“Great storytelling.”
“Please do not change your account to ease the feelings of those who consider it inflammatory. The situation deserves an emotional response.”
“I think your story is perfect as published. It is truth, and truth is what all of us need to see, and act upon.”
“Good Writing! Intriguing style.”
“I work at Hopkins and unfortunately have experienced a similar situation. Your voice is important. Thank you for publishing this. We need to look at ourselves and understand if we’re really performing as the BEST hospital. We have a long way to go. Your story needs to be heard by all. Continue publishing.”
“My knees and hands were trembling as I read the already published nine chapters. Hopefully things are improving after 5+ years since this disaster at what one might expect to be a superior facility. Read the various links as well.”
” … scared the *&#% out of me! I’ve had more bad experiences than good (involving Emergency care) not inpatient as your wife had. I realize how vulnerable we all are and pray that the person holding my heart (literally and figuratively) will treat me as that they would their own wife, mother, daughter or sister.”
“We start with the assumption that we have the best medical care in the world, so it’s appalling to read the horrifying stories that take place in what we thought of as the most venerable hospital in the country.”
“Interesting, well written… a ‘continuing’ story with more chapters to come…”
“An eye opener and very sobering for those of us who perform such procedures.”
April 4, 2008 at 1:38 am
Correction: I meant to write that people are being subjected to
NON-consensual medical experimentation. Big difference.
Sorry, it’s been a long day……..
April 4, 2008 at 1:33 am
Thank you for publishing your medical nightmare so that others
can perhaps learn something which will spare someone else the
tragedy your wife and you have suffered.
I would like to bring to your attention that there have been several
formal medical experiments taking place in regards to the various
methods of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. They are registered with the US government by the way. I have reviewed these studies and found a significant number of them were *terminated*. Various reasons were given. Some of the procedures were using microwave and other radio frequencies to destroy tissue. The reasons for clinical trial termination was listed as
vague reasons such as “lack of participant recruitment.” etc.
I was a Coronary and Coronary Surgical ICU Nurse Specialist for part of my career. I didn’t work in teaching hospitals for reasons you identified, and I worked at facilities regarded as the best in their field. I can tell you that surgeons often did not perform all of the work in surgery. However, because cardiac surgery statistics of outcomes are very important in ranking of the facility, there was more than a concerted effort to have a desired outcome. It was so important that some cardiac hospitals would literally wheel a patient out of the operating room into the recovery room if they were crashing and death was imminent. They didn’t want any stats showing anyone actually died on the table during surgery.
People are not aware of the FAILURE IN THE INFORMED CONSENT PROCESS. Forgive me for the capitals, which I even consider obnoxious. However, my major political effort at this time is to try to restore the concept of informed consent which has been severely eroded more than you can imagine. This extend to powers the executive branch has unilaterally taken during this present administration. Patients – even just citizens -are being subjected to consensual human experimentation everyday. Literally.
Please feel free to contact me at the unpublished email address I left with you should you wish to. I can only sympathize, but if that would help, I’m available.
By the way, if the blood thinners are managed properly, they won’t
cause any problems. I took them myself for a few years after developing blood clots from standing on my feet for so many hours in these ICU’s without a break for even a drink of water for 8-12 hours at at time, day after day, year after year.
I sincerely wish your family the absolute best restoration of your lives.
I’m assuming you are obtaining a medical malpractice attorney.
The legal profession is even worse in terms of work ethic. I hope you obtain several legal opinions and interview many attorneys before choosing one to handle your case. There are more nightmare stories in the follow up legal handling of medical malpractice cases
than you could imagine. There is less disclosure of what goes on behind closed door in that industry than any other besides politics.
Take care.
Beth
April 1, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Thank you for publishing your horror story. As a chronically ill citizen of Baltimore, I have – for a decade – described that I live in the land of Johns Hopkins gods. From personal experience, I can say that the Hopkins trained/employed physicians that I’ve had the good fortune to see are accountants with little practice in clinical observation.
Who needs the skill of clinician when you have checklists? Barf.
I had a HopkinsAss (TM) prescribe Zyprexa for interrupted sleep, because I too am a woman, and suffer female hysteria (it’s a conspiracy. we’re here to take over the world with our “hysterics” which is why our uteri must be removed at all costs!)
“What about my family history of type 2 diabetes?” I asked. He insisted that I was “too smart” and therefore had “too much to worry about.” I have to give him credit though. He was right about the “too smart” part – I never filled the prescription and never went back.
Keep up the good work. And wishing Pam (and you) quick healing and recovery.
April 1, 2008 at 2:34 pm
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/085/ripoff0085999.htm