Re: agent scha - medical MALpractice

[Guest guest]

Deb, you're absolutely right. It all comes down to money.

Like Lanelle said, we may be a lost generation of patients. Nobody

really cares until the problem gets so bad that it can't be ignored

any longer. But the problem goes way beyond one particular illness

category. It goes to every difficult-to-diagnose, difficult-to-treat

illness. They don't want to waste the money so they find ways to deny

treatment instead. You'd think insurance companies would figure out

that it makes more sense to put dollars into curing us, than wasting

money on barely keeping us alive on expensive symptom management drugs

for years, but they don't.

Almost 25 years ago, my mother's husband (who had no insurance) was

sent home from the hospital with a clean bill of health. He died the

next day. About 10 years ago, an HMO refused to treat one of my

inlaw's fathers. He died while they were trying to work through the

approval red tape. A couple of years ago, my good friend, a doctor,

died, because he couldn't get anyone to take his illness seriously. He

started having seizures so they revoked his medical license, but

wouldn't help him get the drugs he needed to stop the infection that

was causing the seizures. Acted like he was crazy. Tony helped him

more than anybody. Got him on some abx which helped enough that he

finally got his medical license back and he even helped treat me, but

it was too late for him. A couple months later he had a seizure and

died, and this was a young, beautiful, brilliant man. Last year my

brother-in-law died because his idiotic doctors kept telling him not

to worry, he just had kidney stones, when in fact he had stage 4 colon

cancer. Too late by the time they bothered to figure it out.

The problem is huge. It's the entire medical system being driven by

money from top to bottom. It's going to take major reform for that to

change. An army of sick people trying to fight that? I wish us all

luck.

That's why I'm thankful for the internet where we can help each other

and circumvent doctors altogether if we want. Only use them when it

serves us, because I don't know too many who are serving us out of

some kind of greater good. They serve the dollar first. And that's the

rule, not the exception.

penny

" deb obrien " <DebOB@p...> wrote:

perhaps, a call to your state sen or state rep asking them who to

contact in sacramento could be helpful....who is higher in the

hierarchy than the guy who said no? perhaps a letter to the

newspapers? agencies/companies don't like to have their bad stuff

publicized and you do write beautifully.... it's all comes down to

money..

> good luck,

> deb

[Guest guest]

I shall stick my nose in here. But if someone would get me the anmes

and numbers of the media, I will call on behalf of a friend who has

been wrongly treated.

I don't know personally, but I have difficulty calling agencies

to help when I've been wronged. I think they will only call me a

whiner and that everyone has problems. But to make a phone call on

behalf of someone is something I easily can do because I believe in

the cause. (No one has belittled me into running and hiding yet, like

they do on my personal stuff)

With a little bit of organization we could organize systematically

have teams calling everyone's foe. I think that news media is more

receptive to callers from out of town with breaking news.

We could say something like, I'm calling because I'm shocked at the

horror treatment of a young acquaintance. I am living in fear of what

next, me, or you ?

I don't know exactly when the shock wore off, but I've often said

that it wasn't the diagnosis that devestated my world. It was the

fact that even though I was too sick to raise my head off the pillow,

I was still my ONLY ADVOCATE.

Remember all that gargbage about becoming a team member with your

doctor. Hogwash. They don't want you to be their teammate. They only

have two interest. 1. Their business/practice is really a

pharmaceutical dispensing station. 2. With a little luck they may be

able to convince your insurance that you need some minor surgery or

injections that are extremely profitable. I refer to hospitals

as " shot shops " Those in pain understand what I'm saying.

Penny, I have now asked five doctor's the question, " So are you

saying that I'm a member of the Forfeited Generation. Evidently there

is such a concept taught in medical school because several have asked

where I received that inside information.

Shocking isn't it. OUr future young doctors are taught in medical

school that in any emerging disease, at least one generation will be

forfieted before science will sit up and take notice. All told me

that initial patients must be dx with depression.

Disgusting...............

Peg Lanelle

> perhaps, a call to your state sen or state rep asking them who to

> contact in sacramento could be helpful....who is higher in the

> hierarchy than the guy who said no? perhaps a letter to the

> newspapers? agencies/companies don't like to have their bad stuff

> publicized and you do write beautifully.... it's all comes down to

> money..

> > good luck,

> > deb