Deadly Hospital Mistakes: Doctors Secrets for Protecting Yourself from the 5th Leading Cause of Death

Medical error

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Many are found dead in hospital call rooms. Lots of doctors die in hospitals. Doctors jump from hospital windows or rooftops. They shoot or stab themselves in hospital parking lots.

Many doctors who die by suicide are the happiest most well-adjusted people on the outside. Just back from Disneyland, just bought tickets for a family cruise, just gave a thumbs up to the team after a successful surgery—and hours later they shoot themselves in the head. Doctors are masters of disguise. Even fun-loving happy docs who crack jokes and make patients smile all day may be suffering in silence.

We are all at risk. By the same method. One physician died using the same gun his son used to kill himself. Kaitlyn Elkins, a star third-year medical student, chose suicide by helium inhalation. One year later her mother Rhonda died by the same method. Medical school has killed half my family.

What I’ve learned from 1,103 doctor suicides

Suicidal doctors are rarely homicidal. Three male physicians murdered their young children. Another strangled his disabled adult daughter before killing himself. Chris Dawson shot his kids before turning the gun on himself. One also killed the mother. Doctors have personal problems—like everyone else. We get divorced, have custody battles, infidelity, disabled children, deaths in our families.

Spending so much time at work actually leads to divorce and completely dysfunctional personal lives. Patient deaths hurt doctors. Suicide is the ultimate self-punishment. Malpractice suits kill doctors. We continue to suffer the agony of harming someone else—unintentionally—for the rest of our lives.

Doctors who do illegal things kill themselves. Medicare fraud, sex with a patient, DUIs may lead to loss of medical license, prison time, and suicide.

Failing boards exams and being unmatched into a specialty of choice has led to suicides. Doctors without residencies may die by suicide. Robert Chu , unmatched to residency, wrote a letter to medical officials and government leaders calling out the flawed system that undermined his career prior to his suicide. Assembly-line medicine kills doctors. Pressure from insurance companies and government mandates further crush the souls of these talented people who just want to help their patients.

Many doctors cite inhumane working conditions in their suicide notes. Bullying, hazing, and sleep deprivation increase suicide risk. Medical training is rampant with human rights violations illegal in all other industries. Sleep deprivation is a deadly torture technique. Physicians have suffered hallucinations, life-threatening seizures, depression, and suicide solely related to sleep deprivation.

Sleep-deprived doctors disclose hospital horrors that kill or injure patients. Others die in fatigue-related car crashes after long shifts. Some doctors kill themselves for fear of harming a patient from extreme sleep deprivation. Blaming doctors increases suicides. When doctors are punished for occupationally induced mental health conditions while underlying human rights violations are not addressed , they become even more hopeless and desperate. Sweet, sensitive souls are at highest risk. Some of the most caring, compassionate, and intelligent doctors choose suicide rather than continuing to work in such callous, uncaring and ruthlessly greedy medical corporations.

So they drive out of town, pay cash, and use fake names to hide from state medical boards, hospitals, and insurance plans that ask doctors about their mental health care and may then exclude them from state licensure, hospital privileges, and health plan participation. Doctors have trouble caring for doctors.

Doctors treat physician patients differently by downplaying psychiatric issues to protect physicians from medical board mental health investigations. Untreated mental health conditions may lead to suicide. Medical board investigations increase suicide risk. One doctor hanged himself from a tree outside the Florida medical board office after being denied his license. So doctors hide their mental health conditions for fear of being punished by PHPs. PHPs have helped some doctors with substance abuse especially]. Substance abuse is a late-stage effect of lack of mental health care. Since doctors may lose their license for seeking mental health care or get locked into PHPs; they self-medicate with alcohol, illicit drugs, or self-prescribe psychotropic medications.

Doctors develop on-the-job PTSD. Especially true in emergency medicine. Cultural taboos reinforce secrecy. Suicide is a sin in many religions. Islam and Christian families have asked that I hide the suicides of family members. Media offers incomplete coverage of suspicious deaths. Medical schools and hospitals lie or omit the truth to cover up suicides—even when media and family report cause of death. Medical student Ari Frosch stood in front of a train, yet his school reported he died at home with his family. Euphemisms cover up doctor suicides.

Suicide is omitted from obituaries, funerals, clinics, hospitals, and medical schools. Secrets will not save us. Doctors choose suicide to end their pain not because they want to die. We can help doctors who are suffering if we stop with all the secrecy and punishment. Ignoring doctor suicides leads to more doctor suicides. Thankfully, an Emmy-winning filmmaker is completing a documentary on physician suicide this year.

To honor a doctor or medical student who has died by suicide in the film, submit name here. If you are currently suffering and need help, contact Dr. Monthly physician retreats ongoing. Have you lost a medical student or doctor in your family to suicide? Request to join our Facebook support group. Your email address will not be published. I worked hours in the last 2 weeks. Slept 17 hours in the last 1 week. No hope for change anytime soon.

