Fearing that the remaining condoms might burst, poisoning the stupid mule, the doctors at Mary Immaculate Hospital performed surgery to remove the condoms without his consent.
Kanyi in turn sued the doctors at Mary Immaculate Hospital for $25 million for malpractice. Here's a guy who gets caught trying to smuggle heroin into the country and then sues the doctors who saved his life. In some countries, such as Malaysia, a person can get the death penalty for this alone. Signs at the airport in Kuala Lumpur read, “Dada [illegal drugs] means death.” People who get caught smuggling drugs into that country can expect to die. But in America sleazy drug runners get to sue.
Fortunately the jury in Kanyi's civil case wasn't sympathetic. After two days of deliberation, they decided that Kanyi and his lawyers will get nothing. Not a penny.
A spokesman for the hospital called the case “an example of a frivolous lawsuit which consumes a lot of time and resources from our mission of providing health care. It just ends up making health care more expensive for everybody else.”
What Kanyi did was extremely dangerous. What the doctors did was an act of mercy. Shame on the attorneys who helped Kanyi file this ridiculous lawsuit wasting the valuable time and money of the doctors and the hospital.
Aiding and abetting
Long Island City is about to get its own free needle exchange. In the interest of preventing the spreading of AIDS, the city is about to become a facilitator in the abuse of drugs. No matter how noble its intention, the city is prepared to help heroin users kill themselves.
If you did what the city is about to do, you could get arrested. The possession and distribution of drug paraphernalia is illegal. In the past the police arrested addicts for possession of paraphernalia, but they can hardly do that if the paraphernalia is handed out by the city.
The needle exchange, already in place in other boroughs, allows heroin addicts to trade in used needles for clean, new needles. The AIDS Center of Queens County would operate the proposed syringe exchange at its facility at 42-57 Hunter St. on Tuesdays and Fridays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
When the city hands out free needles, it encourages drug addicts to continue injecting heroin, speed and other drugs into their veins. Few drug addicts support their habits with the money they make from legitimate jobs. Sooner or later they find it necessary to steal or sell drugs to get the money for their next fix.
The program may slow the spread of AIDS, but it will do nothing to reduce the number of premature babies born with narcotics flowing through their tiny veins. But it will make it easier for pregnant women to get clean needles.
The free needle exchange is an unacceptable compromise that trades the hope for a moderate decrease in the spread of AIDS for the certainty of aiding and abetting drug abuse.
