stemmed from bad research started by Ancel Keys in the 1950s and quickly followed by other irresponsible scientists. Problem is, by the time better scientist had time to really examine the data and find the flaws, our entire economy was built on it. I also get worried when I see all these new grocery products being targeted toward diabetics. I think the first company was called Glucerna. Their products now fill an entire isle in the grocery store and are growing. How many companies will follow suit? There will be little motivation to cure any disease which has such a market built around it. I see this crap and its frightening.

            Anyway, I don’t think we will see this fat hysteria go anywhere in the near future. It’s here to stay for a long time — indefinitely if TPTB have their way. I think the only thing we can do is educate ourselves and loved ones and whoever we can reach on the internet. Of course that is limited to those who are actually seeking answers and willing to accept the truth that the mainstream has lead and continues to lie. That’s not an easy thing to convince most people. I think they have to be more intelligent that the average, but that’s really the only people who would find and read my site anyway — all you intelligent people out there. I’m glad to know you’re still out there and everyone isn’t brainwashed. I think that’s why I do this. To reassure myself there is still independent thinking people in the world. Thanks all you guys for restoring my faith.

    • Wolverine
      January 9, 2015 | 10:08 pm

      Hi JIm. Well, of course my opinion on the colonoscopy is always not to have one. Doctors will always push patients over 50 to get the procedure for the same reason they place everyone with cholesterol over 100 on statin drugs — because it is what’s being taught and pushed by the AMA. I am living proof of the extreme danger of colonoscopies. They are far more dangerous than anyone is told.

      I saw many injuries and even 2 deaths from endoscopic procedures. All intestinal transplant patients were required to have ileostomies (same as a colonoscopy, except the endoscope is insured through a stoma) weekly for the first year following the transplants. Because of the higher frequency of the procedure on each patient, we were able to get a better sampling of the injury rates on a small group of people and they were very high.

      These procedures were being performed by very highly skilled transplant surgeons (far more experience in surgical procedures than the average gastroenterologist) and yet the injury rates were still very high. Just last year, a woman who had been successfully out from her transplant since 2008 was perforated by a routine colonoscopy and lost all of her transplanted bowels as a result. She had to undergo a second transplant earlier this year, all because of a bad endoscopic procedure, even though she was healthy and fine. She nearly died.

      The worst part is, she was given 2 colonoscopies after she began complaining of abdominal pains following the first. Both of the colonoscopies failed to find the perforation. Even worse, the colonoscopies came back clean, even though she had over 20 feet of necrotic bowels. If a colonoscopy cannot diagnose 20 feet of dead bowels, how can anyone believe it can find a small tumor?

      People who have regular colonoscopies do not have a lower rate of colorectal cancer in any clinical study to date. In fact, they have about the same rate as those who have no colonoscopies. It is a dangerous, yet useless procedure — other than making a lot of money for gastroenterologist. It is their main cash cow (and why they typically perform 20-30 per day, rushing the procedure and elevating injury rates).

      If you read through these comments, you will see that there are many who have written here about their family member who was killed by a colonoscopy. People who were perfectly healthy, yet killed by a routine procedure. Based on my studies, there is really nothing to gain, but a lot to lose getting this procedure. I get about 5 emails per every comment concerning deaths by colonoscopy. That’s one of the difficult things about publishing this blog.

      I agree with Donna on the cholesterol issue. Many years ago, a scientist named Nikolai N. Anichkov (1885–1964) discovered that cholesterol was present in the plaque caused by atherosclerosis. He erroneously jumped to the conclusion that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease. He violated the first rule of science — association does not prove causation. This would be like blaming firefighters for starting all fires, because every time you see a large fire, there are firefighters present. It would be similar to blaming white blood cells for fever, because whenever someone has a fever, there are always more white blood cells in the blood.

      This theory was laughed at for many years, even after Ancel Keys produced his 6 country study, where he showed 6 different countries and a trend line which seemed to show that the higher the fat consumption, the higher the rate of heart disease. Problem is, Keys had reliable data for 22 countries and he conveniently ignored all but the 6 which would support his theory. When the other countries were added in, the trend line disappeared. Keys theory was ignored, even by the American Heart Association, until the mid 1960s, when Keys became a board member of the AHA and soon after, they began to support his bogus theory.

      Now we come to today. Following Keys theory, the drug companies created statin drugs, which could cripple the liver’s ability to make cholesterol (this was the only way to get the cholesterol well below what the body would allow). By the year 2000, statin drugs accounted for about half of the gross income for the drug companies, outselling all other drugs combined. This creates a clear motive to keep the lie going, even though much modern research has proven the cholesterol theory to be false. If this information became the norm, the drug company’s profits would be suddenly cut in half. How fast would people be dumping their stock if that happened? Overnight. This is why I believe the government will not let that happen. Nearly all the drug companies would fold when their stocks crashed.

      I agree with Donna. Diet is your best option. Forget the exercise for now. I hate when they begin to push heavy exercise to obese people. Exercise is about 1/10th as effective as diet in obese people and the leading cause of injury among obese people. I know obese people who have lost the largest amount of weight by diet alone, then it not only becomes safer to exercise, but most people feel more energetic and want to exercise more once they are thin. Certainly you need to get up and move, but not hours on a treadmill, running or jumping around. I always say to concentrate on the diet first, because it is hard to change eating habits people have had most of their life.

      I always suggest a low-carb diet. Not only is it healthier, it works very fast without starving the person. You can eat all you want, just dump out all the heavy starches. Bread, cakes, pasta, potatoes and cereals are all sugar. Starch is nothing but long strands of glucose. Fuck all this crap about complex carbohydrates — the minute they touch your spit, which is loaded with an enzyme called amylase, these chains are broken down to pure glucose and gush straight into the bloodstream.

      High blood sugar is toxic and the body must produce a lot of insulin to bring it back to a safe level. High blood sugar causes nerve damage (which is why diabetics suffer blindness and loss of limbs), so the pancreas must bring it back into check. Insulin works by trapping all fat into the fat cells, thereby making the body first burn all the sugar in the blood. Continually eating sugar keeps insulin level high all the time, which continues to trap more and more fat into fat cells. The biggest problem is that over time, a person’s cells become resistant to insulin, so the body must produce more and more to make the cells respond. This is why it becomes hard to lose the weight.

      Once the cells become completely resistant to insulin, you have type 2 diabetes. At that point, the body can no longer lower blood sugar and it becomes toxic. This sugar damages arteries and this is where heart disease starts and why diabetics have a higher rate of HD. You need to fix your cells first by starving the blood of sugar and making it burn the fat. Once the cells begin to once again respond to insulin, the weight will fall off pretty fast.

      One of the wives of another transplant patient had gained a lot of weight while her husband was in the hospital. Unfortunately, her husband did not make it, but we stayed friends with her. She had become obese while her husband was sick, but when we met her about 7 months later, she had lost over 60 pounds! She told us that she went on a low carb diet. I have known many other people who have lost a lot of weight on that diet and kept it off. One fellow I know lost 79 pounds going low carb and has kept that off for the last 17 years. This is the most sustainable diet I have seen, because it does not count calories, nor make you starve. You can eat all the bacon or steak that you can stand.

      Remember, no bread, pasta or cereal. That crap about “hearthealthywholegrains” is complete Madison Avenue bullshit! Human beings never ate grains for 99% of our existence (meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts). There is absolutely nothing special in grains that you need, but there are a lot of toxins in grains which you do not need. These are the plants defense of it’s young. When you eat grains, you are eating the offspring of the plant and like any other living thing, it will defend it’s babies from predators. For insects, the death is quick, but for humans, it is a slow degradation of our health. Dump the grains, especially wheat.

      Many people fear the low-carb diet because it allows a lot of saturated fat and they just cannot get over the myth that saturated fat causes HD. It was the transfat, which the doctors and government told everyone to eat beginning in the 1970s, which started the escalating rates of heart disease. People in the 1950s ate plenty of saturated fat and had far less heart disease. The doctors were wrong about the transfat, what makes anyone think they’re right now about canola oil and other man-made crap which has not been around long enough to make the health claims they are making? (canola is a man-made hybrid of a poisonous plant called “rapeseed”. It was bred to lower the level of the toxin to a degree the FDA found acceptable — do you trust the FDA?)

      I hope that you can find a good diet that works for you, because it sounds as if you are very healthy otherwise. If I could make a suggestion, I would say to visit Tom Naughton’s site and watch his movie “Fathead”, if you already haven’t. It’s a great movie with a lot of good information, but also some good humor. I don’t agree with everything in his film, but most of it is spot on. His website is here:

      http://www.fathead-movie.com

      For really good dietary information, I would also recommend Dr. William Davis’ site and his awesome book “Wheat belly”:

      http://www.wheatbellyblog.com

      I hope you will keep me appraised of your progress — I love success stories!

      • Philippa
        January 10, 2015 | 11:02 am

        Jim,
        I heartily endorse the above information, and once again, offer you Wolverine, my complete support because I know you are reading every day (and absorbing psychically) the health issues and even deaths, of others. Know that people on this blog deeply appreciate your efforts.
        Jim, I suffered for a year of really bad stomach pains, acid reflux that burned up from my stomach to the left side of my neck every day. I was also overweight.
        I went on the no grains etc diet as mentioned by Wolverine and Donna Marie. It took a year to reset my digestion but I am feeling so much better and I am now down to my ideal weight of 145 lbs.
        Please read the discussion about the 2013 study above which recommends that you only need a fecal test if you don’t want the colonoscopy.
        A friend of mine just went on statins…grrr. Thanks Wolverine, for the information and research about statins that I will convey to her.

        • Wolverine
          January 10, 2015 | 3:47 pm

          Thanks you Philippa. Congratulations on your weight loss and the resulting health improvements. As I said, I love success stories! I have known many people to lose weight on other diets, only to gain it all back and sometimes more, because the diet was not sustainable. Any diet that cuts the amount of calories one can consume, will not be sustainable in the long run. Somewhere, the person’s body will end up deficient in some nutrients and drive them back to eating everything in sight.

          Everyone I know, who has lost considerable weight and kept it off, did so on some form of a carb restrictive diet (South Beach, Atkins or Paleo). I prefer a diet more like the Paleo, because of the abstinence of grains. Grains may have been necessary at the dawn of civilization, because they lacked refrigeration, so grains were the only way to store mass quantities of calories. I found it interesting that all the modern plagues (diabetes, heart disease, cancer) are called the diseases of civilization, because they are not found in the skeletons of hunter/gatherers, but seem to show up in any civilizations who had grains at the base of their diet.

          I wrote more about this in my article “Are Whole-Healthy_Grains” Defenseless: (http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/3432). Cutting the high sugar and starch from the diet became a fact to me once the doctors told me that the high sugar from the TPN would destroy my arteries within 18 months. No wonder heart disease is our number 1 killer. As I wrote in my article “The Effects Of Sugar On The Arteries” (http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/1377), the doctors once had to remove my port because it had been infected. During the days before they could surgically implant a new one, I was partially fed by a peripheral IV in the arm.

          Even though the sugar content of the PPN they were infusing in place of the TPN was significantly lower, it burnt like hell going into the vein and completely destroyed the vein in my arm within hours. High blood sugar is extremely caustic to our veins and arteries and it is the resulting damage caused to the arterial wall which allows cholesterol, white blood cells and calcium to become trapped behind the wall. Otherwise, cholesterol could not stick to the artery wall.

          The two myths about HD that bug me the most is when doctors suggest that cholesterol simply sticks to arteries because it is too high (cholesterol is not a sticky compound, it is a fat, therefore waxy and slick. It must get trapped behind the artery wall to start atherosclerosis, not stick to the surface) and this whole bullshit about “good” and “bad” cholesterol. Our liver makes cholesterol and it would’t make something that was intended to kill us. There is only one kind of cholesterol! The HDL and LDLs are proteins that carry the cholesterol because it is a fat and insoluble in water (our blood is water based). Good and bad cholesterol is some sort of a marketing scam cooked up by the drug companies. There is no scientific proof of nothing like that. Thanks again Philippa and I hope that your health continues to improve on your diet.

  49. Donna Marie (ND, CNC)
    January 12, 2015 | 8:55 pm

    Wolverine,
    Thanks for all your information. My doctor wanted me to get a colonoscopy because I am at that recommended age. I called to make an appointment. I asked how much it would cost because I did not have great insurance. They told me $2,000. I didn’t make the appointment because of the cost. A couple of months later, I decided to do some research. I came across your blog. Now I am glad I did not go and I will never go get a colonoscopy. My sister got one because her mother in law died from colon cancer and it scared her. But her mother-in-law was 84, smoked for over 60 years and ate poorly. She was not over weight but had poor health. My sister thinks that her mother-in-law would still be alive today if she had gotten one early enough. Maybe, but most likely not. She actually lived to a decent age considering how poorly she took care of herself.
    Even though people do not need grains to live or for good health, many people have difficulty eliminating them completely. That’s why I recommend brown rice, quinoa, oats, and spelt but no more than 2 servings per day. I figure it is better to eat some quality carbs than go back to modern wheat because you failed. Modern wheat is very addicting because of the abnormally high gluten. Of course, no grains are best.
    I had a friend tell me recently that he is in very good health. i asked him if he was taking any prescription drugs. He takes high blood pressure and statin drugs. I told him he is not in good health if he is taking those drugs. Both those conditions can be corrected with diet. Funny how the doctors can convince someone because they are a certain age that “only” taking a couple of drugs is normal and healthy. Ugh! I did notice he is getting “man boobs” and is not as toned as he used to be. He probably thinks this has to do with age but what most men don’t realized is that by statins significantly lower hormone synthesis in the body because cholesterol is needed for synthesizing hormones. Cholesterol is needed for the brain. I wonder how many men would take statins if their doctor told them that they will reduce their libido, give them boobs, cause memory problems (eventually), and give them possible muscle damage. And what’s is worse, statins are now recommended for people 40 and over to prevent high cholesterol and reduce inflammation. They do reduce inflammation but there are safer ways such as we mentioned above with diet. Also taking supplements like fish oil and turmeric will reduce inflammation with any risk. Take care.

    • Wolverine
      January 24, 2015 | 4:16 pm

      Thanks Donna. You’re right, “most likely not” is the correct answer. In fact, at her age, chances are high that she would never survive an injury like I sustained (especially since I was 48 and nearly died several times). Not sure why everyone is so sure that these things would have been caught early enough to make a difference. I guess most people do not understand just how tiny these malignant tumors have to be found to lend any advantage to surviving them.

      Skin cancer still kills more people than colon cancer, yet skin is visible without the aid of any device and is not covered in a thick layer of mucus, as the colon is. Doctors can easily examine the skin, yet still so many melanomas go undiagnosed until it is too late. Assuming that the doctor will find any colon cancer in early stages is to believe that a doctor can spot a malignant cancer from across the room. Many doctors can stare right at a melanoma, scratch their heads and say, “it does look a little dark, but it could be just a mole” — of course that is up until it begins to bleed, but by then it is too late.

      Yet somehow, everyone is convinced that these same doctors can look through the tiny port of a scope, which has a very narrow view, and and make a clear determination between a malignant tumor and any of a thousand other harmless anomalies that can exist within the human body. Just because something looks strange and is removed from the body does not mean that it was in any way a threat.

      As I have said a hundred times now in replies, last year the transplant surgeons, who are far more skilled at surgical procedures and spotting anomalies than your average gastroenterologist (they only have about 20 more years of schooling), completely missed the fact that the patient’s bowels had died — every inch of them. Not with one colonoscopy, but with two. They also missed the gaping hole which had been tore into her colon from the first colonoscopy with the two colonoscopies which followed and gave the patient a clean bill of health.

      To make matters worse, they were using a far more expensive endoscope than the common endoscope used in colonoscopies and still failed to diagnose an ailment far more apparent than a tumor (Their endoscope has a microscopic zoom lens on it). If a colonoscopy cannot diagnose 20 feet of dead bowels, what good is it? I cannot see how her mother-in-law could have faired any better had she underwent 10 colonoscopies.

      Yes, cholesterol is needed for the production of most of our hormones, which is also why so many people become depressed when their cholesterol is driven to unnatural levels with statins. Of course the doctors would rather place them on SSRIs than to take them off the statins and let their cholesterol return to normal. If your friend stays on the statins, he will most likely find he need antidepressants in the near future. Funny how one drug always leads to needing another. One reason it has taken me a while to reply is because my father’s doctors did just that. They have been driving his cholesterol down to unnatural levels for years. He became depressed, so they gave him Prozac and he started acting weird and speaking nonsense.

      They took him off the SSRI and last week he had a stroke while driving and ran off the road (luckily no one was injured). I have been visiting him all week and he makes no sense when he talks. We do not know how much of this cognitive loss is permanent, but one thing I do know, all these problems have been caused by the medications they have had him on since he had a heart attack about 10 years ago. I’ve been trying to warn him and even predicted everything that would happen, including the depression, but he is from a generation that trusts doctor with impunity.

      Besides that fact that the low cholesterol can cause man-boobs, many men today have also began to develop them because of the high estrogen content in processed foods, mainly because of the high amounts of unfermented soy filler used in everything. The average american is eating the equivalent of 5 birth control pills per day of soy isoflavones. It’s really sad. Just like all seeds (beans are seed, like grain), plant will defend their young and they do it with chemical warfare. Lectins are the favorite of most plants (a deadly poison used to make the chemical ricin in war), but the soybean developed a method of rendering their predators sterile. They let this generation feast on their young, because there will be no next generation if they continue to eat the soybeans. The plant mimics human estrogen and mimic it well. The estrogen used in birth control pills and menopausal medications are typically derived from soy. If you read ingredient lists on processed foods, everything is loaded with soy. That’s enough estrogen for men to grow breasts that would make Dolly Parton proud!

      Funny thing about the fish oil is that people only need so much of it today because they are consuming far too much n-6 fatty acids, mostly via vegetable oils. All vegetable oils (actually seed oils) are very high in linoleic acid, which is highly inflammatory. Todays doctors are recommending gallons of fish oil to balance the omega 3 fatty acids to the extremely high level of omega 6 fatty acids in our modern food. If people ate a diet leaner in omega 6 acids, they would not have the need for so much omega 3 supplementation. At the rate that cold water fish are being killed to meet the high demand for fish oil, most of these fish will be extinct within a 100 years.

      Their answer is to farm raise the fish, but it has been proven that the farm raised fish, which are grain, shifts their fatty acid production to more omega 6 FA. Same happened to cattle, sheep and goats. When ruminant animals are grass-fed, their meat yields a balance of omega 6 and 3 fatty acids. When people ate only grass finished red meat, no fish oil was necessary (or eggs from free range chickens or ducks, which are high in omega 3 FA, until they are grain fed and the eggs become more n-6 FA) Now that most cattle are grain fed, their meat yield is mostly omega 6 fatty acid and highly inflammatory. Since I own my own farm and grass feed my cattle and all my chickens free range, I do not have to worry about eating fish oil. If people still ate animal products that were raised naturally (grass fed, free range) and stopped eating vegetable oils, there would be no need for all the fish oil supplementation. This is why there was much less heart disease, cancer, diabetes and IBS 50 years ago.

      I feel sorry for most people because they are trying to do what’s right, but they are being lied to. Most people go straight for the salad bar, because they have been convinced that this is the healthiest option, but then they frown their sale in some franken-oil which is pretty much made via a similar process as motor oil (that is no joke either — not a lot of difference in the manufacturing). These oils are so inflammatory. Most all of the modern diseases of civilization begin with massive inflammation. Heart disease is from damage done to the arteries from inflammation, all of the calcium, cholesterol, WBCs and all other crap which gets caught behind the arterial wall and starts the clot. You could have cholesterol over 400 and never suffer atherosclerosis if there was not first inflammation.

  50. Laura
    January 22, 2015 | 8:38 am

    Wolverine, I googled to find if you’d posted in 2015, and I’m very glad to have found your latest writing. I’m also heartbroken at coco cabana’s situation and will be praying for her and her family. I appreciate your blog tremendously. It touches many nerves of my experiences and observations. Thank you!!

    • Wolverine
      January 24, 2015 | 5:17 pm

      Hey Laura, thanks for writing and taking the time to Google. I haven’t gone anywhere. I know that people get concerned about me when I don’t publish any new articles and rightfully so. I guess with my condition, anything can happen. No one knows better than me, because I have lost so many of the friends I made while recovering from the transplant. There is only one other survivor from the group of intestinal transplant recipients from Jackson Memorial Hospital Miami in 2010. The last death was just last year and the young woman slipped into a coma and died while waiting for a second organ after rejecting her original transplant. She left 3 small children and her husband behind. The children ranged from about 10 years to 4 years old. Very sad loss indeed.

      The saddest part of her story was that all her problems stemmed from a gastric by-pass surgery. That’s right, she wanted to lose weight the easy way and had a stomach by-pass. Don’t let any doctor tell you those are safe either, they aren’t. She had the by-pass because she had gained weight after having the kids.

      She later developed a blood clot which shut off the blood to most of her abdomen and all her organs beginning from the stomach to the large bowels died. Later, her liver would be destroyed by the soy lipid infusions while on TPN (I wrote about this in my article “The Truth About Soy”). She survived a 7 organ transplant and did very well for 3 years. I don’t know the full story on what happened to cause her to reject all of the organs after 3 years. I have received conflicting stories from her friends and family, so I guess I’ll never know the truth. She wasn’t in the best of mental health. She could never stop being hard on herself for having that damned by-pass.

      Unfortunately, the only other survivor is even a younger woman than the last and she too is in chronic organ rejection over then last 5 months and is in the ICU of Jackson Memorial right now. I have been keeping in touch with her via her mother, who is staying with her. It is an extremely sad story and she will probably be facing a second transplant in the next couple months. The doctors are not optimistic that she can survive the transplant, but I am trying to stay optimistic, I do not want to be the last survivor.

      At times I actually feel guilty, because I am doing so well. I had the bout with Multiple Myeloma last year, but right now it seems to be in complete remission. I just had the blood labs drawn earlier today, so we will see the result and hope that everything comes back negative. I will have to do these tests every 3 months for the rest of my life.

      I will promise all of my readers that I will have my wife post something on this blog if I am to die or end up in a coma or something. So, don’t worry if I am not posting anything new for a time. If my wife doesn’t post saying I am gone, then I am still alive and kicking. I don’t seem to die easy, that’s a fact.

