editor
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Joined: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 297
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 Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 9:38 am Post subject: |
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Need help with diagnostic nightmare in B.C.'s Interior:
| Quote: | From: Clive Owen
To: editor@bcdisabilities.com
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:06 AM
i recently was diagnosed with RRMS relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and have found that marijuana helps easy my headaches and stiffness in my whole body not to mention helps with my severe anxiety and down right horrible depression i have found it hard and a complete pain is the ass to ask any medical prefessional for help i was sick for almost 5 years complaining and complaining my old dr seemed like he didnt care and kept giving me the same perscription for my ear numbness then my right eye had an attack of optic neuritis and still nothing was done to help six months later i had another optic attack in the right eye again and finally we were off and running i found out almost another year later it was MS i thank the doctors for all the stress they put me thru and this stress caused more damaage now i will be startign copaxone but i hav eno trust in anyone any more and i dont knwo what to do or even if these fucken doctors are right i dont even knwo why i am writing just to complain and maybe help other people in the future |
Our reply:
Screams from the Balcony
Selected Letters 1960-1970
Paperback
By an old friend, Charles Bukowski
Edited by Seamus Cooney
| Quote: | [To Tom McNamara]
May sicks, 1965
writers are a sick-head lot, a gathering of neon-light tasters, spitting out their words, their absurdities, their bile, their orange-juice blood. we are down in submarines; we don't know; a nervous nasty lot...
I'd rather sleep for 3 or 4 days than do anything, so what happens? I can't sleep at all. I worry about motor tuneups and the death of sparrows. and all the women walking around and me not fucking them. then, sometimes I think I am too much topsoil, I want to get under, forget the toteboard and gambol with the worms (later, I know), so the other night I am wandering around at 4 in the morning and I pick up something by a Chinaman, 300 or 200 B.C., a couple of centuries after Confucious, and here's this guy running around giving the word to Dukes and State Ministers and Kings, but it doesn't reach me, I don't have any armies or loyal subjects or disloyal subjects, only a matter of keeping myself alive another 15 or 20 years if I feel like it. more wasted time. now I've got a pain under the collarbone; I've been going a pack and a half but my pecker is hard when I awaken the few times I've slept. I am angry with white Spanish walls and sound of tires on pavement. no, I don't read much anymore - Dunleavy, anybody. it's a matter of the juices saying no, no, no. no. there's simply no intake. if I power it down against the grain I am deader than I am now and that wd. be some horrible thing, ah.
I hear Lyle Stuart is going to charge $7.50 for Crucifix in a Deathhand, my new book of poems. It has expensive paper, format, plates of artwork and so on, but I can't see anybody paing $7.50 for a book of poems, and he has 3,000 books of poems, and so I guess he's going to have to stack them wall to wall and forget it. most of the people, I think, who might go my poems, most of them don't even have $7.50 and if they did they'd prob. buy something to drink. well, I write the stuff and what they do with it is theirs. the paper is supposed to last 800 years or 1800 years I forget which and I don't know, except one bomb or bad poetry will take care of all that. ... (-- pgs. 151-152) |
Crucifix in a Deathhand
New Poems 1963-1965
By Charles Bukowski
and New Orleans artist Noel Rockmore
| Quote: | From: editor@bcdisabilities.com
To: Clive
CC: editor@bcdisabilities.com
Subject: Re: Screams from the balcony
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 12:37:23 -0700
All rants, complaints and screams from the balcony most gratefully received! So very sorry to hear of your trauma and the disappointing treatment you've received from the medical establishment. Glad MJ is helping some. Do you have any problem acquiring it? How can we help, if at all? Should we start a new riff featuring emails you send, updating any and all aspects of your various treatments, how effective they are and so on? You could, of course, do this at Facebook, too. Would you like information re suing a physician for negligence of various kinds? Anything? We keep Leonard Cohen's depression experience on the homepage because we appreciate how soul-destroying simply getting the right diagnosis can be. Let us know how, if at all, we should proceed. We live to serve.