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Wait until you see the film and patients FINALLY understand the dangers of sleep deprivation and human rights violations in medicine that trickle down onto everyone. Did you see the film trailer? There are no regulations limiting the hours attending physicians can work. The problem is hospitals are often not willing to work with private physicians leaving no options as we can not abandon our patients ethically or by law.

We have the resourcefulness and native intelligence to solve this if we stop hiding the truth in the shadows. We all deserve to know the truth of the working conditions in hospitals and clinics. Connie, Perhaps you are in training. But if you have finished your training there is a better way. Certainly Pamela can give you ideas.

I am also working on a project to change the equation for idealistic doctors trying to work for their patients, families, and communities. Colleagues like Pamela and I can help. A fact many do not understand including doctors. We all need good support systems especially at home. We need God in our lives too. It is the toxic work and cultural environment, not the lack of resilience or strength of the individual. From my blog Burnout is a smokescreen for human rights abuse:. Am I losing anyone here? Let me break it down. Psychiatrists define it as a job-related dysphoria in an individual without major psychopathy.

Which means—your job sucks. Human rights violation is the violation of a basic right to which all humans are entitled, including the right to life, liberty, equality, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and torture, and freedom of thought and expression. Common human rights violations in medicine include: Doctors must stop being complicit with abuse or they will become the perpetrators see below. Physician whistleblowers protect themselves, other health professionals, and patients from continued abuse.

Silence and secrets protect the perpetrators. Burnout is a smokescreen for rampant human rights violations in medicine. One way to end a cycle of abuse is to stop blaming the victims. Every citizen in the United States, physicians, and patients have been tricked, betrayed, deceived, confused, miseducated, and paid not to care or think for themselves. It should be removed, or edited perhaps down to the first line.

God bless all of them. Just this week it was announced that the opioid crisis in this country was due to over-prescribing! I can truly say this mass-wounding of our healers is one of the sickest things I have witnessed in my lifetime. How much do you think that many of us who choose a career in medicine are wounded to begin with? David Zigmond gives a rare analysis of the paradox of the wounded physician http: We doctors are rarely encouraged to think about how experiences of care and being cared for led us to choose a medical career, or to reflect on our shame at being seen to be emotionally needy or vulnerable in the eyes of our peers.

That savior complex stats early for many. We hope to heal others to in some way also heal ourselves. Many of us are driven to choose the profession based on personal suffering, witnessed abuse of others, traumatic events with family members parent or sibling dying young of cancer. We need an educational environment that does not further torment those who choose the healing arts.

We need obviously emotional support to do the amazing work we are capable of in medicine. Dr Wible, I cannot describe how meaningful your work is. Thank you for exploring such delicate subject. Labor of love for my beautiful profession and so many true healers who were not able to give their fullest gifts of healing to the world. Many have been so tragically shunned in the deaths. Certainly a civilized society should honor and nurture its healers from a young age and celebrate them even after their deaths. I for one am unwilling to forget them.

Thank you for caring so deeply Diane. Wible, Please contact Megan Kelly for a show on this subject and bring this into the homes of America. Luckily, I found other work that utilizes my skills. A huge majority of runaways after 48 hours being tricked or kidnapped into sex slave trade. And this is just in our very privileged country. I am not saying this is worse than other terrible crimes against humanity but it IS the worst thing I have personally witnessed in my life so far. It really is unbelievable. I remember the first day of medical school, August The only time my entire life I became suicidal was during my residency in the mids.

We were asked to track our work hours, record them, and turn them in. I, at least, was working hour weeks, so the idea of adding another task to my plate was laughable, even though I realized had I done so, it might have meant an objective measure to effect change. I was far more focused on practicing how to sleep like a dolphin, where half my brain rested while the other still functioned!

I somehow learned to take quick naps while standing upright during rounds or while taking a history from a patient or in the middle of dictating an intake history or discharge summary. I was told, at the time, a first-year Internal Med resident had committed suicide by hanging himself in a call room during his first month of rotations. I also was told one of my former medical school classmates killed herself near the end of her anesthesia residency by hooking herself up to IV propofol in an empty patient room.

Welcome-to-medicine lectures are very scary. Thank you so much for the truths you speak for so many. I was happy, secure, and mostly unafraid until med school. I recall in vivid detail the first orientation day. Our anatomy professor stood before an auditorium filled with eager, nervous, idealistic would-be healers and said these words: I have often wondered how many auditoriums full of new students heard those words from him. I am sure someone stood in front of us and told us what a wonderful and rewarding profession we had chosen. I do not rememember those words.

But I do remember how to successfully commit suicide—with a gun. One month later, on the eve of our first monthly round of six exams in one day, I had my first full-blown panic attack.

I had no idea what was happening. I thought I was losing my mind. I took a leave of absence and made up excuses. These much-feared public interrogation sessions can be so malicious that the student may be left crying—in front of peers, staff, and patients. No one ever suggested that the process was brutal, or the responsibility frightening, and no one offered us help. I have maintained contact with only one colleague from med school, so I do not know how the others fared.