      You’re right, Coco’s story is very, very sad. I don’t even know what to say when I read about these injustices and violation of civil rights. Thanks again for writing.

      • Philippa
        January 24, 2015 | 7:49 pm

        Wolverine, I believe you are alive because your mission to tell the truth is contributing to keeping you alive. So glad you re doing relatively okay, and fingers crossed for some good test results now and in the future.

  51. teresa
    February 4, 2015 | 12:31 am

    Hi, I came across your article and it answered a lot of questions for me. I lost my husband on Feb 24, 2014 while he was in the hospital. He went in for complications from pneumonia which he was being treated for but was having difficulty with breathing. When he arrived at the hospital they said his tests showed that he was starting to get septic, oh they did not use these words but being a nurse I knew what they were telling us. He had been on antibiotics before going to the hospital for some time and had not been running a fever, he had heart stents and was on Plavix and had been to his heart doctor just the day before. While in the hospital they started him on Lovenox and continued the Plavix. He had started to feel better and we were told that he would probably get to come home in a few days. His stomach was covered in bruises from the lovenox shots and he started to put a little blood thru his bowels. I had went home to rest and before I could get back to the hospital the next day they had taken him down to do a EDG on his stomach to see if they could see if he had a bleed, while I was on my way to the hospital they had called out daughter and got permission to do a colonoscopy, she was unsure what to do but she gave her permission, my husband never woke up. I did not even get to tell him I loved him before he went down to have the procedure. They did not stop or decrease his blood thinner to see if the bleeding cleared up and still had him on Plavix and Lovenox while doing the procedures. I had 5 different doctors around me when they told me that he had coded and probably would not come out of it, for the past year I have felt like something went wrong that should not have but I will never know but it haunts me everyday. I miss my husband so much. His death certificate stated that he died from cardiogenic shock. If you are in the hospital ask questions and demand that they go over everything with you no matter how small or how trivial they think it may be that is what they are there for. Thank you for listening to me

    • Wolverine
      February 5, 2015 | 10:11 am

      Oh my God Teresa, your story breaks my heart. This, in particular, hits too close to home. I will never forget a time weeks after my transplant when I went septic while having no immune system. In that condition I failed very quickly and went into shock within hours. I arrived at the ER with a blood pressure of 35/28 and doctors were giving me little to no chance for survival.

      One of the nurses attending me said that they were going to have to knock me out to place me on a respirator, because I could no longer breathe on my own. She said that before they did, they would send in my wife, so I could say goodbye — it was then that I was sure I was going to die.

      I was so weak, I was unable to lift my hand to touch my wife’s hand, but she claims that she could see my lips beneath the oxygen mask form the words. “I love you”. Needless to say, I didn’t die, but had I passed then, which I thought for sure I was gone, I would have at least been able to tell my wife I loved her one more time. This is why your story strikes me very hard, because you were not afforded that chance.

      I have received other sad stories where a colonoscopy claim the life of a loved one so unexpectedly, that they hadn’t the chance to say goodbye to those they loved so much. I am sure that your husband knows how much you loved him and how much you miss him. I know this, because the only thing I could think about, while I laid dying, was how hard it was going to be on my wife, since her and I are the best of friends.

      One young woman had recently left a comment here about how she drove her mother to her colonoscopy appointment and she was joking and laughing with her mother on the way to the clinic. She thought it would only be an hour or so, but she left without her mother, because she died on the table, much like your husband. This happens far more often than doctors would have us believe.

      I am so sorry… I cannot imagine the great loss that you feel. The best I can relate is how broken my wife was when the doctor told her I would never come out of the coma and if I did, I would be severely brain damaged.

      I can understand your frustration with the cause that the doctor put down on the official paperwork. This is how they keep the real number of deaths and injuries from colonoscopies secret. My loss of bowels was never officially reported as being the result of a colonoscopy injury, even though it clearly was. Several other transplant patients I knew who were injured by the endoscopes were not reported as such.

      I thank you so much for sharing your story. I am so thankful for everyone who is willing to share their story, so others can read these comments and see just how frequently people are injured or killed by this ill-advised procedure. My heart and prayers go out to you and your family for the great loss that you have suffered at the hands of this modern medical system.

  52. Linda Frazzetto
    February 21, 2015 | 11:19 am

    Hello Wolverine,

    I am 65 and have had two colonoscopies, three years apart. On the first one I was found to have three sessile polyps which were removed. The second colonoscopy was performed 9/14 at which time two sessile polyps were found and removed (4 mm and 3 mm).

    My questions are relative to the next colonoscopy that is due in five more years (or earlier due to prior history), if I decided to do so.

    I live in Europe but have been coming back to the States for these procedures. Now with the ‘superbug’ scare there due to inadequately cleaned scopes, I doubt I will be travelling back for any procedures!
    You mentioned that European countries are required to use sheaths and disposable tips on the scopes to perform colonoscopies. Can you tell me what countries are required to do so? (I live in Croatia which is a member of the European Union but I don’t know if they abide by the guidelines you mentioned relative to Europe that you mention.)

    Also, considering that I am pretty prone to developing precancerous sessile polyps, is a colonoscopy something I should or should not consider doing in future? (If I were polyp free, I wouldn’t even consider having another colonoscopy.)

    Would a barium enema be an alternative and would it expose a 3 mm polyp and if so, then what as far as getting it removed?

    Are there any statistics as to how many of these sessile polyps turn cancerous given sufficient time and how much time before they would turn cancerous if they are prone to do so?

    Sorry for the barrage of questions but I know you have done your homework on what I am asking about.

    I really want to thank you for your most informative site. You provide a great service to your readership. I hope that you will be blessed with a better than expected quality and quantity of life in the years to come. God bless you and watch over you! With Him all things are possible!

  53. Judy
    March 25, 2015 | 1:05 pm

    Thank you, I was scheduled to have one this Friday coming and came accross this blog, I have cancelled the invasive thing and thank my lucky stars I found you first. My husband agrees with me not to have this done. I am so sorry for everyone’s losses and the pain and agony you have endured. All the best to all of you and thank you so much for your input to this BLOG.
    Judy

    • Wolverine
      March 26, 2015 | 8:25 pm

      You will at least have some more time to research and think about it. The odd thing is, we all think about the risks, but we also take as fact that the procedure works as advertised, when in fact there is little to no evidence to prove that it does.

      I have many more stories to tell and a lot more evidence I have cached in the last year which I hope I will be publishing real soon.

      Sorry I took a while to respond. My father has had several strokes recently and I have been spending a lot time with him in the hospital. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince my dad to dump the grains and carbs a few years back when he had a heart attack. Since the doctors gave him the opposite advice and drove his cholesterol down to inhuman levels, he is now paying the aweful price for their wrong information.

      Thank you for writing and for your kind words. I do hope you will continue to stay healthy and avoid the doctors as much as is possible. Though doctors can save your life when in trouble, they can just as quickly take your life, but even worse completely ruin you quality of life.

  54. JW
    April 3, 2015 | 4:52 am

    Hi, all! I’ve read this blog with great interest. Its been nearly 10 years and this incident I’m about to relay still greatly troubles me.

    My mother-in-law came back from a visit in another state. My husband and I weren’t with her but she was with other close family. She had been very ill over the weekend and was vomiting. They took her to the ER (after they drove two days home) and there were signs that she her liver was deteriorating (may have had Hep C long ago). So while they are waiting for “results” on tests, the doctors decide that a 75 year old women showing liver failure needed a colonoscopy. Within 24 hours she was running a fever and became ill. “Can’t imagine what the problem is” they say. C’mon she just had a medical procedure…anyone and I mean anyone with common sense would think…hey maybe a problem with the colonoscopy. 3 tests! and 3 Days before they find she had a perforated bowel. 3 days! Her kidneys began to fail and she goes on dialysis. “That should maker her better” they say. I wasn’t power of attorney. But when the doctors “meet” with the family and in so many words admit to the perforation, I want my cell phone calling the nearest attorney! Contrary to some, there are very good and compassionate attorneys. There are (and I can hear you all laughing with attorney jokes and I usually join in but I’ve seen some great attorneys) But I couldn’t fight a family that didn’t want to do anything legal. She eventually stopped the dialysis because there was absolutely nothing else hey could do. 4 weeks later she passed away. Negligence by the doctor? Negligence by the family who agreed that she should have the colonoscopy or at least lack of common sense> I’ll never get over the anxiety I have when I think about this incident. I internally scream with frustration. 10 years ago we had Google. I don’t “believe” everything on the internet just because it says so but I thank God every day we have the ability to do research. Years ago, the big push was tetanus shots. We went for basic med checks and we both come out with tetanus shots. What for? I was too old to be playing with rusty nails. But everyone was getting one. Then in became colonoscopies. I’m always asked–you’re over 50, did you have your test? Hey, that’s personal and I’m not an idiot. I will not have one until the Mayo Clinic completes their non-invasive approach for diagnosis. Sorta like a swab and put in the mail. Gives a new meaning to “going postal”. If you’ve reached this far, thank you for reading. For those that have had injuries and medical side effects, I can only say I’m sorry that you have gone through this in your life. I’m glad that your survived but not without pain or life altering effects. I know its not good to keep in anger but I can say I have for these nearly 10 years. $200,000 tuition spent on your doctor’s license and you can’t do a colonoscopy?? Recent news since some of the earlier posts have reports proving that can’t sterilize these tools.

    • Wolverine
      April 5, 2015 | 10:48 pm

      Hi JW. Thanks for writing and sharing your story. If you have read any of the other comments you can see just how many sad stories have been submitted by those who lost loved ones to this ill-advised procedure.

      The really irritating thing is how the endoscope was invented for the purpose of micro-surgeries, but someone decided it would be safe to use this device on perfectly healthy people for colon cancer screening. No studies were even done to prove that it would be effective or safe before it went into regular use, nor has any studies in the U.S. still ben performed (clinical studies, the only kind worth anything). We can now see that it far from safe and the question still remains as to whether it is effective.

      The only clinical study (the Telemark Polyp Study 1, an ongoing study in Finland) has not shown any evidence that it is effective at all in preventing colorectal cancer. In fact, the group who had regular colonoscopies have developed colon cancer at the same rate as the group who had none.

      These scopes cannot be sterilized, that is a fact which is freely admitted by those in the medical industry. They like to claim that it is okay because the colon is a dirty organ anyway. This excuse is not valid, especially in light of the new c.diff which has proven to be resistant to every class of antibiotic known. To get this c.diff has been a death sentence to all who have contracted it. Then there is HIV, Hepatitis A, B and C, AIDS and a whole host of superbugs which are created everyday in hospital and clinical environments.

      I am sorry to hear about your loss. I understand your frustration with the laws. Each patient must sign a legal waiver before they will perform a colonoscopy, so any law suit from damages is impossible. In my case, I wanted to seek damages for the 3 days that the doctors delayed before doing anything to find out what was wrong with me, but it is nearly impossible to prove for a fact that it was the endoscope which caused the injury, especially when they can delay, which causes other organs to die and become necrotic — I do believe they know this and it is the reason for the delay.

      Many other people I have talked to who were injured or knew someone killed by and endoscopic procedure has claimed that the doctors refused to believe that their pain was related to the procedure and delayed as long as possible. In most of these cases the patient died, which made it easy to bury the evidence. Even in cases like mine, where the patient survived, it was impossible to get an accurate pathology on the damaged organ because the delay was enough time for the organ to go necrotic, breakdown and even liquify.

      By the time they decided to take in in for surgery, all of my bowels had begun to liquify, which gave the doctors more reason to believe I would not survive. When the surgeon came out to speak to my wife, he told her I had less than a 20% chance of still being alive in the morning. I hope that my survival will allow me to be their worst nightmare and bring some national attention to the danger of this procedure.

      Thank you again for writing and I am very, very sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, most people injured in that way by this procedure do not survive.

      • JW
        April 6, 2015 | 12:15 am

        I’ve read every word of every post on your blog. I added my story not only to vent but also to keep the topic going since one of the earliest posts was in 2012. My posting in 2015 (for something nearly 10 years ago) prevents this thread and forum from being lost in a Google search. This is important. I always had a gut feeling about these colonoscopies and knew I’d never take one. Doctors with a blanket notice that everyone should have one and insurance paid. I’ve had mammograms and doubt I’ll have more in the future. My mom had one in 2013, age 75, came back just fine. 6 months later she had palpable tumors. Fast growing. I think it was a side effect of a certain blood pressure medication but it is something that can never, ever be proven. She nearly died from chemo, had surgery, and radiation and is better know. However, I believe a lot of our cancers will eventually be found to be virus related (and maybe some bacteria). If their treating some cancer with Polio, etc., I might not be too off base.

        I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means but I’ve worked with and for governmental agencies so I do have skepticism. Its amazing how many companies that owe their bottom line to shareholders and not to patients and victims.

        I became very ill in 2008. I was so sick I could barely walk and it went on for nearly 8 months. I was referred to a specialist and he was diagnosing me with Asthma. I had read about a doctor at the University of Wisconsin Madison who was working on studies that Asthma may, in some cases, be an underlying infection that never healed. He was treating patients with higher dosages of Zithromax (often known as a Z-Pak). I think my body was treating a regular 5 day regiment as an appetizer. The specialist was 45 minutes late to the appt, never apologized and never introduced himself. He sat down, crossed his leg and began to grill me why I though Zithromax makes me feel better. For starters, I could prove it worked with fever reduction that was keeping me out of the hospital (I never, ever register 98.6 so 103 was not so good for me), my breathing became better overnight and lastly, if he didn’t know what his counterparts in Madison, Wisc were working on, I told him I didn’t want him as my specialist, left and never went back. Did go back to my General Practitioner, told him what I wanted and I took it and in a few short weeks, I felt better. I no longer am listed as asthmatic nor is in in my chart as such.

        Again, I don’t believe everything on the internet, love snopes.com, but I do a lot of research on medical. Had I done so before I had a root canal, I would have had the tooth pulled. No more money down the drain root canals. They aren’t even guaranteed.

        Thank you so much for your response. People should read and learn. I don’t think doctors can always keep up on the new frontiers of research and medical procedures and medication. Not all is bad but give me a drug pre-1990 and I’ll try it.

        Just one link on Mayo’s non invasive procedure may eventually be more accurate than scopes Mayo isn’t the end all but a good place to start.

        http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/digestive-diseases/future-colorectal-cancer-screening

        • Wolverine
          April 8, 2015 | 3:25 pm

          Doctors cetrtainly do not keep up with the latest adancement, yet, most people are convinced that their doctor is on the cutting edge. I think that the majority of doctors think they do not have to learn any more once they get their diploma (or M.D.), that is excluding what they are taught by the drug companies and that is only because they are either paid to learn it or given free trips or plenty of gifts. Everything mot doctors know is striclty studies and nformation provided by the drug compnies or medical equipment manufacturers.

          To give you an example of just how far behind most doctors are; the first successful intestinal transplants wre acheived in the early 1990s. I was contacted by a fellow who is the second longest living survivor of an intestinal transplant and his was performed in 1992 (mind you, not many people survived them at that time). After I lost my intestines, I was transfered between three different hospitals and because of the complexity of my case, many different specialist were brought in (including 5 different gastroenterologist). There were probably more than 20 hospital doctors in total and not one of them had heard of an intestinal transplant.

          The few that had heard of them said they were still very experimental and no one really survived them long. When the hell was their last education? The 1970s? By that time (2010), the survival rates for intestinal transplants were better than 65% in the first year. Luckily for me, my wife did not believe any of them and contnued to research and it was not easy to find the information. It made me wonder just how many people who have lost their intestnes die without knowing there is an option? I do know there are a lot now, because i have been contacted by many through publishing this site and I met a few in hospitals.

          Without a transplant, most people who have lost more than 70% of there small bowels will die on TPN within 2-3 years. There are risks for sure, but wothout the transplant, I would have been dead 2 years after losing my intestines. I celebrated my 5th year anniversary last month, March 23rd. I do know that most people take their doctor’s word as gospel truth, without even getting a second opinion (my mother is this way). Hell, I had gotten 20 or 30 opinion from doctors and every one of them were wrong and I am a living testiment to the fact they were wrong. They said I had about 2 years before the sugar in the TPN destroyed all of the access arteries or the infused soy lipids completely destroyed my liver.

          People die every day becuase of the lack of knowledge the doctors have in their own field and from many more diseases than just short bowel syndrome. Our nation’s biggest killer, heart disease, is still a complete mystery to doctors who refuse to give up on a completely bogus theory that high cholesterol has anything to do with it. My fater is pretty much a vegetable right now because the doctors continued to drive his cholesterol lower and lower since he had a heart attack. Now he has had so many strokes he cannot remember his own name from one minute to the next. It’s really sad the damage that doctors cause, but they refuse to take responsibility for any of it.

          I never trusted doctors much and just like you, I do not believe things unless they have sufficient evidence to support them, but I caved into to relentless pressure from my wife and family and now I am a fucked up mess. I lived 48 years without doctors and was just fine until I went into the hospital for a simple blood transfusion. Never imagined this could happen.

  55. JW
    April 3, 2015 | 4:59 am

    Oh, and this information shows patients were infected 6 yeas ago. 6!!! I want to cry and wipe my eyes with their white lab coats but I bet those coats have super bugs on them too!

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-27/superbug-scopes-in-ucla-case-linked-to-florida-deaths-years-ago

    • Wolverine
      April 5, 2015 | 10:33 pm

      Thank you so much for the link to this article, though I am hardy surprised. I would dare to believe that the authorities at the FDA and CDC have known about this danger far longer than 6 years, that’s only what they can prove at this time.

      I have some more information even far more damning than this that I will be hopefully publishing very soon. In the last year, I have been contacted by two different industry insider informants. One of them is a nurse who trained and served in the armed forces and finished his career in private medicine and spent many years assisting on endoscopoic procedures. He has informed me that even with all my investigation has enlightened that the real situation is far worse than I can imagine. I still need to arrange the exchangment of this information and am a little frightened to see what it entails.

      The other whistleblower who contacted me works in the medical equipment sales and distribution industry and has provided proof that these endoscopes are outsourced to nations such as Korea and China for maintenance and cleaning where there is no oversite at all. The information he has provided me is quite shocking to say the least. Both of these people have agreed that this tool should have never been approved for use on human beings.

      It even more frightening when we see the length they will go to in order to cover up all information about the dangers. I still believe that the reason the doctors delayed so long in responding to my complaints of pain following the procedure (3 days) is because they have learned that they need to put as much time between the time of the procedure and the point at which the patient dies or crashes. It seems that, from a legal standpoint, the more time they can place between those two points, the more impossible it is to legally prove the endoscope was the cause.

      I do believe that they were willing to let me, and possibly even hoping, die in that time and they could bury any evidence. I just tricked them by surviving by some miracle. It is for that reason I have set my jaw to spend what time I have on this earth to warn others and try to shine the light of truth on this deadly procedure until the endoscope ends up on the junkpile of science with many other failed medical tools which have killed thousands.

      Thanks again for the link.

  56. JW
    April 6, 2015 | 12:25 am

    Its never what we believe but what we can prove. I agree that any delay of time is always against the patient because there is reasonable doubt due to the time lapse. (if a case ever went to trial).

    I’m so sorry that you had to go through this but you have a great purpose to bring this story and consequences up front and center.

    If a kitchen spatula made in 2 parts (rather than one) can be touted as harboring bacteria if not properly cleaned between the 2 sections, I can’ imagine a scope can ever be thoroughly sanitized. And one can easily understand that the cameras would be damaged by cleaning products or heat/steam. The only way the medical community will care is by lack of patients being tested because they are holding out on being scoped. Otherwise, its just another patient and another day.
    I do believe their are some great doctors and researchers making great improvements but we know that they going against mainstream and are shunned or ridiculed for their positions. I applaud those that continue to research beyond the inner box.

    Thank you, again, Wolverine for all your time and reading my comments.

    • Philippa
      April 6, 2015 | 1:21 am

      Horrifying. So glad that there are people out there brave enough to come forward. I hope that you have some form of institutional media or non profit support on your team, Wolverine.

      • Wolverine
        April 8, 2015 | 2:20 pm

        Thank you so much Phillipa. Unfortunately, I have had no support and seriously doubt I will since the main-stream media seems to want to avoid this issue or any stories which are the result of the damage done by colonoscopies. Not much of a surprise when you consider that the largest manufacturer of endoscopes (the device used in colonoscopies) is General Electric, who also owns NBC, all its affilates, including much of the radio and cable channels.

        It’s an extreme conflict of interest to have the entire media also owned by those who make the drugs and medical devices (whihc is why the news rarely reports any of the bad things about these products and services). Just think about how many drug commercials you might see while watching the news. They pretty much own the media completely.

        Thank you for writing and for you continued support. My efforts at all grass roots at this time and it is people like yourself helping me spread the word that is our only hope of shedding some light on this dangerous procedure.

        • Philippa
          April 8, 2015 | 2:40 pm

          Wolverine, you have done the research. I understand that the mainstream dominant media will not touch it with a bargepole. I speak as an activist in other areas, and getting a reporter interested perhaps the online media, such as Huffington Post, is the best strategy. Especially as you are so close emotionally to this issue, and still suffering physically, it may not be possible for you to ‘write the book’. I will be on the lookout myself to find reporters. This is a story waiting to happen.

          • Wolverine
            April 8, 2015 | 3:46 pm

            I definitely have a good enough story. I begn writing a book about what I went through a couple of years ago and I was up to over 280 pages and was just getting to the transplant. Those pages just covered every major medical crash that happened to me in the 6 months following the loss of my small and large intestines.

            They had only removed all but 5 feet of small bowel in the first surgery, because they didn’t know transplants were possible and thought it would be best to leave me a few feet, even though those bowels were necrotic. Leaving 5 feet of necrotic bowels inside nearly killed me, so 5 days later I had to be opened up again and everything but 8 inches of small intestines were removed. At that point, I was in septic shock and having seizures. None of the doctors believed I could live on that small of an amount of bowel for very long, but I lasted 6 months, long enough to get the transplant.