Ed. |
Back to Clive:
| Quote: | From: Clive Owen
To: editor
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 1:01 PM
Subject: RE: Screams from the balcony
i have no idea what to do everything is so messed up nowadays and all i want is help. and yes its very hard to afford marijuana even if it was medical marijuana if it helps people why isnt it more readily availible thats all i want to know. my MS affects everyapect of my life and all i want is an apology from the doctor who treated wrong and for all GPs to have more care for thier patients and listen to them the first time they complain abotu sometyhing serious i thank god for my new doctor he tells the truth and doesent fiddle around. i would like to sue my old doctor thats a for sure but i dont have the patience or stress managment right now to even try i am tryin to get healthy and start copaxen treatment tomorrow. i truley believe my MS is caused by paxil the anti depressant drug and doctors ahould stop giving them out like candy i was addicted to them things and is meseed up my brain as u can see i am all over the place with my writing i am extremely pissed off at not only the doctors but by they way i have been treatede in the service BC office in cranbrook and before in sparwood i am currently on disability it does not give me much but i do survive on it. People with MS have different symptoms everyday like one day my foot hurts and the next my head. i try to go to school as much as possible but i believe i have been destroyed by paxil and my old doctor. i believe he shoudl loose his job before anymore people have to deal with that drug pushing ass. i appologize for my language and anything else but something has to be done i dont know what but the system has to change and the people in the welfare office are not psychiatrists and the money i recieve is not from thier pockets and i wish they wouldnt act like that. One day if i get better i plan to run for MP and change the whole system if i could. and another thing that gets my goat is that finance misinster and her new shoes i coudl use her 100 bucks just for tylenol for a month. people in power shoudl watch what they say because it might tick off us LITTLE people thank you |
Our reply:
| Quote: | From: editor@bcdisabilities.com
To: Clive
CC: editor@bcdisabilities.com
Subject: Re: Screams from the balcony
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 11:31:12 -0700
Again, all screams gratefully received. How connected are you in terms of the MS network - websites for news on treatments and other medical developments? Quite often, one of the law schools gets involved with info sites on hard-to-diagnose/treat/prove to a disability benefits tribunal illnesses - CFS, for instance, has now attracted the attention of Ottawa U, which engages students in legal research to facilitate lawsuits for better access to benefits/services. Also quite often, there are support groups locally where you can meet others who know what you're going through. Sometimes your experience assists another sufferer; sometimes others have some information for you. An illness like MS affects every aspect of a person's life and it can be a tremendous relief to have peers. Are you connected as well to the excellent B.C. Coalition for People with Disabilities? They operate on a shoestring, thanks to Carole and others of Gord's Filthy Few, but they're very, VERY good. Never a bad idea to cultivate relationship there to ensure you're receiving all the benefits to which you're entitled. This changes frequently, too, by the way. Trawl the site for info if you feel inclined. Or keep screaming. We hear you.
About suing doc: Of course, it's not easy, and the medical profession has legions of attys at their disposal to defend these things. BUT, that said, it surprises us diagnosis took so long in your case. If you want to work pro-actively toward a lawsuit, Google various aspects of MS esp at Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control to determine whether your doc departed from the usual diagnostic protocols. Check symptoms listed, note which of these you were presenting and when and the various testing, including timing, Atlanta recommends in those circs. If there are gaps btwn doc's procedures and those recommended by Atlanta, strongly suggest you approach medical negligence attorney. Again, this type of lawsuit is VERY fact driven - much documentation required. If you haven't yet started keeping a journal of some kind to note all tests, treatments, including doc visits and your responses in each case, start today. It's never a bad idea to have some sort of timeline showing key dates and your medical response to each treatment. Essentially, you have to become your own best advocate. Some people feel stressed by this type of record-keeping; others feel it gives us some measure of control. Up to you, of course, but attorney will certainly require it if you go that route.
There is also CBC's Go Public. Several of our visitors have found this vehicle quite helpful, esp in finding others in similar circs, which to some extent relieves the loneliness of isolation most of us feel when we're suddenly faced with a health crisis.
As you can see, there are a number of ways to proceed.
Sounds as if you're in the Interior and going to school. Is that right? How is it going? |
Clive again:
| Quote: | From: Clive Owen
To: editor
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:52 PM
Subject: RE: Screams from the balcony
i try and try as hard as i can to keep up with everything in the news about MS since my diagnosis. I also am tryin to set up a support group here in fernie BC, but its hard because i live in a town where rich people kick the poor people out of the nice apartments and turn them into condos rent them to other rich people and thus force the poor people to move out because thats of course how rich people want thier own towns and cities. but ya i would like any information u can get on suing my old doctor phone numbers anything. |
Our reply:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: Clive
Cc: editor
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:23 PM
Subject: Re: Medical Malpractice - a link and a few names of attys
Hello Clive,
Have a look at the B.C. Bar Association's summary on medical malpractice, which provides a good overview of the hurdles involved in proving your case. The association does provide a phone number for lawyer referrals for clients in Gord's 'heartland,' but, frankly, we've rarely found it responsive. Also, we'd advise AGAINST contacting the doctors' governing body, the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Why give them a heads-up until you've assessed your claim first with an atty? Here's a bunch of names in Vancouver. Ask each who they'd hire to run a medical malpractice file for a favorite nephew in Fernie. If you ask the question that way, they may apply a more rigorous standard to their business contact lists. Then search any names you get at the B.C. Law Society's Lawyer Lookup link to find contact info and how long they've been practising attys. Here's a Fernie father and son outfit. From the areas of practice they list at the site, it's doubtful they'd be able to handle your file but, again, ask who they'd hire to run a medical malpractice file for a favorite nephew. Start there and see how you fare. If you come up empty, let us know and we'll go back to the board.