Through the many years of training, and through what would appear to the observer a successful career in a surgical subspecialty and now into retirement, I have carried the anxiety, and the depression, and the fear. Perhaps entirely unrelated to those first days in med school, but still something happened to me, and probably to many of us, that changed us forever. I still remember how to successfully commit suicide, because someone who had power over me at a vulnerable time described the details. And we wonder why.

Download free audiobook here. Its like a 3-hour doctor suicide hotline call with me. A Manual of Psychological Medicine. My first attempt at writing this same blog 5 years ago. Very interesting list of 35 reasons doctors die by suicide written by a novice Pamela. My suicide risk went down when my PHP intervened. They found me proper treatment. So my personal experience refutes your claim. PHPs help impaired physicians not hurt them!!!!

Thanks for sharing Marcus. Marcus, so glad that the system worked for you. Please do not assume that your experience is perfectly typical. PHPs vary greatly state to state. I am currently conducting a confidential survey on state PHPs and your input would be very helpful link below. Although you had a positive personal experience with your state PHP many others have had very negative experiences.

To assure organizational justice oversight, regulation and some form of accountability is needed. I actually had no idea of the scope of the problem until I started reading your columns. Between , there were a fair number of intern and residents committing suicide. It was a very scary time. At the hospital where I worked at that time, the head of Medicine requested from the head of Psychiatry that a group be run for trainees. I offered to do it as long as I received supervision in group therapy. One of the important parameters of the group was that it would be for interns only.

I did this group for two years, with two different groups of medical interns. But the experience just popped into my head as I was reading your email this evening. Thank you for sharing this Susan. Please read the article linked above. Anesthesiologists are part of the larger group called Doctors, who are part of a still larger group called Health care workers. There are multiple factors that contribute to these problems. Physicians are one subset of a much larger group. You identify many of the causative factors in your writings, however there are many more, and to ignore them only serves to leave so many others suffering within the system without a lifeline.

I know this is not intentional. The oppressive nature of the system as it exists presently is a massive problem. That culture permeates everything in health care. It is because the system is sick, that the participants within the system become ill also. I applaud your efforts to bring these problems to the public at large.

Again, I applaud and commend you for illuminating a problem that has existed for far too long. I hope that your example will encourage others to come forward. Also I have a separate list I keep with other health care professionals. For the purposes of the film the focus is on doctor suicides. I do not want anyone excluded.

Fantastic article and research Pamela. You are one of the first beacons of hope in my lifetime illuminating the truths of the diseased medical system which cost the life of my brilliant and beloved father, a pioneering surgeon and in turn influenced the suicide deaths of two of my siblings. Medical culture and training reform is long overdue and an idea whose time has come. Infinite thanks from myself, my family and so many others in this healing journey for us all. Thank you Sarah for being willing to share the pain that your family has endured since with no answers—until now.

May this documentary shed light on your beloved father and the tragic loss of your siblings. The grief is unbearable. May your family heal and be part of the healing that the medical profession has needed for more than a century. I am very proud of Dr Wible for been a female doctor who addresses suicide in physicians the way it is, without fear.

Pamela, firstly you have done and are doing amazing work,I hope you start to get more support from the AMA and others. I am really saddened to hear things are so bad in the US. Having trained in the UK in the late 90s conditions were finally improving and have continued to improve with much more acceptable hours. I really wish you well with your amazing work. Yes, I do feel support is coming now from our medical organizations. The awareness among physicians of the humna rights violations and the public outcry for change is right around the corner.

Hi Pamela and Melanie. Great informative needed work you are doing Pamela. We have never worked the insane hours like US docs and I dont know how anyone can survive that system. I have now been working in Australia in remote rural hospitals where GP generalists get very well paid but have onerous hours and responsibilities.

Not surprisingly younger docs arent keen to work like that and there is always a shortage of remote area docs,nurses and allied health. We are all facing a mental health crisis. This is rising in the general population with so many anxious stressed people as patients pushing their stress and demands onto us and we are not supported by the beauracracy or our managers who keep demanding more for less. I am now nearly 60 and although I have enjoyed some great times in general practice and met some amazing people I cant recommend it as a career anymore especially if you would like a family and good relationship.

Doctors are under tremendous pressure, professionally and personally. They need more help than anyone else in society. I went into medicine to help people, but dropped out of medical school in my first year because it medical school seemed inhumane. I had to see a psychiatrist to get out.

That you for all you do. You need to come to work and do your job. I would be stuck with 30 all alone! I see it crumbling. A Dr ,or anyone in medical should never ever be forced into risking their great talents for a corrupted bunch of money hungry imbisals! I have actually calmed others down while in waiting on my Dr who was called to an emergency at hospital explaining why they are waiting hours. I gave one lady I was so sick that day but I knew somebody had to do something because the Drs and other nurses would be blamed and oh God nothing worse than hearing a patient cuss you out and degrade you for stuff out of your control!

