BRIAN GALE, DPM LOSES STAY EFFORT, FILES PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY

I really wish this guy would catch a break. To be honest, I've had 2 people anonymously send me "hate mail" about Brian, saying in general that I should question the info that I've been told about him, but there has been such an overwhelming number of letters written for him, hundreds of them, relating anecdotes where he genuinely helped them with series problems, that I've been convinced that he, at least, should be considered a community asset, and be allowed to practice in North Dakota.

The letters are compelling. I guarantee you, if I tried to call in that many favors among people whom I've met or provided services to, in all humility, I wouldn't get anywhere near that response, in quantity, or quality. This says a lot for a person. Of course, people can be schizophrenic, but after speaking with Dr. Gale on the phone a few times and reading what others have written
about him, I tend to doubt it. I really think he fell into a nest of bad human relations among doctors in his community, of greed and jealousy, and he may have fought back when he should have acquiesced, and he is being made to suffer for it. Ever met a timid surgeon ?

Read the letter from his wife Tami to the Governor.

I still think his case is an allegory for the difficulty that a well trained podiatrist finds after training when he tries to find a practice niche where he can employ his considerable talents in the
medical community today.

Bret Ribotsky, DPM, President of the American College of Foot and Ankle Orthopedics & Medicine, and Bryan Markinson, DPM in New York, both have written this week in the Podiatry Online NewsFlash that the area for podiatrists to excel, to occupy a
unique niche in the healthcare system, is not surgery, where we overlap with other good doctors (yes, mostly not as good), but in medicine. Ribotsky boldly said, "The ability to make people feel more comfortable, to relieve their pain, to improve their ambulation and to heal their wounds is what has distinguished podiatry from the rest of healthcare...At its best, the complete podiatric practice encompasses medical, orthopedic and surgical care, as appropriate. Some practitioners may elect to emphasize surgical procedures, while others prefer to concentrate on medical and orthopedic treatments. That is not a choice driven by economics, since we can identify successful,
lucrative practices at either end of the spectrum of specialization and at every point in between.".

But Bryan Markinson,DPM in his inimical way, crystalized the "podiatric condition" when he said, "The reality is that the majority of our graduating seniors across the country know most about what the majority of them will be doing the least! I operate alongside orthopedic surgeons, as most operating podiatrists do. In the procedures that I am comfortable performing, I have parity with
respect to "questioning our place."

It is in the non-surgical aspects of foot care that I do not have parity with my orthopedic friends.

The simple fact is that I am SUPERIOR to many of them.

Most progressive, academic podiatrists are acutely aware and agree that our surgical abilities are what impresses the least when it comes to our allopathic colleagues. When and if the day arrives that we are truly in the mainstream of medicine, those of us who insist that surgery is the way to professional nirvana will find themselves "alongside orthopedic surgeons." I envision something better".

Where will it all end, Podiatry Online readers ? Just as our goal for our children is to nurture their talents and give those talents the greatest opportunity to reach fulfillment, we will continue what Irv
Kanat and Lowell Weil and William Munsey and E. Dalton McGamry have done in their lives...make podiatry so useful to society that the demand for it self-perpetuates.

Alan Sherman, D.P.M.
Editor - Podiatry Online, Inc.

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LETTERS
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From: Brian Gale, DPM
Subj: Another day trying to make a life in North Dakota

We lost the Stay yesterday. The Judge said that there hasn't been
irreparable harm done to me. I don't know what to say except that we
have to keep hoping that someone will do something and/or the Judge
will see the truth. I had to file bankruptcy and now the Olson's are
fighting that trying to keep me out of bankruptcy so they can force me
to close my clinic. I have used about a third of a small retirement
account I have to pay for our personal bills and to keep my clinic
open for the past 3 months. At the bankruptcy hearing they asked
about things like "does your 5 year old still wear diapers or is it
just your 2 year old? And why haven't you been able to pay yourself
from you clinic for the past 3 months?"

Another irony of all this is that I applied for a license in Oklahoma.
They wouldn't even look at my application because the guy who is
president of the Podiatry Board there wants to take over the practice
of the another DPM without paying him anything. So the president of
the Oklahoma Board has prevented 7 DPM's from getting a license who he
knew wanted to buy this guy's practice. If any of you know Henry
Asin, DPM in Oklahoma tell him I said "thanks".

This is a letter that my wife Tami sent to "Duane" at the Governor's
office today. Duane has been answering some of the emails that people
have sent to the Governor.