June 27, 2008
As time goes on, and frustration mounts over American healthcare payment systems, access to care (make that lack of access to care) and insurance, underinsurance or total lack of insurance, we’re being watched from across our borders.
Lorne Babcock, a Canadian and observer of American dysfunction, shared a few of his thoughts. You can find them here: The View from Canada
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May 29, 2008
Star Lawrence is a health writer, and author of HealthSass, a blog about her experiences with the health and medical community.
You’ll love her humor — but beware the darkside. Her account of her emergency room experience in this guest post is frighteningly real.
Give it a read: Stroke of True Genius
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April 24, 2008
Kim Witczak is a hero for the ways she has taken her grief, and turned it into advocacy for others.
Kim’s husband, Woody, committed suicide in 2003. His doctor had prescribed Zoloft to help him sleep. After it was all over, Kim learned that Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, had never revealed studies that showed patients were prone to suicide when it made application to the FDA for approval to sell Zoloft.
Now Pfizer’s deception is being tested in the courts. Kim describes the most recent insult to us consumers. We should be outraged!
Suicide, Drug Makers and the FDA — Will You Be Next?
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February 18, 2008
Our first guest post comes from Sherri Silesky. Sherry blogs about chronic pain and musings because she suffers from a variety of medical problems — having only one of them would knock most patients flat. Sherri’s guest post is called, Next, Please. See what you think — and feel free to comment!
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Would you like to publish a guest post at Every Patient’s Advocate? Please contact Trisha at blog (at) EPAdvocate-dot-com with your request. Any topic related to healthcare navigation, patient safety or health consumerism. Up to 750 words accepted. Submissions do not guarantee publication. Trisha reserves the right to accept or refuse any suggestions.
Be your own advocate and bring an army!
I fought colon cancer for nearly 3 years with surgeries and chemotherapy. I had many complications including neutropenia, C.diff, MRSA, pneumonia, pulmonary emboli, septicemia, and several metabolic imbalances.
Now I am dealing with PTSD and depression because of a misdiagnosis of brain mets I didn’t have. I was in the hospital because of pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism. Having been successfully treated for the same the previous year, I had apparently told family members not to come. That was a big mistake. Besides the normal antibiotics and blood thinners, I was given additional opiates, sedatives, and psychotropic drugs. I have had pneumonia on several occassions, but never before was I given dilaudid, psychotropics, or sedatives. My oncologist decided that because I was confused and groggy (drugs), cold (my temp preference has always been around 80 degrees, and on previous visits, I was cold), and emaciated (I had a tumor in my small intestine that prevented food from going down which was being treated with laxatives!) that my cancer had metatacized to my brain, and that I had 8 weeks to live. I was too drugged to give consent for anything, and without my family’s knowledge or consent, he decided to transfer me to hospice. A friend called my ex who sent my son to get me out. The oncologist lied to my son and said there were no tests done which could confirm or deny the diagnosis. It took him 5 days to do get me out of hospice.
I later received the hospital records and found a CT scan on my brain that showed there was no cancer in my brain! 4 months later, in a different location, the tumor was surgically removed, and I have been cancer free for 8 months.
Rather than rejoice after the scans that showed the cancer was was gone, I was having trouble sleeping, I lost interest in holidays, social events, family, friends, and my horse. My world began to collapse inward, and I was afraid to travel.
This could have all been prevented if an arrogant doctor had looked at the test records. I will never go back to a hospital without members of my family nearby to protect me from what I deem as attempted murder and false imprisionment (perhaps not legal terminology) with no legal recourse to provide closure.
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