I have come to the realization that bad things do happen to good people as much as on the contrary, good things happen to those who have caused us harm.
I cannot even really begin to explain my feelings of how devastated it is to be cast away by the people who you put your faith in, especially when it comes to your health. When you are sick or supposedly diagnosed with an illness, you never really expect them to start playing Russian roulette with your life.
Due to incompetence and attitude of "it's not my problem" recent events escalated to the breaking point. My voice needed to be heard and in my heart, I know that if my father was not a lawyer and did not put his law initials beside the very first complaint letter, chances are we would be stored away in a pile that would be sorted at random on a secretary's desk.
Regardless of the outcome now, I really wanted to share with the Chief of Staff of the hospital what I have been going through for the last year and to ask himself the question of what lengths he would go to if this was happening to his child. That point in itself hit home and I could see some empathy. The 6 page letter including documentation of all the events leading up to the meeting showed that something has to be done so other people might not suffer as terribly as I have, physically and especially mentally. I have been diagnosed with PTSD, something I never thought I would be dealing with on top of everything else, but it is now my reality as I re-live these experiences every day.
The actual details of what went on and whether I have been misdiagnosed was not the main reason for the meeting, and why I am not posting the entire 6 pages.
It's this part below of the letter which is most important to me and so I wanted to share it with everyone:
A doctor of any sort, including a specialist needs to be trained on how to communicate effectively with their patients. If someone is an expert in his/her field but cannot effectively deal properly with a patient, they are doing others more harm than they actually realize and even causing further damage to their own reputation.
I would not want anyone to go through what I have and so I am advocating for major change to happen with all doctors, regardless of their expertise or ranking in the hospital system. I understand how busy everyone is, and the lack of funding and all the other obstacles. However, after going through this ordeal, the time it would take to do some mandatory compassionate training a couple times a year would make a world of difference. Doctors need to be put in the patient's shoes to have a better understanding on how to talk to them. Meetings like this would not have to take place which waste valuable energy and time of all parties involved. More effort and support can be spent on the most important part of what doctors and hospitals should be caring about; the patient's physical and equally important, their emotional wellbeing.
*****
I'd like to say that I have a new specialist now who so far has demonstrated to myself and my family care and compassion, something that I strongly believe that a mandate should always hold true to with no exceptions.
Although right now in my life, I am still going through a lot of unknowns, I have some hope and comforted by the fact that I am at least being treated with R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Thanks for reading.
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