title:  Rick Scott Kills Babies By Eliminating Medical Standards After $200K Bribe From Hospital
text: Rick Scott is an absolutely horrible governor and literally gives zero f*cks about the people of Florida   even babies. Governor Scott is being accused of eliminating health standards for children s heart surgery after a hospital donated $200,000 to Republicans, including his own political action committee.In 2015, CNN revealed that St. Mary s Medical Center in West Palm Beach had an extremely high mortality rate in their pediatric cardiology program. Between 2011 and 2013, the hospital had a 12.5 percent death rate for open heart surgeries on babies and children; by comparison, the national average was 3.3 percent. So many children were dying at the hospital that in 2014 five independent pediatric heart doctors arrived at the hospital to review the program. The doctors were horrified by what they found, and recommended that the hospital stop performing surgery on babies under six months old and not perform any complicated procedures on older children.The hospital ignored their advice and more children and babies died. The state of Florida was warned by multiple highly respected cardiologists that the hospital had problems, but the state did nothing. Actually, that s not true, they did something far worse than nothing.Two moths after CNN s investigation was published, the state eliminated standards that have been in place for nearly forty years to protect pediatric heart patients. Why? Because during the same period of time that all of the children were dying in St. Mary s, the owners of the hospital, Tenet Healthcare, donated $200,000 to Rick Scott s PAC and the Republican Party of Florida.David Nykanen, co-director of the Heart Center at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, called the move to eliminate the standards AFTER the donations  too much  of a coincidence: The coincidence is just a little too much. It s just a little hard to swallow. Tenet s Shelly Weiss Friedberg told CNN that they had nothing to do with the state s decision: At no time have we discussed the pediatric cardiac standards with the governor or his office, or with any elected official or anyone on their staff. Our opinion was not sought on the standards nor have we expressed a position on the possible repeal of the standards or the role of the Cardiac Technical Advisory Panel. Nyakanen was not convinced, saying, If someone is contributing at that level, obviously they have to have some influence. If Tenet Healthcare contributed so much money, you d think they have the ear of the governor and the politicians. Last month Administrative Law Judge John Van Laningham agreed that the state should do away with the standards, claiming that suggesting the quality of healthcare would diminish is a little insulting to the health care professionals who personally deliver those services.  But at St. Mary s the quality was never there to begin with and if anything the state should have stepped in and prevented the hospital from ever operating on tiny humans again. Of course, this is Rick Scott s Florida that we are talking about and he cares little about the people of the state he was elected to serve.This is not the first time Rick Scott has screwed over the people of Florida when it comes to healthcare. The former hospital CEO/Medicare thief and House Republicans brought the government to a grinding halt when they refused to expand Medicaid to nearly a million of the state s working poor. Now that they have done this, it is absolutely crystal clear that Florida s GOP-led government will stop at nothing to help their donors   even if that means killing your children.Featured image via Facebook