I would first like to say something about the radio interview from NPR with that lady, whom I forget the name, (please excuse me) who was mislead to have HIV, and then treated for an inexistent germ in her body for almost 10 years. This is disgusting, appalling, amazing, and sad at the same time. First off; shame to the doctor who misdiagnosed her. If I were that doctor, I would be completely embarrassed and would never want to show my face in public again. This lady went to pain and suffering and near death for nothing! This isn't the type of case where someone sat in jail for awhile when that person wasn't the felon. This was physical and mental hell for this lady.
It's amazingly disgusting how this doctor could, one, screw up on the test and claim that the lady had a deathly disease, and two, to refuse to re-test the patient. May I ask: What's the harm in a retest? People make mistakes about things all the time, and the simple solution is to try again. But no. This doctor for some stupid reason decided not to, and has this poor woman suffer for 9 years! This woman was basically loading up her body with drugs that weren't doing anything. Of course, if a patient were to have HIV or AIDS, there would be side affects, some like this woman had. But when you don't have the disease, not only are you just throwing in useless drugs, you are getting unwanted and unneeded pains and they are worse!
Now, there isn't much to say in this blog except to bash this stupid doctor who did this, so I'll start off here by stating some opinions to some of my own questions.
1) What proper monetary award is sufficient for this pain and suffering?
I believe there is none. How could you repay or get back 10 years of someone's life? While you were confident about a disease and didn't bother to listen to your patient, your patient was suffering every day of her life for almost a decade. You can't give this person money. What is she to do with it? Normally when you want to give back to someone, it would be something that represented what happened. Let's say that there was a car accident. One would repay this by buying the victim a new car. Or, if there was stolen property, then the robber would repay you with the stolen item, or maybe more. You can't repay someone 10 years of wasted, painful days.
2) Whose at fault / Who gets punished?
The doctor, of course. Now that it is proven that that woman didn't have HIV, the doctor has no argument. Maybe as first, when the patient wanted a re-test, then the doctor could have said that the side effects could include depression, and that the patient was going crazy. Well, of course the side effects didn't happen, no doubt, but the fact that the side effects shouldn't have happened because the patient didn't have the disease is a different story.
All-in-all, this was the saddest story I've heard all year from the news. How someone could be treated for a deadly disease in which they don't have, but still have to go through the pain and suffering and plus, even when they shouldn't be.
There isn't much else to say, but the fact that that doctor needs to be reevaluated not only in medical school, but maybe in an asylum too?
Monday, February 11, 2008
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