The current climate when it comes to doctor/patient relationships has definitely gone downhill as of late, for many reasons, I think. But, the most prevalent, at least in my observation, is the widespread lack of trust patients these days have in their doctors.
It seems as though many doctors have forgotten why they may have gotten into medicine in the first place, and may have their priorities a little bit backwards. A majority of doctors admit to not being completely honest with their patients, whether it be regarding risks and/or complications of procedures, mistakes that may have been made during procedures or surgeries, or doctors choosing to withhold information about a patients condition for one reason or another. It seems that while (at least most of) these doctors may have good intentions going in, they seem to be forgetting that, ultimately, it’s t he patients body, and they ALWAYS deserve to be able to make an informed decision about their health and medical treatment. No matter what. This is never something that should be left to the doctors discretion, as it is really not their decision to make. When doctors do this, and decide to withhold information about the risks of the treatments they are offering, then the patient isn’t able to weigh the risks vs. benefits for themselves, and that really should always be their right. When a doctor tells you that nothing serious can happen, and then, say you end up with a serious injury or illness, then they’ve completely eradicated any kind of trust they had in them, and most likely all other doctors as well.
When it comes to mistakes, I know that I would greatly appreciate more transparency, accountability, and willingness to help you get better. I was hurt by a doctor when I was only 16 years old, during an unnecessary ESI, after she told me the injection would help with my extreme inflexibility, and the minor pain I was having from compensating for that. She told me that the most serious risk was developing a “2 day headache” (what she called the post dural puncture headache), and 25 years of constant, severe pain from Adhesive Arachnoiditis later, I definitely beg to differ. Had she been more transparent about the possible risks, no matter how rare she thought they were, I think I would have made a different decision when weighing the risks vs. benefits of having the procedure.
Afterwards, she completely lied about what happened… the lightning hold of pain, how I screamed like I was dying for 10+ minutes, and the whole office was very concerned. How it was like she’d turned on a light switch of pain that never went off. She even later created a false document to back up her story that all had gone according to plan… even though I had a witness in the room, and one in the waiting room! I was so traumatized and in so much pain, she ended up getting away with it. No doctors would take me seriously for a long time, and I ended up not getting a diagnosis for 20 years.. well after my condition had become incurable. Had she been honest, and actually tried to help instead of just doing everything possible to avoid accountability, I may have been able to get treatment in time so that this wouldn’t have completely stolen my life, and all the dreams and goals I had. I still don’t understand how someone could do that to a literal child, especially one who’d taken an oath to do no harm.
It’s been extremely difficult for me to trust doctors since, which is unfortunate, since I have needed and will continue to need consistent pain management, probably until I die. It’s sad, because before I got hurt, I actually wanted to be a doctor myself. So, having everything happen the way it did was heartbreaking.
How are patients supposed to trust doctors when the standard of care and trustworthiness of doctors has all gone downhill so much? How do we fix it?
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