I am in agriculture now and I love it but I loved medical as well. Its a gift that very few can do! We each know life is short!!! Addressing underlying system dysfunction first would help. A resident might possibly be diagnosed with narcolepsy or ADHD, but this would not normally be treated by a psychiatrist, and at any rate, the treating psychiatrist would decide which medications to prescribe if indicated.

Some even more disturbing reports are emerging that PHPs even non physician PHP directors such as psychologists in their zeal to promote strict abstinence programs for all clients regardless of diagnosis, have demanded that students and doctors come OFF their ADHD or narcolepsy or OSA medications so as not to interfere with drug testing for substances of abuse.

Stopping a legally prescribed medication for a potentially life threatening condition is medically indefensible, unethical and illegal, if it is done by a nonphysician. How broken is the system, that doctors have to be pushed into illness in order to be trained to do their job? More here on this epidemic: As a second year resident I stood in a patient room on the top floor of our hospital and wished the window opened so I could jump. I promptly realized the severity of these thoughts and sought help. The thankfully louder part of me is now very open about my mental illness, treatment and experiences.

I want others to know that asking for help is ok. Having depression, anxiety, etc does not make you weak. I hope my openness is a catalyst for change in my medical community. I very clearly remember one lecture as a medical student about to start my internship. Dear Dr Wible, thank you for speaking up for doctors. I am a cardiology trainee, and the expectations of the system on myself and my colleagues is brutal.

It has made all of us into the worst versions of ourselves, and I am ashamed to no longer be able to care as much as I used to. I hope that change towards our work culture will continue to happen, and wish you all the best. Thank you so much for bringing this out in the open. I too recently spoke up about suicides occurring in corporate Australia — by the C-Suite of professionals. Again, in a room for 22 people, we have 6 directly affected by a suicide of someone, most a direct report!!!!!!

I too became a quasi-suicide hotline. Lost a dear friend, and world-acclaimed physician to suicide years ago. He was brilliant, tender hearted and physically blessed as a competing triathlete.

Patient Profiling: Are You a Victim?

He was written about in the book: Who was this doctor? My pregnancy was not unplanned, I was in a great marriage to my doctor husband, I have a degree from an Ivy league school, and had good private insurance. My problem was that I was very sick and I was young, so therefore my pregnancy must be unplanned and I must be on medicaid. Did you ever give feedback to this doctor? Cultural competency classes are supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but there is nothing like learning from your own mistaken judgements.

Great teaching moment if you had not been throwing up. My 88 year old mother got shingles on her back. After the sores disappeared she still had pain, but it went on for a full year and the pain was excruciating! She was in to the Dr and emerg several times and they told her it was common and gave a pain prescription. Finally someone thought to do a work up on her and it was discovered that she had a terrible kidney infection! The aged are far too often just given a pat on the head and sent home.

My mother tried to treat an abdominal issue on her own for eight years. When I saw the attendants looking after her I was appalled and asked if anyone had bothered to check if there really was something wrong. They never bothered to check out any of her complaints. A terrible, lonely death. When my son was a baby he had colic and was in pain..

I am a patient with Crohns Disease, R. I have been on almost every medication available for Crohns. I am currently on Humira since september and was on Cimzia for 3 yrs prior. I still have uncontroled daily pain, nausea, diarreah, up to 12 to 15 loose stools a day. The fistulas are my main problem with bowel leakage daily, up to 8 to 10 pads a day and NO normal sex life. A very good friend posted this article and I noticed that you are 50 min south of me. I live in a small town, Sweet Home, Or. I am desperate to find a P.

Doctor that understands my situation. I do have a GI doc in Corvallis. He works hard to keep me going but we are running out of options. I could go on forever but my need right now is to find someone, anyone willing to work WITH me and not give up on me by saying those awful words …… There is nothing more we can do, you will just have to live with it! I am not that kind of woman to let those words keep me down. I was hoping, praying that you might be able to help me?

Are you accepting new patients and do you accept OHP? Thank You for this excellent article and any help you can pass along ……. Desperate in Sweet Home! I do not accept a few insurance plans, but I see anyone who wants to see me. I do not turn anyone away for lack of money. That is what I believe. Debbie- I wanted to put my comment here and hope that you read it.

Or someone else with Crohns disease. I have had it at least 20 years and I have been on all of the biologics, etc. Wow, I related to what you said! First off, It made me ache. The pain of fistulas; the embarassment of leakage; frustration about the loss of sexual function, depression and despair at those words: It went through its trials and I was almost part of the third but was too sick to want to maintain a high amount of prednisone that was required to maintain the integrity of the trial.

I started it a week ago. My blog is chronicling it. As far as ERs, Dr. Is there a Pain Management Clinic near you? If not, can you maintain some semblance of relief on the prednisone? That is like a swear word or someone running their nails down a chalkboard to your body but taking just enough to help. However, I am there with ya. Every system in the body is affected by Crohns. Joints, muscles, bone, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose!