            I actually had some contacts with several reporters. I used to publish a political satire website (Flash animated cartoons) back around 1999-2002 (until the crash of the dot coms wiped out the banner revenues and I could no longer make money at it) and in fact was selected by MSNBC.com as the best satire on the year 2000 election debacle (recounts and Butterfly Ballots). I had become very close with Lisa Napoli, who was a repoter for MSNBC news channel and has since went into independant journalism. This kind os medical story wasn’t her type thing, so she told me she would contact a few other reporters who she thought would be interested.

            The only problem with the story is that it starts with a colonoscopy. No one in the press will dare do a story which reflects bad on this procedure and I can see why, with General Electric being the largest manufacturer of this medical equipment. Even every lawyer I spoke with admitted that it was nearly criminal what the doctors did (by ignoring my complaints of abominal pain following the procedure), but wouldn’t touch the case, especially once they heard the word colonoscopy.

            This is a tough case, because it is stepping on some major league big toes. It’s sad, because people are dying, but the cover up will continue until a celebrity is injured. I doubt that will happen, because just like President Obama did when he turned 50; he had a virtual colonoscopy, which is just a scan by CT using contrast dye. Sure, it exposed him to a lot of radiation, but what does that tell you about the mechanical colonoscopy? His advisors would rather risk the radiation, where he may get cancer in 30 years, rather than risk him getting perfoated now. There owuld be no way he’d get infected by a scope, because if he chose the scope, they would have used a brand spanking new one, right from the factory to be sure his was clean. The rest of us are not the President, so we do not get such consideration.

            I hope that I can find a news outlet daring enough to take on such an important story. I’m sure my only hope would be a news outlet overseas, maybe the BBC would be even better than any american media. If possible, this may be the way I have to go. Otherwise, I will continue to finish my book and see what I run into with publishers.

          • Philippa
            April 8, 2015 | 6:19 pm

            Just to say R of the W is mentioned here
            http://blog.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/2014/02/04/5-things-you-should-know-before-getting-a-colonoscopy/

            Am seeing other anti colonoscopy stories too from alternative health media. So this story may gain traction yet, thanks to your efforts.

    • Wolverine
      April 8, 2015 | 2:32 pm

      JW, can you imagine what type of person (skll and training) and how much salary is there for anyone to sit all day and clean scopes which have been up human colons? I just cannot be convinced that the person who cleans these shitty scope makes a tremendous amount of money nor is a person of great detail orientation. FAter cleaning their 15th shit covered scope for the day, their thoughts must wander. What if you are scheduled for the 29th scoping of the day? It only take one slip up and that scope, which had a tissue biopsy from the infected patient before pulled through it’s 3 foot long channel, is not cleaned thoughroughly and you’re the next in line.

      If you look at the design of the endoscope, which I doubt that few people have, even those who have had the procedure (since all patients are unconscious during the procedure), you will see that it has a port or channel which is only about 8 millimeters in diameter and runs the entire length of the scope (over 3 feet). I really cannot see anyway that such a tiny channel can be hand cleaned at all? Any liquid used would hit a vapor lock just a few inches into the port. The surface tension of the liquid would not let it pass, unless it was sent through with pressure, but I doubt that. Since the medical industry refuses to release the cleaning requirements for the endoscope, I have to believe the worst. The only thing they will say concerning the cleanig of endoscopes (they admit it cannot be sterilized), is that it is clean according to the manufacturer’s recommendations — oh, wow, that puts my mond at ease. I am quite sure that General elecric is real concerned for my safety.

  57. John Nash Thomas
    April 7, 2015 | 12:45 pm

    I recently read an article in AARP magazine about the Cologuard test which analyzes your poop to find cancerous or pre-cancerous cells. This is a non-invasive technique that is maybe 90% effective, and is used by Mayo. My insurance company will not approve its use, however. I am protesting.

    • Wolverine
      April 8, 2015 | 2:14 pm

      Hi John, thanks for writing. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I am sure the excuse the medical professionals use is that this new test has not been around long enough to have been tested for its efficiency or accuracy; the ironic part is that neither has the endoscopic use of colonoscopies. Not because it hasn’t been around long enough, but because no one has bothered to do any real (clinical) studies in the U.S., everyone (including doctors) just assume that it works.

      This is why we have studies. Just because something seems to make sense logistically does not always mean it does. The theory of the colonoscopy assumes that the procedure is safe (which it isn’t; not by a mile) and that a common gastroenterologist can spot a malignant tumor through the tunnel vision of a fiber optic on an organ that is basically a 4-5 foot tube with the entire surface covered in 1/4 inch of mucus. This is a lot of assumption, especially when you consider that the invasiveness of the procedure sets a time limit on how long the doctor can be inside to examine and that the human skin has no mucosa covering and can be examined at length, yet skin cancer is missed all of the time during visual examinations.

      I’m sure the real reason this is not covereded is because the insurance comapnies will only pay for procedures which are determined to be effective by the medical professionals. Since I am quite sure the test you refer to costs a fraction of the $2,500 a colonoscopy charges out at has nothing to do with the reason doctors have not accepted it as the gold standard.

      Gastroenterology is actually a big joke in medicine. Not because there is not a fast growing number of gastric disease which are plaguing people in the western civiizations (Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS, Celiac’s), but more because they not only have no cure for any of these, but do not have effective treatments, nor is there any serious research being done in this field. Typically, the end result, or only cure, for Ulcerative Colitis is the removal of the entire colon. All modern treatments are a stall, at best, but these treatments have such serious side effects they are completely ill-advised in my opinion.

      Mesalamine is the gold standard, but it has little effect on the disease at all, so most gastroenterologists move quickly into the steroids, which can reduce the inflamation, which eases symmptoms, but does nothing to slow the progression of the disease. The steroids also cause bone degeneration, cancer risks and damage to the heart.

      The real take-away here is that gastroenterologists are nover going to get rich writing perscriptions for Mesalamine or steroids, but at $2,000 per colonoscopy, coupled with the fact that some of them can cram in 20 to 30 procedures per day, they can make quite a bundle and really have no motivation to improve the treatments for any of these other diseases.

      I would love to see one shred of evidence that colonoscopies are effective at detecting colon cancer, but to date there is nothing. There is one on going study in Finland (the Telemark Polyp Study 1) which has, so far, yielded no evidence that the colonoscopy gives any advantage to the paients, but for some yet unkown reason may shorten their life. The group who had regular colonoscopies developed colon cancer at the same rate as the group who had no colonoscopies, but the group with the colonoscopies also had a 158% higher mortality rate by “all-cause” deaths! My guess is from other cancers which metastisize to other organs since colonoscopies are not followed up by chemotherapy, even after they chop away at polyps. All other cancer surgeries are followed by some chemotherapy to kill all free cancer cells.

      Thanks again for writing and I wish you luck in your protest with the insurance company. I still believe that once the government has full control of the health care system, they will begin to mandate these type prophylactic procedures and drugs, just like they are mandating the purchase of insurance, even though Obama originally claimed there would be no mandates (of course, that was before he got elected).

      They will need no evidence of the effectiveness of drugs, like statins, or procedures, like colonoscopies, other than the claim from doctors and the now bogus studies which base all result on lowering risk factors, rather than even examining whether they lower the “incidence” of the disease. The medical industry will convince the government that they will save millions by preventing disease and it will be a disater.

      This is the modern smoke-screen on all studies. Make up a bunch of “risk factors”, then do studies to prove that your drug or procedure can reduce these “risk-factors” and claim victory, even though the “incicence’ of the disease continues to increase year after year. The incidence of colorectal cancer has risen since the heavy use of colonoscopies, but no one looks at that because the medical people have released studies that show that the colonoscopy can reduce a boat load of made up risk factors. It’s all quite blind.

      Statin drugs are a good example of this. Doctors say that high cholesterol causes heart disease (even though it has never been proven and in fact has much evidence that there is little to no coorialtion), and they have a drug which lowers cholesterol, Bingo! Our drug reduces the risk of heart disease, but every year the incidence of heart disease continues to climb. It’s all very frustrating, because most people buy into it because they only hear the words “reduce” and “heart disease” and think it will protect them, when in fact the key words are “reduce the risk factor” which actually means nothing. I’ll stop the rant now. Damn! I do need to publish more articles. This shit pisses me off so much, I always get carried away. I have been writing new stuff, but I get on rants and write pages and pages and just haven’t taken the time to go back and edit them yet, but I will soon. Thanks again and good luck.

  58. JW
    April 8, 2015 | 2:46 pm

    “What if you are scheduled for the 29th scoping of the day?”

    I won’t be! 🙂
    Nor will I apply for a job cleaning. I’ve always questioned the legitimacy of having a colonoscopy and to find your blog helps me know I’m not alone in my thoughts or convictions on this matter.

    Medicare/Medicaid pays for a colonoscopy and below a person’s age or eligibility for that coverage a colonoscopy cost $2500 to $3000. The new one costs $600. I’ve read Mayo is not the only provider. It’s called sDNA testing. Here is two articles on it for those who want to start doing some of their own research.

    http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/digestive-diseases/future-colorectal-cancer-screening

    http://www.exactsciences.com/about/latest-news/exact-sciences-announces-mayo-clinic-as-first-healthcare-system-to-offer-cologuard

    • Wolverine
      April 8, 2015 | 3:50 pm

      JW, thanks for the links. I always ecourage everyone to leave links to any information concerning this procedure. In the last couple of years, I have seen more negative stories finding their way to the internet, so maybe their gravy train is coming to a near end. I hope so. I can’t wait until the truth of this procedure comes out and doctors stop recommending this risk to perfectly healthy people. No one should have any invasive procedure if their life or healh is not in some apparent threat. To jam a metallic scope more than 3 foot inside of a healthy human body and call it a simple screening is not insane…. It’s FUCKING INSANE!!

  59. Gerl
    April 14, 2015 | 12:21 pm

    I am 59 years old with history of colon cancer in family.

    I have ‘irritable bowel syndrome.’

    I had colonoscopy yesterday.

    Had propofol IV. I have asthma.

    I woke on the table, to see the screen and my colon being probed.

    I was coughing and felt the asthma attack coming on.

    The doctor finished after he yelled at the assisting young female tech assisting him…as she failed to grasp a polyp so he could snip it off.

    After the doctor was done and departed, the young female excused to me “I’m new.”

    I went to recovery still coughing–the nurse excused– oh, the O2 makes your throat dry. I was wheezy too…she ignored.

    I was sent home. Today, I am still wheeze and will have to watch for pneumonia –now that I read respiratory is effected by propofol.

    Be careful out there people.

    • Philippa
      April 16, 2015 | 1:52 pm

      Dear Wolverine,
      Hope you saw the article on front page of USA TODAY, April 16, 2015 “Superbug warnings about medical scopes delayed”.
      http://www.newsmax.com/Health/Health-News/FDA-warnings-superbugs-medical/2015/02/25/id/626816/

      These scopes appear to be spreading superbugs amongst hospital patients and disclosures have not been filed with the FDA!!

      This is way worse that I thought possible! They should be stopping scope procedures ASAP unless an emergency.

      • Wolverine
        April 16, 2015 | 2:38 pm

        Thank you for the links Philipa. Great work, as always; you are quite the watchdog. I guess the spin machine is reved up in high gear and they will somehow blame it all on some scapegoat in the lab who will lose his little job and everyone feels safe again. At bare minimum, they will isolate the problem to one lab or at least this doudenoscopes, when in reality none of these endocscoes can be sterilized. These events do seem to be coming with greater frequency.

        It is just a matter of time until the entire thing blows up in their faces, leaving a wake of human disfigurement and death in its path. I just hope that myself and my readership will get the word and become protected by then. By the time the CDC admits these superbugs are out of control, half the population could be infected because they have been quite efficiant at keeping these stories supressed. I guess it helps when the largest manufacturer of these devices also owns a huge market share of the media; General Electric, who owns NBC TV and Radio and an entire host of cable news networks.

        We’ll keep our eyes open and continue to shout from what rooftops we can access and save a few lives anyway. I am continuing to seek other avenues and hope that I can get better reception for my story as these kind of stories become more the norm. I really need to ge more active and get some of my new artices published.

        It is still rather frightening that in light of all these cases, including the case of one celebrity (Jon Rivers R.I.P) and the manufacturers and the CDC still refuses to release the cleaning instructions for these endoscopes, not simply assure us that they are cleaned according to the manufacturer’s specifications. For some reason I do not think the CEO of General Electric/NBC is tossing and turning each night concerning themselves with our well being. How about you? Does that put your mind at ease?

        Thanks again Pilippa, you’re a soldier in this fight.

        • Philippa
          April 16, 2015 | 2:50 pm

          Dear W,
          I am going to write to Lisa McGiffert of the Safe Patient Project at Consumers’ Union, who is mentioned in the article, and Peter Eisler at USA Today, to make sure they know about your invaluable website and info.
          Thanks to you, for all your work. I believe this just needs a push or two to expose big time…despite GE et al.

          • Philippa
            April 17, 2015 | 10:01 pm

            Peter has responded back to me, and sounds very ‘on it’.

  60. Catherine
    April 17, 2015 | 12:24 am

    Thank you so much for your Website and sharing. I feel you saved me a lot of heartache and perhaps my life.

    I went to the gastroenterologist for an internal hemorrhoid. Of course he kept pushing a colonoscopy. Long story short, I had just had surgery for rectocele. Don’t scare me with cancer! We are living in times where one is over medicated and over tested. I just lost my son to an overdose of Tramadol which was not to be prescribed. Stop the insanity! Healthcare has turned into healthscare! My prayers are with you. Thanks for caring.

    • Wolverine
      May 4, 2015 | 6:11 pm

      Hi Catherine. I just noticed that I never replied to this comment and I am very sorry for that. I haven’t checked this in a while because things have been crazy recently. My father is requiring a lot of attention since he has had several bad strokes.

      Thanks you for the kinds words. The modern medical system can be quite frightening indeed. In fact, if a patient is not proavtive in their own treatments, but rather believe the resposibility to make them well is solely the job of the doctor, they are probably not going to fair well. We met plenty of those type patients at the transplant hospital and sadly everyone of them are now deceased. Had I blindly followed everything the doctors told me to do and taken everything they prescribed, I would no doubt have already been dead and even the doctors know this.

      Many of the doctors were bold enough to admit they made mistakes when it was pointed out to them. It seemed that many of them were shocked and appreciated a patient who was doing their own homewrok. A doctor is not like hiring a plumber or electrician, where you can say, “alright, they are the expert so I can just go off and leave them to fixing the problem”.

      It would be nice if it were that way, but there are far too many variables when it comes to human health and no one knows your body the way that you do. Having access to the internet really makes it a lot easier to take a few minutes to resreach any drugs or procedures suggested by a doctor (this is something you were doing when you found my site — good for you). Prescription drugs are the #1 killer of people in the U.S., yet most everyone I know cannot tell you what drugs they take or what those drugs do in particular. This is a very deadly way to behave as a patient in today’s system.

      I am glad that you did not cave to the pressures of the gastroenterologist. They will always push for the colonoscopy, because it makes more money than any other thing they do in their career, especially given that gastroenterology has no answers at all for some of the most crippling diseases in that field. I don’t know what the hell they all do, because they can’t seem to even effectively treat Crohn’s, Celiac’s or UC. They just hand out steroids. Please continue to stay healthy.

  61. Mastura
    May 2, 2015 | 3:59 pm

    Hi,plz advice.im 34 and been experiencing tummy upsets and and mild cramps since 6 weeks and started of with a few sharp pains fr m the rectum.i don’t see any blood etc.rectum pain gone but I do feel now and then a niggle.been to the Physcian and liver function test done and abdomen sonar and everything came back clear.i suffer from sever indigestion by most foods and tummy bloating with lots of burping and winds,abit of an annoying left middle back pain that goes to the front and makes me feel nauseous.shoulders stiff too.dr says I should lastly go for a colonoscopy..is this necessary.?

    • Wolverine
      May 4, 2015 | 5:41 pm

      Really can’t see what help a colonoscopy can be, as you know from my story, there is a lot of bad that can come from this elected procedure.

      Do you eat wheat products? Gluten is very problematic to the GI tract. It can damage the villi lining of the small bowels over time which ultimately causes “leaky gut”, a problem suffered by many, especially since the modern hybrid of wheat is the semi-dwarf wheat which only came into the market as the standard wheat grain in the late 1970s and contain more than ten times the amount of gluten in the wheat hybrids which predated it.

      Celiac’s Disease is becoming very popular, especially since they have become much better at diagnosing it, but doctors still often fail to diagnose the disease until a lot of damage has been done. Leaky gut syndrome allows proteins to get into the blood stream which can result in an immune response, since protein should not enter the blood whole, but be broken into amino acids first. Any full protein which is not our own synthesized protein will be seen by our body as an invader and cause an immune response.

      I gave up all grains shortly after my intestinal transplant, mainly because they were very hard on the organ. Even if that is too much, you should at least try to dump wheat. Reducing wheat will not have much effect since even a minute amount of gluten will trigger the antibodies to be formed. The diet must be completely gluten free.

      You can also try and add in some virgin coconut oil into your diet if you can. If you find it difficult to eat alone, you can add it to a smoothy and even cook with it. Coconut oil is antibacterial and will help clean out any bacterial or fungal overgrowth you may have in the GI tract. Most people in he western world suffer overgrowth. It is bacteria that actually cause ulcerations in the stomach and other organs. If possible, try to get 2 to 3 tablespoons of coconut oil down

      If you are suffering from an overgrowth, you may actually feel ill after starting the coconut oil and this is actually a good sign and is called the Herxheimer Reaction. It can often cause flu-like symptoms because the pathogens release a lot of toxins as they die off. Do not give up on taking the oil because you feel ill. Keep it up and you will eventually feel better than ever. Start with a small amount of VCO and increase it as you can tolerate.

      Many people today suffer a heavy overgrowth of bacteria in their guts from extensive use of antacids and PPIs (like Nexium and Prilosec), because they reduce stomach acid and the stomach acid is the body’s first line of defense against pathogens that we all eat which then enter the small bowels, which need to remain fairly sterile to work correctly.

      These are some suggestions. Let me know how it goes and maybe I can come up with some other suggestions. I would not suggest a colonoscopy unless you are far sicker (like your life depending on it and when you have little else to lose by taking the risk). Colonoscopies are far more dangerous than doctors will ever admit, but I am a living example of the dangers and there are many other horror stories of deaths which have been submitted to the comments here, whch will give you a bit of an idea of just how dangerous a colonoscopy can be.

      I thank you for writing and hope that I can help you back on the road to good health.

  62. Barbara Jones
    May 10, 2015 | 11:47 am

    Thank you for sharing your story. I am amazed and inspired that you have the strength to write about this.

    • Wolverine
      May 12, 2015 | 2:29 am

      Thank you so much for your encouraging words Barbara. After what happened to me I could not just stand by without at least trying to warn people about the dangers that the medical industry and their friends in the media try to hide. I have seen so may other people injured and killed by endoscopes in the transplant wards (because bowel transplant recipents are required to have weekly endoscopic procedures for the first year following the transplant, you can see far more people injured in a shorter time span).

      Since I began publishing this site, I have had many brave people willing to tell their horror stories of lost loved ones to this procedure in the comments, which only goes to illustrate how common these injuries and deaths are that are not ever going to make headlines (I thank everyone of those who have been courageous enough to tell their story here. Thank you for taking time to write me with these words of encouragement.

  63. maureen
    July 5, 2015 | 9:19 pm

    I am so glad I found your site. I was due to have my first colonoscopy in two days.everyone has been pressuring to get one. I an 60 and in very good health.I have had many second thoughts about undergoing this so called routine procedure . I feel confident I made the right decision by cancelling.

    • Philippa
      July 6, 2015 | 9:30 am

      Just as effective, in case you’re worried (and to allay your friends’ fears) is to get a fecal sample done to test for blood. This is now being recommended over the colonoscopy by some doctors. You can do them every year and nowadays they are very easy to do and not messy at all.

  64. Brianna
    July 26, 2015 | 5:11 pm

    I have had this procedure done ONCE because I was bleeding. I have a greater danger of perforation than even normal so I had always refused. They did not find the source of the bleeding so they SENT ME HOME. I protested that I was STILL BLEEDING and they told me, we cleaned you out…we could not find the wound so go. I went to a different hospital three days later and had lost half my blood by then. AND I apparently have a serious condition that they could not have missed that was not immediately life threatening, but of concern and they did not say one peep about that.

    SO even when it is necessary they fuck it up…

  65. Suzi T
    September 14, 2015 | 9:44 pm

    I had a colonoscopy performed on Friday…and spent Sunday in the emergency room…and in the room NEXT to me in the ER was the man who was second in line on Friday for his colonoscopy. I had one performed 5 years ago and had polyps removed at the time, so it was recommended that I have another in 5 years. So I went. I recorded the entire experience on my cell phone, mostly out of curiosity, but once I was awake enough to listen to it it was 1.5 hours of moaning and begging the doctor to wait or stop. They maxed me out on Demerol and Versed – the nurse even commented that she would “Catch hell for giving as much as I did”. Since then, I’ve been in pain throughout my intestines and lower back. I don’t know that there’s any recourse other than making a CD of my experience and presenting it to the doctor and possibly administration at the hospital along with a detailed letter explaining just WHY I’ll never have another one, and just WHY I’ll never see THAT doctor again and will do all that’s in my power to see to it that as many people in my small community are aware. Thank you for your site, and the opportunity to vent a little.

    • Wolverine
      September 26, 2015 | 4:14 pm

      In order to have a colonoscopy, the doctor will have you sign a waiver which explains all of the dangers of the procedure, including possible death, and has you declare that you understand the dangers and are willing to take the chance and waive all your rights to seek legal action if you are injured or killed during the procedure.

      The funny thing is that this paper is actually a fraud, because the paper lists all of the possible dangers, but the doctors will always tell the patient that it is just a formality and that these things very rarely happen — notice they only use the word “rare” which is quite ambiguous and really tells us nothing because it is based on the person’s opinion of what constitutes what is “rare”. By the doctor telling the patient that these things really don’t happen, then they really do not understand all of the dangers, but sign a paper saying that they do.

      They will not do the procedure if you do not sign the waiver — that alone should tell you something. If injuries and death were truly rare, the doctor wouldn’t be worried about performing the procedure without the signature. Let’s face it, the doctor expects you to put your life on the line for a procedure that he is not even willing to put his money on the line for?

