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Jerry Weinstock, M.D. (Psychiatry) replied to yesterday’s Key West ain’t exactly growing older with grace post, which included his letter to the editor in The Key West Citizen - www.keysnews.com. I provided all photos.
cruise ship leaving Key West’s outer mole pier at Truman Waterfront
Sloan: Before publishing any information about
cruise ships draft —it is imperative to note
that several divers went down for me to study the
bottom of the channel. Among them long time
tropical fish collector and experienced diver Mike
Leverone—scrape marks were noted by all divers.
But the huge props do not have to actually touch the
sea bottom of the channel to send up devastating
clouds of black and gray silt/ sediment/ debris that
chokes off all marine life, and kills the base of the
food chain-the photosynthetic plankton-the base
of all life, sunlight. I went with my boat several times,
hundred yards behind various Cruise Ships. The
blackness stirred up -the enormous clouds of silt
was unbelievably nauseating. It has to spread out
for miles depending on currents and tidal flow.
I have a state of the art fish finder on my boat and
the average depth of the 5 mile wide Hawk channel
varies between 25 to 35 feet deep -that anyone can
verify. The draft of the Cruise ships loaded with fuel,
thousands of tons of supplies, including frozen foods
locker after locker, and then crew and passengers
and their luggage—-that draft the corporations will
not reveal—I repeat will NOT reveal. I looked forward
to swimming off the Fort Taylor Beach starting about
5:00 PM until closing -swam with Tarpon, Snook
Jewfish, etc.-it was incredible—schools of bait fish
and in the shallows they would jump off my back
when I stood up —it was like swimming with precious
gems with the setting sun turning them silver.
I swam every day for three months during the summer
until Cruise Debris —black, black debris clouded
the water and visibility became less and less.
(Once I got sick on a bad day with terrible vomiting
and Diarrhea and stopped all my sea swimming-forever;
our natural environment.-defiled.) I saw,near sundown,
Snook 30 or more in a spawning ritual—It was
just too beautiful to describe, before I got sick. Anyone
can observe the stirred up mess in the harbor when
the huge Cruise Liners turn—no one needs
my observations they can see for themselves.
I feel we never should have the giant Cruise
ships to begin with as we are too shallow for them.
We are addicted and hostage to them—
They dictate to us not a pretty picture.
I have had two requests for my references
which I am truly grateful for -it was a lot
of research and time.—-thanks !! Jerry
( since getting sick I have never swam
in the ocean again)—Jerry
I wrote back:
Hi, Jerry -
Thanks.
I can publish your email?
After the surgeon carved three nasty MRSA abscesses out of tender areas on my carcass, he said I could do anything but go into the ocean.
Divers have told me it is very easy to contract MRSA after getting a nick or scrape in the ocean down here.
Am more than happy to pass along to my readers and their friends your accumulated experiences and resulting perspectives.
Sloan
Jerry replied:
as always -THANKS Sloan
Sloan—before the Cruise Ships—all year
even in the cold -I swam in my canal
wonderful -with all the marine life
for 35 years —NOW full of pollution
and petro -chemical refuse -seawall turned black
I swam almost every day —even with some sores on
occasionally —-no infections -they got better in
the clean water—before CS —now never !!
terrifying RISK medically—!!!!!! Jerry
( by the way they dumped the toxic and dirty
refuse from dredging offshore in the clean
gulf stream ) TONS!!! I have interviewed EYE witnesses.!!
(I can give you names.)—-Jerry
[ we have been in this same home going on 47 years.]
( same canal)
Sloan -be real careful—a neighbor
here in Key Haven lost his life to
MRSA-(-Resistant Staph A). the cause of
MRSA—-a friend lost his foot
all he had was a nick, —Jerry, M.D.
I wrote back:
After the initial surgery, a new MRSA sore would come up somewhere else on my skin, the antibiotics would get rid of it, then a new MRSA sore would come up somewhere else, the antibiotics would get rid of it. That went on for months. Finally I asked my main doctor, Ian Garriques, a retired infectious disease specialist, if medicine had a cure. He was running the free medical clinic for the City of KW. He said he had talked with doctors all over USA and they had no answer to MRSA. I said that must be really tough on him, a doctors doctor, who had devoted his life to trying to heal people. He looked like he would cry. That night, I had a dream, which left me feeling I needed to take one day’s dosage only of the new prescription Dr. Garriques had given me that morning, then wait and see what happened. I already had take half a day’s dosage the afternoon before, so I took half a day’s dosage the next morning and stopped taking the prescription. The newest MRSA eruption began to subside, it continued to subside, and in about ten days was gone. No further MRSA sores came.
Some years later, I contracted it again on my skin, but instead of going to a physician, I used a home remedy recommended by a friend: a blend of iodine tincture and Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, and wild oregano oil tincture, applied directly to the eruptions a few times daily. And, I did the writing and speaking given to me to do. That took care of it.
Both times, I knew from dreams the spirit cause of the MRSA infection. Two different heaven-earth ways it was treated.