I have had wicked fungal infections that back up into those parts- And Iritis happens due to those muscles in the eye. I hate being a Professional Patient. Once a good friend I confided in told me the obvious: Having a good friend, mentor, faith are all that become left when the well has run dry. May those around be in tune enough to reach you. I hope this does. I hope that Dr. I live a couple hours north of ypu Dr.

Wible and it is so refreshing to hear that what I have always believed was true. I live in a small community Dallas, OR and we do have a small community hospital that is a branch of Salem Health. I have had it for almost 25 years now. I have had to go to our small community hospital because I now live with chronic pancreatitis that my GI dr. In going to the ER there is one particular dr. Come to find out, two of my friends have had the same kind of run-in with this same doctor.

She refuses to treat pain and accuses each one of us of being pain med seekers. I am a bag girl aka obese and that is one of the reasons I get treated like crap. This dr said that his answer for everything is methadone. It turns out, he was fired a month later and the clinic was closed down because of many complaints. Wille for your apology on behalf of other ignorant drs. I pray that one day they will figure it out! Darcy I too have chronic pancreatitis since with 66 hospital admissions. I too have had ER horror stories. They get the ER is a joke! I know a bunch of people who have Kryptopyrrole disorder.

Despite strange hemoglobin issues, and the presence of pyrroles in urine. I went to a mental health center for my eating problems in after having tried to deal with these problems on my own. I had lost weight and I had been binge eating. It was the binge eating that scared me into getting help. I found out about anorexia by reading a book.

I hoped that psych meds would stop the binge eating. I begged for these pills and was refused. I believe the only reason Lithium stopped my binge eating is because it suppresses the appetite. The weight gain people get from it masks the appetite loss in many cases. I was on Lithium for years and it ruined my kidneys.

Along with that, they coerced me into taking antipsychotics, which I never needed. All I got were devastating side effects from these pills. I have been profiled by doctors so many times I cannot count. I am a lot better off now. I want to go back to each and every one of them since and ask for an apology. My story is also too long to share here in a few paragraphs but the basics are that in the state of Oregon, over a six year period of time, I saw over 30 doctors due to intermittent, full-body paralysis; gradual, progressive muscle weakness; exercise intolerance; long QT heart rate; fluctuating heart and blood pressure rate and more.

After the majority of them misdiagnosed and mistreated me diagnosed with conversion disorder, prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, lied about me and symptoms in records, accused of being a drug addict, scoffed at, told I was too old to have a particular disease…. The type I have is the most rare and the most serious form, Andersen-Tawil Syndrome. On a cellular level, triggered by various things such as medications, IVs, anesthesia, sleep, wheat, salt and much more, potassium wrongly enters the muscles causing paralysis and more.

Our greatest fear is ending up in the ER where they do not listen to us and proceed to hook us up to IVs and make us worse or kill us. I had to diagnose myself. The doctors agreed when presented with the information, the facts, my symptoms and characteristics and after they did what I asked them not to do during a small procedure to insert a heart loop monitor: It sent me right into full body paralysis, long QT heart beat, arrhythmia, tachycardia, high blood pressure, breathing difficulty and choking for nearly two hours.

They could do nothing but watch, at that point, knowing any medication could make me worse or kill me. I cannot tolerate the medication usually prescribed. So, I help myself through diet, potassium supplements and avoiding triggers. Since my diagnosis, my husband and I have created an independent organization, the Periodic Paralysis Network. We have a website http: We help members from all over the world who can get no help from any doctors and hope to educate the medical profession about PP in hopes that others will not have to go through what I did and therefore end up as bad as I am and that doctors may be able to recognize, diagnose and treat PP appropriately in a timely manner.

Thank you for offering those of us who have been so mistreated by doctors a place to tell our stories. A gift from the universe, via you. I had a hysterectomy age After 3 months I decended into the hell of prolonged benzo withdrawal, but was still just seen as a crazy drug addict. All bc docs profiled me.

But, here I am! Thank you for listening to people like me! Oh, I feel for you! I have refractory Interstitial Cystitis, and it has turned my world upside down. I have had my bladder nerves surgically severed twice Ingelman-Sundberg Procedures , have a sacral nerve stimulator that failed, had a failed spinal stimulator trial, have an intrathecal pain pump with morphine, and was seriously looking at bladder removal when a good, cutting-edge clinic started me on Botox injections to my bladder, urethra, and pelvic floor for pain and frequency.

I was treated like a drug-seeker, disbelieved, and humiliated. Once, the pain was so severe, I was admitted to the hospital and put on a PCA pump. I was stunned and humiliated into silence. I wish now I could go back in time and let him have it! IC is terrible and not well-understood. Take care and know that you are not alone.

I went to many many doctors with a mold allergy problem and not a single one was able to help find the disease, just threw an assortment of meds at me. I was tested and diagnosed. Change classrooms in the school where I taught. Went from being near death to being near perfect in just a few months with no medication. I have Crohns disease and I have strictures in my small bowel as a result of years of active disease. I have had quite a lot of my small bowel removed as well. I went into hospital for an operation and the morphine stopped my intestines working.

