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Vicc · 05-29-2007, 12:34 PM

Dr Tim Samms reports one Hell of a dramatic description of pain by someone who knows it all too well. It isn't him, of course, since the story is told by a woman, but it spoke a truth that reached every single one of us.

I'm not afraid of waking up yet, but I wouldn't mind if a heart attack or fatal stroke caught me while I'm writing this. I'm resigned to the fact that some day I will have to make the choice between dying in a hospital or nursing home, or taking THE shortcut.

I have this "thing" about quitting: I don't give up. You don't give up no matter what the odds, right? Well, that's me anyway. But I don't intend to end up in the same situation some of Gen Custer's men found themselves in one day; wishing they had saved that last bullet for themselves.

People probably say the woman who wrote that essay lost her "will to live", and they're right. She keeps living because she feels she must, and I pretty much feel the same way. I can't quit the game, but I wish the coach would see how tired I am and take me out.

It's unfortunate that her honest words are being misused in a commercial message; one that sure seems to be pushing hard against the line. In this case, "the line" is honesty.

I don't have anything against anyone trying to earn an honest buck, but Dr Tim Samms, who works for (or perhaps owns), the company that sells the products advertised on the same page as that story, tries very hard to mislead people into thinking he's a medical doctor.

If you click on the link titled ABOUT DR SAMS, you'll read words like: Dr. Tim Sams is a diplomat of the American Academy of Pain Management; He is a frequent lecturer to pain physicians and primary care doctors across the United States, and; Originally trained and licensed as a behavioral medicine psychologist, he has been a pain doctor for almost twenty years.

But Dr Sams isn't a physician. How can I possibly know that? The AMA is very powerful; so powerful that people get sent to prison for impersonating a medical doctor. You know those actors in commercials aren't doctors, but the AMA made the rules, and the rules say there has to be a tag saying the actor is not a medical doctor.

I guess the rules say that if you do print commercials (ads) that even imply you have a medical degree, you have to say you don't have one; but you can get away with saying it on another page. Otherwise, why would he try so hard to appear to be an M.D. in his bio, then admit he isn't in another part of the ad? If you click on the link CONTACT US, you'll find the words Dr. Timothy Sams, Ph.D.

Sandra, when you posted this you had no idea that he put that essay out there hoping that people would read it and think that he was the physician running "his" pain clinics. He's running them alright, but the licensed physician is the other doc, a real doc named Vernon Williams, MD. He's doc Tim's front man for the state medical board.

It's a shame that shady people like this get away with these tricks, but short of executing medical impersonators, it looks like the AMA has run out of ways to block every dishonest scheme.

I suspect his pain clinics and his PRISM products are no more honest or useful than ol' doc Tim himself. He uses other people's words to talk the talk, but this guy obviously didn't walk the walk. Earning a PhD is an accomplishment, but it doesn't bring in the patients (or the money) that an implied MD does.

He didn't exactly lie, but he sure stretched the truth until it is nearly unrecognizable...Vic