Comments on: A Lesson In Bedside Manner

By: Al_Pal

Al_Pal — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:01:41 +0000

Bedside manner makes all the difference!
I’m so disturbed by what that jerk said.
Thinking of you all.
xo

By: pariah

pariah — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:56:44 +0000

My doctor had Tourettes and he had great bedside mannerisms.

By: Molly

Molly — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:21:02 +0000

I am filled with this powerful urge to strangle that doctor who was calling out the time during your last moments with Maddie. Strangle. I don’t know the story of that night, but that is so wrong, so wrong. I know you probably don’t need others to be angry for you, but I am.

My sister lost her baby son seven years ago, and recently a caring person said something to her on the subject like, you seem to be in a healthy place with Noah’s death. And she said to me that she liked the way that other woman put it. There is no complete healing. There is no “over it.” There’s not even really, an “at peace.” But she can live in a healthy way right along with the pain, the anger, the righteous resentment, the grief. It’s a long process–and a hugely transformative one for me to witness and be a part of.

By: LiteralDan

LiteralDan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:38:20 +0000

Oh, man, I’m so sorry you got stuck with someone like that at that awful time. I’m sorry anyone does. I think some doctors take the detachment that gets them by way too far, and it results in absolutely callousness at best.

You need to be human first, and a doctor second. I’m pretty sure they at least touch on that in medical school. Or at least, they mention it in most of those doctor shows on TV.

We should all print this out and pin up copies in hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country, maybe change some people’s lives on both sides of this equation.

By: Nia

Nia — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:59:24 +0000

I’ve been following your blog for some time now and never left a comment, but today I feel the need to let you know that I TOTALLY agree with everything you wrote here. My son is 2.5 yrs old and came home from the hospital projectile vomitting, reflux, constipation, you name it. I started taking him to a GI dr when he was 5 months old b/c we couldn’t take him anywhere without him puking his entire bottle all over the place. The Dr called him a happy spitter. Said it was HIS normal to only have a bowel movement 1-2 times a week. And it was also normal for him to gag and refuse solids. I didn’t agree but I let the DR make me feel like a paranoid first time parent. By the time my son was a yr old, he was no longer vomitting but still constipated and was still refusing solids. I was told it was a phase and the Dr kept ignoring my concerns saying that my son just didn’t “look” sick. My son is like Maddie, always happy even when he isn’t feeling well. Well now he is 2.5 and still going through that phase. He only eats sweet potatoe fries and occasionally a hot dog without the bun. We switched Drs and she immediately tested him for celiac disease and it came back positive. So for 2.5 yrs my baby has had this disease and the Drs ignored my concerns. So I will repeat what you said above…

“You need to listen to your patients and their families.”

By: magpie

magpie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:19:07 +0000

Yes, and yes again.

I wrote a post touching on this last year: http://www.magpiemusing.com/2008/01/empathy-in-health-care.html

By: julia

julia — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:16:13 +0000

doctors do have a tough job. i have several family members that are doctors. but i KNOW they would never act in any of those ways. how sad. how sad that you had come in contact with so many over the last few years.

thanks for sharing

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:52:56 +0000

Seriously Heather please write a letter to the hospital director about that terrible doctor and how he counted down like it was a freaking new years eve party. He needs to be told and hopefully taken down a notch. I’m going to school to be either a nurse or a respiratory therapist and I seriously would have ripped him a new one had he treated someone like that in front of me.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:23:52 +0000

Up until now I have simply sat on the sidelines since I became acquainted with your blog two months ago. I wish all of these incidents had not happened to you, wish that the doctors that you have encountered never came into your life, unfortunately I am not surprised to see they exist everywhere. My mother was so frustrated with her nephrologish that she asked me to come with her…when telling the doctor how things were doing on a new drug, he simply told her that wasn’t possible, those symptoms weren’t in the book!!! I was dumbfounded by that response (especially since my mother has a medical background and knows her body). Needless to say that was the last time she went to that doctor. She now drives almost 2 hrs to her new one, but it is worth every minute.
Stay strong, you are a marvelous person.

By: Tina

Tina — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:04:01 +0000

I am speechless!!!!!!!!

To count down is the worst aspect. Then to stand back and just watch…………. heartless BAST_RD! sorry, so sorry.

I feel the same way about the medical field. I know they cannot answer all questions, but seriously. When I get better service at McDonalds than at my OB GYN’s, something is wrong!!!

You need your own talk show, I mean that.

Can you come over for lunch?