I felt very nauseous and my stomach was very distended. I was in agony for days and extreme discomfort for days. Eventually a nurse gave me the cyclizine and I began to get better. I was able to eat etc. However the lost days caused me to lose 3kg. I was extremely upset about this because I have well documented problems with nausea. In future I am going to ask to speak to the head nurse and then the doctor on the ward. I will not put up with this again it was torture. It is good there is a place for this. Medical professionals need to learn not to categorize people.

Just a huge thank you. Like most who have taken the time to comment, I have had more bad experiences then good. If we have to go to a Dr. Carefully chosen to provide the Dr. Modest, stylish, good quality but not too expensive. Fitted but not too much.

Well pressed Closed toe shoes. No heel, or modest. Even then it only buys me a minute or two to stall the profiling. Still, I always hope. My husband and I were poor, but had saved up plenty of money to cover what our insurance did not. In our youth however we assumed everything would be fine.

Our daughter was 10 weeks preterm. Second, I was mortified that my perfect, beautiful child was being pointed at like a baby monkey in the zoo. I was tested for drugs 4 times when I had a premie and was repeatedly asked what drugs did I take for entertainment. Clean, and they simply could not believe it. When we were finally discharged a nurse was kind enough to take me aside and explain to me that the mongolian spot on her tushie would be seen as child abuse by some, so make sure I carry the clinical notes from the NICU documenting the mongolian spot on my person everywhere I went.

There have been years when I would rather see my Vet for medical care. Your efforts to humanize the Dr. Keep up the good work! Getting healthcare and not paying for it? I understand the profiling from both sides, but think it would be best not to generate so much animosity in what should be a healing relationship. I think docs and patients can both do better. What do you suggest? I suggest doctors and patients learn to communicate better.

It would be the healthy thing to do. Unfortunately, patients are in a vulnerable position when they see a doctor, and anxiety about their health plus profiling and intimidation from the doctor equals a patient unable to be heard and quite likely sicker than before he saw the doctor, in my opinion. I found your website through another blog, http: I took a chemistry class in college where I was taught about certain vaccines. So, with some vaccines, you are giving yourself a weak version of the illness. Wible, but it seems counterproductive.

Like the flu vaccine. I have had several people in my classes go get flu shots every year, and a week later they have the flu. What was the vaccine preventing? Maybe it was vaccines like the ones I described I know that not all vaccines are like that, and some do save lives and prevent illness. I would really like to know. And the comment about being a deadbeat for not paying for medical care? When I was born, I was the product of a rape.

My mother chose not to abort me because she believes in the sanctity of life. She was hit by a car during her pregnancy that caused many complications. I was born two weeks late, and I had all sorts of medical problems. The doctors said that I would be in the hospital for six months so that they could keep me alive. My mother was able to support herself as a single person, but with a child, it was hard financially. Not to mention that I was on an oxygen tank, and had to go to the ER several times for asthma related complications.

My hospital bills, a year after I was born, totaled more than , dollars. My mother was unable to pay that. My mother was not a deadbeat, she was a hard working woman who struggled every day to make my life livable. Does that sound like a deadbeat? This article that Dr. Wible wrote was to get rid of the profiling and the labeling. The purpose of widespread vaccination is to create herd immunity. The more people who get immunized, the fewer vectors remain in the population. This is why vaccination rates are lower than their epidemiological effect.

We live in a time when diseases are barely held at bay, so everyone is obliged to take whatever measures exist. Unfortunately we have to collectively weigh the pros and cons, and for me the debate goes in strong favor of vaccinations. How can you blame unvaccinated for cases of polio, when a person vaccinated for polio can still contract it by drinking poop-contaminated water?

Have you ever even read a vaccine insert where the manufacturers themselves admit the possible side effects up to and including death for some? Gosh…you know, if I took a gun with bullet chambers and loaded it with bullets, would you be willing to let your children play Russian Roulette with it? The point is, there is a risk there. Any any risk should require parents right to choose. But maybe as a result of the vaccine, he has a seizure…develops respiratory problems resulting in life-long asthma, his organs shut down and he almost dies all things that happened to people in my family , so while these examples I personally just gave are anecdotal, read an insert for yourself….

I have a lot more to say on this subject, but I already posted it below. Would you risk your child getting one of these chambers, just so a parent with a leukemia child can feel safer taking her kid to the library? I say feel, because even vaccinated can carry and spread disease…. In order to do this, the pathogen that is virulent in humans is isolated, and introduced to another host organism.

The mutated version of the pathogen is still recognizable to the immune system of the original host, which allows memory cells to form in the body, which will produce antibodies should the original version of the pathogen be introduced to the body at a later time. Also, all of the attenuated vaccines that are presently available offer patients immunity to other conditions in addition to the condition it is designed to protect against.

