December 7, 2009

Governor Bev Perdue
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301

Honorable Governor Bev Perdue,

The Official North Carolina Medical Board Web site states one of your responsibilities as governor: 

“The Board consists of 12 members appointed by the Governor.  Board members may serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms.”

The purpose of this letter and attachments is to inform you of the NC Medical Board’s decision to not renew Dr. Michael Rosner’s medical license, a neurosurgeon who had a practice in Hendersonville.

I, and others, believe his license must be renewed for the following reasons:

I believe the board’s refusal to renew his license could have been highly political in nature, since Dr. Rosner would assist some patients who had been rejected by other doctors.  For a friend, and myself it was as if we had already experienced the complaints coming from the healthcare plan that is now being debated in Congress.

We were very disappointed that the Board chose to isolate itself from patients who wanted to testify on Dr. Rosner’s behalf.  If you read their complaints on the Web, many patients were upset, as we were, that Dr. Rosner would no longer be able to practice in this state. The Board needed to hear their testimonies on how Dr. Rosner had changed their lives, but it looks like it arrogantly ignored them on recommendation of its former leadership.

These patients have lost their advocate for unique health care issues. Some of those issues, I am sure, were life threatening like mine. It is ironic that Board-licensed physicians could not understand my increased inability to breathe along with increasing weakness. Two walked away from me, believing my problem had a “mental component,” while another never invited me back even after my heart rate was recorded at 35 bpm while being monitored in a hospital. 

Having no place to turn with my physical problem growing worse, I found Dr. Rosner through a tradesman, a local roofer. Unlike my other doctors, Dr. Rosner immediately identified my problem and corrected it.   He performed cervical stenosis within a month of my meeting him, which was over two years ago, returning me to being a productive member of society.

Today that surgery could not be performed because my condition would have deteriorated to the point there would have been no room for the drill to do its job, leaving me to be bed ridden, useless, and likely to die. 

Attached with this letter, and placed under a testimonial, is a detailed overview of what I endured before meeting Dr. Rosner, how he helped me, and where I am today as I write this letter. Also you will read about the involvement of another patient of Dr. Rosner’s whose life was also saved—the aforementioned roofer.  I serendipitously met him because one of my skylights had sprung a leak.

Existing and future North Carolina patients of Dr. Rosner are now being denied his special and unique medical training, not to mention other people across the United States who seek his rare expertise. He is a unique and skilled physician, and many desperate people continue to need his care.   Since the Board never allowed me to testify, they never knew the other doctors I had seen before Dr. Rosner crossed my path, as well as those doctors telling the roofer and me that our problems were in our heads. It makes no sense that those who walked away from me keep practicing in North Carolina while the skilled physician who saved my life is denied a license.

As mentioned above, attached just below this letter is a testimony I wrote after my surgery. It was later placed in Dr. Rosner’s office for patients to read as an example of someone’s life he had changed from complete hopelessness to productivity again. If it could happen for me, it could happen for them.

It is time for the Medical Board to renew Dr. Rosner’s license and listen to other patients who believe he is a cutting-edge physician. Sadly, he may have run into ego-driven politics because he healed the patients that other doctors couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Here is an article on the Board's findings and Dr. Rosner's reaction. from the Mountain Xpress in Asheville dated February 26, 2009, titled, Controversial neurosurgeon’s license suspended again.

Again, I, along with Dr. Rosner’s other patients, have posted testimonials on the Reinstate Rosner Web site.  They need to be heard now!

Please advise when you will review the board’s decision and reinstate Dr. Rosner’s license to practice medicine in North Carolina.  It would be a good decision for people who live outside of North Carolina and seek Dr. Rosner’s help.  It would be a good decision for people who live in North Carolina and seek Dr. Rosner’s help.  And let’s not forget his patients that need him now.

You can also go to the Web site Rate My Doctor to see 23 comments by Rosner's patients. And there this comment from the National Fibromyalgia Research Association seven years ago when the North Carolina Medical Board starting messing with his career. The letter identifies the kind of mentality Dr. Rosner is fighting against from your medical board.

The sad fact is that many people given the diagnosis of fibromyalgia are from that point forward isolated in a special corner by the medical field and branded with a psychological illness that covers every symptom known to mankind, regardless of whether that symptom is actually part of fibromyalgia or not. Once a doctor sees the term fibromyalgia in a patient’s history, very relevant symptoms and signs of other illnesses are overlooked and help that might be available to other people suffering from such ailments is purposely withheld by very well meaning physicians.

The organization goes on to say about Dr. Rosner professional peers:

NFRA’s association with Dr. Rosner began in September 1997 when he was invited to present his work at our researchers’ symposium in Portland, Oregon. Since that time many advances have taken place concerning this area of thought. In January 1999, NFRA teamed up with Presbyterian Health Care and presented a symposium about these issues in Charlotte, North Carolina. Neurosurgeons, Dr. Thomas Milhorat from Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Dan Heffez from Chicago and Dr. Rosner presented their work relevant to these issues at that meeting. Neurologist Roger Kula from the State University of New York and rheumatologist, Dr. I. Jon Russell from the University of Texas Medical Center at San Antonio were also presenters at this meeting. Several Charlotte neurosurgeons were in the audience as well as other medical professionals.

Finally the letter comments directly about Dr. Rosner's efforts:

So, on behalf of millions of fibromyalgia sufferers, thank God for Dr. Michael J. Rosner. He has opened the door to thought and possibilities that had been overlooked by his peers. His compassion and willingness to sacrifice his medical career to help his patients should be commended not reprimanded. Today there are hundreds of lives that have been touched by his genius and there will be millions of future lives dramatically altered because he has stepped up to the challenge and has upheld his oath as a doctor to help his patients.

After reading this complete letter, see Dr. Rosner's comment to the Mountain Xpress about his reaction to the Board not renewing his license to practive in North Carolina.

In medieval times, we burned people at the stake for different ideas. Now we simply strip them of their professional reputation. - Dr. J.Rosner, February 26, 2009

 

| Read my testimonial on Dr. Rosner's professionalism | Read how three specialists walked away to let me die |

I rest my case!

Sincerely,

Gary and Connie
Western North Carolina
freedomsupport@aol.com

(Name and address is with the original cover letter sent to the North Carolina's Governor's Office via certified mail.)