I was in a jury pool once, I sat next to the then chairman of the AZ Medical Board. I learned more about the politics of medicine in one afternoon than in my entire career. We discussed the case of a family practitioner in Mesa who got absolutely pilloried in the press, front page, for not accepting in his office a Spanish speaking girl who came in w/o an appointment. The girl later died of a ruptured appendicitis.
The doctor was publicly accused of racism and some prominent Hispanic group complained to the Board. It turns out that the office was open for the nurses to give allergy shots only, and the doctor was in Vegas at the time. He had all his receipts to prove it. The complaint was found to be baseless, but that fact never made it to the front page of the AZ Republic. It was buried deep in the paper.
