The Magic Tonsillectomy or Armstrong's Voodoo Science?

[David Josephs]

The doctor named on the insurance application was a "Dr. Philben." His full name was Patrick Donald Philben and he was a doctor of osteopathy; a form of "healing" developed along lines of spiritualist philosophies and hands-on manipulation. In the early days it was closely associated with such pseudo-intellectual attempts to merge science and spiritualism as Theosophy. Drugs were not part of treatment, and surgery was regarded as a last resort. Lee's tonsillitis was treated along osteopathic lines which may have mimicked for instance, a faith healing session in which Marguerite honestly believed the tonsils had been removed. This also makes explicable the lack of hospital records confirming a tonsillectomy. One wonders if non-traditional medicine was introduced to Marguerite by her new husband. All records prior to her meeting Ekdahl show the use of traditional doctors.


From part 2, vol one of Lee Harvey Oswald's Cold War

"Lee Harvey Oswald's Cold War" is a book by Greg Parker... https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/418198

from which he does not site his sources for his paragraph on Dr Philben... nor does he explain why he then makes the connection to Faith-healing other than to use the terms:
"MAY HAVE MIMICKED" and "ONE WONDERS"

I for one would be interested in what GP has to show us regarding "All records prior to her meeting Ekdahl show the use of traditional doctors" and why speculation of this extreme sort consitutes evidence against anyone and is enough to disprove the word of his mother, the insurance company and the FBI.

The report from which information about the tonsilectomy comes from, of all places, yes - an FBI report... which does quote the information listed on the insurance application, much like all the other FBI reports GP uses as supporting evidence for his arguments originate... (see Peggy Zimmerman et al...)

Are we actually to believe that information found on FBI reports is not accurate when only based on someone's memory? Or only when it supports his arguments?



[ATTACH=CONFIG]5816[/ATTACH]



http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...d=24833435

So I did a little digging on my own... you know, since he is quoting himself as the source of the information and then goes on to hypothesize as to the qualification of the Doctor in question... maybe his presentation was biased by a desire to support a preconceived conclusion....
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Birth:
[/TD]
[TD]Mar. 29, 1917 Butte Boyd County Nebraska, USA
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Death:
[/TD]
[TD]Jul. 15, 1993 Bristol Ellis County Texas, USA
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]
Services for Dr. Patrick Donald Philben, founder of the Grove Medical Center Clinic in Pleasant Grove, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Grove Hill Funeral Home Chapel in Dallas. Burial will follow at Grove Hill Memorial Park.
Dr. Philben, 76, died of cancer Tuesday at his ranch home in Bristol, east of Waxahachie.
The Butte, Neb., native graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Neb., in 1938. One year later, Dr. Philben founded the Columbia Clinic in old East Dallas.
He then moved to Pennsylvania and completed his residency at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy. He returned to Dallas and founded the Grove Medical Center Clinic in 1947. He also served as president of the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians in 1954 and was an associate clinical professor at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth.
Dr. Philben served as chief of staff at several local hospitals over the years, including Dallas Memorial Hospital in old East Dallas.
In 1985, he moved his practice to Family Medical Center in Far North Dallas, where he remained until mid-May.
Memorials may be made to the southeast Dallas branch of the YMCA.
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


http://digitalcommons.hsc.unt.edu/cgi/vi...topjournal
In the April 1945 issue of "Texas Otheopathic Physicians Journal" on page 27:

Dallas County Osteopathic Association Election
Dr. Patrick D. Philben was elected president of the Dallas County Osteopathic
Association at the meeting at Stoneleigh Hotel, Thursday night, April
12th. Other officers elected are Dr. Robert H. Lorenz, vice-president,and Dr.
Gladys F. Pettit, secretary-treasurer, re-elected.

Dr Philben here seems to have been fairly respected by the medical profession in TX, as was Osteopathic Medicine.... and not a single mention of faith-healing, calling on spirits or the laying on of hands....
So what really is Osteopathic medicine?

Osteopathic medicine is a branch of the medical profession in the United States. Osteopathic physicians (D.O.s) are licensed to practice medicine and surgery in all 50 states and are recognized in sixty other countries, including all Canadian provinces.

Frontier physician Andrew Taylor Still founded the profession as a rejection of the prevailing system of medical thought of the 19th century. Still's techniques relied on holistic measures such as the manipulation of joints and bones to diagnose and treat illness, and he called his practices "osteopathy". By the middle of the 20th century, the profession had moved closer to mainstream medicine, adopting modern public health and biomedical principles. American "osteopaths" became "osteopathic medical physicians", ultimately achieving full practice rights as medical doctors in all 50 states, including serving in the U.S. armed forces as physicians.[1][2]

So obviously Lee's mother was subject to - in the words of no one else other than Greg Parker: "a faith healing session in which Marguerite honestly believed the tonsils had been removed"

In reailty, Mr P does not have any evidence at all the tonsilectomy was never performed other than concluding the information provided an insurance company by the man's mother as recorded by the FBI's investigation into the matter was the result of some charade perpetrated by a TX medical doctor. Cause as we all know, determining whether the accused (and now dead) killer of the president had his tonsils out in 1945 by December 9, 1963 (less than 3 weeks after a man was gunned down in the DPD basement) would be instrumental in reinforcing his guilt...

;;okay::




I wonder if there were any other ALTERNATIVE healing practices that GP can disparage as being linked to faith-healing?

The history of Chiropractic began in 1895 when Daniel David Palmer of Iowa performed the first chiropractic adjustment on a partially deaf janitor, Harvey Lillard, who then mentioned a few days later to Palmer that his hearing seemed better.[1] This led to Palmer opening a school of chiropractic two years later Despite their similarities, osteopathic p[B]ractitioners sought to differentiate themselves by seeking licensure to regulate the profession calling chiropractic a "bastardized form of osteopathy"[3] In 1907 ina test of the new osteopathy law, a Wisconsin based chiropractor was charged with practicing osteopathic medicine without a license. Practicing medicine without a license led to many chiropractors, including D.D. Palmer, being jailed.[3] [/B]