      All you have to do is refuse to sign the paper. Tell them that you are not willing to waive your right to sue and that if the procedure was truly as safe as they say, they would be willing to take the chance.

      Do you consider 1 in 1,000 to be rare? I don’t. If someone told you that statistics say you will be in a bad automobile accident for every 1,000 times you go out driving? You would probably stop driving. There are no where near that many auto accidents per 1,000 drivers. Auto accidents are far less probable than that, yet we do not consider auto accidents rare — but they are far more rare than injuries from colonoscopies!

      The doctor is completely full of shit when they say perforations are rare, because I guarantee you that even the doctor does not consider 1 in 1,000 rare. They are lying. 1 in 1,000 people will be perforated by a colonoscopy, that is the national statistic, you can look it up.

      I just refuse to sign the paper and it gets me out of it every time. You are not refusing the procedure, you’re just saying you do know the risks and are not willing to waive your right to collect damages if you’re injured. Trust me, they will not do the procedure if you do not sign.

      You can go ahead and vent; that’s what this blog is all about. I have been using this blog to vent for years. Thanks again for writing.

      • philippa
        September 26, 2015 | 6:41 pm

        According to the The Standards of Practice Committee of the American
        Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy “the pooled overall serious adverse event rate was 2.8 per 1000 pro-
        cedures.”
        http://www.asge.org/assets/0/71542/71544/56321364-c4d8-4742-8158-55b6bef2a568.pdf

        • Wolverine
          September 29, 2015 | 4:42 pm

          Thank you for the update Phillippa. At the time I wrote this article, several years ago, they were only reporting 1 in 1,000. Either they have gotten much worse at this procedure or they are more honestly reporting — I believe it is the later. Even at the time I wrote this, I stated that I knew the injuries were more common than reported, because doctors will not report the injury or death as caused by the colonoscopy unless they absolutely have to, which would mean it has to be able to be proven within a doubt, which is very hard, if not impossible to do in many cases. I still believe the injuries are even greater then the 2.8 in 1,000 they are now reporting, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

          I think that this is why their immediate reaction to anyone’s complaint of pain following the procedure is to dismiss it and ignore as long as possible. The more time they can place between the procedure and the patient’s failure makes if far more difficult to prove the colonoscopy had anything to do with the patient’s problem. This makes the procedure even more dangerous, because according to how I was treated (ignored for 3 days), other transplant recipients who were injured by the routine ileoscpes and many other who have written, it does seem to be a universal reaction by the doctors. How many people suffer even worse complications or death because of this delay. Thanks again for the update, I will update my information when I get a chance.

        • philippa
          September 29, 2015 | 5:19 pm

          Dear Wolverine,
          The whole report makes for very scary reading..warns of all sorts of problems, not just bleeding. The warning at the end reads ‘Endoscopists
          are expected to carefully select patients for the appropriate
          intervention, be familiar with the planned procedure and
          available technology, and be prepared to manage any
          adverse events that may arise. Once a complication oc-
          curs, early recognition and prompt intervention will min-
          imize the morbidity and mortality associated with that
          complication.”
          Carefully select…??when this is prescribed a s routine procedure for the over 50s??

          • Wolverine
            October 2, 2015 | 6:16 pm

            It always makes me so angry to read literature like that because the doctors do just the opposite. Whenever anyone is injured and begins to complain of pains following the procedure, they are always quick to dismiss any possibility that it could have been the endoscope, when in reality action should always be swift following a procedure as invasive as a colonoscopy and these instruction are spot on, its just that no one follows them.

            I had read in the Merck Manual that they recommend that gastroenterologist do not perform a colonoscopy on a colitis patient, especially one on flair-up, because they are 10 to 20 time more likely to suffer a perforation, yet every gastroenterologist uses the endoscope to the go-to tool for all Crohn’s and UC patients and it nearly always results in an injury or perforation. It makes sense, because these people have ulcers, which are weak places in the intestine and that endoscope uses extreme gas pressure to inflate the bowel when they go in to snoop around. That pressure alone is enough to blow out an ulcer. The pressure used was enough to push all of the food in my stomach out of my mouth during one of the ileostomies. I didn’t wretch or wasn’t nauseous or any other illness, it literally just pushed the food out of me — that’s a lot of pressure.

            The doctors are so swift to dismiss the endoscope as the possible cause of abdominal pain, that it made me suspicious. Even common sense would tell someone that any complaints of pain following the procedure could be serious or life-treating, so why are the doctors always so sure there is no connection. I don’t believe they are.

            I think they have learned that by ignoring it they never have to admit that it happened on their watch so they can still tell future patients they have never caused an injury or death. By ignoring patients the problem will sometimes resolve itself, but in severe cases it will cause the patient to crash several days or even weeks later. They will be rushed to the nearest ER, not the GI’s office, where they will receive treatment, which usually requires surgery.

            Since so much time was placed between the procedure and the crash, even the surgeon and ER doctors will not be able to say without a doubt that it caused it and BINGO, the GI doctor’s record stays unbesmirched. This is important because the minute they have to admit that severely injured or killed someone, their career is over. What person is going to have a colonoscopy from a doctor that admits he killed a patient? This is how they all proudly boast they have never had an incident, by denial. The gastroenterologist who nearly killed me still tells his patients he has never had an incident.

            Hell, just the statistics alone prove that the doctor is lying. I have had many people write me here and claim that their gastroenterologist told them he has done more than 20,000 procedures without an incident. Just the statistics would prove he’s lying. 20,000 procedures would result in quite a few injuries and even death, but just like my gastroenterologist did, they all bail when things go bad, then claim that the problem had nothing to do with the procedure.

            This is so deceitful because it was only after I awoke from the sedation that I began complaining of intense abdominal pain, yet somehow he still says it had nothing to do with the colonoscopy. It’s sad how many people are and will be injured based on this ill-advise for everyone, even perfectly healthy people to undergo a random colonoscopy for no damn good reason. I have had several people write me here and tell about a loved one who was perfectly healthy when they went in for the procedure and died right there on the table. How many more will die and they still keep it secret? Scary to say the least. I should have been dead, several times, due to his work. Even had I died, that bastard would still convince himself it had nothing to do with his procedure.

  66. Jlea
    September 19, 2015 | 1:15 pm

    Ever since my colonoscopy nearly 3 years ago my digestive system has become hyper- sensitive. I don’t know if it was the prep, the scope, or one of the stupid clips they used, but I went from a healthy individual who could eat anything, to someone who can eat only three different foods without severe pain. If I eat something even slightly seasoned, acidic, or spicy I will be fine until the digested matter hits a certain area of my large intestine, then I have terrible pain and burning. Many things have been tried and suggested but connecting my trouble to that procedure is totally anathema in the medical community where I live. I have pain inside my abdomen around my left hip and even wonder sometimes if that damn clip they used after polyp removal didn’t migrate and embed itself in my colon there. An x-ray would put my mind at ease but I get a flat out no. I am angry and without recourse since no one is willing to admit something like this could happen. Funny the procedure that caused my problem may be the thing that eventually finds the damage it had done earlier.

    • Wolverine
      September 26, 2015 | 3:46 pm

      I am not sure that an X-ray would be very successful at finding the problem. A CT Scan would probably be the best bet. Another colonoscopy is not your best chance of finding the problem, since endoscopic procedure are horrible as a diagnostic tool. I have seen nothing but failures from endoscopes. The bowel transplant recipients were required to have ileoscopies (same as a colonoscopy, except the scope is inserted into a stoma rather than the anus) weekly to look for signs of organ rejection. Biopsies were also taken, but took 48 hours to get the pathology results.

      The doctors were nearly always wrong with their visual diagnosis from the scope. Twice they said I was in organ rejection and started treatments. In both cases the biopsies came back negative for rejection, but it was too late, they had already pumped me with dangerous drugs based on their visual diagnosis. There were several other cases where they did the opposite and told these women that everything looked good when the biopsies came back positive for organ rejection. In these cases the treatment was delayed and the patients nearly died.

      The best example of failure of endoscopes was the case of one woman who had her bowels perforated by a colonoscopy several years after her transplant. She had been doing perfectly well for more than 6 years and was only having the colonoscopy as a routine check for possible organ rejection. When she started to complain of abdominal pain, they did 2 more colonoscopies and in both cases told her that her bowels looked fine and there was no problem.

      She ultimately crashed and was rushed into surgery were it was found that all of her bowels had died and become necrotic. They had to remove all of her bowels, both small and large intestines, and she had to undergo a second bowel transplant earlier this year. How could these doctors look at 30 feet of necrotic bowels and say everything looked fine? I believe that endoscopes are just a joke and useless as a diagnostic tool.

      I have seen no evidence of the endoscope being an effective diagnostic tool. It is only as good as the doctors operating it and they are looking through a tiny, restricted view of a scope at an organ that they know nothing about or what it should look like when healthy. Proof of that is how they didn’t know that woman’s bowels were dead, yet we are supposed to believe that they can find a tumor smaller than a grain of rice — yeah right.

      People die from melanomas all the time, yet the skin can be examined without the restriction of looking through a scope, yet doctors miss melanomas every day. If they cannot tell the difference between a regular mole on the skin or a malignant tumor, how am I to believe they have any better luck looking through a scope. The skin is also not covered in a quarter inch of mucus and the colon is. A lot of time it just takes common sense to realize that this fad is just a scam and is killing and injuring a lot of people — far more than it has every helped.

      I hope that they can find your problem and get it fixed. I do understand what it is like to suffer abdominal pain and it is horrible. Thanks for writing and I do hope you can get better.

      • Jlea
        September 27, 2015 | 1:17 am

        Thank you for reading my comment. I share your view of modern medicine and its doctors. I am tired of being told only invasive tests are necessary to tell the whole story. I agree with you that these procedures are being done on a production line type of environment, the only thing missing is the conveyor belt, and that may show up someday too. I am not comfortable putting myself in the hands of doctors anymore, ever since doctors killed my husband. He died after a surgery that was supposed to have only a 1% failure rate. So you aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. My dad was given this awful procedure and they found nothing. An x-ray finally showed his bowel cancer, not a CT scan, or an MRI, an x-ray. A CT scan will hardly be approved for me if a simple x-ray is not allowed. As I am now, I lie to the docs about how I am feeling because what they continually offer is medieval and requires more of the invasive diagnostic procedures that got me where I am already. I am sorry about your pain too. The longer I live, the more I see that medicine knows very little when it comes to treating common ailments. I am sure many will say I am foolish to feel the way I do, but after my own experience with modern medicine, and watching my husband’s awful end, I have no doubt that we are nothing more than numbers entered in the any physician’s profit margin. So the patient dies. Surgeon still gets paid doesn’t he?

  67. Lorraine
    September 28, 2015 | 5:51 pm

    Wow ~ I scheduled an appt. today to have one done in Nov….”NOT HAPPENING” after reading this!!! They told me the anesthesia was just a thing that puts you into a twilight state, and promotes amnesia…What the flip??? Red flags went up the size of TEXAS. I saw propofol’s effects first hand when the gentleman I caregave for lay in a coma state for weeks hooked up to that mess! Not to mention the 14 other things that can go wrong involving this procedure with “nasty” instruments, to boot! Wolverine, you filled in the gaps for me…THANK-YOU!!! I prayed on the way home for God to show me if getting a colonoscopy was the way to go….He answered when I clicked your site! Blessings

    • Wolverine
      October 2, 2015 | 7:38 pm

      I guess it was fate, or I’d like to believe that. It is a far more dangerous procedure than they will let on. Since there are no cures for any of the worst gastric problems like , Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative colitis, Celiac’s Disease or IBD, gastroenterologist would make little money handing out prescription for mesalamine and steroids, which is their answer to treating these diseases.

      Their treatments do nothing to stop the progression of the disease and the patient will ultimately lose the organ, but their medications help ease symptoms. Unfortunately they also have a wealth os serious side effects which will eventually cripple a patient by degrading their bones and muscles and place them at high risk for cancers, but the gastroenterologist are happy with this treatment and no one os doing any research to improve these treatments.

      They do make a tremendous amount of money doing colonoscopies, especially since celebrities, like Katie Couric began hawking them on television. Without colonoscopies, the income for a gastroenterologist would be a fraction of what it is today, so they have a million reasons to stay in denial and cover up the damage. They have devised many ways to cover up the fact that 2 to 5 patients in every 1,000 procedures results in a serious injury or perforation. Many have died from this procedure and I should well have been one of the dead ones, but I somehow survived what kills most patients. No one should take my survival as an example of living through one of these things gone bad, because according to every doctor, few people will survive losing all of their intestines. Many people die when only a small section of bowel goes necrotic, so how I survived having all 30 feet go necrotic is nothing short of a miracle.

      The gastroenterologist who nearly killed me disappeared when my condition worsened. I guess he had hundreds more colonoscopies to do and no time to help his victims. He still claims to this day that he never injured anyone to his other patients. I think this is how they all keep it covered up. For the first three days I was complaining of severe abdominal pain following the procedure, he wouldn’t even entertain the thought that it was related to the colonoscopy and moved on, letting the hospital doctors take over when I crashed. Based on other stories which have been submitted here, this is common practice.

      The gastroenterologist will seemingly always deny any involvement and ignore any complaint from patients which places as much time as they can between the procedure and the time the patient crashes, so if you are injured by the procedure, you can expect the doctor to ignore your complaint and deny any way his procedure is responsible. They know that it is very difficult to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the patients problem was caused by the endoscope. The patient has to die right there during the procedure to prove the procedure was responsible and this does happen sometimes, but most people will suffer for days, weeks and even months before something serious develops and then it is nearly impossible to prove the colonoscopy was responsible. This is how the killing and maiming still goes on and will continue to go on.

      The strangest part is that the endoscope has a terrible record of accuracy as a diagnostic instrument. It seems that all of the life-threatening conditions I suffered were a direct result of an endoscopic procedure (the endoscope is the instrument used in a colonoscopy, but it is also used in other procedures with different names — it can get confusing). I lost all of my small and large bowel to a colonoscopy. The endoscope tore a hole in my bowel which continued to bleed for 3 days and my body eventually threw a clot in an attempt to stop me from bleeding out. Unfortunately, the clot was in the mesenteric artery which feeds blood to all of the bowels, small and large and all the bowels died as a result.

      I was later infected by an ileoscopy. It was the last invasive procedure done before my sepsis and since the PICC line tested clean in pathology, the endoscope would be the most likely source of the pseudomonas bug which nearly killed me. I was place in a coma for 2 weeks where I nearly died from such a bad infection while I had no immune system since this followed the transplant. By all rules of science, I should have died. Since it is a fact they cannot sterilize an endoscope, it must be the source of this deadly infection.

      Proving how bad the endoscope is as a diagnostic tool, I was twice misdiagnosed as being in organ rejection during an ileostomy. Looking through the scope, the doctors determined I was in rejection and did not want to wait the 48 hours for the biopsy and began treatment both times with very powerful agents to wipe out my immune system. Both times the biopsies came back negative for rejection, so the treatment they gave me were unnecessary. Not only did these agents knock my immune system so low that I had nothing to fight with when I was later infected by one of those ileoscopes, but the powerful drug, Campath, also carries serious risks for cancer.

      I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 2013, an incurable cancer of the bone marrow, which is exactly what that drug targeted. The Campath attacks the bone marrow rendering it incapable of producing white blood cells. The doctors even told me they had killed back some of my bone marrow, but it would eventually grow back. Unfortunately for me, it grew back mutated and I now have cancer. So, you can see how endoscopes were always involved in these serious problems. It was the inability of the doctors to make a proper diagnosis through the endoscope that caused the alarm.

      I have many other stories of endoscopic diagnosis failures that I witness in the 7 months I was at Jackson Memorial. It seems that the doctors always made the wrong diagnosis when looking through those scopes. They did the opposite on two young women transplant recipients and said everything looked good through the scope, but both of their biopsies came back positive for organ rejection, which means they got late treatment and as a result, one of them died.

      The best example of how useless this tool is was when one woman who was very healthy even 8 years after her transplant and only followed doctor’s instruction to get a routine colonoscopy to check for signs of rejection. Her bowel was perforated by the scope and she complained of abdominal pain. The doctors did 2 more scopes and said everything looked just fine. Her condition worsened and she ultimately was rushed to surgery where it was discovered that all of her bowels were necrotic and dead and had to be removed. She had to undergo a second bowel transplant earlier this year, but how could the doctors look through a scope at 30 feet of dead bowel and make a diagnosis that everything looked fine? And we are supposed to believe that they can find a tiny tumor? These were not run-of-the-mill gastroenterologist, but bowel transplant surgeons who know more about the GI tract that any other doctor.

      The only real study ever done on colonoscopies is done in Finland and called the Telemark Polyp Study 1 (They do no real studies of colonoscopies in the US, I believe they are afraid of what they would find). It has been going on for more than 10 years and has yet to show any advantage to having colonoscopies. The group who got regular colonoscopies developed colorectal cancer at the same rate as the group who got none. Even more frightening is that when “all cause” deaths are considered, the group who have regular colonoscopies have a 158% higher mortality rate! I believe this has to be due to cancer cells which break free from some gastroenterologist chopping on any anomaly he encounters and then these cells metastasize to other organ who develop far deadlier cancers then colorectal cancer.

      Given the fact that a colonoscopy is never followed up with chemotherapy, like every other cancer surgery, any free cancer cells can metastasize to the liver, lungs, brain, lymph nodes or pancreas — all of these are far harder cancers to treat than colon cancer and have far higher mortality rates. The study has never looked into the modes of death because it wasn’t part of the experiment.

      It’s all kind of ridiculous if you think about it. Doctors miss skin cancers every day. They find it very hard to tell the difference between a regular mole and a melanoma which is why skin cancer is still a big killer of people. Yet, the doctor can examine the skin without the restricted vision of a scope and the skin is not covered in a 1/4th inch of mucus, which would bury most cancers since the dangerous lesions are the large flat lesion and not the large dangling polyp which are 90% benign, like a mole on your skin, but the doctors chop them off anyway and claim they saved the patient from cancer.

      They could say the same for every mole on your skin and climate has the potential to become cancer and remove every mole from your body. These doctors do not know what a healthy colon should look like, the organ is covered in more than a 1/4 inch of mucus, they haven’t been doing this procedure long enough to recognize what is dangerous and what is normal for the body to produce harmlessly. They just cut on anything they see with a dirty scope which cannot be sterilized and have been proven in pathology to carry many pathogens, including HIV, hepatitis B and C, Pseudomonas and many other deadly bugs.

      As a diagnostic tool, I saw noting but one failure after another in the time I was at Jackson. I also sow many injuries because of the high frequencies that they scoped patients. Patient were required to be scoped weekly for the first year and then every 6 months for life. Because of this, there were many injuries, some were fatal and the patient died.

      I was very lucky on 3 occasions with endoscopes that should have taken my life, but hey, I am the Wolverine, so I wouldn’t advises any other to try to follow in my footsteps. Chances are, you would be dead. It’ll be just a matter of time before this cancer takes me, but I have already marveled the doctors at how well I have fought this very deadly cancer. Wolverine isn;t rowdy t go yet, so I think I have a few more years. Thanks for writing and I am glad you found the blog and it sounds like you have a very good idea what the true nature of the medical world is like. Hope you stay healthy. Thanks again.

  68. Diane
    October 3, 2015 | 8:41 pm

    Wow, reading this has really strengthened my resolve to not ever have a colonoscopy unless symptoms warrant it. I am 63 and outstandingly healthy. Normal weight, good cholesterol, exercise and have no real joint pains or problems. I count my blessings every day. My “age mates” seem to be a lot worse off than I am with many with high blood pressure, joint problems, some even have artificial joints already. I recently went to my yearly check up and my physician became quite cold and snippy when I stated I would not have a colonoscopy. First I had to sign something that said I understand the dangers of colon cancer and I was still choosing not to have a colonoscopy. Then I had to hear about how she had one in her 40’s and they found colon CANCER, not just a polyp, so she feels it saved her life. Well, she had colon cancer in her family! I don’t. There isn’t too much cancer in my family, except for a couple of male, non-smoking cousins who had chest or lung cancer at a fairly early age (they all had parents who smoked heavily while they were babies and children though). My family curse is cardio-vascular and I seem to be OK in that department so far. Shouldn’t she be more concerned with those aspects of my health? She was so miffed by my refusal that she didn’t even ask me about a flu shot, I had to inquire, when she told me there would be a flu clinic the next month if I wanted to sign up for it. I am considering changing doctors, but I’m not sure anyone would be much better in that regard.

    • Wolverine
      October 6, 2015 | 7:18 pm

      Hi Diane. Great for you. finally, someone who read the paperwork and took it serious, rather than believe the lies of the doctor that injuries and death are rare. 5 in 1,000 procedures results in a serious injury and 2.8 in 1,000 result in a perforation, a life-threatening condition with a very high mortality rate. Who in the hell considers this rare? Only a greedy doctor. If you were told that there was a 5 in 1,000 chance you would be in an automobile accident evertime you drove, no one would drive.

      No one would consider auto accidents a rare event, yet they are far less common than 5 in 1,000, meaning there are less auto accidents than colonoscopy injuries and this is only what they are reporting, you can bet your ass the real number is much higher since only a fraction of colonoscopy injuries are ever reported or even discovered. Since it can take days or weeks for problem to arise from injuries and doctors are notorious for ignoring any complaints following a procedure, placing as much time as possible between the procedure and the point the patient finally crashes. This makes it nearly impossible to link the death or failure to the procedure. They know what they’re doing and how to escape culpability.

      I salute you for actually taking the papers to heart and telling them to jam that procedure up their own ass for a change (pun intended). These gastroenterologist stay in a state of denial by bailing on the patient when the going gets rough. That’s what the asshole GI doctor did to me and let other doctors clean up his handy work and even now, After nearly killing me, he tells his patients he never had an injury in all his procedures. They all seem to do this according to other comments I have gotten from people who suffered the same and said their doctor completely ignored their complaints following the procedure. Besides, the procedure has never been proven effective at stopping colorectal cancer. especially since colorectal cancer rates are even higher since the panic to get the procedure began in 2,000, when Katie Couric began shamelessly hawking it on television.

