The Doctor Shrugged

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Misty L. Trepke

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The Doctor Shrugged

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101735,00.html

 

Thursday, October 30, 2003

By Julia Gorin

I find the show " ER " fascinating. On it, the people in white coats

actually rush around as if something is at stake. Their faces show

expression, often of concern, as if they're worried whether a

patient lives or dies. It isn't like any emergency room or doctor's

office I've ever seen.

 

 

In real life, one goes to a hospital if he or she is curious to have

a near death experience. Medical treatment is the third leading

cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer,

according to a 2000 Journal of the American Medical Association

article by Dr. Barbara Starfield (search) of the Johns Hopkins

School of Hygiene and Public Health. Starfield places medically-

related deaths at 225,000 a year, while a more conservative estimate

by a 1999 Institute of Medicine report placed the number of deaths

by medical error at 100,000 a year.

 

The subsets of statistics behind these numbers are even more

alarming. Starfield's JAMA report claimed that 106,000 deaths are

caused by correctly prescribed medications, while prescription error

accounts for 7,000 annual deaths. (Meanwhile, a 1998 JAMA study

claims prescription error seriously injures 2.1 million patients

every year.)

 

Last week, ABC's " Primetime Thursday " attributed 100,000 annual

deaths to hospital infections alone--at least 50,000 of them

preventable through the practice of basic hygiene by hospitals. The

report mentioned that ABC sportscaster Dick Schaap (search) died two

years ago from a hospital infection he got after routine hip

replacement surgery because the medical staff at New York's

prestigious Lenox Hill Hospital couldn't be bothered to wash their

hands between patients.

 

My former college professor, who has a heart condition, caught on

early. Whenever hospital staff enter his room, he asks, " What is my

name? And what am I here for? " Otherwise, he fears, healthy organs

may get removed and the wrong appendages amputated. But even this

kind of diligence would not have helped a former colleague of mine,

a 115-pound woman who went into the hospital for a colonoscopy and

wound up in the intensive care unit after being injected with enough

local anesthetic for a 220 pound man.

 

When I was paying out-of-pocket for an HMO (search) that didn't

cover medication, I was given a prescription for medicine to treat a

condition opposite of what I had. After the mistake was discovered--

and after I had paid for and ingested the pills-- I asked the

substitute doctor if I could get reimbursed for the expensive but

incorrect prescription his partner prescribed. He condescendingly

defended the erring doctor saying, " Doctors are only human. We make

mistakes. Haven't you ever made a mistake? " Needless to say, I got a

new doctor, an obstetrician with whom I was very happy until one

day, after delivering a patient's baby via cesarean section, he

decided to carve his initials into the woman's stomach.

 

Consider that when medical doctors in Israel went on strike (search)

in early 2000, the funeral industry tanked. The burial association

complained to the government to increase doctors' salaries. The only

city that did not see a decline in its death rate was Netanya, where

doctors had a no-strike clause in their contracts.

 

Doc, when your parents sent you to medical school so you could make

a killing, they didn't mean literally.

 

The frightening statistics, coupled with the negative doctor-patient

experiences behind them (35 percent of doctors themselves complain

about the doctor care they or their families get, according to the

IOM report) might explain why there is something called alternative

medicine (search). It gives people an alternative to dying.

 

Don't think I wasn't skeptical when my homeopath (search) told me

the pain in my neck was being caused by a troubled gall bladder. But

sure enough, after she treated my gall bladder, I could move my

neck. That's because holistics know how one body part can " refer "

pain to a seemingly unrelated body part. Conventional doctors don't

know that one body part has anything to do with another. If they

did, they wouldn't operate on the wrist for carpal tunnel syndrome

(search) when the pain and tingling in the forearm usually stems

from a pinched nerve in the neck or back.

 

But mention to a physician that you see a holistic practitioner

(search) and he may well call such party a " quack. " That was the

response of my primary care physician after he discovered I'd been

seeing a holistic chiropractor (search) for chronic back trouble.

Sounding a bit like a spurned lover, he whined, " You didn't have me

look at your back. "

 

But why see an MD for a misaligned back? So he can say, " It's not

fractured. Do you want a painkiller? " Indeed, to be a doctor in

America all you need to know is the word " painkiller. "

 

" We're basically pill pushers, " one young physician admitted at a

party, adding that, much like a diner waitress hoping you'll stick

to the menu, doctors are looking for the path of least resistance.

 

Unless you demonstrate classic symptoms of one of the six or so

conditions that fall into a medical doctor's limited repertoire of

common, recognizable conditions, he won't really know what's wrong

with you until the autopsy. You get more answers from a

veterinarian, for crying out loud. (Which would explain the

expression " healthy as a horse. " ) From the physicals to the check-

ups to the trial-and-error means of diagnosing, coming into a

doctor's office for any reason other than antibiotics is an exercise

in futility. It's a running joke that a primary care physician's

competence is best measured by how expeditiously his staff fills out

referrals.

 

God bless Western medicine for all the breakthroughs--the

vaccinations, the transplants, the emergency life-saving procedures

and cutting-edge modern miracles. But these days its practitioners

perform best for those on the brink of death, and that's where you'd

better be when you come to these people, or they'll bring you there.

 

I'm not saying doctors have to be flawless. I'm just asking them to

appreciate the difference between a patient and a piece of

furniture. Because there are errors, but there is also apathetic

negligence, not to mention an arrogance that is buttressed by a

rigid hierarchy at hospitals, wherein ranking doctors can't be

questioned or corrected by nurses or lower doctors. It's not

uncommon for nurses to sneak around doctors' orders to keep from

killing the patients, as a nurse I knew observed another nurse do

when the doctor was overdosing a patient on intravenous medication.

 

Doctors must stop discouraging patients from seeking alternative

care--whose purpose is not to compete with, but to supplement,

traditional care. Thankfully, there are the " radicals " of the

profession bridging the Western model and the Eastern model, some

practicing both, others referring patients to alternative care

specialists (which insurance companies are increasingly covering).

There is a place for both conventional and alternative medicine, and

MDs should know their place.

 

If any of the symptoms mentioned here hit too close to home for some

doctors, they should read this twice and call each other in the

morning. And if the truth still hurts, take a painkiller and ignore

the problem.

 

 

 

 

Julia Gorin is the author of the newly released " The Buddy

Chronicles, " available through Bruiserbooks.com, and a contributing

editor to JewishWorldReview.com. She is the featured comedian in

Republican Riot, a monthly comedy show in New York.