A RATHER tame word in most circumstances, impropriety is the word GMH Medical Director Dr. Larry Lizama used when referring to reports of allegations of who-knows-what happening at our only civilian hospital. It’s a common English language noun denoting inappropriateness, incorrectness and such.

I much prefer language that carries a little more bite: like, for example, extortion. And how much are epidural pain relief procedures going for these days at GMH? We’ll never know, as the procedure commonly used to relieve the pain of childbirth hasn’t been available there for some time. Other pain relieving procedures and drugs reportedly are available, however, and they don’t come cheap.

There’s been extensive media coverage of the Good Friday incident involving pay-to-play pain relief for a woman in labor. When she asked for an epidural, she was told that none was available; but an anesthesiologist – perhaps aided and abetted by an obstetrician – is said to have offered an alternative way to ease her pain contingent on a $600 up-front cash payment. The woman’s husband reportedly made the payment and the pain relief medication was administered. I suppose it could have been worse – the asking price could have been a lot more. When a loved one is in serious pain, money – within capability – isn’t usually an obstacle.

We now know for certain that the media reports have substance. Moreover, it’s apparent that this isn’t an isolated case – not simply a target of opportunity for an avaricious physician – but apparently one incident of many, performed under the watchful and knowing eyes of physicians and hospital administrators. Medical Director Dr. Lizama continues to tap-dance around the issue of “private pain relief” in media interviews and press releases. Anesthesiologist Dr. David Head has resigned, though the proximate reason for his resignation will doubtlessly follow him. Who’s next? Dr. Jon Sidell, president of the GMH Medical Staff, is reportedly ‘under investigation.’ Whistleblower Dr. Jeff Gabel is certainly now in the crosshairs of the tyrannical GMH clique of local doctors and administrators.

This isn’t the first account of skullduggery at GMH, nor is it the first involving the dispensing or administering of drugs under shady circumstances. Remember when Dr. Davina Lujan – appointed by then-Gov. Gutierrez to a multi-year position at GMH worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – was convicted of wrongly prescribing narcotics that ended up in the possession of never-identified (wink, wink) “Patient A?” In June 2011, a Guam newspaper reported that Dr. Lujan admitted she wrote prescriptions for the narcotic Percocet using other people’s names when she knew then-Gov. Carl Gutierrez was the alleged “end user.”

There’s even a rumor that Gov. Calvo gave his personal all-clear on this latest episode – one that his communications director labels “an outright lie.” What did he know and when did he know it? As noted above, governors have in the past been known to involve themselves in GMH affairs and events. We recently saw new media coverage of a 10-year-old legal tussle as former Gov. Gutierrez re-filed his $10 million defamation lawsuit against former Guam Attorney General Doug Moylan and Dr. Vince Akimoto. In 2002, they accused Gutierrez of complicity in the award of a $150,000 wrongful death payment in violation of Guam law which limits wrongful death settlements to $100,000. Whether he was actually complicit is anyone’s guess, but the assistant hospital administrator, reportedly the recipient of at least some of the money, was convicted of felony forgery in that incident.

Who do you believe? Did Gov. Calvo really know what was going on? Are the physicians all lying, or only some of them? And what exactly did the hospital press release mean with its assertion that no “Guamanians” were put at risk as a result of this scam? How about risk to “non-Guamanians?” Are you perhaps one? Do you know?