Action Item: San Diego OB loses privileges, locals protest

I’m forwarding an email I received from Carol Yeh-Garner who is coordinating the protests regarding Dr. Biter’s May 7, 2010 suspension of  privileges at  Scripps Encinitas, a San Diego, California facility.

If you are not familiar with Dr. Biter, aka Dr. Wonderful per the Navelgazing Midwife, and the unique obstetrical care he offers, please read the article Rally for Dr. Wonderful on Mother’s Day from the Dou-la-la blog.  It chronicles a birth (home birth transfer) he attended, features amazingly touching photographs, and provides a summary of the first protest dated Sunday, May 10th.  This is how hospital birth should be and it’s a damn shame that the women of San Diego are losing access to this incredible OB.

Want to express your displeasure of the hospital’s actions?  Here is a list of ideas:

• Write a letter to the chief of staff.
• Contact your local representative.
• Write letters to the editor to the local news media & newspapers.
• Write supportive statements on your car windows with window paint.
• Go show your support at a daily vigil in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital.
• Come to the Bring Dr. Biter Back Rally this Friday, May 14th from 1:30-3:30 pm in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital.
• Sign the online petition to help reinstate him immediately.

As Carol says, “Time is of the essence. He must get reinstated within the next 9 days or his case will go in front of the Medical Board, therefore, delaying any chance of him getting reinstated in the near future.”

Please see the email below for more information on each of these action items.

Stay in touch via the Bring Biter Back blog or the I love Dr. Biter Facebook fan page.

____________________________________________________

Hi everyone- Please share this information with your clients, your friends, your family & anyone else that knows Dr. Biter. This is an important issue regarding women’s rights–the right to choose WHO to birth with & the right to choose WHERE to birth! If Scripps Encinitas doesn’t reinstate him immediately, hundreds of women will be left without a care provider that truly understands the normalcy of birth. Thanks–Carol Yeh-Garner

Dr. Robert Biter is a unique physician in the San Diego community. He embraces the concept of a woman’s right to choose a natural birth. He literally embodies the entire gamut of birthing options that an informed health care provider can offer to a woman and her family in a society that increasingly demands baby-friendly and healthy/organic birthing solutions. In supporting his patients’ natural birthing decisions, he also offers the best possible medical and surgical expertise should emergency medical intervention become necessary in the birth process. The patients choose their births, Dr. Biter makes those choices possible as long as the choices are safe, and the patients love him. They call him Dr. Wonderful.

Dr. Biter has held staff privileges at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in Encinitas, California for the last 8 years. During his time at Scripps, he has held the title of Department Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as having headed up the hospital’s ethics committee. He has won Best Doctor in San Diego two years in a row by Ranch and Coast Magazine.

With no warning on Friday May 7, 2010, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas suspended Dr. Biter’s obstetrical privileges effective immediately.

Scripps decision to suspend Dr. Biter’s privileges has left both Dr. Biter and Dr. Biter’s expecting patients reeling and confused. At the most critical time in their pregnancy, Scripps has made it impossible for these women to have the doctor of their choosing deliver their babies; and the likelihood of finding another physician who understands and supports natural birthing is slim to none. The majority of these women would follow Dr. Biter wherever he practices; but for him to establish staff privileges elsewhere is a time intensive endeavor. To make Scripps’ actions even more unclear, there have been no claims of obstetrical malpractice filed against Dr. Biter…EVER.

On Mother’s Day, May 9, 2010, the local community rallied around Dr. Biter and the message that families want the option to choose natural births in a hospital setting. The result was a Mother’s Day rally in support of Dr. Biter held with less than 24-hours notice at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in Encinitas, California. Approximately 150 people attended.

Scripps Encinitas Hospital has consistently touted themselves as a very holistic, mother-baby friendly hospital. How can they be so mother-baby friendly if they have suspended THE most mother-baby friendly obstetrician in town?

We know that the last couple whose birth he attended had no unforeseen complications that would indicate a need for suspension. The baby had meconium aspiration, which was found only at the time of the c-section. Mother & baby are doing fine. The baby is in the NICU but is breathing & eating on her own. The parents are thrilled with the way that Dr. Biter assisted them during the birth of their daughter & in no way made any complaints against him to bring about the suspension. The father attended the Mother’s Day rally even though he had a newborn in the NICU. His wife recuperated in her hospital room while holding a sign that read, “We support Dr. Biter”.

Dr. Biter needs to be reinstated immediately so that he can provide continuity of care to his patients that are expected to go into labor at any moment. He is such a dedicated person that he has come up with a backup plan of being an unpaid doula to all his patients that are in labor at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital. Anyone who wants to labor at Scripps Encinitas can change doctors or show up & birth with whoever is on call at the moment, but we believe that most, if not all, his patients will want to stay with him to continue to receive the wonderful care he has provided to them.

Here are the latest things you can do to help:

Please send all letters demanding Dr. Biter’s reinstatement to:
Dr. Ronald MacCormick, Chief of Staff
Scripps Encinitas Hospital
354 Santa Fe Dr
Encinitas, CA 92024
His phone number is 760-633-7686. Ask to leave a voicemail for Dr. MacCormick.
Please CC Chris Van Gorder, CEO at: 4275 Campus Point Ct, San Diego, CA 92121.

Please contact your local & state politicians to bring light to this situation:
Assemblyman, Martin Garrick
Assemblyman, Nathan Fletcher
Susan Davis
Francine Busby
Barbara Boxer
Diane Feinstein

Write letters to the editor to the local news media & newspapers highlighting Dr. Biter’s suspension & the travesty of it. Call them to alert them of the upcoming rally this Friday (details below).

Write on your car windows with window paint:
Bring Dr. Biter Back!
The more people that know about this issue, the better! Sheri Menelli will have window crayons at the morning daily vigils in front of Scripps from 9-11 am so stop by & get your windows decorated.

Go show your support at a daily vigil in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital every day until he is reinstated. The vigils will be held from 9-11 am everyday until he is reinstated.

Come to the Bring Dr. Biter Back Rally this Friday, May 14th from 1:30-3:30 pm in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital. We need a lot of people so bring friends, family & neighbors. Kids & babies welcome! Wear green in significance of peace, nature & eco-consciousness, which are all thing Dr. Biter supports. RSVP at the I love Dr. Biter fan page EVENT page. Ricki Lake, author, actress & filmmaker will be there along with Anna Getty, author, actress, great-granddaughter of John Paul Getty III and creator or Pregnancy Awareness Month. There may be other celebrity supporters there as well.

SIGNS for the vigil & rally should read:
BRING DR BITER BACK!
BRING BITER BACK!
HOW IS THIS MOTHER-BABY FRIENDLY?
THIS IS NOT MOTHER-BABY FRIENDLY!
HEY CHIEF OF STAFF! BRING BITER BACK!
SHAME ON SCRIPPS!

Please sign the online petition at: http://www.facebook.com/l/bf255;www.ipetitions.com/petition/bringbiterback/ to help reinstate him immediately.

We have a blog (http://www.facebook.com/l/bf255;www.bringbiterback.blogspot.com) or the I love Dr. Biter Facebook fan page that will keep you updated with the latest information.

Time is of the essence. He must get reinstated within the next 9 days or his case will go in front of the Medical Board, therefore, delaying any chance of him getting reinstated in the near future.

Thank you again for your help & support!

Live, Love, Laugh…Often~
Carol Yeh-Garner, LCSW, HBCE
858-837-1259
http://www.facebook.com/l/bf255;www.AWellLivedLife.Net
read my http://www.facebook.com/l/bf255;blog~AWellLivedLife.blogspot.com

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