This is not the case with inactive vaccines. This will leave their immune systems at a significant disadvantage compared to vaccinated children of the same age. Would you care if your decision to refuse to vaccinate your hypothetical children brings about harm to another child, one who has a compromised immune system through no fault of his own, or that his parents?

The problem with non-vaxers is that they ignore the overwhelming and scientifically proven evidence that vaccinations are not harmful to children, they do not cause autism, they do not infect their children with the disease from which the vaccines are designed to protect them. This thinking existed for over seven decades and was not until relatively recently that it was discovered that most of these vaccines lost their effectiveness 2 to 10 years after being given.

What this means is that at least half the population have had no vaccine-induced immunity against any of these diseases for which they had been vaccinated very early in life. That is, herd immunity has not existed in this country for many decades and no resurgent epidemics have occurred. Parents who feed their kids garbage food like McDonalds, mac-n-cheese, hotdogs, chicken nuggets, french fries, non-organic jarred baby food with additives, soda, cookies, candy, icecream, cheese, cow milk…..

Basically everyone I know, except me. One cousin has a medical exemption because his organs all shut down and he almost died immediately after his school vaccinations; sadly, it takes almost dying to qualify for a medical exemption these days…. When you say vaccines are not harmful to children…have you ever even read the package inserts from the manufacturers themselves?

Have you ever scoured scholarly journals for contrary evidence? Because there are scientific articles proving they can harm, and the inserts themselves say so, too. I discussed this with our doctor at length when our baby was born. I asked to see the package inserts, even after he insisted they were safe, and we reviewed them together… and he learned something new.

Huh, go figure, the doc had never read the package insert and had no idea of some of the possible side effects. Cancer centers advise to NOT allow recently vaccinated individuals around cancer patients due to shedding of live-virus vaccines. Is it not the sick, immuno-compromised who should be rightfully, for their own health isolated from society until recovery? Sick people need to stay home and get better.

I understand parents of immuno-compromised children desire for their kids to live a normal life included in society. But so do parents of healthy children. In fact, studies suggest that even those successfully vaccinated, and therefore unable to get sick themselves from contracting the disease, can STILL carry the disease and spread it to others. The problem with pro-vaxers is they also ignore overwhelming evidence, which ranges from also scientific evidence, clinical trials and adverse reactions listed in the package inserts, and also real-life witnessing from real people.

You probably take garbage vitamins like Centrum because your doctor recommended it so you blindly obliged, instead of thinking for yourself and researching better options. Likewise, if your kid gets a disease, you blame your unvaccinated nephew, rather than considering your child was recently at the hospital for their routine well-visit, during which they more likely contracted disease there. My niece and nephew contracted chickenpox from a grandparent with shingles they are perfectly fine, by the way, as I was when I had chickenpox, and my sister, and my parents before me, and all my classmates who had it….

And sure, my kid will very likely get chickenpox, and heal from it just fine. My parents AND parents-in-law all had measles as kids, and hey — they lived, and gave birth to me and my spouse, who grew to have kids too. You cannot eliminate it. Nature always finds a way. Do you really want a future dependent on vaccines? In such a future, I see humans dropping off like flies by the millions when vaccines are not available for numerous reasons, it can happen when they all contract the true disease, and nobody has natural immunity…..

People would rather pop a pill for stomach acid than give up their favorite coffee and pepperoni pizza. People would rather get life-threatening super toxic chemo than do Gerson therapy for a few months which requires they give up their bad foods, and drink fresh organic green juices and raw organic veggies. This is the kind of society we live in…get a vaccine, rather than truly promote your own health. And then these selfish losers expect others to get vaccinate to protect them. I could go on, but will stop here.

And I read it. People go into serious debt all the time because operations and medications were so expensive. Under a doctor, all patients are equal, whether they be murderer or saint. Have you ever given any thought to the preservatives used in vaccines? I have been profiled with all of the above. I am now in me second year of bed prison for the second time, Considering euthanasia for the second time and my doctor is OK with that. Osteoporosis, Padgetts, Liver failure and Fibromialgia to name a few. I took my life once and finally got help with pain, Almost got my health back and they took pain help away again.

Told no help is coming and should give up. Was a world traveling Geologist but now a worthless poverty person that just wants to get high…At least that is what they tell me. Your not in east Texas by any chance are you. I live in E. They gave me a shot of Demerol and sent me home. The next night I ended up in Providence Hospital in Waco where they saved my life. I tried suing the hospital and doctor but no attorney would take the case. The healthcare available in East Texas scares me. If you can, get yourself out of E. Have you tried to find support online? I am in several Facebook groups and just having someone to talk to has helped a great deal, they have also pointed me to a great Pediatric NS for my children.

Help is available, you just have to look in the right place for it. I wish you luck! My youngest daughter wants to be a geologist, she adores rocks. Yep, odd way to put it but she really does. Whatever you do do not come to Canada. Most of the hospitals in this country are are like the ones in Palestine. The first time was when I began working at a large academic medical center and had insurance for the first time ever multiple simultaneous part time jobs through college and grad school. I chose one based on the recommendation of our internal medicine program director.