      I am 54 years old and have never known anyone who even had colorectal cancer, much less died from it. Colorectal cancer falls far below lung, liver, pancreatic, lymphoma, melanomas and breast cancer. I have known many people who died from all of these. Just because I personally haven’t known any does not mean it doesn’t happen and isn’t serious, but surely it shows it is rare and not the major killer everyone seems to think it is. Compared to the other cancers I listed, it is much more survivable than those and there are more effective treatments for colon cancer than those cancers, so why all the panic? I can’t understand why everyone is willing to place their life in jeopardy when they are perfectly healthy because they have been brainwashed by doctors to think they may have this somewhat obscure cancer.

      I am happy to hear you are in good health an hope you stay that way and one good way to do that is to avoid this deadly procedure which has proven ineffective in the only real study ever done in Finland called the Telemark Polyp Study 1, an on going study which has showed that the group getting regular colonoscopies and polyp removal develop colorectal cancer at the same rate as the control group who had none.

      Even worse, it has shown that the group getting regular colonoscopies had a 158% higher mortality rate when “all cause” deaths were considered. Why? Probably due to cancer cells breaking free from the polyp removal and metastasizing to other organs which are far more deadly when cancerous, like lung, lymph, pancreas, liver or brain. It is quite possible people are trading a very treatable cancer for a killer cancer. I can think of no other explanation for this super high mortality rate of people getting colonoscopies. The ironic thing is that any other cancer surgery is followed by chemotherapy to kill off cancer cells which broke free, but every day gastroenterologist hack away at polyps with no chemo follow up. It’s insane. Thanks for writing and stay healthy.

    • Donna Marie
      October 9, 2015 | 9:04 pm

      If you are healthy, you don’t need a flu shot either unless you like being injected with mercury, formaldehyde, MSG, and more. http://healthfitnesscafe.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-is-in-vaccines-msg-mercury-much.html

  69. Lisa Roush
    October 8, 2015 | 3:19 am

    Hi

    I wish I read this article and other articles before my third colonoscopy. I didn’t know the propofol is risk and dangerous.

    I had no problem with first and second colonoscopy.

    Last June 30, 2015, I had third colonoscopy and didn’t think nothing is wrong because of my first and second experience. Anyway, a nurse or anesthesiologist gave injection of 200 mg propofol to me. About 20 minutes later, I was sedated, my body responded to cough. A nurse or anesthesiologist used suction into my mouth. My oxygen declined. My gastroenterologist removed the scope, put endotracheal tube and I was bagged for a couple of minutes. My oxygen went up back to normal. I continued to cough. My gastroenterologist continued to procedure and done. I woke up and coughed with blood sputum. I breathed irregular and wore oxygen mask. My blood pressure declined to low. An ambulance came and took me to the emergency room. I was nausea, vomited up and my fever went up 38.5 c. I was febrile and jittery. I was confused. The doctor ran tests. I had massive infection inside all over my body. My white cell count went up. My kidney function failed. I had aspiration pneumonia. He said I had sepsis. I admitted to the hospital to receive IV fluid and antibiotics every four hours for four days. I used nasal cannitus for two days. Until my white cell count went down. I discharged from the hospital.

    I am sepsis survivor. I have few health problems from propofol. I am not the same person now as before third colonoscopy. I missed my old person before colonoscopy.

    I talked to my gasroenterologist about what happened to me. She gave me only basic, not everything. I asked her about propofol and is that too much 200 mg? I asked her about suction and endotracheal tube. She tried to avoid to discuss. She said she worked for 13 years. She said I am only second patient that I got aspiration pneumonia and coughed with blood sputum. First patient had the same thing. I asked her about her patients had aspiration pneumonia and she said yes but she didn’t sent them to the ER because their blood pressure was normal and cough with no blood sputum. She said very rare. only two patients (one of them is me).

    I got copy of my medical record. She and ER doctor wrote different stories. Something bothered me. It is not clear.

    I invented, researched and collected information. I learned a lot. I found one article about propofol and procedure are errors. Propofol can lead oxygen decline and stop breathe (in the brain “forget” or “absent” to breathe. wow. I found other article and a gastroenterologist in Ohio said propofol for colonoscopy might is not safe.

    Here is information;

    http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/11/colonoscopy-anesthesia-overkill-deep-sedation-for-the-procedure-may-be-overkill/index.htm

    Thank you for writing this article and information is very important. Thank you again. Have a good day.

    • philippa
      October 9, 2015 | 12:06 pm

      Lisa,
      This makes me so upset, and so sorry that you had to go through this.
      You probably signed the form saying you understood the risks.
      The report “Complications of Colonoscopy” issued by the The Standards of Practice Committee of the American
      Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, states

      “This is from
      In a study that used the Clinical Outcomes Re-
      search Initiative (CORI) database, cardiopulmonary com-
      plications occurred in 0.9% of procedures and made up
      67% of the unplanned events during or after endoscopic
      procedures with sedation.”
      http://www.asge.org/assets/0/71542/71544/56321364-c4d8-4742-8158-55b6bef2a568.pdf

      Now I am wondering if the liability form you signed, says anything about ‘unplanned events’ after the procedure.

    • Wolverine
      October 18, 2015 | 6:29 am

      Hi Lisa. I am very sorry to h at about your reaction to the Propophol. Propofol is a very dangerous drug and many doctors debate whether it should still be used as a sedative for colonoscopies. Not all doctors use Propophol as the sedative, but I do believe that most of them still use it.

      I had a bad sepsis following the transplant and went into septic shock and had to be kept on a respirator for weeks. During that time, I was kept in a drug induced coma with Propophol and it was horrible. Since then, I have spoken with other people who were kept in coma via Propophol and every one of the others claim they had the same terrifying nightmares.

      The worse thing about it was you couldn’t wake up from it, no matter how high the axiety got. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University showed that most patients kept on Propophol long term, as in a drug induced coma, show the same psychological signs of PTSD as soldiers who saw major conflict.

      The medics had perforated my right lung while intubating me and were unsuccessful at placing a chest tube that worked. I had three chest tubes in me and the lung was still collapsed (pneumothorax), but the doctors did not know because they could only take X-rays in the ICU and the lung was flattened from back to front, so it looked fine on a 2 dimensional X-Ray.

      On two occasion I came out from under the drugs and out of the coma fighting for air because the lung was collapsed. It was horrifying and I still remember it. I still have flashbacks of that sometimes at night and wake up thinking I can’t breathe.

      There was one woman who wrote me about her mother who had a similar reaction to the Propophol during the colonoscopy, but she passed away while still on the table. The saddest thing was that she was perfectly healthy and was just having the colonoscopy because her doctors reccomended it because of her age and nothing more.

      I still get sick to my stomach when I hear about people, like yourself or that woman’s mother, who are killed or severely injured for no damned good reason. This is especially true since I have yet to see any study or evidence that colonoscopies have any successes at reducing the mortality rates of colorectal cancer. I have been searching for years now and cannot find any real studies that have shown any advantage, yet people are being injured and killed just to make doctors more money with this extremely dangerous procedure.

      I hope you are doing better now and will continue to improve. Thank you very much for sharing your story.

  70. Joet
    October 9, 2015 | 3:36 pm

    I bleed losing blood from 48.5 to 29..the other level went as low as 8.4 but in 9.5 range now..how long for blood to recover to feel better. Joe

    • Wolverine
      October 18, 2015 | 6:36 am

      Hi Joe. Where are you bleeding from? You’re probably not going to feel better until the bleeding has been stopped. It’s hard to tell how low your hemoglobin is because I think you are giving several different CBC counts. The 48.5 would seem like the hematocrit number. Am I to understand that the hematocrit went from 48.5 to 29? Yeah, that’s quite a drop.

      The 8.4 sounds more like the hemoglobin number. Hemoglobin of 8.4 is a bit low, but not serous. In fact, a hospital will not even give a transfusion unless the patient is less than 7.5. Glad to hear the number is coming back up, but still do not know if you found the source of the blood loss.

  71. Hope
    November 1, 2015 | 1:28 pm

    I have read this entire site. I have had several colonoscopies, the first removing an adenomatous polyp, only inflammatory polyps thereafter.

    Last 2 colonoscopies were useless due to prep failure. I have a hereditary connective disorder and despite low residue diet followed by liquid diet before prep, prep failed. My wonderful gastro hosed me out on the table.

    But no more colonoscopies for me! I did the Cologuard, which Medicare covered (or at least I didn’t pay for it) and it was negative.

    As dangerous as the procedure potentially is, I think the prep is more dangerous for me. We get to the same place, which is no routine colonoscopies.

    • Wolverine
      November 3, 2015 | 10:13 pm

      I am not sure if the prep is more dangerous than the scope itself, but you are so right about inherent dangers of the preparations used, both the chemical and mechanical preps carry serious dangers. In fact, we are not really sure whether it was the mechanical prep or scope itself which caused the ruptures that led to the loss of all of my bowels. Not all doctors stil use the mechanical prep (a massive enema of chemicals) because many have stopped using it since it has been shown to be useless and has injured so many people, but there are still many doctors who still use the mechanical prep.

      Even the chemical prep can cause serious problems in some people. Everything from electrolyte imbalances (which can be very serious and even cause a cardiac event) to serious thrombosis (blood clots) in major arteries, which can cause organ damage and even organ failure. This is not to mention the fact that the prep causes the massive loss of mucosa, which lines the colon, thereby washing away most of the beneficial flora and fauna the colon needs to stay healthy (since it is the bacteria which produce the butyrate which feeds the local cells of the colonic lining) without this bacteria, the colonic used can ulcerations and cause colitis.

      Colonoscopies are just a bad idea which are not based on any proof of it’s claimed ability. Colonoscopies went wide spread without any studies being done to prove whether or not they were able to reduce colorectal cancer or about it’s safety. The danger within a colonoscopy procedure are many, from the chemical and mechanical preps which can cause dehydration, electrolyte imbalances and blood clots, to the mechanical damage potential from the scope itself, ranging from perforation of the colon, infection transmission (the scope cannot be sterilized) to damage from the tremendous air pressure which must be exerted from the scope to inflate the colon, like a balloon, so they have room to work.

      There are the inherent dangers with the drugs used to sedate the patient, especially Propofol, which has the potential to kill, as we saw with Micheal Jackson. Many people can have allergies to the sedatives used which suppress the breathing of the patient and can cause some people to stop breathing. People have died on the colonoscopy table, some people have left comments here telling about a loved one who died during the procedure, most likely from the sedatives.

      There are countless way to be seriously injured by a colonoscopy, far too many for it to be used as a cancer screening procedure on perfectly healthy peolple just because they turned fifty years old, irregardless of any history of the disease in their family; they now strongly reccomended the procedure to everyone over fifty. Colon cancer is far, far from a major killer, even among cancers.

      Compared to heart disease, it is barely noticeable on the scale of mortality. It is insane for everyone to risk their health and life in fear of developing a cancer which afflicts few people. I am fifty four years old and have never known anyone who even had colorectal cancer, much less died from it, so how common can it really be? I have known too many who died from lung, liver, brain, and breast cancer, yet everyone seems willing to be knocked unconscious and have a four to five foot mechanical device run though a quarter of their body to find a disease they most likely do not have. I cannot believe the ease with which this procedure was sold to the general public. Scare tactics I guess.

      You are right about the prep, but also every part of this procedure carries life threatening dangers and no proof of it’s effectiveness to diagnose anything, much less cancer. I saw endoscopic procedures fail to diagnose far more deadly conditions, such as organ rejection and necrotic bowels on transplant patients and by doctors far more qualified than the average gastroenterologist (they were intestinal transplant surgeons — the best in the world).

      It seemed that every diagnosis made by the transplant doctors using these endoscopes turned out wrong when biopsies returned. One woman had all of her small and large bowels dead and necrotic and the doctors said everything looked fine after two endoscopic procedures. If the endoscope cannot find more than twenty feet of necrotic bowel, how in the hell am I to believe they can detect a tumor as small as a grain of rice?

      They can’t, and those long dangling polyps they love to snip off and claim victory over cancer are rally malignant. The most dangerous lesions are the large flat lesions which are rarely found via endoscope. I’m fact, these tumor lies beneath the quarter inch thick mucus which lines the colon until it is too late. A PET scan is a far better way to detect tumors, if someone has reason to believe they have cancer, not a colonoscopy.

      People die of melenomas all the time, yet doctors can view the skin without the limited vision of a scope and the human skin is not covered in a quarter inch of mucus and the doctors still miss melenomas, unable to determine a melenomas from a harmless mole. Somehow we are to be convinced that they have a better skill at determining what an anomaly within the colon is? We are all far more familiar with the human skin than the inside of an organ and determining what is dangerous and what is normal and harmless, but they will chop away at it any way.

      It’s all insane, but quite profitable, especially for a gastroenterologist, whose career choice prior to colonoscopies was hardly as lucrative as other medical trades, comprised mostly of writing scripts for steroids and mesalamine, since they have no effective treatments for the most common colonic diseases, like Crohn’s, Celiac’s UC, or IBS and no one is searching for a cure or better treatment for these crippling diseases (other than organ removal) because they spend all of their time doing colonoscopies, which rake in over two thousand dollars a procedure.

      Thanks for writing and I am sorry for the difficulties caused to you by this procedure and the dangerous prep used. I hope your problem will resolve and that you stay healthy for many years to come. Thank you for sharing your story and experience. Best wishes.

  72. mark w rose
    December 16, 2015 | 8:25 pm

    i had part of one done, they said that i have too much scar tissue from pain meds iv’e had to be on after a career ending car accident 20 yrs. ago, well they couldn’t get in to my colon and want me too go to an outpatient procedure with smaller tools? why didn’t they have them on hand there, the place was packed, and yes they used propanol on me, the person administering it said when they were removing it i said something, being unconcious i don’t know what it was, even after he told me when he came in to check on me, i don’t want too go back, i still feel bloated and sick to my tummy a bit and tiered from a week ago, my little voice says NO don’t do it, and they were able to remove a polup and waiting results, still worse case, chemo, radi, i don’t want to go through all of that when i’m almost 57 and get worse from all of it combined, any thoughts on my situation, i’d appreciate it and rest a little better, thank you, mark w. rose

    • Wolverine
      December 19, 2015 | 5:57 pm

      I have yet to see any evidence at all that colonoscopies are effective at preventing cancer. Where are the studies? They don’t exist. Companies, like General Electric, who manufacture endoscopes, spend millions of dollars to convince doctors and patients alike that this procedure is needed without doing even 1 study. Just making the claim is good enough and playing on the idea that conventional wisdom will tell people that if the doctor can see inside, they can prevent the disease from progressing is good enough to convince everyone. Then how come they can’t do this even when the cancer is right out in plain view on the skin?

      The only thing the doctor can do is make the situation worse by cutting at any anomaly that they find. They have no clue what they’re looking at, but if it looks strange or different, they will cut it off and claim they saved you from cancer, which is a load of shit. Most polyps are benign and the ones that are cancerous would need the section of bowel resected to stop the cancer, which would lie deep inside the organ, not right out on the surface. When a doctor hacks at a polyp during and endoscope, they never follow-up with chemotherapy, which proves that they know that most of the polyps are benign. Any real cancer surgery is followed with chemo to kill any free cancer cells which would break away during the hacking session.

      These cancer cells can metastasize to other organs, causes a far worse cancer to treat than colorectal cancer, which is quite survivable, while lung, liver, brain, lymph, breast and pancreatic cancer are not. Trading colorectal cancer for one of these others is a sure way to shorten your life. The Telemark Polyp Study 1 found that the group getting regular colonoscopies, with all polyps removed, had a 158% higher “all-cause” mortality rate, which would support this idea that the cancer can metastasize to much worse organs to have cancer in.

      I saw nothing but failure by these scopes to diagnose things that should have been far more apparent than any cancer. Patients who had all of their bowels dead and necrotic got a clean bill of health by the doctor doing the endoscopic procedures.

      Other patients, like myself, were improperly diagnosed as having organ rejection, when the organ was healthy and well. This nearly cost me my life because the doctors started the treatments, which involved infusions of a compound, Campath, which completely wipes out the immune system. As a result, I contracted a sepsis while having no immune system, which placed me in a coma, fighting for my life. The doctors still can’t explain how I survived, because I had no white blood cells, thanks to the treatment they did without waiting for biopsy results which came back negative.

      Even though I survived, the effects of the treatment were far reaching, because Campath carries a high cancer risk and I now have Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Since Campath targets the bone marrow and the doctors said it killed back about 15% of my marrow, it is very likely this is what caused the cancer. All of this because the endoscope failed to make a proper diagnosis. Do you still trust this procedure this make a cancer diagnosis?

      This is the type failure I saw from endoscopes. They really seem to stink at diagnosing anything. Just because a doctor can see something, does not mean they know what they are supposed to see. It’s obviously all a guessing game, but have we seen a major drop in colorectal cancer rates? No. In fact, they went up a little bit (4%), since colonoscopies became the fad. Yet, 2.8 out of every 1,000 people getting a colonoscopy are will suffer a perforation, which carries a very high mortality rate of about 60%. I am extremely lucky to be alive, since most people will not survive a small perforation, much less losing all of their bowels.

      Ultimately, you have to make the decision with your own life. I would just suggest doing some research to see if you can find any evidence, other than claims by doctors, that the procedure is successful. Do not be fooled by any study claiming that it reduces “risk factors” for colon cancer by some amount. Risk factors mean nothing, a they can be completely fabricated. We do not want o know risk factors, but how much it actually reduces the event of cancer. There, you will find no answers, because it doesn’t reduce them at all.

      When getting a colonoscopy, as you probably know, the doctor will have you sign a legal waiver receiving them of any responsibility if you suffer any of the damages listed on the paper. The doctor will claim these things are rare, which is far from the truth. Do you consider automobile accidents rare? Probably not, yet automobile accidents happen far less frequently than serious injuries from colonoscopies, statistically speaking. If you were told you would be in a car wreck every 1,000th time you got in a car, you probably would stop driving, yet 2.8 in every 1,000 colonoscopies results in a perforation. Is this what a doctor considers rare?

      Do some research into the cleaning of these scopes and the infection risks, since it cannot be sterilized, but is rather hand cleaned. It is impossible to link an infection with the procedure, since the scopes are cleaned and used over and over again, so there is no “smoking gun”. At the VA, it was found that 1 in every 3 scopes failed to meet the cleaning requirements. These scopes were found to carry HIV, Hepatitis and may other pathogens. This is a very ill-advised procedure and should have never been approved for use on human beings.

      Doctors used to use hand-cleaned syringes over and over again years ago, as well as surgical tools and many people died of infections. This is why we started using an autoclave (a steam cleaning device for surgical tools) and disposable syringes and needles, yet some how we regressed in history for the endoscope. Now we have a new surgical tool which cannot be sterilized and is simply hand-cleaned and reused on another human. For what reason does anyone believe that history will not repeat itself. It will. So far, they have been able to dismiss the results because it is so difficult to positively link the damage to the endoscope. Eventually the truth will come out, but I wonder how many people will have to suffer what I went through before it happens. I sure hope you stay safe and do not end up this way.

      • JS
        December 19, 2015 | 10:25 pm

        As the Wolverine stated, this is just a forum and not a diagnostic site but glad you are doing research to have made it here. However, in doing your own research, maybe consider the new ColorGuard tests. Cologuard is a stool DNA test that can be used in the privacy of your own home. Since it can go in by mail, gives new meaning “going postal”. I believe Medicare pays for it. If not on Medicare, your health insurance may not pay for it BUT its a fraction of the amount of a colonoscopy if you had to pay out of pocket. Quoting off another website: “There are patients who worry about the accuracy of some of the alternative tests, but Allison said no exam, including a colonoscopy, is a 100 percent guarantee there are no polyps or cancer in your colon or that you won’t develop colorectal cancer in the 10-year interval recommended between tests.”

        There are other alternatives. I don’t believe everything on the internet but it helps me become informed when doctors of endoscopy have their own agendas. I’m not sure that “smaller tools” mean less pain. Are they going to still have to penetrate scar tissue? Are they going to give you more pain medication or knock you out for the procedure?

        I don’t know if the Wolverine has mentioned this even though I’ve read the whole colonoscopy conversations (all of his and everyone else’s). No damage was done to this patient but he still won $500K for the “professionalism” of his staff of physicians. He audio taped his procedure.
        http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Man-Awarded-500K-by-Jury-After-Recording-Doctors-Mocking-Him-309562301.html

  73. Dee
    January 30, 2016 | 11:58 pm

    Wolverine,
    I had a colonoscopy in August 2015 only to receive a letter 4 months and 1 week later stating that a clip from a previous patient had been retained in the scope that was then used on me. I have been back for blood born disease lab work at “no cost” to me. I have to return again in 5 more months to be tested again. I wish I had seen your comments first,

    • Wolverine
      February 5, 2016 | 10:58 pm

      Oh! Isn’t that nice of them; to offer lab work at “no cost” after exposing you to such a necessary risk? If I am understanding this correctly, one of the clips which are sent through the port on the endoscope, apparently, broke lose and was still lodged inside the port? I had written an article about the cleaning and handling of these endoscopes over a year ago, but have yet to publish it. In the article, I wanted to included images which illustrate how these endoscopes are designed, because I felt it would be important for people to see why they cannot be sterilized or even cleaned in any meaningful way.

      A large part of that has to do with this channel, or port, which the doctors send tools down the length of the endoscope and cut away pieces of tissue for biopsy or for other surgical procedures done. Because the ileoscopifes which were done weekly following the transplant in order to check for signs of organ rejection were painless (unlike the colonoscopy, which is so painful, they must sedate the patient into unconsciousness to do it), I was able to watch carefully how these endoscopic procedures were done and just how these scopes were handled. It will be shocking for people to know what is going on while they are knocked out.

      The ileoscopy was done through the stoma, which has no feeling at all, so no sedation at all was required. I was also able to see the surgical part of the procedure on the monitor. Unlike a colonoscopy, the endoscope used had to have to ability to see the microscopic villi of the small bowel, so a scope with magnifying capabilities was used, so I could clearly see what these “clips” you are speaking of were like. The tool on the end of a long cable looks like an alligator clip. These things are not sharp like a scalpel, so these tissue samples are not cut out, but more accurately tore out. The jaws of the clip are clamped tight around a piece of tissue then the cable is pulled hard. I could feel the tugging of the tissue going on inside me.

