I have been dealing with people who are actual doctors, but are not worthy of the title. Twice they sent my wife homne with medicine that she is allergic to. I kid you not. The first page said, "Allergic to hydrocodone, and morphine." The second page of her release forms said, "You will start taking Hydrocodone when you return home."
That put her back in the hospital for a month. When she was released again, take a guess at what they prescribed for her to take at home.
Morphine.:-5
Bad Doctors
Bad Doctors
Saint_;1493264 wrote: I have been dealing with people who are actual doctors, but are not worthy of the title. Twice they sent my wife homne with medicine that she is allergic to. I kid you not. The first page said, "Allergic to hydrocodone, and morphine." The second page of her release forms said, "You will start taking Hydrocodone when you return home."
That put her back in the hospital for a month. When she was released again, take a guess at what they prescribed for her to take at home.
Morphine.:-5
Surely that has to be reported further up the chain - they could kill someone with incompetence like that.
That put her back in the hospital for a month. When she was released again, take a guess at what they prescribed for her to take at home.
Morphine.:-5
Surely that has to be reported further up the chain - they could kill someone with incompetence like that.
Bad Doctors
It is obvious to me that too many doctors, on either side of the Atlantic, do not bother to read the medical records/history of patients. It is also a sad fact that doctors bury their mistakes. It gives one great confidence in the medical profession in general............................ not. Have you taken a second or even third opinion from different doctors Saint ?
My father was a pharmacist and he always advised customers, who brought in prescriptions, that should they have adverse effects from the medicine that had been prescribed, to stop taking it immediately and get back to the doctor to prescribe something different. Perhaps attention should have been drawn to your wife's miss-prescribing before leaving the hospital and, if necessary consult a different doctor or a more senior doctor ? That sort of behaviour, Saint, is totally unacceptable and there should be repercussions against whoever made out the prescription for your wife to take when home. As Bryn said, that sort of thing will kill somebody one day - not could, but will. It is sheer dangerous incompetence.
My father was a pharmacist and he always advised customers, who brought in prescriptions, that should they have adverse effects from the medicine that had been prescribed, to stop taking it immediately and get back to the doctor to prescribe something different. Perhaps attention should have been drawn to your wife's miss-prescribing before leaving the hospital and, if necessary consult a different doctor or a more senior doctor ? That sort of behaviour, Saint, is totally unacceptable and there should be repercussions against whoever made out the prescription for your wife to take when home. As Bryn said, that sort of thing will kill somebody one day - not could, but will. It is sheer dangerous incompetence.
I'm a Saga-lout, growing old disgracefully
Bad Doctors
After a failed suicide attempt my psychiatrist prescribed me Prozac. When I went to get the prescription filled the pharmacist did his nut. He said he should have known better as Prozac (as well as other anti-depressants) is known to act violently with the Epilepsy meds I was already on.
Bad Doctors
G#Gill;1493266 wrote: It is obvious to me that too many doctors, on either side of the Atlantic, do not bother to read the medical records/history of patients.
Too right. Especially Emergency Room doctors, who deal with the most immediate and life-threatening situations, yet seem to be "too busy" to scan a patient's records. Even when that patient was seen by their hospital in the same month.
Have you taken a second or even third opinion from different doctors Saint ?
Yes, I'm lucky enough to have another hospital nearby, just across state lines that I could go to. Unfortunately, they were even worse. They merely prescribed a different pain medication and sent her home. Since she was throwing up every 30 minutes, she couldn't keep that down either, even with anti-nausea drugs. (Which should have been a huge clue.)
My wife had not eaten any solid food for two months, and was starving to death. The verdict by both hospitals? "Well you have an elevated white cell count, but we can't find anything wrong." When i finally bullied them into admitting her and doing a gastroscopic scope of her digestive system, they realized she had a massive systemic infection of both her stomach and esophagus to the point where she was literally bleeding to death.
A competent doctor probably could have diagnosed that just by looking down her throat.
Here's a tip: Be you own medical advocate. If they drag their feet or you aren't satisfied, get mean, make waves, call administrators. To hell with politeness, don't worry about stepping on toes or being courteous. Throw your weight around! It's your life and the lives of your loved ones hanging in the balance.
Too right. Especially Emergency Room doctors, who deal with the most immediate and life-threatening situations, yet seem to be "too busy" to scan a patient's records. Even when that patient was seen by their hospital in the same month.
Have you taken a second or even third opinion from different doctors Saint ?
Yes, I'm lucky enough to have another hospital nearby, just across state lines that I could go to. Unfortunately, they were even worse. They merely prescribed a different pain medication and sent her home. Since she was throwing up every 30 minutes, she couldn't keep that down either, even with anti-nausea drugs. (Which should have been a huge clue.)
My wife had not eaten any solid food for two months, and was starving to death. The verdict by both hospitals? "Well you have an elevated white cell count, but we can't find anything wrong." When i finally bullied them into admitting her and doing a gastroscopic scope of her digestive system, they realized she had a massive systemic infection of both her stomach and esophagus to the point where she was literally bleeding to death.
A competent doctor probably could have diagnosed that just by looking down her throat.
Here's a tip: Be you own medical advocate. If they drag their feet or you aren't satisfied, get mean, make waves, call administrators. To hell with politeness, don't worry about stepping on toes or being courteous. Throw your weight around! It's your life and the lives of your loved ones hanging in the balance.
Bad Doctors
I used to share a flat with a research pharmacologist, this was in the eighties, who was working as a consultant in a hospital - he was called in because there were patients who had been given drugs that had side effects and then been given drugs to treat the side effect that in turn had a side effect that they were given drugs to treat --- you get the picture. his favourite hobby horse was doctors that prescribed drugs without reading about them first. Still goes on i think.