My complaints were normal aging, and oh yeah, I should join a health club. I had MRSA, from using a patient-frequented bathroom probably. Six inpatient days, surgery, a month of wound vac, ten inch long by 5 inch deep incision, and about a year of internal med cascade including permanent kidney damage and one re-operation.

Would have been nice to have actually caught it instead of automatically chalking symptoms up to aging and a sedentary lifestyle I am aging, but I did NOT have a sedentary lifestyle. He definitely profiled me as a pleasant at the time! I was a surgical photographer, painter of large paintings very aerobic and could have thrown his skinny ass across the room if he had asked me to.

Again, I foolishly asked for recommendations from a faculty member. I do have chronic vision issues including cataracts. He was a high earning ophthalmologist, big name researcher. I said that I was leaving now and if he was puzzled about why, maybe he could actually read my chart for the details he interrupted me when I tried to tell him verbally.

And that I expected not to be charged for the visit I was surprised when this actually happened. Brooks Brothers wearing middle aged male. Pamela, thanks so much for the venting opportunity, but more so for the photo of you with the Sorry card. You are really special, and I mean that in a good way. Reading this column, and the thread that follows, I am reminded of the growing gap between patients and their doctors. Patients expect their doctors to be perfect, to have all the answers, and to hold their hands and be their healer. All the while, patients, insurance companies, hospital administrators and the media are constantly bashing members of the profession.

Another common complaint is that their doctor profiled them as drug seeking, when they came in looking like street corner dealers. If you want to be taken seriously and treated with respect, look and act the part! Take some responsility for your life! And why should physicians be expected to act otherwise? We physicians are at a crossroad.

The government has devalued our services and placed increasing layers of meaningless documentation on us, Insurance companies do the same, then drop us from their panels without merit, patients have unrealistic expectations, and even the President bashes us on national TV. But not many of the above describe moving on to other, more competent doctors.

Wait until the only available provider is a Nurse Practitioner with two years of training and limited supervision. In healthcare, not so much. Be careful what you wish for. You may just get it. As a nurse practitioner in internal medicine,12 years. I concur with some of the points you made but regardless of how a patient dresses or is tattooed they are still worthy of an open mind.

The useless paperwork issue is spot on and gets worse every year. I also felt patients had unrealistic expectations and disrespected the process I used in determining a diagnosis. Current practice culture is one of quantity not quality. Too often the providers see to many patients to be thorough and patients are left feeling that they were not taken care of properly.

I have had major brain surgery and suffer from memory problems so I write many notes. Before a visit I compiled my notes into one list for myself which I had in hand. At the very least an exam,or some blood work,you think? I was a nurse for 15 yrs. I am a mother and a grandmother. Julie — so sorry. You are not being singled out. Assembly line medicine has many victims—including doctors. There is a better way to practice medicine. Have you seen my TED talk?

I think you will wholeheartedly agree with this humane approach: Stephen, I think your comment is completely insensitive and speaks to a lot of what this article is about. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you read my own post which I just recently posted you might see that this is much easier said than done. All I want in the world is to be treated by more qualified doctors, but the doctors themselves, insurance, and a pretty strong bias against people with pain conditions are standing firmly in my way.

I really object to the street corner tattoo comments. I am a 52 year old woman that has art placed on her body by choice. I work full time, and my husband retired from the Army so I have health care. I refuse to be profiled because I have tattoos!! Oh yea, I am getting another tattoo next month, and she will still treat me the same!!!!!!

That took four years. In order to become a nurse practitioner, I would require another minimum of 3 years, depending upon the specialty, potentially much more. Honestly, the best healthcare practitioners I have ever had have been nurse practitioners. I think you need to check your considerable ego at the door. Stephen — It is not a doctors job to diagnose the patient based off of their clothes or tattoos.

I do not expect anyone to be perfect. We are all just people after all. No, it is doctors, given the power of Gods, and all the rights that go with Godhood, that create the vast majority of problems. My sister, my mother…me, my son. We were lied to, and continue to be lied to, while nothing but truth has come from our mouths.

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The anatomy and physiology of error in averse healthcare events. Advances in Health Care Management. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. A Bar-Coding Near Miss". Annals of Internal Medicine. Archived from the original on The American Institute of Architects. Groopman 5 November What Doctors are Missing". New York Review of Books. American Journal of Medicine. Archived from the original PDF on Retrieved 28 June Journal of General Internal Medicine. The doctor who makes the mistake needs help too". Qual Saf Health Care. Scottish Universities Medical Journal. A time study of internal medicine house staff on call".

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Kill as few patients as possible: Medical errors and medical narcissism. By Gail Garfinkel Weiss. Bull Am Coll Surg. Handbook of Institutional Pharmacy Practice. Chapter 53 The Patient Profile System. Handbook of Institutional Pharmacy Practice 2 ed. Chapter 31 Communicating Drug Information. European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. Indian Journal of Anaesthesia.

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