Dr. F.’s Offer of Help

June 27, 2008

 

June 27, Dr. F. examined my nose, and confirmed that I had Empty Nose Syndrome. Then he sat down across from me. I told him why I’d come, and he did a double-take. He said that he had not written the term “histrionic” on my records. He took the papers from me, and examined them. He said that the resident had written it. I told him I had not seen a resident on April 25. (Later, I recalled that I had, but for only a few seconds.) Dr. F. said that he must have written it simply because he had written it on the earlier date, February 29. Dr. F. recalled that I had not been emotional on that date, either.

 

The resident who had written this is surely the same one who had given me permission to use natural remedies for the acinetobacter infection in February. The success of the remedies is what I had talked to the resident about on February 29. His writing “histrionic” in my chart appears suspiciously like attacking the credibility of a patient who has successfully cleared a deadly infection with alternative medicine rather than using the destructive mainstream antibiotic prescribed by the doctor.

 

 Whatever his reason, his deceitful entry would have just that effect. I would now be disregarded, and labeled a mental case by future health care providers. Even though… 

 

Dr. F. crossed out the word “histrionic” and initialed it. “I don’t agree with that,” he said. “I think you are traumatized.” He got up and started pacing around the room. I had never seen him do that before.

 

I told Dr. F. that his partner, Dr. S., had called my nose changes “aging,” and that Dr. S. had then asked me when Dr. F. had done the surgery. He was incredulous. “I’ll talk to him,” he said. He made a motion to leave the room right then, and go speak with Dr. S.

 

 “Never mind,” I said. “I’m not going back to him.”

 

Dr. F. resumed pacing. He asked me if I had reported Dr. S.—the surgeon who had butchered my nose– to the medical board. I told him I had not, yet, but that I was planning to. He urged me to do it, and offered to “make my records available.” He would have had to, anyway. The significant thing is that Dr. F. initiated the conversation.

 

I asked him why he had not reported Dr. S. to the medical board himself. “Me?” he asked.

 

“Yes,” I said.

 

He thought, for a moment, and then said, “There is not really a way for doctors to do that.” The statement was illogical since doctors are in the position to know when a patient has been harmed by another doctor. I have since learned that the statement is also not true. There is a way for doctors to report malpractice, and, obviously, they are morally obligated to do so.

 

Dr. F. encouraged me to sue Dr. S., saying, “You might not win, but, at the least, it will take him fifteen to twenty hours to fill out the paperwork. He’ll think twice about ever doing this to another person.”

 

I told him I had to sue because I could not otherwise afford the alternative medicines I was using to take care of my nose. I was not able to work.

 

Dr. F. said, “Sometimes you do something that might not help you, but it might help someone else.” It struck me that Dr. F. was preaching to me about doing the right thing—which he himself had not done.

 

However, it certainly appeared that he stood behind me in a lawsuit against Dr. S.