Up the Establishment
After yesterday's rant you may be laboring under the impression that you now know why I am not a big fan of the medical establishment in general and Psychologists in specific.
You don't know the half of it.
If you knew that an unfortunate error had been made by an underpaid and probably overworked nurse, and that error had led to the death of my beloved maternal grandmother, and that the hospital had then gone to ridiculous lengths to cover that error up, you might think that the experience might have soured me on the medical profession. You'd be wrong... it soured me on that particular hospital, certainly, but the medical profession *also* saved my life and that of my darling baby, so I'd consider it all a wash.
Nope. The reason I feel the way I do about the Cherrix case and other similar cases, the way I feel about the incestuous relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the AMA, and the way I feel about the behavior of Experts when they deal with theirsubjects patients comes from a different source altogether.
A year or two after we defied the System by pulling our child out of it (against the advice of the Experts), I discovered that I had a capacity for rage that I never would have imagined. I experienced true Evil in the form of bureaucratic indifference and arrogance. I saw how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Before that experience I would have read the above and thought it overly theatrical and in all likelihood hysterical.
That was before someone I loved was in serious danger of being locked up and left insane for the rest of their life simply because a doctor... and then a System... didn't want to be seen to be in (relatively minor) error.
The story is a relatively long one and requires that I fill in some background, so I will tell it in a couple of installments. I'll sandwich it between other, less negative posts... that way you will hopefully understand that I haven't gone entirely round the Reactionary Bend. But we are all shaped by our experiences, and this is mine.
Unfortunately for her, it is also my sister's. If anything, the story will hopefully give you an understanding and some respect for a group of people that tend to be ignored, mocked, and sometimes tortured by the 'average citizen'... and all too often by the people who are being paid to care for them.
You don't know the half of it.
If you knew that an unfortunate error had been made by an underpaid and probably overworked nurse, and that error had led to the death of my beloved maternal grandmother, and that the hospital had then gone to ridiculous lengths to cover that error up, you might think that the experience might have soured me on the medical profession. You'd be wrong... it soured me on that particular hospital, certainly, but the medical profession *also* saved my life and that of my darling baby, so I'd consider it all a wash.
Nope. The reason I feel the way I do about the Cherrix case and other similar cases, the way I feel about the incestuous relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the AMA, and the way I feel about the behavior of Experts when they deal with their
A year or two after we defied the System by pulling our child out of it (against the advice of the Experts), I discovered that I had a capacity for rage that I never would have imagined. I experienced true Evil in the form of bureaucratic indifference and arrogance. I saw how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Before that experience I would have read the above and thought it overly theatrical and in all likelihood hysterical.
That was before someone I loved was in serious danger of being locked up and left insane for the rest of their life simply because a doctor... and then a System... didn't want to be seen to be in (relatively minor) error.
The story is a relatively long one and requires that I fill in some background, so I will tell it in a couple of installments. I'll sandwich it between other, less negative posts... that way you will hopefully understand that I haven't gone entirely round the Reactionary Bend. But we are all shaped by our experiences, and this is mine.
Unfortunately for her, it is also my sister's. If anything, the story will hopefully give you an understanding and some respect for a group of people that tend to be ignored, mocked, and sometimes tortured by the 'average citizen'... and all too often by the people who are being paid to care for them.
posted by Eileen at 7:22 AM
3 Comments:
Wow. Is it wrong to say I'm looking forward to these installments? I don't mean that in an, "Ooh, I'm excited!" kind of way. I'm intrigued and I want to hear your story, and your sister's.
Ditto to what (and how) mamatulip said.
Not me-sis, incidentally. ;)
And having had about 80% bad experiences with the medicopharmaceutical estblishment, I can only "hurrah" Eileen's campaign to expose them for what they are!
Post a Comment
<< Home