      This portal has a very small diameter, only a couple millimeters, but it runs the entire length of the endoscope. If people could see how it is designed, they would clearly see why it is impossible to clean this portal, much less sterilize it. This is problematic when you think about the fact that the tissue samples from all of those who the scope was used on before you was withdrawn through this canal, where you know it scraped along the sides of the portal. Therefore you are being exposed to whatever may have lived in their colon. Not only what lived in the colon, but what lived in their bloodstream, since these tissue samples are bleeding when they are removed. Because of how large the sample was magnified by the scope, I could very well see the bleeding from the site where the sample was tore from.

      I am sorry to hear about your misfortune, but this procedure tends to be riddled with misfortune for most people. I hope that all comes back negative in your blood for now and in the future.

    • JoeInMidwest
      May 31, 2016 | 4:40 pm

      How kind of that institution to offer a free lab test. There is no way I would submit to unprotected anal penetration some 4 to 6 feet by a device that cannot be reliably disinfected.

  74. cathy coffey
    May 18, 2016 | 2:02 pm

    Dr.tried to do colonoscopy 5/17/16 said I had a sharp right turn in my colon sent to to have emegency barium enema asap I was so sick from the prep my guts were sore yet they keep on filling me with the barium no matter how I cried and told them they were killing me. I survived but don’t plan to go through such barbaric treatment again. The doctor there told my daughter next time I need to have it done in the hospital not in the center for Digestive diseases. The fist one I had done at the hospital was great this one was a nightmare. Waiting for results.

  75. Smithg353
    May 29, 2016 | 6:47 am

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    • Wolverine
      May 31, 2016 | 2:12 am

      Thank you for the encouraging words. The blog is made with WordPress. The design and layout was all done by me. I feel a bit embarrassed that I haven’t been keeping up with it lately or adding any new content, but I do plan to get back to it in the near future. I have many other projects I needed to get started on, so I put this blog on the back burner for a while and it has turned out to be longer than I had anticipated. Thank you again for the kind words and I hope to be adding new content soon.

  76. JoeInMidwest
    May 31, 2016 | 4:52 pm

    The colonoscopy is routinely called the “gold standard” by gastroenterologists. Since there has NOT been ONE randomized clinical trial on the use of the colonoscopy versus other screening processes (the use of cologuard, routine stool checks for blood, etc.), then the use of the term gold standard is totally a lie. The randomized clinical trial IS the “gold standard” as I learned from graduate school in my Public Health studies at Johns Hopkins University.
    Gastroenterologists just continue using that statement, because they are enriched very well in the US by this test. Gastroenertologists have truly found their pot of gold.

    • Wolverine
      June 3, 2016 | 6:55 pm

      You’re so right, the “gold” in “gold standard” would seem to stand for the “gold” at the end of the doctor’s rainbow. This has to be especially true for gastroenterologists, who prior to colonoscopies, didn’t make a lot of money writing scripts for steroids and Mesalamine. They are raking in the cash at two thousand dollars per procedure, since many of them can cram 25-30 procedures in a day. The insurance companies will pay the same amount whether the doctor spends 10 minutes looking around or 2 minutes.

      This is another reason it is ridiculous to think they are catching cancer in early stages and saving thousands of lives, something the news media always likes to report, even though there has been no clinical studies to prove it. Even if the endoscope gave doctors the ability to find cancers in early stages, how can anyone be confident of this when every doctor will perform the procedure as quick as they possibly can to get in as many appointments as possible in a day?

      In the 7 months I spent at Jackson Memorial in recovery of the transplant, I saw nothing but one failure after the next of endoscopic procedures making a proper diagnosis of anything. The transplant surgeon also liked to use the ileoscopy as a “gold standard” for recognizing small bowels in rejection. On 2 occasions, the doctors made a wrong diagnosis on me and all five other patients had similar bad diagnosis made on them. There was one woman who had all of her transplanted bowels die and the doctors gave her 2 colonoscopies to find the source of her pain and claimed that everything looked perfect inside. It wasn’t until she was rushed into surgery that they discovered that her bowels had been perforated by a colonoscopy, which caused her to go into organ rejection.

      If the doctors cannot even tell that more than 20 feet of bowels are dead and necrotic looking through their magical scope, then how in hell are we to believe that they can find a tiny tumor, smaller than a grain of rice? Thanks for writing.

  77. Unix
    June 10, 2016 | 12:03 am

    Thanks for telling us the truth. If there is no history of colorectal cancer in your family tree , then don’t do the test.
    Vegans rarely ever get colorectal cancer.

  78. Dayle Shepherd
    June 17, 2016 | 6:52 am

    Holy hell! This site has really put me off the joint Endoscopy and Colonoscopy I was told to have 1 and a half days before I am due to go on holiday abroad for 2 weeks!

    The symptoms I had were tense right side abdomen for the last few weeks along with losing a few pounds (mainly from worry!). And feeling hungry after eating…to that they told me to have both of those cameras done! The symptoms are a lot better now and I’m cancelling the procedure as it seems like unnecessary risk based of what I’ve read on here with my symptoms being a lot better…I’ll see about re-scheduling it but not sure yet

    • Donna Marie
      July 9, 2016 | 7:03 pm

      Right side abdomen sounds like your appendix to me. Sounds like you are a little toxic. Things aren’t moving fast enough. Unless your in a lot of pain, don’t reschedule. Go on a detox diet. Cut out meat and junk food, eat lots of vegetables and whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, and wheat-free (spelt ok) bread for a month and see how you feel. Use coconut oil, olive oil, organic butter, and eat avocados for oils. For protein, eat eggs, white fish, and legumes (lentils, peas, beans, or tofu).

    • Joe
      July 9, 2016 | 7:17 pm

      I clearly understand your decision. Having such an invasive test within two days of international travel is no easy task.
      All the literature that I have read from gastroenterologists rarely touch on the effects on bowel habits after such invasive procedures. And apparently some people have over six months of diarrhea and other new such issues related to a disrupted bowel flora.
      The extreme prep required for a colonoscopy forces the body to flush out about four pounds of normal bowel flora that is necessary for normal digestive functioning. And some people’s systems don’t return to normal for a long time apparently.
      It almost seems like the gastroenterologists are focused only on getting the patients in and out, and rarely on the patients’ return to normal afterwards. After all, the GI docs have attained their pot of gold, and that is what seems to matter the most.
      And yet, the world is still waiting on a true randomized clinical trial on the effectiveness of colonoscopies ….. measuring the risks and the benefits for a wide range of the general population. The idea of such an invasive test with such harmful side effects that are known as a “screening test” seems to have merit mostly on the Katie Couric effect plus the real revenue boost for this particular “industry.” I have read that a true randomized clinical trial is being done, but will take years to complete.

    • Wolverine
      September 6, 2016 | 5:49 am

      Way to go Dayle. I am happy you are feeling better and I can gaurantee you that an endoscopic procedure would have done nothing to make you feel any better, only worse, especially if you were perforated, which happens 2.8 out of each 1,000 procedures, so chances are pretty high.

      I hope you’ll think better about rescheduling, because there is little to gain and a whole lot to lose. My life was destroyed by a simple colonoscopy and there are many more who suffered the same fate, and most of them died. I should have died, on many occasion, but I seem very difficult to kill. Just because I don’t die easy, I still in hell. Please give it a second and third thought and find a less invasive way to examine your colon.

      If you fear cancer, your best bet is a PET scan, the golden test for cancers and is non invasive. Even if they thought they found cancer with a colonoscopy, they would first do a PET scan to find the tumors. Skip the middle man and go straight to the PET scan or some other non invasive tests for cancer.

      Stay healthy

      David “Wolverine” Smith

  79. philippa
    July 16, 2016 | 4:26 pm

    What doctors don’t tell you is your body is designed to evacuate bowel waste as our ancestors did in the squatting position. Today all you have to do is to sit on a toilet with your feet on a stool, your knees drawn up and your colon will open naturally. No more straining.

    • Wolverine
      August 13, 2016 | 3:59 pm

      That’s right Philippa. The modern toilet was designed by a cabinet maker. Not a doctor or even a physical therapist, but a cabinet maker. Our ancestors dedicated the exact same way we would, if we are out in the woods without a bathroom — they squatted. Just like apes, monkeys, dogs cats and most all mammals.

      My wife ordered one of those things, I believe it is called a “Squatty Potty” and it works real well for our modern toilets. Many places in Europe have been using toilets which are just a porcelain hole at floor level with places to brace your feet. There are several images here at this Wiki page:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet

      Looks like they were way ahead of the curve compared to British and American toilets. It is far healthier to evacuate the bowels this way and it empties them fully. It causes the pelvis bone to spread open, similar to a woman in childbirth. I can’t imagine a woman giving birth sitting in a chair? So why would we try to empty our bowels that way? same principle

      Thanks for the opine Philippa. On the money, as you usually are.

  80. Wind
    July 24, 2016 | 4:39 pm

    Hi Everyone,

    I read the entire post and appreciate everyone’s perspective. I hope you are doing well, Woverine.

    My last fecal occult test taken a few weeks ago came back positive. I have read that diet can interfere with the results.I ate a lot of seedweed the days before the test. So I requested to repeat the test. But my GP wanted me to do the colonoscopy instead.

    Even before I started doing the research, I already felt that this is such an invasive test and was not going to take it. Ultimately, preventive measures should not cause harm to patients.

    I came up with a 2% total risk, which is quite high. Other than the risks, the overall procedure is just nasty. It does so much to upset your system.

    I consider myself low risk and believe that the result was a false positive. So I am not doing it. I’ll see what the results of my next fecal occult test result looks like. In the meantime, I’ll make an effort to improve my diet (it is pretty good already in comparison to the average American diet), exercise regularly, and be aware of any symptoms.

    I wish everyone the best.

    • Wolverine
      August 13, 2016 | 4:29 pm

      Yes Wind, I am doing well. Thank you for your consideration. Sorry I have taken so long to reply to everyone. Its been a rough month.

      99.9% of the time, blood found by these test are the result of a hemorrhoid or anal fissure. I think that jumping to a colonoscopy is irrational on your doctor’s part, but then again, it is what they do. They are all sold on this dangerous procedure, even though they have not one study to show it’s effectiveness at catching colorectal cancer early.

      What studies that have been done seem to show that those who had regular colonoscopies with all found polyps removed developed colorectal cancer at the same rate as those who had no colonoscopies, ever (Telemark Polyp Study 1). The study incidentally showed that those who had the regular colonoscopies and all found polyps removed had a 158% higher mortality rate when “all-cause” deaths were considered. Weird?

      The only thing I can figure there is that chopping away at this polyps frees cancer cells which metastasize to organs which have a far deadly cancer. No one would want to trade their colon cancer for liver cancer or lung cancer. These are harder to treat with much higher mortality rates than colon cancer, which is quote survivable. Any other surgery where cancer is cut away is always followed by chemotherapy to kill any free cancer cells, but a colonoscopy is, in essence, a cancer surgery, if they cut away at polyps, right. Why no chemo? Even the doctors don’t believe that these polyps are malignant. I guess they know what a show it is.

      I know that the risk factor for a perforation is presently at 2.8 in every 1,000 procedures. That’s very high, especially considering the high mortality rate of bowel perforations. I am very lucky to survive one. I very nearly didn’t. I hate the way that doctors well tell patients that perforations are very rare, so don’t worry. Notice how they use a very ambiguous term, like “rare”. This says nothing and is really up to each person’s opinion of what “rare” is.

      No one considers car accidents as rare in the U.S., yet they are far less frequent than 2.8 in every 1,000 times you drive your car. No one would drive if that were the case, yet somehow, doctors consider this a rare event?

      I would do another test and see what the results are. I would probably do 4 or 5 before getting too worried. In the meantime, you may want to try using some good quality suppositories for hemorrhoids (not just something to shrink them, like Preparation H, but one that can help heal it). Coconut oil is another good option for healing a fissure.

      Like Philippa suggested, it is not uncommon for most Americans to suffer from hemorrhoids or anal fissures due to the abomination we call a toilet. This puts undue stress on the rectum and causes all kinds of problems which could lead to bleeding. One of those Squatty Pottys can fix that in short order also. When my wife ordered one and when I saw how simple the design was and all one piece of molded plastic, it was one of those times where I slapped my forehead and said “why didn’t I think of that”. Whoever did is making a mint.

      I hope your future tests come back negative and you can get the doctor off your case. The doctor will probably still hound you if you are over 50. I wonder if they get kick-back money from the gastroenterologist, like a finder’s fee or something.

      Seems like all GP doctors really push those things. Since doctors are mostly money motivated, I automatically think of how they could be paid for that service. I know for a fact that all of these doctors are given real nice gifts and expensive trips from the pharmaceutical companies to convince partients to take their brand of medication.

      That’s why everything in a doctor’s office has some pharmaceutical logo on it. Must be nice to not have to pay for any office supplies like every other business.

      Thanks for writing and sharing your story.

  81. Sandra
    August 11, 2016 | 1:30 am

    I am going in for a physical in just over a week, and know that my doctor will recommend that I get a colonoscopy as I am 56 years old and have never had one yet. I’ve long had misgivings about this procedure, and after reading all the information regarding risk vs benefit, I know I will be opting for the non-invasive Cologuard test. No doctor is going to pressure me into having a colonoscopy. My body…my decision…period!

    • Wolverine
      August 13, 2016 | 12:28 pm

      Probably for the best Sandra. The procedure carries far more risks than doctors lead people to believe (that’s true of pretty much all medical procedures). We have a pretty good idea of what some of the serious risks are, but I am still waiting to find out what any benefits are, if there are truly any.

      There have been no clinical studies done to prove that they have been successful at catching colorectal cancer at any earlier stages than before. We certainly haven’t seen a significant drop in the event of colorectal cancers. The only clinical study done (and is an ongoing study), the Telemark Polyp Study 1 has a very small sampling, so is not taken serious by any american doctors. Even though the sampling is very small, the results do not favor colonoscopies since those who had regular colonoscopies and all found polyps removed developed colorectal cancer at the same rate as those who had no colonoscopies, ever.

      Colon cancer has become more survivable than decades ago, but that is due to better treatments, not because of colonoscopies finding cancer at a much earlier stage. This fact is clear when we consider that many other cancers have also increased the amount of years one can survive after diagnosis. The cancer I have been treated for since 2013, Multiple Myeloma, used to have a 3 to 5 year mortality rate from the time of diagnosis just a decade ago, but many new treatments have extended that rate to 10 – 15 years and it is still improving as more new treatments are in the pipeline.

      Don’t let any doctor convince you that colonoscopies have had any significant effect against cancer. If so, then tell them to show you the study. The best they can do is dig up some crap that says it can reduce some risk factors — this is medical double-talk and means nothing since a “risk factor” is often something completely fabricated or is myth or wive’s tale which has been believed for so long that doctors even consider it fact (think of cholesterol).

      There is no need to subject yourself to the risks of a colonoscopy. Endoscopes were used regularly on the intestinal transplant recipients to check for signs of organ rejection. We were told that the villi of the small intestine would shrivle (like Celiac’s Disease) if it were under attack by the immune system. This procedure was a ileoscopy, where the scope is inserted through a stoma and into the small bowel, as opposed to a colonoscopy where the scope is inserted through the anus and into the colon (large intestine).

      Even with the far superior scopes they used (their scopes had powerful zoom lenses to magnify the microscopic villi of the small intestines, as opposed to the fixed lens commonly used in colonoscopies), the doctors failed time and time again to make a proper diagnosis. I was told twice that I was in organ rejection and treated with a powerful immunosuppressant before the biopsies could come back from the lab (48 hours). Both times, the biopsies were negative for rejection, so I was treated unnecessarily on both occasions.

      Since the medication used (Campath) carries very high cancer risks and works by effecting the bone marrow, it is most likely what caused me to have the Multiple Myeloma, which is an incurable cancer of the bone marrow, similar to Leukemia.

      On the flip side, two other women I met there were told that the scope showed that their bowels were perfectly fine, yet the biopsies came back positive for organ rejection. They received treatment late. It cost one of them their life.

      If the top intestinal surgeons in the world cannot successfully read an endoscope, even when they have endocopes far more powerful than those used in colonoscopies and have far more experience and education about the intestines, what luck do you think the average gastroenterologist might have at spotting cancer at an early enough stage to make a difference? Doctors can look at skin without the aid of any device and yet melanomas are mis-diagnosed all the time.

      I’m not sure where the idea that because a doctor can look at it, they can properly diagnose it came from? This has not been my experience. I once laid in a hospital bed for three entire days, crippled with abdominal pain because all of my small bowels had died and become necrotic, yet throughout that 72 hours, several doctors looked at my case and could find nothing wrong with me. According to them, I was just fine and should have went home. By then, I was only hours from death and they were giving me a clean bill of health. Of course, all of that damage was caused by a colonoscopy! The gastroenterologist actually had the nerve to say that the pain I was suffering was minor discomfort which was to be expected after a colonoscopy and that I was just over-reacting.

      Thanks for writing and I apologize for the long rant. Go with the Cologuard. It’s got to be every bit as effective as a colonoscopy (because I have yet to see any effectiveness of a colonoscopy) and carries far, far less risks to your health. Stay healthy and live a while longer.

    • Wolverine
      September 6, 2016 | 5:37 am

      Good for,you Sandra. There is nothing to gain from a colonoscopy except,a hole in your colon and believe me, you don’t want that. Few people will survive all that I did, so, please don’t tempt that fate, stay away from that endoscope. It only exists to make money for the doctors.

  82. Mary
    August 19, 2016 | 6:13 pm

    I have to admit, I sat here and teared up reading your story…a little over a year ago, I had to have emergency surgery for a perforation in my colon, resulting in a fun colostomy. I could choose to have it reversed…my new doctor (we moved out of state) suggests that I should, since I can…and it’s such an inconvenience to use this bag and appliance. Yes, it is. He tells me the surgery will be a little ‘worse’ than the original, as if that is going to make me feel better..and he says that the only worry they would have would be a ‘leak’, in which case, it would be back to the original surgery/bag/appliance again. He tells me these things so flippantly, and I remember how many months and the pain and agony it took to get through this whole business to begin with (i’m 55). And now, he’s pushing for a colonoscopy. To see ‘how healthy’ my colon is. Nevermind the fact that less than a month ago, I had an MRI so they could check on a hernia I have next to the stoma, and they were able to see pretty darned well with that. My fear all along has been an ‘accidental perforation’ during the colonoscopy. Common sense is telling me, ‘don’t have it done’. I’m scared, I won’t lie. The fact that I had to have the whole surgery to begin with makes me think, “oh geez, they must want to check for a good reason”…and then common sense kicks in and tells me, “Yeah…billing our pretty-darned-good insurance”. I just read the whole scenario the dr.s nurse emailed me with all of the crap I am supposed to start doing for a full ten days before this colonoscopy…and it’s daunting. I decided before I read this that I was going to ix-nay the olonoscopy-cay….reading your story made me realize that I need to listen to me a little bit more. Especially where my own health is concerned. Thank you.

    • Wolverine
      August 27, 2016 | 11:19 pm

      Hi Mary and thank you for sharing your story with us. I am sorry for the problems you have had to suffer through. I fully understand the miserable life with a stoma. I hated that ostomy bag, especially changing the wafer. We have no control over the stoma, since it is just a piece of the intestine protruding through the abdominal wall.

      You need a very dry skin surface to make sure the wafer adheres and has no leaks. This become a challenge when the stupid stoma continues to output. Luckily, my wife used to help me do that job and she would have to quickly wipe the skin with a rag and try to slap down that wafer before the stoma squirted more content.

      After losing my bowels, the stoma I had was made from the last 8 inches of jejunum. They said I had only about 8 inches of bowel from the stomach, so any of the content which leak out were highly acidic and would burn my skin like battery acid.

      After the transplant, the stoma I had was from the end of the ileum, which is the last inches before the colon begins. At that point, the contents were neutralized, so it did burn my skin anymore, but I still hated having that thing.

      It was hard to hide beneath my clothes (especially when full) and it made noises which I couldn’t control. Sometimes it sprayed out liquid so hard, you could hear it slapping against the plastic bag and of course it farted whenever it want because I had no control over it.

      I agree with you that the main motivation the doctor has to push for the colonoscopy is because the insurance companies will cover it, no questions asked, and they get around $2,000.00 per procedure.

      I do believe that many doctors believe that they are accomplishing something positive doing the procedure. Conventional wisdom tells us that if there is a problem we need to lookout it and we can fix it.

      This is completely wrong. The doctors who performed the intestinal transplants were some of the best surgeons in the world (there are so few surgeons who can do that transplant), yet I saw them fail to make a proper diagnosis time after time.

      Because of the complications I suffered after the transplant, I was at Jackson for more than 7 months and met all of the other patients who were having intestinal transplant. There were also other transplant recipients who would return to the hospital for clinic, where they usually get colonoscopies.

      On two different women who had intestinal transplants, they did colonoscopies and said everything look fine, but when the biopsies were returned, they were both positive for organ rejection.

      They received late treatment because the doctors made the wrong diagnosis. In my case, they did the opposite and said that it looked like I was in rejection. Because the biopsies would take 48 hours to get results, the doctors said waiting 48 hours could be too dangerous and the rejection could be too far gone. They said I needed to be treated. This nearly cost me my life then and is still threatening me to this day.

      They treated me with a chemotherapy drug called Campath. This drug wipes out the entire immune system and carries very high cancer risks (of course I wasn’t told that). They made wrong diagnosis on two occasion and gave me this treatment twice. After the second one, I had no what blood cells. They said that the Campath had killed off 10 to 15% of my bone marrow, which is where WBCs are made.

      In that state, I ended up with a systemic infection of a very bad gram negative bacteria called pseudomonas. I was placed in a coma for 2 weeks. They told my wife that this strain of pseudomonas had 100% mortality rate at that hospital, in fact within every hospital on the University of Miami campus.

      Every time I see him for clinic, about once a year, Dr Tzakis reminds me of that and says that the no one since has survived it. I don’t know how I could have survived that with no white blood cells. There is no explanation. My wife was also told that if I woke from the coma, I would have brain damage because my blood pressure was at 35/28 for too long, No one can explain how I didn’t take brain damage, but they did a good job of scaring the shit out of my wife.

      One of the patients, who had been out from the transplant for more than 8 years and had done so well that she was competing in triathlons and marathons followed their rules and came to Jackson to have a routine colonoscopy to make sure there were no signs of rejection.