I now keep handy a small Vaseline plastic jar of pinkish iodine-Vaseline concoction and a bottle of wild oregano oil tincture. I keep the Vaseline-iodine jar tightly sealed out of the light, because air and light destroys iodine’s potency. No bacteria, apparently, is immune to iodine. Whenever I get a nick or scrape, I douse it with hydrogen peroxide, and then I put the pinkish concoction on it. If it persists, I then add the oregano tincture.
Don’t know how it would go with a MRSA infection bigger than, say, a quarter, which was about how large the skin eruption got the second time I was infected. The first time, one of the eruptions [the one on my right buttock] was about the size of a silver dollar. The surgical wound would have held a ping pong ball, maybe even a golf ball.
Systemic MRSA is something else altogether, although I imagine, if it erupts on a person’s skin, it may be systemic shortly afterward. Otherwise, why did it keep coming back on different parts of my body after I contracted it the first time?
Garriques said it was not systemic, I would be dead if it was. I didn’t agree with him. Maybe he was right for other people, but I was not other people.
I added this PS:
During the first MRSA infection, I learned from Dr. Garriques and the surgeon, Michael Klitenick, and his medical partner that MRSA is widespread in mainstream in the Keys, as well as in homeless people. Some years later, I read an article, in The Key West Citizen, as I recall, in which Garriques was quoted as saying MRSA was pandemic in the Keys. He used that word, pandemic.
The Tourist Development Council and the various Chambers of Commerce city and county governments do not warn visitors of the very real chance of contracting MRSA in the Keys, especially after getting a nick or scratch in the sea, and even on land. It is contagious by touch. Klitenick’s medical partner agreed with me, that it might be able to jump from one person to another. MRSA skin eruptions are why some homeless people do not use Key West’s overnight shelter, KOTS. They are afraid of contracting MRSA, which is the terror of all homeless people. That, and brown recluse spider bites, which are even worse than MRSA, the brown recluse skin eruption progresses much faster.
People come to the Keys from somewhere, then they leave and reach home and break out with MRSA, and likely as not have no clue where it was contracted, or how to treat it the way I was taught to treat it by the angels, with some help from one of their human friends.
Jerry replied:
Dredging refuse, rubble and dirty slag
have been dumped off-shore to impact
the entire reef-line of the Keys.The currents
carry this offal to infect us all yet only
Key West Voters get to vote. Next it will
be only HTA and Bar owners. We must
protest and declare this referendum
invalid if we all can’t voice our opinion,
in Monroe county.
I replied:
The only way I know to invalidate the referendum on the ground that it is only open to Key West voters is to litigate in state court.
———————————————-
A colourised SEM of MRSA
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also calledoxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (ORSA). MRSA is any strain of Staphylococcus aureus that has developed, through the process of natural selection, resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which include the penicillins (methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, etc.) and the cephalosporins. Strains unable to resist these antibiotics are classified as methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, or MSSA. The evolution of such resistance does not cause the organism to be more intrinsically virulent than strains of Staphylococcus aureus that have no antibiotic resistance, but resistance does make MRSA infection more difficult to treat with standard types of antibiotics and thus more dangerous.
MRSA is especially troublesome in hospitals, prisons and nursing homes, where patients with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of infection than the general public.
Early stage MRSA skin infection
advanced MRSA skin infections:
Do you think the Key West Chamber of Commerce, the Key West City Government, the Florida Keys Tourist Development Council, and the cruise ship industry care about you and anyone you know contracting MRSA? Do you think cruise ships should be banned from Key West altogether, after you vote NO on the channel-widening “study” referendum? If so, forward this post to your friends and elected city officials. If not, well, I hope you never contract MRSA, is all the good I can say right now.
If you are thinking a mostly retired psychiatrist (Jerry Weinstock) is out of his element discussing water pollution and waterborne disease, know that to become a psychiatrist Jerry first had to go to medical school just like all other M.D.s you know had to do. During his medical school training, Jerry took all the basic medical school courses all the other medical students took. Then, Jerry did an internship, just like all other M.D.s you know did. Just like Michael Klitenick did. Then, Jerry did a residency in Psychiatry. Michael Klitenick did a residency in surgery.
For decades, Jerry has been deeply involved in trying to preserve the Keys environment. He has been an avid Keys fisherman for just as long. He is not your normal landlubber “gadfly”, ahem, like me, who shows up at Key West City Commission meetings and berates elected and hired city officials about the environment. Jerry is as knowledgeable about the Keys ocean environment as Ian Garriques, MD, an infectious disease specialist, was knowledgeable about MRSA. As knowledgeable as Michael Klitenick, MD is about surgery. Michael Klitenick, who saved my life, told me post op that I could do anything but go into the ocean. He knew what was in the water. As do all divers in the Keys.
Bon aperitif.
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
P.S. Yes, I know there are other causes of ocean pollution in the Keys. Septic systems and cess pits, liveabords dumping raw sewerage into the ocean, road construction and development, Navy ships. However, Key West is completely sewered, and has a state of the art sewerage treatment plant. The city’s treated wastewater is free of biological pathogens. What Key West is not free of is, yep, cruise ships like this one passing Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park, across from where I sat on the shore and looked down and to my horror noticed horrible sores erupting on both sides of the base of my penis.
