■"In the Hospital, a Degrading Shift From Person to Patient," by Benedict Carey, New York Times, 15 August 2005, p. A1.
■"Essential but Uncommon Knowledge: Patients Have Many Rights. Just Ask," by Benedict Carey, New York Times, 15 August 2005, p. A12.
Two really good reporting stories from Benedict Carey in the NYT. The first one, on how hospitals routinely treat people like bags of meat is a frightening indictment of how bad most doctors have become in interpersonal communications. Here is the killer opening:
Mary Duffy was lying in bed half-asleep on the morning after her breast cancer surgery in February when a group of white-coated strangers filed into her hospital room.
Without a word, one of them-a man-leaned over Ms. Duffy, pulled back her blanket, and stripped her nightgown from her shoulders.
Weak from the surgery, Ms. Duffy, 55, still managed to exclaim, "Well, good morning," a quiver of sarcasm in her voice.
But the doctor ignored her. He talked about carcinomas and circled her bed like a presenter at a lawnmower trade show, while his audience, a half-dozen medical students in their 20's, stared at Ms. Duffy's naked body with detached curiosity, she said.
After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor abruptly turned to face her.
"Have you passed gas yet?" he asked.
"Those are his first words to me, in front of everyone," said Ms. Duffy, who runs a food service business near San Jose, Calif.
"I tell him, 'No, I don't do that until the third date,'" she said. "And he looks at me like he's offended, like I'm not holding up my end of the bargain."
Some asshole doc tries that on my mother, wife, or daughter and I punch him on the spot, something I made clear I would do when we went through a similar experience with our first born's cancer roughly a decade ago.
I can remember the night vividly: just that afternoon we got the shocking diagnosis of her advanced, metastasized cancer, and her first surgery was scheduled first thing the next morning. After several very difficult diagnostics where I was forced to hold down my screaming in fear and pain 30-month old daughter, we endured a parade of med students who entered our room unannounced to feel up what they all described as the biggest bloated cancer kidney anyone had ever seen.
We were so stunned by the diagnosis that it was about 5 students in before we came to our senses and told them to f-k off, shutting the door, putting a sign on it, turning down the lights and closing the curtain window. Nurses protested, and the resident presiding got really mad. I, in return, put every effort to emphasize my 6 foot, 2 inch, 200-plus pound frame and my willingness to use it on anyone who gave us a hard time from that moment onward.
Our reputation as badass parents was sealed, much to the delight of our pediactric oncology social worker, who saw it as evidence that we were determined to survive, in tact, as a family.
I maintained that intense level of anger for a good 15 months straight, until the entire process was consummated. It took me a good year-plus to come down off it, including a week of "difficult personality" training in the Maine woods that my company sent me to.
But it was worth every second.
Big point: everyone in the hospital acts like you're in a prison or something, with few rights. Nothing could be further from the truth, and if your doc can't handle you pulling out all the stops for your loved one-get another doc.
Second point comes from a USA Today story that I neglected to clip before my flight: grass-roots movement among emergency medical response personnel in Britain is spreading to the United States. Finding that many unconscious patients carry no info on them regarding whom to contact in an emergency (remember those cards in wallets?), they're asking people to do so on their cellphones.
Here is how it works:
Type in cell phone numbers for next-of-kin emergency contacts and then label the entry "ICE" in all caps. The acronym stands for "In case of emergency." The EMR techs just might find that phone on your and check the numbers (makes perfect sense to me that they'd check) and when they see that entry, they'll be able to hit the button and call.
Think about it and do it. I already have on my phone and I'll program my wife's when I get home tonight.
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