      They gave her a clean bill of health, but she began to complain about abdominal pains, so they gave her another colonoscopy and once again gave her a clean bill of health. They told her there was nothing wrong in the bowels.

      I think they gave her a third one with the same results. Her pain got worse until she crashed and was rushed in for surgery. They found that all of her bowels had died and become necrotic because of a perforation from the very first colonoscopy. They had to remove all her bowels and she had to undergo another bowel transplant. Luckily, she is doing well at this time.

      The point here is that these procedures were not being done by some average gastroenterologist. These doctors were the top intestinal surgeons in the world. They were all M.D. and Ph.Ds. They also use a much more elaborate endoscope than the average gastroenterologist. The endoscope they use has a powerful zoom lens which can magnify the microscopic villi in the small bowel.

      So you have hyper educated surgeons who transplant intestines every day and they continually made wrong diagnosis when looking through an endscope far more times than they were right. If these doctors don’t know what they’re looking at, then how am I to believe some gastroenterologists will fare any better?

      Colonoscopies carry far more risks than doctors want to admit. Recent statistics report 2.8 out of every 1,000 procedures results in a perforation, yet the doctor will tell you that perforations are rare. Notice how they use such an ambiguous term as “rare”, which means nothing.

      I doubt anyone would consider 2.8 out of 1,000 a rare event. If you were told that you would be in a serious car accident 2.8 times out of ever 1,000 time you drive you would probably stop driving. No one considers automobile accidents a rare event, yet they happen far less times than than bowel perforations, statistically speaking.

      All of the transplant recipients are required to have a colonoscopy by the transplant surgeons at least once a year. The way I get out of it is by not refusing to undergo the procedure, I just refuse to sign the waiver they require.

      The waiver always state that the patient understands all of the risks and damages that can be caused by the procedure, but waives any right to seek action if injured. It is a lie, because most people sign the waiver without reading it. According to the waiver, the doctor has told the patient about all of the damages listed on the paper, which includes death. No doctor ever explained any dangers to me or anyone else I know.

      Patients are never told these things by their doctors. They are more often told that it is very safe and those injuries listed on the waiver rarely ever happen. I don’t want to hear no fucking “Rarely” shit! I want to know the actual statistic on every one of those nightmare scenarios listed on that waiver!

      If the procedure is as safe as the doctor claims, then he or she should have no reservation about doing the procedure without the waiver, but you can bet your ass they will not do the procedure without your signature. If perforations are truly as rare as the doctor tells us then why the waiver? Why take a chance that the scary shit on the waiver makes the patient decide to not have the procedure. if injuries are so rare, they would just pay the damages for the very few people who are injured and get rid of the waiver.

      They must know that the damages are far more common and without that legal waiver, they would lose more money than they make doing the procedure.

      If you do go for the procedure, make sure you read that waiver carefully. Hell, ask the doctor for the actual statistics. Either way, take that waiver serious. the doctor will blame it all on the lawyers, but the lawyers work for them and you can bet the lawyers would not know about all those injuries to list, including death, if it hadn’t happen to patients before.

      If these injuries only happened every couple of years, they wouldn’t waste time with that waiver, so take that stuff listed on the waiver seriously.

      I am a living example of what can happen from a colonoscopy and my life has been a nightmare ever since. When you wrote about the cavalier way the doctors delivered news reminded me of the worst example of that I had ever experienced.

      When I had the imaging done for the lump on top of my head, my wife and I thought it was an infection, because I had been doing electrical work in the attic and punctured my head a couple times on the roofing nails which stick down through the roof.

      The doctor who came into the ER room laughed when we suggested it might be an infection. Instead, he told us, with a big smile on his face, “no, it’s not an infection or lipoma. It’s obviously a tumor. You have cancer”. My wife and I were both extremely offended by the manner in which he delivered that news. We couldn’t believe he delivered such news with a smile.

      Turns out the cancer is a very rare cancer of the bone marrow called Multiple Myeloma. Didn’t take me long to figure out what caused the cancer. All that extra Campath they had given me, based on their wrong diagnosis from two endoscopic procedures. Treatment which had killed back 10 to 15% of my bone marrow.

      After I survived the pseudomonas, they said that my white blood cells would eventually return as the bone marrow grew back. They said it would take about 6 months to grow back. It actually took a year before my white blood cells began to reappear in my blood work. The marrow grew back alright, but it grew back cancerous.

      So even the cancer I have is due to the poor diagnostic ability of the endoscopic procedures. I cannot see where that procedure is effective at anything, much less detecting cancer. That woman had over 20 feet of dead and necrotic bowels and the doctors said everything look fine. It was until they opened her up surgically that they found her bowels were dead, yet. we’re supposed to believe that they can spot a tiny tumor?

      There is too much risk and from what I have seen, there is no benefit. their diagnosis is almost always wrong. We certainly have not seen a huge drop in the events of colorectal cancer since colonoscopies became the fad. Katie Couric began pushing this dangerous procedure around the year 2000. In the last 16 years, the rates of colorectal cancer have not made any statistical significant change.

      I wish you luck as you go forward dealing with these doctors. At least you seem like the type person that will take a personal interest in their treatment snd question these doctors and some of their procedures. That’s a good ting. I met many people who blindly do whatever a doctor tells them to do. Most of them are now dead.

      All of the other intestinal transplant recipient from Jackson in 2010 have since passed away. I am the last survivor from that group, yet I bet many of the doctors thought I’d be the first dead, because I always questioned them and refused many of the medications that they prescribed to me. The head surgeon, Dr Tzakis calls me the rebellious Mr. Smith. I always remind him that I am also the Alive Mr Smith.

      I researched each medication and decided which ones I needed and the ones I didn’t. They had prescribed more than 15 different medication for me to take. I threw all of them in the trash except for two of the medications. Without those two, I would certainly die.

      You sound like the same type of person, so your chances are good of coming out of all this. There is a patient’s bill of rights )so many of the patients didn’t know about this bill of rights) and according to it, the doctor must do what you think is best for your treatment. You are allowed to refuse any medication or procedure you consider dangerous and the doctor must tell you about every alternative treatment, if there are some. This rarely happens unless the patient insists on it.

      Thanks again for sharing your story. Please keep me appraised of how you treatment go.

  83. JoeInMidwest
    August 27, 2016 | 11:54 pm

    ….. just a continuation of the story about doctors who “practice” medication.

    • Wolverine
      September 6, 2016 | 4:58 am

      Amen Joe! I think many of the comments here speak volumes about the safety of this procedure.

  84. Jackie
    September 10, 2016 | 1:45 am

    About 3 or 4 years ago, after turning 50, my doctor started pushing for me to get a colonoscopy. I told her I was not going to do it. She told me “you know, you won’t be considered a bad patient for not doing it, but I will be labeled a bad doctor for not getting you to do it.” Curious to know what you think of this statement …

    • Wolverine
      September 13, 2016 | 5:09 pm

      Hi Jackie. Thanks for writing. I had never heard this before, but I am not shocked by it either. This may help shed some light on something I haven’t been able to figure out.

      Usually, it is a patient’s primary doctor who pressures them to get a colonoscopy and many times you hear that doctors push this procedure for the money. Problem is, family practice doctors usually do not do the colonoscopies, but refer the patient to a gastroenterologist for the treatment, so the family doctor is not making the money for the procedure.

      In fact, most gastroenterologists require that a patient be referred from another doctor to get an appointment with them. I was never sure if the family practice doctor was getting some sort of “kick-back” or finders fee or something from the gastroenterologists. You know what they say, “follow the money”? But, this never seemed to form a trail that I could see.

      I’m not sure where this bad ranking comes from, but it does answer some questions. I will have to follow up on this because I would like to know what benefit a family practice doctor gets for pushing their patients to have colonoscopies. There is a lot of money made from colonoscopies. They average about $2,000 US dollars and most gastroenterologists can do 20 to even 30 procedures in a day. Also, insurance companies pay for colonoscopies without question, so they know they’ll get paid. All the parts of the machine are in place.

      Thank you for this information. I am starting to think that maybe the gastroenterologists pay a fee to some medical board who, in turn, can give the family doctors a bad review if they do not have all their patients over 50 have the procedure. I just know that money is involved somehow. Thanks again for writing and sharing this information.

  85. Philippa
    September 13, 2016 | 5:49 pm

    We can’t underestimate the role of self censorship and peer pressure in the medical profession. You can have the most caring family doctors in the world but he/she be subject to norms of the profession and not question them. It’s not just about the free mugs and holidays paid for by Big Pharma. They just genuinely think they are doing the right thing and nothing can dislodge this belief even when presented with evidence to the contrary (cognitive dissonance).

  86. JoeInMidwest
    September 13, 2016 | 8:05 pm

    More and more, doctors are part of a network. Doctors may be motivated by money, but with increasing size of so large networks, there is another force by an ever more wealthy group of network executives that are looking to increase their wealth and power.
    Healthcare in the US consumes over 17% of the US GDP. Healthcare costs in all the other developed countries consume 9.5 – 11.5% of their respective GDPs. Yet, the the population measurements of quality in health care all routinely put the US in bottom 1/3 as far as quality. That does not mean that quality health care does not exist in the US, but only that Americans do not have equal access to good health care. The health insurance companies lower costs in a number of ways, one of which is to restrict the list of health care providers to those that they get the price they want. Obviously, those people with the money to get better insurance, can have access to better care.
    Now that health care in the US is dominated by the big four: insurance companies, big pharmaceutical firms, big medical device makers, and large networks; those big players are all trying to maintain their piece of the pie. And the consumers of health care are left behind. The other developed countries in the world have systems that are much more receptive to the needs of the people, and not so beholden to the “needs” of the the providers.
    But I can only see the problems getting much worse before they get better. The elected officials in the US cannot even agree on what the problems are, much less any sort of solution. If a “free market” approach could make everything better, then why does the US have the highest costs (50% higher) and the worst overall health care outcomes? Again, there is great health care in the US, but it is not accessible to everyone, and it is increasingly expensive with higher and higher deductibles. And since I have a Masters in Public Health, I do know how to read research data, and how to locate credible data sources.

  87. Dario
    September 18, 2016 | 10:25 am

    Hi Wolverine I talk to you also via mail, thanks for this blog
    and to explain the risks involved of this inhuman and barbaric procedure. For rectal bleeding and weight loss, 20 days ago i have virtual colonoscopy, the preparation with simethicone was brutal, i have 20 discharge of bloody diarrhea.
    During the procedure, while they sprayed me the air I had cramps and spasms which still endure, it seems as if I have developed diverticulosis, moreover I have shortness of breath, my doctor and various gastrointerlogist say it’s all ok.
    I would like them to pass these cramps and spasms all intestine, just woke up in the morning do not have them, even after breakfast, begin to arrive after lunch and after dinner increase.
    Over all my bowel regularity has changed, I’m two days without going to the bathroom and then I discharges of diarrhea after dinner, I went to the bathroom always after lunch.
    This is the second medical procedure that causes me harm, I have already called an iatrogenic syndrome PSSD(Post SSRIS sexyal dysfunction).
    Right now I would just like them to pass these cramps and spasms and could return to eat my usual diet.
    I read your whole story and it’s incredible, many gastrointerologists are criminals, I hope you can recover better, and become stronger every day.

    Thx to all for the attention.

    Sorry for my bad english

    • Wolverine
      September 19, 2016 | 4:17 am

      Hi Dario, thank you for writing and sharing your story. The sad thing about these type injuries is that they are never reported and included into the statistics concerning colonoscopy injuries. Hell, even the life-threatening damage done to me by a colonoscopy was never reported as being caused by the colonoscopy when it obviously was.

      I think someone has to die right there on the colonoscopy table in order to be reported as a death or injury caused by the procedure. Unless someone is willing to prove in a court of law that the colonoscopy is what caused the injury, beyond any doubt, it will never be reported. This is how they have kept the dangers quiet. The doctors have all the control. Whether an injury or death is reported and added to the statistics, is completely up to the doctor. Doctors will never blame the procedure, especially since most damage will not show up right away and any problems which arise later the doctors will dismiss as being caused by the procedure.

      Thanks again for writing. I hope that your problems will clear up soon. Such invasive procedures should never be used as a screening procedure on healthy people. It’s insane.

  88. SS
    October 29, 2016 | 8:34 pm

    Recently, I saw a liver doctor as my serum ferritin has been high for about 9 months. I’m cancer-free after being treated for Stage 3 uterine cancer, have had CT and every cancer marker measured in the past 3 months. My functional medicine doc thinks I’m still toxic from what gave me cancer in the first place and I have 2 chronic viral and 1 chronic bacterial infection which he thinks night be causing my high liver numbers.

    The liver doc was a second opinion. He wants me to do a colonoscopy, says I’m at higher risk for colon cancer due to my uterine cancer diagnosis. I don’t have genetics for Lynch syndrome which pairs the 2 cancers, I eat as you recommend, and do everything possible to be healthy.

    I’m 55 and have been nagged for 5 years about this. I was going to give in and do it, but your site has given me pause. Do you see any reason to get one? The CT looked great, even my liver looked great…

    Thanks!

  89. Carol Fleming
    November 13, 2016 | 2:08 pm

    Wolverine,
    I have spent the morning reading your entire website. I am scheduled for a screening colonoscopy at 0730 tomorrow morning. I have had a bad feeling ever since I scheduled the procedure (obviously, as a google search of “do I really need a colonoscopy?” led me to your website. I will NOT be having my colonoscopy in the morning and because of your story, I am RELIEVED by my decision not to subject myself to this procedure. I am a healthy, 50 year old woman, with no history of colorectal cancer in my family.

    I am all too familiar with how devastating a bowel injury can be as my 13 year old daughter suffered a perforated bowel at the hands of an Orthopedic Surgeon who let her lay there and suffer with severe abdominal pain for almost 3 days before realizing he perf’d her bowel. She went into septic shock and was on life support for 2 weeks before miraculously pulling through. She woke up with an ileostomy and was on TPN for 6 months (among many other insufferable things) before we finally agreed to a bowel resection. It was a living nightmare.

    My prayers will be with you and I want to thank you for telling your story so that I was able to make an EDUCATED decision based on facts about something that could have affected my health….MY LIFE.

    Sincerely,
    Carol

    • JoeInMidwest
      November 18, 2016 | 5:26 pm

      I can empathize. I also have zero family history of cancer, except for that related strictly to smoking.
      I had a screening sigmoidoscopy at age 50 which was negative, and it was beyond painful for me, though I recognize that not all have that effect.
      I have refused any such procedure ever since, as I also have a great diet, great physical activity level, no symptoms related to bowel activity, no smoking, and on. I am now 66 yo, and still alive. I also suffered a traumatic brain injury, so the thought of having versed (which is an amnesiac, not a sedative) or propofol for a screening test sounds just too risky. It took me over 10 years to recover from a TBI, so the thought of potential amnesia on a long term basis for a screening test is abhorrent. And propofol just sounds like an excuse for a gastroenterologist to go as quickly as possible, which further increases the risk of perforation among other unacceptable potential adverse effects for a screening test.

      • Donna G.
        November 18, 2016 | 5:54 pm

        There’s a new noninvasive test available to test for colon cancer called Cologuard. It tests a sample of your stool using DNA testing. Supposedly it is able to tell if you have cancer cells in your colon. It detected 92 percent of colon cancer in studies. The FDA says it still doesn’t take the place of other testing (it does for me). I was offered it free to me in a study. Insurance will cover it only if you are 50 to 85, have no symptoms, and have average risk. Otherwise, you will be recommended the colonoscopy or pay about $500 out-of-pocket for the test.

    • Wolverine
      December 8, 2016 | 10:14 am

      Hi Carol. I am so sorry for the late reply. My life gets hectic often and I have many good days and then a whole string of bad days (health wise).

      Thank you for sharing your story about your daughter. I am sorry to hear what happened to her, but happy she was able to pull through what she wasn’t supposed to. I know that tune very well. I might hold the record for dodging death, I haven’t done the leg work to find out.

      The doctors let her lay in pain for three days, huh. That must be the cut off point for them. I was left in a hospital bed in horrible pain that was killing me, something serious had to wrong with that pain, yet the doctors would do nothing but order more pain killers.

      I think your decision is a sound one. There is so little (or according to my research, nothing) to be gained, but a lot that can be lost. I am still waiting for anyone to show the results of a clinical study which proves that colonoscopies find cancer early and reduce the instances of colorectal cancer?

      Haven’t seen anything yet, at least not in the US, Canada or the U.K.. the only study I have seen is being done in Norway called the Telemark Polyp Study 1 and after ten years, it still shows no advantage since those in the group who have regular colonoscopies, with all found polyps removed, developed colorectal cancer at the same rate as the control group who had no colonoscopies.

      Of course I am talking about a real scientific, clinical study, where all variables are accounted for. The only studies done in the U.S. are questionnaires sent around and filled out and even the results they seek are only on reducing risk factors, never on the actual incidence of colorectal cancer. This is a worthless endeavor and they know it. Most of their risk factors are made from whole cloth. Risks that they themselves have made up.

      Those who eat a low fiber diet have a “higher risk” according to them, but a high fiber diet has never proven to be healthy. In fact, some studies have shown that too much fiber, which ultimately causes dependency on it, also stretches out the bowels, especially the doudenum, which can be very dangerous in children. Too much fiber has also been link with diverticulitis.

      They also like to blame meat, like they do for every other condition. “Oh, you have a ingrown toenail? Do you eat meat? Stop eating red meat and that for will get better”. Doctor’s blame meat, especially red meat, for all diseases. Problem is, this has never been proven in a clinical study. Clinical studies are very expensive, so these are more of those questionnaire studies where they confuse people about the process meats with fresh meats.

      Processed meats are proven cancer causing agents because the FDA allows many chemicals to be added which are banned in most of Europe because they are known carcinogens. The carrageenan used in many dairy products here in the states is banned in Europe as well. The worse part is it has been banned by the FDA also, but the companies found it cheaper to just pay the fine than to actually just leave the natural fat in the product. That fat can be removed and used in other products, like sour cream. We’ll just thicken this ice cream with,this seasweed extract which breaks down into carcinogens in the duodenum and are extremely degraded by the time they reach the colon.

      Having cancer in your family, especially colon cancer, is another “risk factor”. There has never been proof of this claim. Even with heart disease. Your know what else’s runs in families? Bad diets and lifestyles. When you see fat parents, you’ll most likely see fat children. Children mimic their parents habits and lifestyle choices. Until you can remove that variable or isolate and identify the gene which can cause these chronic diseases, doctors need to shut up about this family tree shit. They do not know that these diseases are genetic, but they sure present it in a way that makes us think it’s fact. Makes you wonder how many their things they repeat like that which are wrong?

      I say “repeat” because I think that they themselves believe these lies because they are taught what to say by the drug companies and manufacturers of medical equipmtent, like General Electric, whom makes endoscopes and many other medical devices. Most of what your doctor knows was taught to them at a convention which was paid for by one of these very rich and powerful lobbies to our government. How truthful can it all be with those kind of numbers on the table?

      Thanks for sharing the story. I hope that your daughter continues to get better.

  90. susan
    December 5, 2016 | 10:42 am

    I am concerned about a friend who at this moment sits beside he husband in ICU. He had a “routine colonscopy on Friday. They took a small biopsy. He was lifeflighted the following morning with internal bleeding. So far they have given him 4 bags of blood and plasma and he still has the same amount of blood he had. What does this mean? Is this normal? Who is at fault?

    • Wolverine
      December 8, 2016 | 9:28 am

      Hi Susan, I am glad you wrote. No, this is in no way normal. If he is internally bleeding, like I was, he is in great danger of a blood clot forming. The body will do what it has to in order to stop the bleeding.

      As angry as I wasfor losing my intestines, once I was healthy enough to go over all the labs that were done during that period and realized that my brain was making the decision to sacrifice the bowels for a few more minutes or hours of life.

      Without the clot, I would have bled out while the doctors sat around making fun of me, telling my wife I had a low threshold of pain and was hamming up the slight discomfort expected from a colonoscopy. In reality, I was suffering the pain from thirty feet of necrotic bowel. The worse pain I had or have ever been in. I suffered a lot of tremendous pain leading up to and after the transplant, but nothing compared to that pain.

      You need to consult the doctors and if you can, have your friend give permission for you to see the blood results, especially the CBC at this time. If he is internally hemorrhaging he will have very high blood platelets, which will be getting higher with each test. Over the three days after my colonoscopy, the blood test showed the platelets begin at a normal 160, then went to 400, then to 800 and finally 1,600 by the third day.

      It is not uncommon at that point for a clot to form in the superior mesenteric artery. This is the large vessel which feeds blood to all of the bowels, both large and small. When it becomes blocked, even partially, the bowels will begin to die. Most people do not survive this. I was a freak of nature and should not survive what I did. Every doctor agrees to that. Do not wait for the doctors to suggest this. Somehow they completely missed that my platelettes were accelerating production, or did know and did nothing but ignored it. That’s what I believe happened, because they knew the platelets were a sign of internal bleeding and did not want to tell my wife they had perforated my bowel.

      They stalled three days, problany hoping it might heal on its own, or that I would eventually die from it and hide the fact that their profitable procedure is dangerous. They really need to be watching him for blood clots, or occlusion, as they call them. When I was in such bad shape, they did two scans on the third day, what took them that long is a mystery. One was a chest CT and the next was an abdominal CT. The curious thing was they did not use contrast for the abdominal, but did for the chest. Here again, I think they knew what was happening and that the contrast would show the clot and be evidence that I was perforated.

      If your friend has elevating blood platlettes, he needs to be scanned, with contrast, both chest and abdomen to find any occlusion which may be developing. They can then do a vascular procedure to remove and restore regular blood flow before they can kill any of his major organs. They die fast without blood.

