would a doctor ever hurt you on purpose?

It would be easy to do.

Human beings have been known to hurt others on purpose. Happens everyday. "Normal" people do it....granted...to a lesser degree.

My surgeon is was a bit of a nut case. (takes one to know one right?) And no one would ever know. Matter of fact....their cover is so air-tight......that.....even if a patient wondered such a thing....it would be the patient that would be the nutcase... and not him.

It's stories i've heard from others who have had dealings with him....since my surgery....that begs the general question.

Post Edited (island time) : 2/18/2018 9:37:30 AM (GMT-7)

Gear said...
Like both political parties, Doctors rarely give a negative critique of one of their own. As the famous quote goes,... The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.

I'm not saying he did this on purpose. (There's no way to know). But we all know that doctors are human....and it has probably happened before......probably more than once.

And yes Gear.....if it were to happen....that would fit....at least *my* definition.....of evil..

Ummm -- Larry Nassar.

I talked to a guy just the other day who had a quadruple bypass 12 years ago. He's had some minor complications since but overall has done well which is probably attributable to his medications, watching what he eats, keeping his weight down and his dedication to a routine vigorous exercise program. The bottom line is that he's still above soil and doing remarkably well. That's what counts.

Recently he had a treadmill stress test and nuclear imaging. He did well on the treadmill but the imaging caught a possible blockage. Next, they performed a catheterization or angiogram. The cardiologist candidly told him that the bypass surgeon made a mistake and grafted at the wrong place - which resulted in what's called a "Chronic Total Occlusion" CTO (long term blockage) but was quick to add that it was an honest mistake that was not clearly visible to the surgeon at the time. Another surgery would not fix it and there was a big risk of more complications with a stent - so unless drastic symptoms (bad chest pain) appeared it was best managed with medication. There seems to be some retrograde blood flow that continues to feed the heart muscle. Knock on wood.

The overwhelming majority of MD's are highly professional and very bright people. I can't imagine that one would hurt a patient intentionally. Has it happened before? Oh, I don't doubt that for a second. All of us come wrapped in a different moral package. But nearly all MD's can be trusted. But each of us still needs to be our own best healthcare advocate.

I'll forever remember a quote by one of my all-time favorite Americans, Will Rogers:

"Education never helped morals. The smarter the guy, the bigger the rascal".

There is, regrettably, a short and simple answer to your question as to whether doctors can inflict intentional pain on their patients. Or if not on their patients, then on fellow human beings.

The answer is a horrifying "Yes."

If you google

Medical experiments during the Holocaust

You will retrieve sites that describe, in sickening detail, the ghastly medical atrocities conducted on the concentration camp inmates during World War 2. The content of these sites, describing what was done to these people, usually in the name of "science," will turn your stomach.

Yet many if not most of the "medical" staff in these places who conducted these medical "experiments" were licensed doctors (and even nurses too) who had been formerly trained in German medical schools, and, in their civilian lives, likely had been highly respected members of their medical communities.

Heaven only knows what turned these normally decent medical practitioners into the monsters they became. Maybe it was simply the fact that they had absolute power over the inmates, and absolute power does indeed corrupt absolutely.

Or maybe the unrelenting demand for obedience to the Fatherland was too much for them to resist, along with a kind of ghastly peer pressure to "follow orders."

Whatever the reasons, the history of this horror makes for a short and chilling answer to your question: yes, doctors can under certain circumstances intentionally harm their "patients."

Doctors, Clergy, Teachers, Policemen, all those held to a higher trust and moral standard, have the potential to abuse their office and harm those who place an unequivocal trust in them just by virtue of who they are and what they represent.

Trust me when I tell you I speak from experience.

Mr. Bill

Pratoman said...


Now, if you are talking about pushing someone towards surgery when AS would do just fine, that's a different story.

Or pushing someone toward SRT, when doing NOTHING, but relaxing, is smarter!

How about non-physical abuse, for example not answering questions or sticking to outdated theories or rushing through an appointment to get to the next one or, as Pratoman and garyi say, suggesting unnecessary procedures that cause harm without benefit?
As I read the posts on here, it would seem that these occur, but hopefully with enough information and self-confidence we can get out of the situation.
Perhaps with prostate cancer, where we absorb early the need to be our own informed advocates, we can push back more effectively.

www.cbc.ca/doczone/features/psychopaths-top-10-and-bottom-10-professions
Surgeons clock in at #5 of most likely. Nurses and doctors are listed in the top ten of the least likely.

Not sure if this is what you were talking about, but Randy's original Uro recommended surgery. As we were discussing the surgery, I asked if nerve-sparing surgery was an option. He plainly told us that Randy was not a candidate for nerve-sparing surgery. (At the time, we were told he was GL 7, organ contained.) We called another doc at UAB and got a 2nd opinion. The second doc told us it would be a "game day call", so we went to UAB for the surgery. After we found out that surgery had failed, we were referred back to our original Uro for ADT prior to SRT. When we went back, the doc asked why we had chosen to go elsewhere for surgery. We told him we at least wanted the chance of having the nerves spared. He then proceeded to tell us that he could have done nerve sparing surgery, but it takes too long and he has to get in and out of the OR and get back to his office to see patients or he "would starve". The insurance companies only pay so much and whether it takes 2 hours of 6 hours, he would get paid the same. He then went on to tell us that those docs at those teaching hospitals are on salary so they could take all the time they want to complete a surgery.

We were stunned. I don't suppose that would fall under the category of hurting someone for kicks, but this particular docs was willing to remove the nerves for his own financial gain. Needless to say, we never went back.

Donna.

Robertmp said...
www.cbc.ca/doczone/features/psychopaths-top-10-and-bottom-10-professions
Surgeons clock in at #5 of most likely. Nurses and doctors are listed in the top ten of the least likely.

The list you linked to shows that Teachers are #7 on the list of professions with the LEAST psychopaths. I'm married to a retired teacher. I love her dearly, but i can tell you that my experience tells me differently.

Seems like every time I go to the doctor they do something to hurt me.....on purpose. So yes. Plus they Charge me big money to boot!