Medical profession face saving

Life Health & Fitness
1

I’m wondering if anybody has a similar story to this where they actually go back to expain that the doctor was totally wrong and what the reaction is. Bassman could have died from this misdiagnosis. Can’t get much more serious than that.

[quote=“Bassman”]I started out with about 4 different Drs in the same hospital. Wouldn’t expect a second opinion there. I even had Drs in Taiwan, because of my age, seriously doubt me when I told them that I am diabetic.

I do remember one Dr suggesting that I go on insulin injections, however, he used that as a threat because he thought that my high sugars were my fault and knew that I didn’t like needles at all.

[color=blue]I’d love to be able to see those Drs again and tell them that they were wrong… it may help them be better Drs[/color].[/quote]

2

[quote=“Ironman”]I’m wondering if anybody has a similar story to this where they actually go back to expain that the doctor was totally wrong and what the reaction is. Bassman could have died from this misdiagnosis. Can’t get much more serious than that.
[/quote]

I once sent an e-mail to a hospital in Taipei after they missed an (what later turned out to be) obvious diagnosis of Kawasaki disease in my son. The mistake could have had serious reprecussions, since the primary treatment is effective only if given within the first 10 days. Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any long-term consequences. I received a return e-mail from the hospital a couple months later, apologizing for any error that might have been made and asking if they could be of any help, but we had left the country by that time.

Doctors in the US who have made mistakes with the care of some of my family members have not been apologetic. They can’t be–apologizing opens them up to lawsuits. The ones in my experience do seem to good with excuses.

3

Interesting. Maybe the USA is actually worse with the lawsuit happy culture.

My father died in Australia from a total lack of diagnosis. He visited a cancer specialist every 6 months to check for signs of cancer coming back. Each trip for the last 3 years he was gradually tilting more to one side. He walked tilted over to the side. Cancer in the spine.

Makes me angry just to post this. What an idiot that doctor was. I never followed it up. The grief and trauma was all consuming. Years later I looked back on what happened and …well, I try not to look back.

4

I sent an email to the hospital that was treating me. I doubt that it will even make it to the doctors and I seriously doubt that I will get a reply. I just had to do something though.

5

Yes, I have seem some of this litigation chilling effect on the treatment of some people I know. Worse, it blocked any further make-up treatment (tantamount to admission) to actually fix the damn problem… which to me is a doctor’s first job. Instead, my friend went to the same clinic, and another doctor basically had to help her hush hush.

I’ve had good luck with medical service in Taiwan: cheap, not fancy, but functional. Best service overall? Still Canada. HK wasn’t bad if you had the bucks.

I think in then end you have to rely on yourself for preventative medicine in order to avoid hospitials as much as possible. Some things are out of your control, yes, but many others e.g. exercise and diet, are not (work-life balance notwithstanding). The rest is luck I guess.

6

Yes, but with one caveat: If you are fortunate enough to have a doctor.

7

I believe that a high percentage of doctors everywhere are nine-tenths incompetent. I agree with Jack Burton, and try to have as little contact as possible with medical institutions (though my one hospital stay in Taiwan did yield the great benefit of bringing a bunch of lovely student nurses into my life, with the fun times we later had together more than making up for the negative aspects of the hospitalization).

I have little faith in the doctors here, but no more faith in the doctors back in England. For example, when I was nine years old, our family doctor misdiagnosed my acute appendicitis as nothing more than an upset stomach. My Mum, who had been a nurse, was sure he was wrong, and after fretting over it for a few days as my condition worsened (but not being able to persuade the doctor to reconsider), had me rushed by ambulance to hospital, where the doctors found my appendix so inflamed that it could have burst and done for me at any moment.

8

I have to disagree with this.

Certainly doctors make mistakes. But are nine-tenths of them incompetent? I doubt it.

I should be dead twice, but my father saved me both times.

My father was a doc, and when I was born I was in big trouble and nearly died. My father made the correct diagnosis and had the other docs treat me accordingly.

When I was 15 I had some other problem, and my father suspected colon cancer. He had me checked out and indeed I had a golfball-sized malignant tumor. Got it out before it spread. My father made certain that I was and continue to be treated and checked almost every year since then. I’ve had recurrances and further surgery to remove additional sections of my colon.

My mother developed cancer in her lymph nodes in her neck 17 years ago. She was given a 15% chance of living. My father put her on an aggressive therepy regime that included chemo, radiation and surgery. My mother is alive and kicking today.

My sister began exhibiting certain symptoms in her extremities about 20 years ago. My father diagnosed her as having MS, and has set her on every possible treatment regime… and though her condition worsens yearly, the rate of degradation has been slowed and her pain has been lessened.

My boy was sent to the emergency room when he was a week old. The docs did the appropriate protocol, but my boy’s conditioned worsened quickly. My father diagnosed his condition (twas the same problem I had as an infant) and got him sorted out in a second hospital… took two months of living in two different hospitals, but, my boy is fine today. Without doctors, I would be dead now. My mother would be dead now. My boy would be dead now. My sister likely would have degenerated to such an extent and suffered such horrible pain that she likely would have committed suicide by now.

Yes, all of the examples above relate to my father. But, I grew up around doctors and I knew that they were very critical of certain doctors who they believed to be committing malpractice. But, the ratio of good doctors to bad doctors was not anywhere near the one you suggest.

Try living without doctors and or medicine.

9

Certainly doctors make mistakes. But are nine-tenths of them incompetent? I doubt it.[/quote]

You misread that a little bit, El Tigre. I mean that a lot of doctors (a high percentage, though I wouldn’t like to put a figure on it: even if it’s only 10%, that’s a high percentage for people entrusted with saving lives, though I fear it is even higher than that, and perhaps a great deal higher) are 90% incompetent. In other words, those doctors will occasionally get things right, perhaps as much by luck as judgement, but will more often get things wrong, and very often fatally so.

I should also add that, in my experience and observation, a high percentage of people in all walks of life – lawyers, accountants, engineers, policemen, academics, and so on – are partly or wholly incompetent, making frequent and often appalling errors in their work. But in the case of doctors, the consequences are likely to be far more serious, as people’s lives depend on how well those doctors perform their duties.

Of course there are excellent doctors, of which your father is evidently a shining example. If only we could always find them when we need them, but alas they are few and far between. If my mother and father had been so lucky, they would still be alive today instead of having died ten or twenty years short of the full span of years that they ought to have been able to enjoy.

10

Oops… you’re correct. I did misread that. I guess I just went in to my reflexive mode that I do when people are critical of docs and I didn’t read carefully.

I agree with your point above.