Duped by Doctors

            A forty one year old single mom was told by her Brooklyn hospital that she has stage 4 lung cancer and was given about six months to live. But that’s not the saddest part of this tale. Two years prior to her diagnosis, Laverne Wilkinson had reported to the same very hospital complaining of intense chest pain, thinking she was having a heart attack. An X-ray showing a sketchy-looking two-inch nodule in her right lung was disregarded, and she was given a clean bill of health and sent home with some pain medication. The information about the nodule in her lung was neither mentioned to her then nor during the two years of follow up appointments where she complained of chronic coughing.

            Last spring, when she went to the ER due to breathing difficulties, another X-ray was taken, this time showing that the same nodule from two years earlier had more than doubled in size and spread to her other lung, liver, spine, and brain. Diagnosis, take 1: suspicious nodule = nothing to worry about. Diagnosis, take 2: suspicious nodule = cancerous, patient will die in six months. Oops. Well, sorry! Better luck next time!

            To make things worse, it turns out that if Laverne Wilkinson’s cancerous tumor had been correctly diagnosed two years earlier, she could have been easily cured. However, since it wasn’t and had time to spread, grow, her chances of living another year are slim to none.

            As she grows weaker, she and her fifteen year old daughter Micalia have been taken in by an aunt and members of her church. She is distraught at what will happen to her “little girl” Micalia, who has severe mental disability and autism.

            In an interview, Wilkinson stated, that "doctors need to be more careful and realize they have the lived of their patients in their hands. They are human and do make mistakes. [But] if it were a mistake where I was going to lose a lung and still live [for the sake of my daughter], then I could deal with that."

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            I am quite shocked and disgusted by all of this. In a situation like this, there is no amount of monetary compensation that can right this grievous wrong. What good can money do when you know you haven’t much longer to live? And what will happen to her daughter? Wilkinson appointed a guardian for her when she dies, but many expect Micalia will be put in an institution due to her condition. And nothing can or will ever replace the endless devotion and extraordinary love that only a mother can provide.

            Now not only are my mom and dad both doctors, but practically all the adults in my family are involved in the medical career as well. I have had to sit through many a dinner where I have to listen to rants about how careless Doctor 1 is or how incompetent Doctor 2 is. And remember that time Doctor 3 forgot something and almost killed his patient? CLASSIC!

            So if recklessness and negligence are so common within the field of medicine, should we be concerned the next time we have a doctor’s appointment? Who can we trust if we can’t trust our doctors, the very people in whose hands we place our lives when we’re sick (and sometimes, even when we aren’t or at least don’t think we are yet)?

            Obviously, not all doctors are this shoddy, and most are in fact quite proficient at what they do. But because of times like these, I think it would be beneficial if there was a lot more instruction and warning given to med students during their residency (or whenever really, as long as it’s before they are unleashed upon the world on their own) on the dangers of medical malpractice. Not only will it ruin their careers, but more importantly it will ruin the lives of their patients and those who love them. Possibly creating more redundancies and fail safes into standard operating procedures at hospitals (in addition to the ones that already are in place) will eliminate or at least reduce the number of times these unfortunate incidents come up.

            What do you guys think should be done about this? Are any of you interested in medicine? If so, what do you think the best course of action is, if any at all?

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Read the original article here. Only if you really want to, of course. I mean, it's not like I'm going to make you read it or anything, but I thought it would be nice if I provided the link (or in this case, hypertext) for you guys if you wanted it. Even if just for kicks and giggles, you know?