Again, do check in with BCCPD (the coalition) to ask if there are any MS support groups in Fernie and, if not, have they any contacts there or ideas on how to set one up. We'd be VERY surprised if they didn't. Ask them, too, for leads on obtaining medical MJ nearest you.
Recommended tonics: Just about any novel or short story collection by the great British humorist P.G. Wodehouse. Guaranteed sunlight on even the darkest day. Also, continue to rant whenever about whatever.
About the condos: We know for a fact that http://www.bccondos.ca/ would be grateful as heck for any photos or narrative involving specific condos - esp in the Interior, esp leaky ones and esp when dry, affordable housing is ripped out in favor of a leaky condo development. Editor appears to publish photos, too (see Under Tarps). There is also an ever-expanding riff on affordable housing, including protests. While it seems focused on the Lower Mainland, this is an ambitious website with links to housing failures worldwide - and it's a housing failure when affordable housing is replaced by the garbage currently enjoying favor among B.C. planning authorities.
Best of luck and let us know how you fare.
Ed. |
About medical negligence:
| Quote: | Script 420 gives information only, not legal advice. If you have a legal problem or need legal advice, you should speak to a lawyer. For the name of a lawyer to consult, call Lawyer Referral at 604.687.3221 in the lower mainland or 1.800.663.1919 elsewhere in British Columbia.
Legal duty to give proper medical care
All doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other health care providers have a legal duty to provide proper medical care to patients. Doctors can refuse to accept a patient for personal reasons or if they and the patient disagree over treatment. But doctors who accept a patient must give that patient proper medical care. If they fail to give that care, a patient can sue them for medical malpractice. The two main types of medical malpractice are negligence and failure to get a patient’s informed consent. And in some cases, the failure to get informed consent may also be an assault.
Negligence
Doctors or health care providers are negligent if they fail to give you the type (or standard) of care that a reasonable doctor or health care provider would give in similar circumstances. If the negligence causes you injuries or illness, then the doctor or health care provider may be liable to you (have to pay you).
It’s no excuse for a doctor to say: “I did my best. I just didn’t know any better.” If the doctor should have known better, they may be liable. For example, you may complain to your doctor of severe head pain. He doesn’t pay attention for some reason. Maybe he’s in a hurry to get home, so he tells you to take two aspirins and go to bed. It turns out that you have something seriously wrong, and his failure to detect the problem puts your health in danger. If the doctor was clearly wrong, you can sue for malpractice and probably win. Whether the doctor was negligent depends on whether a reasonably competent doctor (of the same specialty) would have avoided the error or omission.
However, doctors and health care providers are not liable for every mistake. The law realizes that doctors often have to make quick decisions without the best information. So taking the example above, let’s say you complain to your doctor of severe head pain. He pays attention and carefully takes your medical history, listens to you describe your symptoms, and orders the right tests. Then he decides that you have an ordinary tension headache that will go away. Later, it turns out that your doctor was wrong, and his mistake has put your health in danger. In this case, your doctor may have exercised proper care but still made a mistake. That’s probably the case if other doctors would have treated you the same way. You probably won’t win if you sue the doctor for malpractice. In other words, the key issue is whether the doctor made a reasonable judgment call that reasonable doctors would have made in the same circumstances - even if it turns out later to be the wrong judgment.
The standard of care differs from place to place. It also varies with the level of specialty of the doctor - the standard may be higher for specialists. It also varies with time - today’s standard may not be good enough next year. You can’t always expect the best care available at the most sophisticated research hospital. The standard of care is based on the community and hospital that treat you. You can’t judge a small-town doctor in an isolated BC town by the same standard as a doctor at Vancouver General Hospital.
In summary, not every mistake or bad result automatically means there was negligence. A doctor may take all the right steps and still make a mistake or get a bad result.
