Spin off topic - Worst Doctor ever?

Who was the worst doctor you ever saw?

Mine was an ob/gyn I went to when I first started having problems. He said "there is nothing wrong with you, its all in your head now go be a good woman and deal with it." This was when I had a cyst the size of a softball ready to burst!! Needless to say that was the last time I saw him. If it were up to him I would still be nearly dying every month because "its my lot as a woman."

Now, lets keep this as clean as possible. Sometimes a good horror story helps put things into prospective for other people. 

Worst? Oh, my. I have to go get my list!

PaLady

It would be a three way tie.

1. The neurologist that dismissed me with "you just need to find a good man, there's nothing wrong with you" then ordered routine blood work to "shut me up". Turns out I had Lyme Disease.

1. The gastro guy that refused to do a colonoscopy and prescribed a med, then tried to give me three more meds to counteract the side effects of the other meds. This led to a delay in my diagnosis causing me to have part of my intestines removed rather than just removing the tumor. On the bright side, he later lost his license because he was sexually molesting women so I was kind of glad I didn't get the colonoscopy from him.

1. On that note, the dentist I had when I was 13 makes the list. He placed a napkin on my well-developed chest and put all his tools on it. He really, really, really enjoyed picking them up. He occasionally missed the tools and got more of me instead. I was just a kid, no one believed me until 10 years later when he lost his license due to sexual misconduct with patients.

Yup, I can certainly pick them. These are just the cream of the crop.

OHHHHHH .... My favorite topic. I've been wanting to do this forever. Thanks
Ekkorose. I'm gonna go back and start with No. 1 and then print them out.
This will be fun. I haven't read anything. I've got to go to bed. It's 2 AM!

When I was 14 I started getting these horrible pains that felt like was in my chest and my parents took me to this urgent care place and the doctor said it was all in my head and that I didn'n need to lie about pain to come visit him and gave my mom a big lecture on bringing me to a doctor for no reason and that we needed counsiling. It turns out that I had gallstones. Since then I have never gone back them to them eventhough they're just down the street from me right now, I wont even bring my kids there.

-hellokitty

1:  First time seeing this gyno (my regular one left his practice to go into special practice when HMO's were bleedind him), well this new

gyno was mean, rude - left the clamps hanging out of me for about 7 minutes while I cried and begged him to remove them because it hurt so

bad.  He yelled at me to stop crying, and stop that - and his nurse never came near me, not once, and looked very mad.  Since then I had a problem

w/painful sex, but now I'm an a/sexual so it doesn't matter anymore.

2:   Psychologist and his good buddy Psychiatrist misdiagnosed me as bipolar (very bad to give bipolar medication to someone with only severe depression), and

along with totally messing with my head and pretending to be my friend (I really thought he was), we had relations - I was sexually exploited in my numb and

totally overly-medicated state on a twice-weekly basis.  I would never EVER do that with a married man if I weren't all messed up.  First time I ever filed a lawsuit - they didn't want to go

to trial and settled big.  Won't take away my never EVER wanting to be in a relationship again, though.  Ever!!!  (I'm happy about that, too!  NEVER want to deal with ANY trust issues

with anyone ever, ever again!  Ever!

I am just appalled at some of these stories. Appalled. And SO glad that some of your filed complaints and law suits! Good for you!

PaLady

Pamela,
I understand that completely - not wanting to think of past experiences. I think that's why I didn't detail a lot of mine. Either that or just too lazy! But I appreciate the people who did.

And I think it depends a lot on the circumstances as far as the risks of filing a lawsuit or complaint. I know I should file a complaint against my PCP for some of the things she put in my record that cost me a worker's comp case. Untrue things. But I just don't have the energy. Maybe someday I will, although it's not worth a lawsuit. I might write a complaint to the medical board but that would have to be after I found another doctor. Right now I just see one of the nurse practitioners in the practice.

I'm rambling. I'm tired. It's late.

Night!
PaLady

These stories are really awful. These doctors should be learning how to deal with people in general, like customer service skillls, empathy, understanding, and trust. They really need to develop people skills!

I had a multitude of symptoms happen to me over years ; I thought I had a bladder infection, so went to an Urgent care walk-in center. They tested my urine and found no infection (though they gave me antibiotics anyway)....however, they did find blood and protein in my urine and gave me a referral to an internist/kidney specialist. So I went to the referred doc and started telling her my list of problems and she actually told me to stop talking! She did not want to hear anymore and said I was being ridiculous!!!! She just said she'd send me for some tests and if there was any problem, the office would call me, I was not to call them! ***??? I felt like such an idiot and felt like she thought I was psycho or something. Needless to say, they never did call me back.

