Posted by CarolynCO on 9/29/04 9:42am
Msg #9020

medical care - completely off topic

Sorry, but I just have to vent. My elderly mother-in-law fell at home on Monday evening breaking her left wrist and left hip. My husband is out of town, so that leaves it on me to relay the ugency of what's happening and whether he should end his business trip immediately. Surgery was scheduled for this morning at 7:30. After leaving the hospital last night around 6:00, I called my husband and out-of-state niece (i.e., granddaughter) advising that she was on morphine and didn't appear to be in any pain. At 10:00 last night got a call advising that there were concerns with her heart, that they had moved her into a different room and floor so they could monitor her, and that surgery was canceled. So now I have to call my husband and niece/granddaughter again, waking them both up at midnight. Ten minutes ago, I receive a call saying that they had her tests mixed up with someone else in the hospital (who has probably had a heart attack and died by now) and that she was in surgery.

Is it just me, or is there a reason they call it PRACTICING MEDICINE?

Reply by FB/CA on 9/29/04 10:48am
Msg #9025

I have to say something...

I have many good friends in the medical profession. I also have a friend who is a firefighter. And one who is a police officer. These are jobs that require you to think on your feet, and make judgment calls very quickly. Doctors, especially, have hectic schedules and are trying to help as many people as possible, sometimes simultaneously... they can't control the number of emergencies that occur. Sometimes it is overwhelming. 99% of doctors are doing the best they can to save the lives of their patients, or to help them deal with pain. They are healers, which is not a black & white skill. Also---and you may be ignoring this fact-- they are HUMAN, which means they make mistakes. If we limit that professsion only to people who are perfect 100% of the time, then your mother would not have ANY care at all, because there would be no doctors.

If you have NEVER made a notarial mistake EVER, have always gotten 100% on every test you've ever taken, and have never had to say you are "sorry" to someone because you've never been wrong, then maybe that would explain why you can't accept someone else's human frailty.

Accidents happen, it's stressful, and maybe you are venting because emotionally you are not seeing clearly. That's understandable. Your mother-in-law is in the hospital. And sometimes a doctor's mistakes lead to sad consequences... and I know those fatal mistakes haunt them forever. But if they quit their jobs because they realized that a degree from med school does not impart them with godly omniscience and perfection, that would be a real shame because we would have no doctors.

Please don't crticize an entire profession because they make human mistakes. It makes me sad when people sit and criticize others who did their best but came up short of perfection.

FB/CA http://www.berys.com/notary

Reply by HisHughness on 9/29/04 11:16am
Msg #9028

Re: I have to say something...

I don't expect any member of the medical profession (my daughter is a nurse) to accept blame for the profession as a whole. But I damned well don't propose that they avoid all accountability because they are members of a "healing" profession. I was a healer, too: I healed parents whose budgets had been destroyed by soaring medical costs due to a doctor's mistake. I healed wives who were left destitute by a husband cripped from medical negligence. Should I escape accountability for those actions that don't meet accepted standards in the legal profession?

Nor should we ever forget that doctor's earn a sizable living by being "healers."

Reply by HisHughness on 9/29/04 11:18am
Msg #9030

Re: I have to say something...

Sorry, didn't edit before I posted. Should've been "crippled" instead of "cripped" and plural, not possessive, "doctors."

Reply by CarolynCO on 9/29/04 12:26pm
Msg #9035

Re: I have to say something...

FB/CA said "maybe you are venting because emotionally you are not seeing clearly"

I was not in a deranged state when I posted the message. My niece who I had to wake up at midnight has three more weeks and she will be an RN. For the past several years as an LPN, she has worked in the emergency room -- she will tell anyone that there are entirely far too many "mistakes" occurring in the medical field. Being HUMAN is unacceptable to her when it comes to someone's health and life.

I wasn't posting for sympathy, but more as a wakeup call.

Reply by HisHughness on 9/29/04 12:39pm
Msg #9037

Re: I have to say something...

My daughter, too, is an LPN (LVN here in Texas), is three semesters away from getting her RN certification (she took a detour into a BA), and for most of the past five years she has also worked in the emergency room. She recounts some scary experiences, and one or two weren't about other people. I have yet to detect a hint that she expects to skate on her responsibilities because she is human.

Reply by CarolynCO on 9/29/04 12:57pm
Msg #9039

Re: I have to say something...

Elle has taken several detours, as well -- with being married to a lifer Marine, constantly relocating overseas and in the states, and raising three kids who are now teenagers. These last three weeks, I'm sure, will be her hardest and will seem to take the longest, but an accomplishment she will be proud of.

Reply by CaliNotary on 9/29/04 4:24pm
Msg #9053

Re: I have to say something...

I don't think it's appropriate to comapre notarial mistakes with medical mistakes. Medical practitioners damn well BETTER be held to a higher standard of perfection than a notary is; when the consequenses could mean the difference between life and death it's a whole different ballgame.

Yes, there are going to be mistakes made because doctors are human. Some of them are understandable - some conditions are hard to diagnose properly because their symptoms may make them appear like a different condition, in an emergency situation some decisions have to be made on the spot and could be incorrect, etc... Those types of things are human mistakes and entirely understandable, at least to me.

Mixing up somebody's test results - a broken bone patient and a heart patient - is just flat out carelessness and NOT understandable as "just a human mistake". It's a stupid mistake that could have had (and possibly still could have) fatal consequences. To say that you're sad because "they did their best but came up short of perfection" in this situation is quite horrifying to me; they didn't do their best, they weren't paying enough attention and carelessly mixed up test results. If that's the "best" that they can do, they have no business being in the profession to begin with.

It sounds to me like you think that any medical mistake should be just attributed to "being human" and forgiven. It shouldn't. Some things are being human, some things are flat out malpractice, and I'd say that this situation falls under the latter.

Reply by HisHughness on 9/29/04 11:07am
Msg #9026

Remember all those greedy, grasping lawyers who supposedly were driving up the cost of medical care? Wonder if those people doing all the complaining feel the same way when it is their ox -- or their mother-in-law, or their husband, or their 3-year-old child -- being gored?

Reply by BrendaTX on 9/29/04 11:12am
Msg #9027

Carolyn, Feel free to email me anytime with a vent. I hear what you are saying amplified because I have been through similar things. Brenda

Reply by CarolynCO on 9/29/04 7:04pm
Msg #9063

Re: Update

Motrher-in-law made it through surgery and is resting comfortably. I hope and pray the heart patient and family is doing well, as well.

Reply by CaliNotary on 9/29/04 7:23pm
Msg #9064

Re: Update

Excellent news. I hope her recovery goes as well and as quickly as possible.

Reply by CarolynCO on 10/1/04 4:53pm
Msg #9175

Re: Update

Thank you.