Check out this article in the health section of the New York Times: A Stable Doctor for a Scattered Life. I love reading the "Cases" column; it's often very personal and includes fascinating details about the experience of having and treating a disease. Unfortunately this week's column does not live up to my expectations. It is written by a psychiatrist who is seeing a severely mentally ill man. He tells her that he needs an absurdly large dose of Haldol, an anti-psychotic. It is the only thing that works he says. So what does she do? She writes him a prescription for it! Pathetic! P A T H E T I C!!! Who cares what drug the crazy person swears they need, she's the doctor, supposedly uncrazy. Anyway, dude has a terrible reaction to the drug and ends up in the hospital. I can't believe that this woman's ego is so big that she can write about a flagrant medical error and not take any serious responsibility for it.
Monday, November 26, 2007
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2 Comments:
Tali, I think you missed some stuff she said. She did take responsibility, she said she didn't hear him properly, but you know, she was trying. And apparently, even if it was a mistake, he felt connected to her,which is far more important in the long run.
She clearly states how mentally impaired this man is and then, as she paints it, she allows him to dictate his prescription, which she admits went against her educated instinct. She did hear him properly, however, like she says, she should not have listened to him. Her job, as a psychiatric doctor, is to prevent mentally ill patients from damaging themselves through self-medication. The way that is done is by thorough examination and diagnosis. Why didn't she see this in his medical records? She seems to be aware of his medical history...
I'm not at all impressed that this patient connected to her. The fact that he feels connected to such an irresponsible doctor is indicative of his impaired mental state and is a good example of why patients in his position need better advocacy and doctors need more oversight. A sane and reasonable response to a doctor who commits an egregious medication error is to file a complaint and not see them again. Taking a bus hundreds of miles for an appointment with that doctor is not a logical response.
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