Re: (Long) Rant about meeting with duPont Ortho. Chairman-Angel

[Guest guest]

Angel, very good idea about writing to that moron! BTW, I couldn't

get your link to the article to work.

Daiga

> I let my husband read this. That is, after I picked my chin up off

the floor. His first reaction was to look up duPont, look up Dr

Bower, and send him an e-mail detailing exactly how wrong and

insulting he was. Unfortuntely he doesnt have an e-mail address

listed. He DOES, however, have a mailing address listed. Other's

can join in if they wish, I think it might make some impact if he got

a whole bunch of letters about this. We will be sending one - very

detailed and with photos.

>

> It probably will not change his mind in the least, but it WILL show

him that you can't expect to shut up a parent with your " superior

knowledge " and get away with it. It will show him that word gets out.

>

> As a side note, my husband found an article on the duPont site

where a child was misdiagnosed with metatarsus adductus and treated

for it for six months before they figured out that it was skewfoot -

which involves the heel as well as the forefoot and is a whole

different thing alltogether. The case file of course goes on to

state how successful BLAH BLAH BLAH. Apparently it isnt uncommon for

them to screw things up. Check it out yourself

http://gait.aidi.udel.edu/res695/homepage/pd_ortho/educate/clincase/sk

ew2htm

>

> Angel

>

> (Long) Rant about meeting with duPont

Ortho. Chairman

>

>

> OK, I have been stewing on something for more than a month now and

I'm still

> mad about it so I thought maybe a rant would help! After we had

such a

> terrible time with duPont hospital in Delaware, and we switched to

Iowa, I saw

> such major differences between the levels of care Devlin received.

I really

> thought duPont could benefit from our experience and that other

clubfoot

> babies---especially Atypical Clubfoot babies---could be treated

more

> effectively if the doctors at duPont were more aware of the true

Ponseti

> treatment. You all know what I'm talking about---spreading the

word for the

> benefit of others.

>

> We called duPont's patient services and worked through the ranks,

finally

> getting an appointment with the head of Orthopedics at the hospital

(Dr.

> Bower). The guy claimed to be interested in finding out about our

> experiences there and why we were dissatisfied. I talked to Dr.

Ponseti

> before the meeting to ask what specific points I should drive in.

He offered to

> train someone from duPont if they would send them out for 2 weeks

or so and

> I was all excited to suggest that to the guy. I put together the

log we had been

> keeping and included color pictures for illustration. I took it

all to him to show

> him what went wrong (and right) with Devlin's treatment.

>

> What a joke of a meeting! The jerk really " put us in our place " .

Dr. Bower said

> that Dr. Ponseti was someone you could see only if you " had enough

money

> to lay on the table to get his attention " and that the Ponseti

method has never

> worked because " he has never found a brace that can hold the

correction "

> and that " even right now he's working with big orthotics

manufacturers trying

> to develop something that will work " (I think would be

impressed to find

> out that he's a " big orthotics company " ). Bower said that

if " Ponseti couldn't

> find a brace by now, after all these years, he never will " . He

also said that the

> University of Iowa " has to let him do what he wants because of his

senior

> status there " and that they are " indulging him " by letting him

continue to

> practice. Finally, he said that Dr. Ponseti's method will die with

him. I was so

> pissed I could barely speak. I did manage to say " really? tell

that to the

> troops of doctors from around the world we always see there. " But

the jerk

> just kept cutting us off and smirking at our naivety.

>

> I don't even need to tell everyone here how absurd everything the

guy had to

> say was. We could tell that the only purpose of the meeting was to

see if we

> had grounds or intentions for a lawsuit. I'm so mad at this point

I want to sue

> just to make them learn how much more they need to know about

clubfoot

> treatment!

>

> Anyway, feeling rather unempowered, I decided I had to do SOMETHING

> about duPont so I put the log and the pictures up on my web site.

You can

> see it at www.cseel.com/clubfoot/ The search engines are starting

to pick it up

> and if you do a google search for " clubfoot dupont " ours is the 3rd

result. Dr.

> Bower may feel like he silenced us, but I beg to differ!

>

> Anyway, thank you for being a forum for my rant! I know everyone

here is as

> offended and incensed about Bower's Ponseti comments as I am. I

just can't

> believe guys like this control the future and the fate of so many

unsuspecting

> babies and their parents. Let's continue to spread the word about

proper

> clubfoot treatment and stop the few " God-complex " surgeons from

maintaining

> their status...

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Angel's link will work if you just put a " . " before the " htm " at the

end:

http://gait.aidi.udel.edu/res695/homepage/pd_ortho/educate/clincase/sk

ew2.htm

> Angel, very good idea about writing to that moron! BTW, I couldn't

> get your link to the article to work.

>

> Daiga