In my Rheum's office, one of the receptionists is just down right rude to people. I just had a severe pain flare, where I could hardly walk and even sitting was painful. Before that happened, I had requested some paperwork be filled out several days before. They were busy so I told them I'd come back on Friday to pick it all up, they said fine. Thursday my pain started and so I had to drive there to go get my paperwork, which was tortorous. I had to park all the way in the back of the lot, with a long walk. An old man saw my struggling, and so nice of him, came running to me to help me..he held onto one arm for support! And walked me in. I got in, asked the rude receptionsit for my paperwork, and she just glanced around real quick and said she knew nothing about it. I was in tears from pain and then getting quite aggravated. I said , well, what am I supposed to do? She said, "well, you got me', "I don't know where it is'. Then she said I could wait about 40 minutes for the next employee to come in, that maybe she might know. When that person came in, she looked at me like she never saw me before. Then I heard the rude one saying things to the other throught the glass. Well, then I saw the one who came in just pick up my paperwork right off the desk, so it was laying there the whole time. And the rude one just didn't want to bother. She gave it to me and I left. Then I got about 1/2 mile down the road & decided to look at my papers......then noticed that the doc never signed it!!!! Now i had to go all the back again! I have no clue how I got back, but I did. When I walked in towards the desk, the rude one rolled her eyes at the other receptionist and said "she's baaack, AGAIN!!!!". I reallly wanted to go off, but I was in so much pain and just wanted my paperwork filled out correctly to avoid any delays. They got it signed & gave it back and I went home. And I had called a month before to make an appt. specifically to discuss the paperwork with the doctor. The doctor okay'd everything, but did not fill anything out; instead, he told me the girls can take care of it all. I've also been waiting 3 weeks for them to enroll me in a prescription assistance program for one of my meds and it's still not done. Another thing..I have a history of lumbar spine problems and also probably worsening hip problems. But the Rheum, all he seems to want to do anymore is give Lidocaine injections into my muscles. This is extremeley painful being my back is usually in severe spasms & the needle going into that is unbearable. And...the Lidocaine does not do anything. I get a little numbness in the area for a few hours, but that is it. Many times I've gotten at lesat 12 injections at once and I noticed my insurance gets billed over $300 per shot. Plus it seems like a standard procedure there, as the Lidocaine bottles are all lined up in each office. More so due to the staff, I think I'm going to find a new Rheum that knows how to treat patients.

Another horrible thing I had happen to me was when I was 19 years old and it was the first pain specialist doctor I saw, it was ran by her (the doctor) and her husband and her husband was always making me very uncomfortable like once when I went in, they only have 4 chairs in their very small waiting room and it was full so I went to stand by the wall when this guy got up to offer his chair to me, but the dr's husband instead to him to sit back down cause I can come and sit on his lap, I thought I was gonna be sick. And another time that doctor let him draw blood from me and he was so nervous that he was dripping sweat off his forehead that was landing on my arm and come to find out years later (when she lost her license) that he wasn't even lisence to do anyting like that especially draw blood. And I really liked that doctor but her husband was a whack job.

-hellokitty

Oh ... there was my obstetrician. He had some hard object in his coat pocket.
I thought it was a bar of soap ...He kept bumping into me with the soap.
Looking back .....

I'm usually in the Hepatitis forum, but I've peeped in here a few times, as I have chronic pain issues, also.  I've had my share of bad doctors (and dentists!), but the worst was probably an orthopedic surgeon.  She did replacements on both of my hips, then had to do a revision on the left one 3 weeks after the first surgery.  A piece of the prosthetic hip had slipped out of place.  When I awoke from the revision, I was in a spica (body) cast, from just under my breasts all the way down and including my left foot and to just above the knee on the right.    The left leg had been "frog-legged" in the cast.  I was never told that being casted was even a remote possibility.      have never had so much pain and discomfort before or since.  I remained that way for three very long weeks, then switched to locked steel hip and leg braces...same position...for another 4 weeks.  I was in the hospital for 7 weeks.  Four years later, the left hip started constantly dislocating.       I finally had it revised again--this time by a Mayo ortho surgeon.  What a difference!  However, he said that the right artificial hip is not placed correctly and will have to be redone somewhere down the road.  I still have pain with that hip.

Mayo is like a different world altogether.  The doctors are not only excellent, but have respect and compassion for the patients.  Everyone that works there is so pleasant and respectful.  It's wonderful!

I would have liked to sue the first ortho surgeon, but at the time I was w/o insurance and getting all my care at a teaching hospital.  If I had initiated a lawsuit, they would no longer treat me.  In addition, they have a "cap" on the amount of payout, which isn't a lot.  Yes, it's the principle and not the money, but without money (or insurance) one would not be able to get treatment elsewhere.

I was seeing a PA for a kidney infection. She prescribed me an antibiotic. Antibiotics as a rule for UC'ers are tricky because it can cause alot of intestinal grief. It was day 3 of being on this antibiotic and I had of course very frequent and persistant diarrhea as well as intense abdominal pain. I knew this was not normal for ME. So I called her up and explained to her what was happening. She said that antibiotics can cause those problems but keep taking them. Finally after being in so much pain, I had to end up stop taking the antibiotics. I looked up the antibiotic online and found that the one I was taking contained sulfa. I am allergic to sulfa and it was in my chart but yet she prescribed it for me anyway!

Another bad doc was a rheumy doc I seen this year. I was early for my appt. Filled out the forms and waited and waited and waited. Finally after 2 hours of waiting, I was called in to see him. He had me sit at his desk and explain to him what was going on. I did and he didn't say but maybe a couple of words. He then had me go into the exam room and once again, I waited and waited. He comes in there, pokes my joints has me get dressed and meet him back in his office. He comes out and says, you have UC. You are going to have joint pain. Here take this form downstairs for bloodwork and see me again if you need to. Hmm ok, so I just spent almost 4 hours at his office to tell me something that I already knew??? And to top it off, his personal hygeine was not the greatest. He is very standoffish and left me feeling like I was crazy and that I wasted his time.

I know that some doctors just have too many patients and they are all entitled to have their bad days. But when they start taking it out on their patients then that is truly uncalled for. Also, I hate the doctors that seem to think that I know nothing about my UC when in fact, I probably know more then them and I know what is normal for me and what isn't. That is one reason why I love my primary to death. She takes me seriously and listens to me. She knows that I've had this for a long time and I know my own disease. Doctors like her are hard to come by.