dianeseattle
Member
Have you ever thought about the fact that when you go to your doctor's office your doctor calls you by your first name but you have to refer to doctor as dr. Morris or whoever. They don't allow you to go on a first-name basis and yet they feel like they are allowed to call you by your first name. I am not going to discuss the semantics of this but I mention it only because it sets up a hierarchy Where You Are subjected to the doctor.
I mention it because you are your doctors equal and when a doctor takes you on for any reason, that doctor is paid for taking care of you. Whether you self pay or the insurance company pays, that doctor is your servant.
If you don't feel comfortable with your doctor or your doctor makes a mistake of some sort during a procedure, you absolutely have the right to refuse that doctor, to insist that that doctor not be anywhere near you, or to insist that doctor not even be in the room.
I have had abusive doctors in my life. I have also had stupid doctors. I have one Epic tale I could tell but suffice it to say that I saw 19 doctors in less than a month and none of them could diagnose my very simple problem. I finally went to the University of Washington Medical School and a bunch of student doctors we're brought into the room to look at me and within five seconds they knew exactly what was wrong with me.
In the meantime, I had been put on so many drugs including steroids which I am allergic to and I had to wean off them over a. Of 11 months. D result of the episode was that I gained an enormous amount of weight because I wasn't cared for correctly. I became suicidal, not because of some emotional vent, but because of a side effect from some of the medications they had me on.
They also put me through two different tests that involve radiation. One of them was to try to shrink tissue behind my eyes which, if you know what the skull looks like, that is the thinnest bone the orbit and your brain. I don't know why anyone would make a decision to do that on a hunch.
Sunshine's story is what is spurring this flurry of opinion from me. Here is the fact of the matter: she had internal bleeding after surgery. That is always the doctor's mistake. That is malpractice. Surgeons especially are to follow certain protocol including checking and double-checking and using saline and suctioning that out before closing the wound. I am not even a doctor and I know that.
And of course there was The Saga of my little brother who was in Harborview here in Seattle for 81 days after being airlifted for a brain bleed. That's a serious thing for sure. But I watched him deteriorate and deteriorate and every time something went wrong, there was another doctor to consult about that. None of these doctors were on the same page. Nobody knew how to treat my brother. He shouldn't even have been in Harborview for more than 48 hours. Her review is considered the most important Trauma Center in the state of Washington. Trauma is what happens at the beginning. You go in because of a trauma and then you are transferred to a hospital where medical staff have the skills to treat with the trauma hospital has diagnosed.
My brother died. He didn't die in the hospital but the only reason for that is because he had me for a sister. One of my best qualities is being obnoxious. I would not allow them to continue to mistreat him and I went to the Ombudsman and made legal threats and everything that you can imagine. They got on it like stink on you know what. He now had a team of nine doctors and after a few surgeries and Recovery he was able to be conscious after having been in a coma or other states of unconscious for most of the time he was there.
I have great respect for doctors. And they really deserve it. But the farther away from his training a doctor gets, the less effective he is at a variety of diseases. The interns at a hospital are still in school and they are still learning and everything is very fresh.
So, if you don't like your doctor or you feel that your doctor has done something wrong remember, you are the boss. You are in charge. Just make sure you insist on what you need and you assert your rights. You wouldn't allow some homeless person on the street to cut you open and yet doctors who you don't know anything about are given carte blanche over your body and your life. So just say no.
I'm hoping that nobody right now is having any problems with his or her doctor but please remember that you have rights. They gave you a piece of paper with patients rights written on it. But they don't include every single situation where your rights might be violated. But nothing scares a hospital more than a lawsuit so make sure that you get a doctor who is competent and if you don't get one like that don't be shy about insinuating that a lawsuit might be in the works.
You are putting your life in somebody else's hands. Make sure that those hands can be trusted.
I mention it because you are your doctors equal and when a doctor takes you on for any reason, that doctor is paid for taking care of you. Whether you self pay or the insurance company pays, that doctor is your servant.
If you don't feel comfortable with your doctor or your doctor makes a mistake of some sort during a procedure, you absolutely have the right to refuse that doctor, to insist that that doctor not be anywhere near you, or to insist that doctor not even be in the room.
I have had abusive doctors in my life. I have also had stupid doctors. I have one Epic tale I could tell but suffice it to say that I saw 19 doctors in less than a month and none of them could diagnose my very simple problem. I finally went to the University of Washington Medical School and a bunch of student doctors we're brought into the room to look at me and within five seconds they knew exactly what was wrong with me.
In the meantime, I had been put on so many drugs including steroids which I am allergic to and I had to wean off them over a. Of 11 months. D result of the episode was that I gained an enormous amount of weight because I wasn't cared for correctly. I became suicidal, not because of some emotional vent, but because of a side effect from some of the medications they had me on.
They also put me through two different tests that involve radiation. One of them was to try to shrink tissue behind my eyes which, if you know what the skull looks like, that is the thinnest bone the orbit and your brain. I don't know why anyone would make a decision to do that on a hunch.
Sunshine's story is what is spurring this flurry of opinion from me. Here is the fact of the matter: she had internal bleeding after surgery. That is always the doctor's mistake. That is malpractice. Surgeons especially are to follow certain protocol including checking and double-checking and using saline and suctioning that out before closing the wound. I am not even a doctor and I know that.
And of course there was The Saga of my little brother who was in Harborview here in Seattle for 81 days after being airlifted for a brain bleed. That's a serious thing for sure. But I watched him deteriorate and deteriorate and every time something went wrong, there was another doctor to consult about that. None of these doctors were on the same page. Nobody knew how to treat my brother. He shouldn't even have been in Harborview for more than 48 hours. Her review is considered the most important Trauma Center in the state of Washington. Trauma is what happens at the beginning. You go in because of a trauma and then you are transferred to a hospital where medical staff have the skills to treat with the trauma hospital has diagnosed.
My brother died. He didn't die in the hospital but the only reason for that is because he had me for a sister. One of my best qualities is being obnoxious. I would not allow them to continue to mistreat him and I went to the Ombudsman and made legal threats and everything that you can imagine. They got on it like stink on you know what. He now had a team of nine doctors and after a few surgeries and Recovery he was able to be conscious after having been in a coma or other states of unconscious for most of the time he was there.
I have great respect for doctors. And they really deserve it. But the farther away from his training a doctor gets, the less effective he is at a variety of diseases. The interns at a hospital are still in school and they are still learning and everything is very fresh.
So, if you don't like your doctor or you feel that your doctor has done something wrong remember, you are the boss. You are in charge. Just make sure you insist on what you need and you assert your rights. You wouldn't allow some homeless person on the street to cut you open and yet doctors who you don't know anything about are given carte blanche over your body and your life. So just say no.
I'm hoping that nobody right now is having any problems with his or her doctor but please remember that you have rights. They gave you a piece of paper with patients rights written on it. But they don't include every single situation where your rights might be violated. But nothing scares a hospital more than a lawsuit so make sure that you get a doctor who is competent and if you don't get one like that don't be shy about insinuating that a lawsuit might be in the works.
You are putting your life in somebody else's hands. Make sure that those hands can be trusted.