My wife's stomach cancer was diagnosed as stress related. In fairness to the dictor she was the kind of forceful patient that would tell the doctor what was wrong, plus it was the kind of opractice where you saw whichever doctor was available, until she got an equally forceful female doctor that decided to investiogate further.
Tell you what though I'd still trust the doctors over the politicians trying to destroy the NHS.
My wife's stomach cancer was diagnosed as stress related. In fairness to the dictor she was the kind of forceful patient that would tell the doctor what was wrong, plus it was the kind of opractice where you saw whichever doctor was available, until she got an equally forceful female doctor that decided to investiogate further.
Tell you what though I'd still trust the doctors over the politicians trying to destroy the NHS.
Bad Doctors
Years ago I was being treated for abnormal bleeding by a gynecologist who had been tops in his class at Harvard. He was giving me shots of progesterone every 3 months (I was highly allergic to estrogen) After 2-3 years of this he asked me if I wouldn't prefer to take a pill, instead of the shots. I agreed and he wrote out a prescription. I got it filled, went home, took a tablet and in about 10 minutes I felt like something was clutching my chest and hitting me in the head with a sledge hammer. My daughter saw this and looked at the bottle. PREMARIN! I called the doctor's office and asked why they had prescribed something they knew I couldn't take. I was told the doctor would call me back. He never did. I immediately changed doctors to one at the UCSD medical school. He told me I should never have been treated with the progesterone in the first place and that it was criminal to prescribe estrogen for me. I loved this doctor and was doing fine.
Then one Saturday night I started hemorrhaging and finally checked myself into the emergency room at the local hospital at 7 am. The doctor on duty took all of my info and called San Diego for my records, which included my estrogen allergy. He told me he was impressed with the amount of blood I was losing but he didn't want to begin treatment because he was about to go off duty. The nurse had witnessed all of this. When the new shift doctor came in, looking like he had a hangover, by the way, he glanced at my records and he didn't seem to be concerned at all. The nurse asked him if he wasn't going to give me something to stop the bleeding.
He said "Oh, all right, get this shot ready for her."
I went home and immediately fell asleep. I hadn't had much sleep the night before. I woke up 2 hours later with projectile vomiting. I called the hospital and asked what was in the shot. Why was I vomiting? The nurse checked and came back on the phone and said, "The doctor says you probably just have the flu like everyone else." I had never had anything like that. The next day I went into the hospital and demanded to see my record. It was estrogen! I was livid but then all the hospital staff seemed to disappear. I should have sued the hospital. What if it had been a life threatening situation and that dumb cluck killed somebody because he didn't look at their record?
Then one Saturday night I started hemorrhaging and finally checked myself into the emergency room at the local hospital at 7 am. The doctor on duty took all of my info and called San Diego for my records, which included my estrogen allergy. He told me he was impressed with the amount of blood I was losing but he didn't want to begin treatment because he was about to go off duty. The nurse had witnessed all of this. When the new shift doctor came in, looking like he had a hangover, by the way, he glanced at my records and he didn't seem to be concerned at all. The nurse asked him if he wasn't going to give me something to stop the bleeding.
He said "Oh, all right, get this shot ready for her."
I went home and immediately fell asleep. I hadn't had much sleep the night before. I woke up 2 hours later with projectile vomiting. I called the hospital and asked what was in the shot. Why was I vomiting? The nurse checked and came back on the phone and said, "The doctor says you probably just have the flu like everyone else." I had never had anything like that. The next day I went into the hospital and demanded to see my record. It was estrogen! I was livid but then all the hospital staff seemed to disappear. I should have sued the hospital. What if it had been a life threatening situation and that dumb cluck killed somebody because he didn't look at their record?
Bad Doctors
That why doctors have such high malpractice insurance policies.
Bad Doctors
FourPart;1493271 wrote: After a failed suicide attempt my psychiatrist prescribed me Prozac. When I went to get the prescription filled the pharmacist did his nut. He said he should have known better as Prozac (as well as other anti-depressants) is known to act violently with the Epilepsy meds I was already on.
My father was a pharmacist, and he was always very careful to read the prescription and check the patient details. I lost count the number of times my dad had to ring the doctor back to point out a mistake in either the dosage, the strength or even the compatibility of the prescribed meds with allergies or previous treatments. Obviously the prescription was corrected straight away, so people were saved problems.
One case, though, horrified my father, enough to cause him to walk up to the surgery himself and have a face to face rant with the doctor, to hell with a phone call ! He had prescribed a medicine for a 6 month old baby and the strength of this medicine was 200mg when it should have been 20mg !!! One dose would have killed that baby !
The people of that small market town were very lucky to have my father as their local pharmacist - a sort of safety barrier over all the prescriptions that came through his shop. Like I said in an earlier post, doctors bury their mistakes ! :-5 Except when the pharmacist was my father !
My father was a pharmacist, and he was always very careful to read the prescription and check the patient details. I lost count the number of times my dad had to ring the doctor back to point out a mistake in either the dosage, the strength or even the compatibility of the prescribed meds with allergies or previous treatments. Obviously the prescription was corrected straight away, so people were saved problems.
One case, though, horrified my father, enough to cause him to walk up to the surgery himself and have a face to face rant with the doctor, to hell with a phone call ! He had prescribed a medicine for a 6 month old baby and the strength of this medicine was 200mg when it should have been 20mg !!! One dose would have killed that baby !
The people of that small market town were very lucky to have my father as their local pharmacist - a sort of safety barrier over all the prescriptions that came through his shop. Like I said in an earlier post, doctors bury their mistakes ! :-5 Except when the pharmacist was my father !
I'm a Saga-lout, growing old disgracefully