      Thanks you for sharing this story and please let me know how it turns out? Colonoscopies can be so bad when they go wrong and many die from these injuries, especially when the doctors delay and according to what happened to me and many others who have commented here and written me emails had the same experience with doctors not believing their pain was real and completely ingnoring them until something major happens. I think they always hope it will heal on its own, as some small injuries do in time, or it kills the patient, which most bowel injuries left untreated will. Either way, it protects their money maker-from having a bad reputation. This is the reason most people have no clue how dangerous these procedure really are. Thanks

  91. MaryF
    December 7, 2016 | 3:06 pm

    Wolverine, thank you so much for this crucial information, and I hope you are thriving. Your testimony is part of why I have decided that I will NEVER submit to an unnecessary colonoscopy or succumb to pressure to do so. I have seen enough stories of nightmares, maimings, and death by colonoscopy that my heart breaks for the lives ended and the lives ruined by this egregious cash-cow procedure being pressured on healthy people. In 4 generations of my family, there has not been one instance of cancer of any kind on either side. I regularly get my mammograms and other low-risk cancer screenings, and would submit to a Cologard or FOBT, but colonoscopy is out of the question unless signs of colon cancer are clear and unmistakable.

    Worryingly, my life partner of 11 years has been convinced by his doctor to undergo a colonoscopy for no reason other than that he turned 50 in August. He has no bowel issues or concerns, yet he was bullied into scheduling a dangerous and pointless colonoscopy a few weeks from now. As his medical proxy, I asked if he would allow me to be in the room to witness anything he would miss on the date rape drug they’ll give him. But the humiliation of me seeing him that way is too much for him, so I will have to wait outside the room. I am sick with worry that this violent and dangerous procedure will render him maimed, or dead.

    If I can get him to read your post, I will. Thank you again for this life-saving information, Wolverine.

    • Wolverine
      December 8, 2016 | 8:07 am

      Hi Mary. Great way to stand your ground. LOL, “date rape drug”, that is such a perfect analogy. What they do would certainly be considered a rape in any other setting.

      I am sorry to hear about your partner. It is that scare tactic that doctors always resort to. They have learned that the word cancer motivates people to jump into the most dangerous of procedures without a thought. It’s a really dirty trick, but they all use it because it is effective. The odd thing is, most of us do not know many people, if any at all, who had or died from colorectal cancer, because it is not as common as many other cancer and all of those take a back seat to heart disease. I personally had not known one person who had colorectal cancer until I began going to cancer treatment and met one guy (out of hundreds) who actually has anal cancer.

      If I knew half as many people with colorectal cancers as I know people who died from HD, I might understand the panic. I have one of the rarest cancers, Multiple Myeloma and I bet many people would run and have a bone marrow biopsy done if their doctor started scaring them with it, even though it is so rare, very few people know about it.

      Even worse, there has never been a clinical study done that proves the effectiveness of colonospies at catching cancers early- it just sounds like a good idea. If the doctor can look around in there, they can find any potential problems. If this were true, melanoma would be a very rare cancer, since doctor’s can examine a mole on the skin without rendering a paitient unconscious and the use of a four foot scope, yet they miss melanomas all the time. They have seen far more skin in their career than they have colon linings and have no idea what they are looking at. This became apparent to me when I saw so many misdiagnosis by endocscope on transplant patients.

      I was such a victim twice. The doctor claimed the visual look like rejection to them, but both times, the biopsies came back negative and both times the doctor’s treated me for organ rejection with a powerful chemotherapy drug Campath before the biopsies could come back from the lab. This killed 10 – 15% of my bone marrow, according to the doctors, driving my immune system to dangerously low proportions.

      The new marrow grew in mutated and cancerous. Multiple Myeloma is a bone marrow cancer and is incurable. This mistake nearly killed me much earlier when an infection went systemic and I had no immune system. It placed me into a coma and on a respirator. I was not expected to ever come out of the coma or off the breathing machine. These misdiagnosis can be very dangerous.

      One woman had been perforated by a routine colonoscopy and when she complained of abdominal pain, two more colonoscopies were given to her and doctors saw no problem. It was only when she finally crash and was rushed in for exploratory surgery that they found the perforation and the fact that all of her transplanted bowels were dead and necrotic. They were all removed and she ultimately had to have another transplant, which she survived and is still well. It doesn’t give me much confidence that a doctor will find and properly diagnose a tiny tumor when they miss twenty feet of dead bowel?

      When they find and anomaly, they begin chopping at it, which is a bad idea if it is malignant. Colonoscopies are never followed up by chemotherapy, even when they chop at a polyp. Chemotherapy follows any other cancer surgery to kill cancer cells which broke free into the blood stream. This can cause them to metastasize to organs that are far more difficult to treat when cancerous and have much higher mortality rates than bowel cancers, which are very treatable. It is the spongy tissue organs like liver, pancreas, brain, lung and lymph nodes which are not a surgical option and have very high mortality rates. They also kill much faster.

      I wish you luck convincing your partner. If not, then I hope that all goes well for him and he has an uneventful colonoscopy. More people have those than the nightmare kind, like I had. You just never know who the next victim will be out of the 2.8 in ever 1,000 procedures that end in perforations. If he would read many of the comments on this article, he will see Many testimonies from family members who lost love ones from this procedure and others who shared their stories here about their own injuries and how the doctors have ignored their complaints of abdominal pain for years. Best of luck.

  92. Matt
    January 20, 2017 | 7:16 pm

    So on December 26th 2016 I went into the emergency room doubled over in pain. I was passing bright blood for the most part and commiting. At one point I passed out fromer the pain it was so bad and that’s when my wife took me to the E.R. They gave me a prep which I only could get down a third of it at best due to not wanting anything to eat or drink. They then had me do a colonoscopy and at the time they had me sedated heavily on pain meds so not reading any of it only trusting the doctors words I signed and went in for the procedure. I was told possibly ulcerative colitis and then the doctor 3 weeks later at my outpatient visit tells me it’s ischemic colitis and that at 32 years old I was to young for that. He said yesterday I need to come back in 4 weeks to do another colonoscopy and I’m very very hesitant to do so as he didn’t inform me on anything such as any other issues if any and how bad it was and why a second is necessary besides the fact he thinks we need to follow up. I have since changed a lot of things about myself one is taking care of myself better as I’m guilty not doing so. My question overall is no one in my family has a history of this or any colon issues I’m aware of. We do have a history of heart or cardiovascular related issues if that’s of any concerns. I feel a little but lost and unsure as to where to begin but this is the first place I’ve looked and read that made me ask and reach out. I’m terribly sorry for all your going through and went through its terrible! I am thankful for all you have put on this site and am looking forward to hopefully gaining back some confidence through the last 3 weeks I’ve been so unsure of. I also notice my arms and legs go slightly numb often. Thanks in advance and all wish you the best.

    Thanks Matt

    • Wolverine
      February 10, 2017 | 1:55 pm

      Thanks Matt for writing and sharing your story. Don’t let the doctors bullshit you. A colonoscopy is not needed to diagnose colitis. As you can see, they did a colonoscopy and were unable to correctly diagnose what is wrong. Is there any reason to think that a second one is going to yield any better results? No, just another $1,200 for the doctor is the only reason for another. In fact, a colonoscopy is the worst idea for any type of colitis since those with colitis are 10 times at greater risk of a perforation and you do not want a perforated colon. Even if you’re lucky enough to survive (many don’t), the situation could be far worse — just think of what I have been through.

      Any type of colitis cannot be treated or cured using an endoscope, yet every doctor wants to perform colonoscopy on anyone complaining of colitis. Many people do not realize that there is not such a disease as colitis. Colitis is more of a group of symptoms caused by inflammation of the colon lining which can be caused by any number of things, from a gluten allergy to the loss of the mucosa and any number of things in between. Doctors, even gastroenterologist, know very little of treating colitis, much less curing it. The modern gastroenterologist treat any kind of colitis with steroids, such as Mesalamine. These often prove ineffective. Even when they do work, they do so by reducing the inflammation, but it returns as soon as the steroid is stopped. That’s why they tend to keep patients on a life-long treatment of steroids, which can cause all kinds of organ damage, not to mention the cancer risks associated with these drugs.

      The other thing the doctor may try is a change on diet, but I can guarantee you they will always recommend the worst diet, often times causing more problems. For years, gastroenterologists recommended a high fiber diet even though patient complained it worsened symptoms. When a study was finally done, it was found that fiber worsens symptoms of colitis. Many have stopped this recommendation, but there are still many who still recommend the fiber. Fiber is the worst thing you can do because fiber causes gas and bloating and nothing will make colitis worse of a torture than a lot of gas. You are better off on a low fiber diet and I would drop bread and other wheat products for sure. Gluten is very bad for colitis and is many times the major cause of colitis.

      Another thing gastroenterologist are bad about these days is not asking the patient if they quit smoking recently. There is a proven correlation between nicotine and ulcerative colitis. So much so, that it is called the non-smokers disease. Nicotine can keep colitis completely in remission and it doesn’t take much to do it. Only the equivalent of 3 to 4 cigarettes a day will do it. I say equivalent because nicotine replacement, like patches, gum, lozenges, etc. will also work. Many people develop colitis after smoking cessation. Why, it is not known. Perhaps they had it for years, but the smoking kept it in remission or perhaps the stress of quitting causes it to develop, but it is really irresponsible for these gastroenterologists not to find out if the patient recently stopped smoking.

      I hope that you can get this under control with a change in diet. I would hate to see you have another one of those procedures. They are very dangerous and statistics show that 2.8 out of every 1,000 procedures will end in a perforation, so the more of them you have, the more it is like playing Russian Roulette. Colitis, like other forms of IBS seem to be a more modern problem. You didn’t hear of people having this issue 40 or 50 years ago. Now it is quite common, so it has to have something to do with the modern diets. This is why I tell people to stay away from processed foods. Who knows what chemicals they use in these things. I do know that a lot of sugar is used in processed foods, especially anything marked as “low-fat”. When they remove the fat, they have to add a lot of starch to add body and flavor for the missing fat, so that helps explain the rise in diabetes these days.

      Thanks again for writing and sharing your story. I really hope you can get this under control. I know that the doctors will be no help. They have no cure for colitis, nor even an effective treatment, so you will have to get it figured out on your own anyway and I believe that diet is your best chance. If you had recently quit smoking, then nicotine replacement would be your best bet. Let me know if you get it worked out and I am sorry for the delay in replying. I haven’t checked my emails in a while because I had my studio torn apart. Best luck.

  93. Tom Hansen
    February 10, 2017 | 12:06 am

    Air Inflation of colon causes Amyand Hurnia to perforate Apendix. My father fully healthy age 66 still working, in order to keep insurance coverage, had a Colonoscopy. He told the Dr about his Hurnia in his right groin. He had the hernia about 12 years. By inflating the colon to make the colonoscopy easier the pressure from the air cause the appendix, which was inside the hernia to rupture. He called next morning in pain, nurse said it was normal to have some pain in abdominal area. Finally one week later he had surgery, at this point they thought he had a perforated colon. Obviously, they were wrong. I’m shocked he is still alive. He has know idea what he will say to his maker. Why he messed with a perfectly healthy body, in which the lord had blessed him with, is beyond stupid. These “required” procedures need to stop!

    • Wolverine
      February 10, 2017 | 2:39 pm

      Thank you Tom for sharing this story here. They must inflate all colons in order to perform a colonoscopy. This is how perforation happen all the time. The amount of pressure used is up to the doctor and many use far too much pressure. The surgeons would gives the transplant patients an ileoscopy once a week for the first 6 months following the transplant. Since it was painless to enter through the stoma, we were not sedated in any way for the procedure and could watch it on the monitor.

      Some of the surgeons would use far more gas pressure than others. One doctor, in particular, would always use far too much pressure and I began to complain of the horrible pain it was causing. He continued on and it finally hit a point that it literally pushed everything from my stomach out through my mouth. Unlike vomiting though, because there was no retching, it just came jettisoning up and out. This is how much pressure these things can exert. That is pushing back through many sprinters which are designed to go one way. I am lucky no damage was done to any of the sphincters pushing them the opposite way they are designed to go.

      It is an extremely dangerous procedure which should have never been approved for use on humans, especially not as a screening device on otherwise healthy people. I doubt that most people have any idea how dangerous it is and the risk they are taking for a cancer screening until it is too late. There is so much cover-up when it comes to this profitable procedure. I have been contacted by two different industry insiders who have given me much information I plan to share in some future article as a sequel to this one. One of the whistleblowers is a medical equipment distributer and has shown me just how much cover-up there is on the maintenance of these devices. Most of them are sent overseas, where there is no oversight whatsoever, to be fixed and maintained.

      The other person is a retired military nurse who assisted on thousand of procedures and can attest to the hidden dangers which were far worse than even I anticipated. These scopes cannot be sterilized in any way, but are hand-cleaned. Everyone thinks that because it is going into a dirty place, the scope doesn’t need to be very clean and this is certainly not true. There are many diseases which can be transmitted by these scopes, one of the worse is this new c.dif which has proven resistant to every class of antibiotic known. Once you get it, there is no way to get rid of it. Many seniors have died from this infection because of the massive amount of diarrhea it can cause leading to dehydration and ultimate kidney failure. A younger adult may be able to survive it, but they will live with a type of colitis for the rest of their life once they have been infected and forever live with diarrhea.

      This is just one such disease. There have also been traces of hepatitis, HIV and many other infection found on endoscopes. I can’t imagine that someone paid all day to clean 20 to 30 shit covered scopes are the brightest bulb on the tree and that they do not lose the enthusiasm to do a real clean job after a week or two. I also cannot see how anyone could clean the canal with which the tools are sent through. It cannot be more than 2 millimeters in diameter, but over three feet long. Any chemical sent through that canal would form a vapor-lock at some point and not reach every surface. There cannot be a three foot long brush that they use to scrub the sides of the channel with. This is the canal that they pull any tissue samples they remove through, so that tissue would scrape the side of this canal, leaving whatever micro-organisms on it inside for the next person. It just seems far too barbaric of an instrument for modern medical practices. It should have never been approved for use on people and now that it is, it is going to take a lot to ever get rid of it. The fact that the media loves this procedure and somehow believes it is ridding us of colon cancer, even though colorectal cancer rates have not lowered since the use of endoscopes started. The media refuses to cover any story which puts this procedure in a bad light.

      There were more than 1,500 veterans exposed to AIDS and hepatitis from dirty scopes and when the scopes were tested, it was found that 1 in every 3 scopes did not meet the standards of cleanliness set forth by the medical board, which I guarantee you are far lower standards than we would want for the scope used on us. None of this was covered by the mainstream media. The outbreak of this new antibiotic resistant c.dif has also been kept out of the mainstream press. A lot of this also has to do with the fact that General Electric, who owns NBC and all of its affiliates, also is the largest manufacturer of endoscopes, the device used in a colonoscopy. This is a clear conflict of interest and I do not expect the truth about endoscopes and colonoscopies to every see the light of day as long as this is the case. The only hope is through the alternative media. Thank goodness for the internet. It is the last hope.

  94. Lydia Kievit
    May 15, 2017 | 3:42 pm

    I had a colonoscopy about 3 weeks ago. After I left the office I began having a good deal of pain in my stomach. I was concerned that it happened after the procedure. I went to the emergency room and they admitted me right away. It was an embolism. After a day I found out that I had an embolism in the lung. I spent three days in the hospital.

  95. Andrea brown
    August 6, 2017 | 6:45 am

    I’m 31 now but at 28 I had to have a colonoscopy endoscope be widen was so sick couldn’t keep food down staying dehydrated and I was pregnant also f8ve plus watery bowl movements a day so after my baby was born I went in for the procedures I woke up gasping for air while my chest was being cut abondaned chest tubes in due to my lungs.colasped I then went out woke up in ICU on life support with with a 50 50 chance of coming through this I woke up scared to death and emotionally messed up to this day they just told me the polyp was removed had flattened and was turning into cancer 14 days in hospital and now I’m 32 still hurts can’t eat most the time always on the toliet for past year now been passing alot of blood out of rectum with clots like a period now pain everyday I experience but scared to go to another doctor really I feel they cut cancer and it spread what do I need to do 8m so scared I need my quality of lic3 but afraid to go have another colonostify

  96. Maggi
    September 3, 2017 | 9:42 am

    My sister just died after a colonoscopy/endoscopy. They are trying to tell us she had a liver abscess which got infected, but I don’t believe them. She went into septic shock.

  97. Mark Gaboury
    September 4, 2017 | 11:25 pm

    Thanks for the thoughtful article which is based on research and experience. Digging into this issue is convincing me pretty quickly to never mind the procedure. I should be satisfied, having had an endoscopy in the throat, ultrasound, blood tests, and stool tests. The colonoscopy just seems too invasive and risky.

  98. sarah nandutu
    September 9, 2017 | 2:52 am

    I was diagnose April 17,2015 and find out I’m HIV positive.I was scared because there is no cure for HIV/AIDS but today some people still don’t believe that there is cure for HIV, it can only be cured through Africans root and herbs,and
    our doctor’s here in USA few of them know’s about the African herbal medicine can cure Hiv but they chooses to hide it from us just to make a sales of ARV DRUGS. I did a research online finding way to get rid of my disease,I saw a comment about a herbal doctor on internet Name Dr Owona who has cured several disease with his powerful herbal medicine, I contacted him on whats-app, chat with him explain my self to him.He said he can cure hiv perfectly well , he gave me his request which i send to him. within 5 days he sent me the herbal medicine through ups courier delivering service And told me how to take the medicine for 3 weeks to get cured,I did for 3 weeks, within this 3 weeks i notice a very big change in my health and i new some thing great has happened then i went to confirm my result it was absolutely Negative.The doctor who new i was hiv positive was asking me how come i am negative, what did it took to get cure and were did i get this medicine from and how did i get rid of it I told him every thing about the herbal medicine that cure me. imagine doctor telling me not to let anyone know about it,I wasn’t shock though i knew they know about the herbal cure but chose to hide it in other to make sales on ARV DRUGS,if you are HIV positive please contact my savior drowonaspelltemple@gmail.com or WHATSAPP him through this number +2348115204568.. OR you can go through his FACEBOOK PAGE https://web.facebook.com/search/top/?q=dr.owona%20spell%20temple&em=1.

  99. Mary
    September 28, 2017 | 7:48 pm

    Hi Wolverine. This is Mary – I posted here a few months ago, and thank you so much for educating me about Cologuard as a better first-line screening for colon cancer. After a lengthy fight with my doctor about it, she finally allowed me to do it instead of a colonoscopy. But my Cologuard result came in today, and it was Positive.

    She now wants me to have a colonoscopy right away. I don’t know what to do and am terrified. I wish I could trust that it would be done carefully, to not injure me. I’m very afraid that if my colon is indeed compromised as the Cologuard test suggests, they will puncture it to shreds with careless handling. I’m crying and I don’t know what to do. Should I demand another Cologuard to see if I got a false Positive?

    Thank you, Wolverine. I don’t know who else to ask.

  100. denise
    August 3, 2018 | 4:58 pm

    dear wolverine,
    wow what a story. i am so glad i came across this article. ive been on the fence about this procedure and it helped a lot.

    i had my first colonoscopy at he age of 40 because i was having rectal pain. they first did a sigmoidoscopy and found nothing. why they felt a need to go up into my colon is beyond me. they did remove a small polyp but could not successfully complete the procedure because i woke up screaming in pain at some point. because they could not complete the colonoscopy they made me do a barium enema procedure, which was awful.they told me because they found a polyp i needed a colonoscopy every 5 years for the rest of my life. so i have had a total of 5 so far.

    im pretty sure that is what destroyed my healthy gut. i have had nothing but trouble which started after the 2nd one and got worse over the years.

    they didn’t use probable. they used something called twilight sleep. i think maybe ativan. each time i had to have one i had tremendous anxiety knowing i would have the pain. i had a new doctor for my third one and i told him my experience. he did the procedure with a pediatric scope and i had no pain. i thought great!

    my insurance changed thus another doc who i told my experience and he told me he would use a pediatric scope. had the procedure and again woke up screaming in pain. i heard him say “if we don’t get this done now we will have to reschedule. it was almost more than i cold bare to keep my mouth shut because i did not want to do this again. afterwards he claimed he did use the child scope.

    next five years rolled around, same doctor. i called kaiser and told them i refused to have it done again unless the could guarantee i would have no pain. they said ok. i don’t know what they used but i stayed asleep this time.
    still.

    by this time i was done with it. i started to come across info out there that made me question the value in doing it. i made up my mind not to but made the mistake of telling my adult son who freaked out because he knew i have a sister who had colon cancer and i had a precancerous polyp in 1992.so i had it done. this time staying asleep.

    im due for another one soon and don’t think i can go threw it. im 66 years old now and feel more vulnerable to possible complications. also i don’t think i can handle another prep for the procedure. im not exaggerating when i say the pain from cramping is practically unbearable, and i literally cannot make it to the rest room like i use too. how degradating is that? i called my daughter to go buy me adult diapers.

    thanks for posting

    • Donna G.
      August 4, 2018 | 7:39 pm

      I wouldn’t do another colonoscopy. If you are eating well—no red meat, junk food, or processed food and getting plenty of vegetables and fiber, there is no reason to go through this ridiculous procedure.

  101. Clenched
    March 20, 2019 | 7:25 pm

    The Allopaths often take samples or clip the “Polyps” they find.
    Do they sterilize the area before they cut flesh and draw blood inside a virtual sewer pipe, or do they just ignore normal medical procedure?

  102. Shelley Ferner
    April 3, 2019 | 5:42 am

    Dear Wolverine,
    I hope you are still with us as of this date: April 3, 2019.

    Your courage and truthfulness to reveal these horrendous crimes against your body is a selfless act of incredible kindness.

    I respect you so very much. I also grieve for your physical loss and suffering.

    Thank you for this article and the priceless benefit it affords anyone who reads it.

  103. Jeremy
    April 4, 2019 | 4:46 am

    Hi, I don’t know if anyone will read this. I am glad I found this site, but I’m also confused and scared. I am a young man, 38 years old, and I have recently come down with iron-deficient anemia and have a small amount of bright red blood in my stool. I’m booked in for a colonoscopy, understandably. But I’m SO scared about the risks. Is it worth getting in my situation, given that I do have symptoms? These stories I’m reading are utterly heart-breaking. I had a gastroscopy this week that came back all clear. I’m so full of dread and confusion right now!

  104. Ericka
    August 1, 2019 | 8:01 pm

    I feel that I contracted c diff from a cross contamination from getting a colonoscopy.
    Have you heard of this?
    How can I find out if other patients got it? I was thinking of contacting cdc for advice?
    Thank you
    (I see you haven’t posted in a long time hope all is well with you)

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