Paging Jeremy Piven

May 9, 2006 3:17 PM

A meth bust turned deeply odd in East Palo Alto, California when an underground hospital clinic was discovered in a drug raid on a house owned by a Stanford Hospital employee. The world of underground medicine has been memorably fictionalized in film, but it can be argued that [nytfilter: metabooty/bootytastic] the real thing is plenty bizarre (link possibly NSFW) on its own merits.

On the other hand, what constitutes underground medicine? You can go with the literal definition, or you can consider this recent near-miss with one of the most persistent urban legends. However, as is often the case, the most entertainingly impassioned defenses of "underground medicine" are those promulgated by "alternative health" practitioners (mustache possibly NSFW).
posted by scrump (12 comments total)

I swear, that last link's picture is the actor who plays Wash on Firefly.

Another film that dealt with underground medicine was Playing God with David Duchovny.
posted by JeremyT at 3:29 PM on May 9, 2006

Registration-free NYT link

The idea of amateur surgery scares the hell out of me. At least shady types have a good reason to, but anyone opting for black market beauty treatment is just dim.
posted by jack_mo at 3:42 PM on May 9, 2006

ObSF: The Bladerunner by Alan Nourse (whose title, but not plot, was used for the Ridley Scott movie). A bladerunner is a trafficker in black market medical supplies—in this future, those who do not qualify for government-controlled health care under the Eugenics Control laws have to seek out underground physicians.
posted by The Tensor at 3:49 PM on May 9, 2006

I remember seeing some old surgical training manuals in a library discards box years ago. I passed over them in favor of a McGuyveresque home laborotory tutorial which showed how to fashion beakers and test tubes out of old lightbulbs and vaccum tubes.

I always wondered what would if less altruistic minded folks had gathered the rest, and if similar titles were being traded on the net...
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:10 PM on May 9, 2006

Nice use of the mustachefilter tag.
posted by Balisong at 4:13 PM on May 9, 2006

A couple of years (I guess) or so ago I saw part of a 60 minutes report about busting an underground dentistry clinic. They guy was a licensed dentist in Mexico.

Anyway, I wonder if they wern't doing more harm then good by preventing access to dental care by someone who had been trained, but in the wrong country.

Oh well.
posted by delmoi at 4:56 PM on May 9, 2006

When you are an illegal immigrant with no health insurance you get your emergency care at the emergency room with a fake SS number and the rest of your medical care at someplace like your local bodega, or I guess, this meth lab/clinic. It's the invisible hand. Someone will serve this need.
posted by caddis at 5:51 PM on May 9, 2006

Subincisions? Holy creeping Jesus! Uh, NSFW
posted by Pressed Rat at 7:15 PM on May 9, 2006

organleggers... Larry Niven's Gil the Arm Hamilton series revolved around the concept of criminals being sold for organ transplants. Here's a link to the books
posted by infini at 8:19 PM on May 9, 2006

Triple clue point to caddis !
posted by elpapacito at 3:06 AM on May 10, 2006

I see this becoming more prevalent for regular (non-illegal) citizens, as more and more lose healthcare coverage...or the ability to pay for it.
Market forces at work, y'know.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 AM on May 10, 2006

Speaking of surgery going underground...
posted by salvia at 9:57 AM on May 10, 2006