If you prove there was negligence and the negligence caused your injury or illness, a court will normally order the doctor, hospital, or health care provider to pay you for the following things - if the negligence caused them: your lost earnings, medical and other expenses, “pain and suffering,” and loss of enjoyment of life. This last category is the court’s attempt to compensate you for the effect of an error on your life in general. The doctor is responsible for only the harm that his negligence caused. For example, say you needed surgery that would leave you with a mild disability if done properly. But the surgeon was negligent and caused you a greater disability. In this case, you would be compensated only for the extra disability caused by the negligence, not for the mild disability you still would have had if the surgeon had not been negligent.
If a doctor delegates some work to someone else, the doctor is generally still legally responsible for the work. If a doctor leaves a patient in the care of another doctor, both doctors are responsible. If an inexperienced intern performs the duties of a doctor, the intern has to give the same medical care the doctor gives. But a doctor can rely on the employees of a medical institution and expect that they’ll meet the standard of care required in their jobs. So if a doctor leaves proper instructions with a nurse who doesn’t follow them, the nurse, not the doctor, is normally responsible.
Hospitals also have a duty to exercise a proper standard of care. A hospital’s duty is to take reasonable care in running the hospital to avoid harming patients. This includes appointing enough competent staff, ensuring that the staff act within their competence level, ensuring timely treatment, and taking the right steps to protect patients from infections from other patients.
As a patient, you are also responsible for your care. You must give the doctor all the important information about your condition, your medical history, and any other relevant subject. If you don’t, and that leads to an error in diagnosis or treatment, it will be your fault and not the doctor’s. As well, a doctor is not responsible for problems if you don’t follow the doctor’s advice and your failure causes the problem you complain about. For example, it would be hard to prove that a surgeon was negligent in operating on you, if you don’t follow the surgeon’s instructions about diet and exercise after the operation - and then you get sick from ignoring those instructions.
Failure to get a patient’s informed consent
A doctor has to tell you about your condition, the nature of the treatment proposed, the risks of the treatment, and other options that you may have. You can’t consent to treatment unless the doctor gives you all this information. When a doctor tells you of the risks, they don’t have to explain all the possible risks – just those that a reasonable patient would want to know before deciding about treatment. If a doctor doesn’t give you all this information, the failure could be medical malpractice, but only if the failure caused your problems. Even if a doctor doesn’t give you all the information, the doctor won’t be liable if a reasonable person in your position would have agreed to the treatment anyway, even if the doctor had given them all the information.
A third type of malpractice
Besides negligence and lack of informed consent, in some cases there may be a third type of malpractice. Recently, courts have said a doctor may be responsible in some cases if they break the patient-doctor contract. But this is a very complicated area of malpractice law, which this script does not explain. For example, one issue may be who has a contract with the doctor: you or the Medical Services Plan. Your lawyer will discuss it with you if it applies to your case.
If you suffer malpractice: legal advice and time limits for suing
If you have questions or concerns about your treatment, talk to your doctor. Then, if you feel that you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, get legal advice right away. Generally, you must start a malpractice lawsuit within two years of when the malpractice occurred. This time is called the limitation period. More precisely, it’s within two years of when a reasonable person would realize malpractice might have occurred - knowing what you learned along the way. Even if you’re well during this time, you should act quickly - while witnesses are still available and their memories are fresh.
If you start a lawsuit, you have to be patient. Malpractice suits often take two to five years or more from start to finish.
You can also contact the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC at 604.733.7758 in Vancouver and 1.800.461.3008 elsewhere in BC. Its website is www.cpsbc.ca. The College is the organization that licenses all BC doctors. It protects the public by setting standards for doctors and by monitoring, evaluating, and disciplining them. But it cannot order a doctor to pay you money - only a court can do that. Refer to script 423, called “Making a Complaint against Your Doctor,” for more information.
Costs of suing
Some lawyers will agree to work for you and charge a contingency fee. This means their fee depends on the result of the case. If you lose, the lawyer gets nothing. If you win, the lawyer gets part of your compensation award. Win or lose, though, you usually have to pay the expenses of suing, which can be thousands of dollars, especially if you have to hire experts to help you prove your case. The Law Society regulates contingency fee contracts to ensure they are fair to clients. For more information about lawyers’ fees, refer to script 438, called “Lawyers’ fees.”
[updated December 2006] (From the B.C. Bar Association link listed above) |
Link to this entry
http://www.bcdisabilities.com/bcdisforum/viewtopic.php?p=306#306
Last edited by editor on Thu May 29, 2008 3:00 pm; edited 11 times in total |
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