User:StuRat/bad medicine

On this page I intend to document some of the medical malpractice which has happened to my family, and suggest steps that can be taken to prevent this.

Dental care
My dad was in for a routine filling at dentists, named, believe it or not, "Paler & Wheeker". They missed when injecting the local sedative Novocain, and hit a vein. My dad lost consciousness, was put on oxygen, and, fortunately, eventually woke back up. This is one of the few instances of medical malpractice which did not result in any permanent damage being done to him.

High blood pressure
In 1979 my dad was found to have high blood pressure. This was no doubt a result of having the typical unhealthy American lifestyle. He didn't exercise regularly and would eat very unhealthy food, such as an entire bucket (10-12 pieces) of Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC). He was also therefore obese, at some 240 lbs. However, rather than recommend dietary changes and exercise, and resort to meds only if these methods failed to work, the doctor put him on meds immediately, with no mention of dietary changes and exercise. The first medication was a Beta blocker. This caused him to develop diabetes. They then switched him to an ACE inhibitor, which caused him to develop renal failure. They then switched him to calcium-channel blockers.

Prescriptions for excessive doses of high blood pressure meds also caused his BP to drop dangerously low and him to pass out, on occasion, which the doctors then misdiagnosed as a result of a TIAs and prescribed Warfarin. He was also given Lasix to lower BP, which may have caused kidney stones, a contributing factor to his renal failure.

Hytrin was also prescribed at one point, which caused water retention in my dad's legs and therefore had to be discontinued. The doctor initially refused to believe that this was a side effect, and refused to report it to the drug company, saying "it's only an isolated incident". The problem with that way of thinking is that everyone will think any given condition is "only an isolated incident" if no doctors report them.

Diabetes
As a result of his diabetes, my dad was prescribed insulin and various other meds. He developed diabetic neuropathy in his feet and was prescribed an inexpensive med for that, which worked well, with no side effects. However, his doctor then changed to a far more expensive new med (Neurontin), with no explanation, and refused to renew the prescription for the inexpensive and effective med. The more expensive med caused major side effects, such as severe muscle weakness and dizziness, and needed to be discontinued almost immediately. The only explanation I can see for the doc changing the med is pharmaceutical company kickbacks.

Kidney failure
As a result of suspected renal failure, he was given an abdominal X-ray to analyze the kidney size, shape, and condition. The radiologist reported that "one of the kidneys is totally atrophied, down to the size of a bean". Based on this info, my dad was scheduled to begin dialysis. My dad later obtained a copy of the X-ray, which showed two normal sized kidneys. He then took the X-ray to his nephrologist (not the radiologist) to show him the obvious error, but the doctor refused to look at it (presumably because of legal liability issues).

However, when my dad obtained a copy of the radiologist's report, which was the basis for why he was put on hemodialysis, the report had been changed, and all records of the original report had been destroyed. Apparently, this was done by the hospital to protect them from a malpractice lawsuit. The premature start of dialysis can severely shorten a patient's life, due to the risk of infection and other complications.

Initially, my dad still had partial kidney function, a condition known as high output renal failure, meaning a fair amount of urine was still being produced. However, he was advised to severely restrict fluids intake, which is appropriate for the far more common low output renal failure, but can result in dehydration for cases like my dad's.

Anemia and prostate cancer
At some point my dad developed anemia, quite possibly as a result of meds he was taking and chronic renal failure. Since he had a rather low red blood cell count, the doctor prescribed epo. However, it didn't appear to have any impact, so the doc steadily increased the dosage, up to a max of 25,000 units per week (a massive dose). Only after my dad, on his own, found out that epo needs iron to work, did the doctor prescribe an iron supplement. At that point the epo began to work quite well, and the dosage was eventually reduced to 1,500 units per week. However, the massive dosage of epo had already done damage, by causing unwanted growths on his chest and in his prostate. He had regular PSA tests, and the values were fine until the massive doses of epo, at which point they skyrocketed. He did have prostate cancer and had radioactive "seeds" implanted in his prostate to kill it.

Also, the pharmacy from which he was buying the epo (a very expensive drug sold to athletes illegally to enhance performance) was stealing every 6th vial (the packages would have 5 vials and 1 missing). The pharmacist was eventually fired in this case, but no refund was offered.

Sleeping pills
=Lessons to be learned=

Bad doctors lack a holistic approach

 * They don't consider the effect the meds they prescribe will have on other body systems in their patients.


 * They fail to recommend dietary, exercise, and other lifestyle changes, or only recommend them as an afterthought, not as the first line of treatment.


 * They fail to coordinate with other doctors treating the patient.


 * They ignore info provided directly by the patient.

Bad doctors treat patients based on aggregate data, not individual data

 * People who fall outside the normal range for any particular measurement frequently receive poor medical treatment. A better approach is to establish a baseline figure where the patients seems healthy, then establish how much variance from this value is needed to cause problems, and only treat the patient when outside that range.

Doctor's first interest is not in providing good patient care
Other interests often come before offering quality health care:


 * Protecting themselves from lawsuits (Wikipedia also has this issue). Overuse of Ceasarian section is an example of this.


 * Increasing their own income (by recommending treatments they personally can perform, not those which others perform). "Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut".


 * Following insurance company rules.


 * Wanting to make their resume look good. This requires experience on "newfangled" technology, like CAT scan machines, while experience on tried-and-true equipment, like a stethoscope, is not seen as important.  Thus doctor tend to rely on expensive, unnecessary new treatments, drugs, and equipment, not on reliable but unexciting old methods.