firing a doctor

[ftblncullgrl]

Hi,

My husband was diagnosed with depression just over a week ago.

He started hanging around with a new group of friends about 4 months ago who are all into taking and dealing drugs. I understand that he has dappled in this himself, he is very easily led by people and tends to follow the crowd.

2 weeks ago he returned from a night out with one of these friends a completely different person and spent the next week keeping me out of our home whilst he partied non-stop with a house full of ppl most of whom were strangers to him.

He refused to speak to me or any of his family, as we are close and I am expecting our first child which he was extremely excited about this is most unusual. He is also close to his family.

He visited the doctors after about 5 days of this and was diagnosed with depression and prescribed anti-depressants. His depression is said to stem from a miscarriage we suffered late last year. Over a week later and he will still only have contact with his so called friends, he seems to just want to party constantly and won't have any close contact with family or myself.

Most of the info. I have read on depression says sufferers distance themselves from people totally. Is his behaviour simply another way of dealing with being depressed or does sound like something else - perhaps continued useof drugs?

How do I help him and get him to see that the friends he is hanging around with do not want to help him - they are all jobless and younger than my husband and he seems to be picking up the bill for everything?

I don't wish to see him destroy himself and I feel that a continuation of his current behaviour will result in this. Any ideas would be greatly received.

Thanks

 

[Dancerluvxx12]

Four months ago I underwent major abdominal surgery. The incision was about 7" long and the cut was perpendicular to all those striated abominal muscles. I checked into an excellent hospital in the LA area and was assigned a general surgeon who I had never before met. He was a young guy without a sense of humor and he didn't tell me much about what he intended to do. But I didn't feel like trying to drag information out of the guy and didn't pay attention.

The short story is that I regained consciousness while I was on the operating table while people were trying to lift me off and put me on a gurney. The pain was so excruciating I screamed for them to stop or give me a pain killer. No one said anything. They continured regardless of what I said. I was rolled into my room and then I passed out. But I couldn't sleep because I kept waking up sweating at the thought that "those people" were still around and might come back and hurt me more. Eventually the surgeon did show up and I asked why he allowed me to be tortured. He just mumbled something I didn't understand. I then informed that man that I had the right under state and federal law to be treated by the doctor of my choice. I told the man he was fired and to stay away from me. He then leaned over my face and said, "You know, you're a very difficult patient". I replied, "That's irrelevant. Get out." Later in the day he rushed in and yanked out my Foley catheter and also the little plastic tube left inside my abdomen to drain the wound. There is now a scar at the spot where the tube was inserted.

I was assigned to the chief of surgery who visited briefly to introduce himself. I said nothing about the first doctor. Shortly thereafter a senior surgeon checked me out, asked what happened to the drain and whether I needed pain medication. My former surgeon had left orders to give me one Vicodin tablet. I was given Morphene along with a button to push for self-administration.

I don't have a lot of hair on my body but the surgical area had not been shaved before the operation. And the scar from the drainage tube was prominent and ugly. After about a week a surgical resident appeared and said that the chief of surgery had ordered him to drain the wound. With topical anestetic he cut a hole through my skin about an inch in length and a half inch in width. As soon as he cut through I could feel warm liquid gush out of the hole and down my sides. A full abdominal bandage was applied and changed daily. For an operation that should have kept me in the hospital not longer than a week I was there for 17 days existing on Morphene and watching the color of the discharge from the abdominal drain every time the bandage was changed. After discharge, nurses came to my home daily for a month to change the bandage and clean out the drain. After the wound was almost closed I took over for another two or three weeks until the wound closed completely.

There is a moral in this story for patients and doctors. Patients should not be intimidated into not asking questions by a doctor who acts like he's late for an operation as soon as he walks in the door. Force the man/woman to stay, answer all of your questions and explain all medical terms you don't understand. If a doctor turns around to leave and you are not finished call the guy back and ask him to wait until all of your questions have been answered. You might have to remind them that they work for you. Ask a freiend or relative to visit every day and tell the nurses and doctor that the person is authorized to have access to your medical information. The person should quiz the nurses and the doctor (he can always be called to visit your room for a few minutes) about your vital information particularly when you will be discharged. I was so full of Morphene I didn't even know I'd been hospitalized for 17 days until I'd been home for 24 hours.

I could have filed a complaint against the doctor that may have affected his hospital priviliges, but I didn't care. I do know that word got around real fast that a patient fired this particular guy for failing to adequately manage his patient's pain.

 

[Paul Mikulskis]

I would take it one step further and contact a lawyer......
maybe you can get the guy's medical liscense suspended or something so he's not able to torture other patients. I'm sorry for what you had to go thru.