Why are so many doctors like this?

My husband is sick now. He is sick because a doctor made a mistake and then did not want to admit it. This is not the first time we have suffered because a doctor did not want to admit an error, but this was the worst.

My husband has gout. He also has a back problems that result in sciatic pain and numbness in his leg. In the past, he has suffered from chronic urinary tract infections as well as kidney/bladder stones. For months he has been on 2 medications. One controls the uric acid that cause the gout pain and the other takes care of spinal inflammation so he has little back pain and no numbness in his leg. The gout medication also helps to prevent the chronic urinary tract infections he has had in the past.

He went a couple of months or so ago for his check up to get the prescriptions renewed. The prescription the doctor wrote was illegible. The pharmacy read it as halving his dosage of both medications. We asked thed octor and he played it off as if the change in dosage were deliberate. Over the next month several things happen. My husband began to suffer back pain, foot pain and passed a stone. We called the doctor and asked if these symptoms could be related to the medication reduction. He said no. My husband experienced the tell-tale signs of a urniary tract infection. He told the doctor this and the doctor said it was nothing. He notes his blood pressure is rising to nearly normal levels (my husband has very low blood pressure usually) and the doctor say it is nothing. He passes a stone. The doctor say this is unrelated and does nothing.

I made my husband make an appointment with another doctor.

She says that he does have an infection. His medication should never have been reduced. It looks like a misread on the script. The doctor may have played it off to avoid embarrassment. The foot and back pain, the stones, the infection, blood pressure all are related to the sudden reduction in medication.

My husband is back on his old levels of medications and an antibiotic. This doctor says that in another week, my husband would have been in the hospital. He was lucky. At least if we can get rid of this infection he will be. My husband has problems with many antibiotics. He cannot take very many. He develops allergies, or something similar, to them.

I am so mad. I do want this to be reported somewhere. If another patient suffers because of this doctor’s arrogance/ incompetance i want someone to know it was not an isolated occurrance. Is there anything we can do?

Of course there is. Two routes are available to you:

Report the doctor to the state licensing committee. Have your new doctor and one other doctor document the causes of these problems. If there is a history of mistakes by this doctor (and if you’ve protrayed his attitude accurately, I’ll bet there is) and they’ve been reported to the state, he will eventually be investigated, censure, and possibly even lose his licence. This, however, is a long shot.

Arrange a consultation with a malpractice lawyers. See if you can also bring your husband’s insurance provider in on this. The original doctor’s malfeasance cost them some money for sure. See if legal action is appropriate and manageable.

Don’t forget to also lodge a complaint with the hospitals he has privileges at. If he’s this careless, he’s putting them at risk too.

He has just finished his residency and has moved on to Cook County General. He may not have hurt anyone else, yet.

I don’t want to sue. I just want to make sure that if this happens again someone knows.

My sympathies to you and your husband.

It is frustrating that he had to suffer because someone was afraid to screw up. As for the sueing issue I would have a look to see if anyone else has had any similar problems. If this is a trend then this doctor needs to be stopped.

Good luck to you and your hubby.