Book Review: "Butchered By Healthcare" By Robert Yoho MD

No longer are we a nation with qualified individuals to serve us but rather one of 'hurry up & get in there because we are faltering& we need you now.' Skip directly to the front of the line and pass -Go -while collecting that $200 -just like Monopoly and forget about the patients being left behind and dying. This theory was practiced way before the pandemic wreaked havoc upon us.

This has resulted in many unqualified individuals, young, newly hired med grads, to replace the retired or experienced. The skilled and more experienced doctors can only be seen by the elderly, those with severe medical issues, and or extended long term patients as new patients aren't allowed. Three day urgent to be seen notices need not apply as they'll be ignored for months.

So let me go off and sound the alarm for anyone who thinks healthcare is great and everything is smooth as silk.

Just this past March, I was inclined to address my new patient concerns with the privacy office of a local hospital using what's known as the 'Statement of Disagreement.'

This was due to the fact that after 20 yrs of misdiagnosis my doctors didn't want to treat the underlying problem(s) but rather provide a host of mixed drugs and not fix the continuing issues. Has your doctor ever asked if you take any meds and you proudly respond, NO! They look like they are ready to fall off the chair..I can't be the only one not doped up! Can I?

When you have pulmonologist telling a 20 yr volunteer with the American Lung Association that she can't possibly have COPD because she's a non smoker than by all means -you're in the wrong field of business. Due you realize pulmonologists are now making mental notes on patients that violate the Goldwater Rule {many of which are first time patients with a history of misdiagnosis}who simply want to inform them of underlying conditions that are piggy backing upon one another?

Or let me explain this in more simpler terminology:
When you go to a doctor for DVT (deep vein thrombosis) with severe leg cramping and the xray techs xray the wrong leg (something is wrong).

When a hematologist provides iron infusions, b12 injections, at a cancer center for severe anemia aka microcytic hypochromic noting patient has HUS(fatal blood disorder) issued by primary doctor & determined by a computer diagnosis; without informing patient "in person" -as patient results with severe headaches/weight gain--you have a problem.

Perhaps if you're too new in the med field; prescribe an emergency inhaler (non steroidal) & it's declined by insurance because no paperwork to prescribe has been received by this doctor on file with the state! There's an issue.

What if you go to a PT and they tell you -you're fine-normal wear& tear - only to get a second opinion from a specialized spinal surgeon and it's in layman terms have severe spinal stenosis causing random paralysis of legs?

Or this... Can't receive major back surgery as too anemic?

Have you suffered 20 yrs with 'acute bronchitis' probably not! Know why? Because you can't it's 'chronic' bronchitis after 20 yrs and I don't need a license to tell you this information.

This time of year many of us are seeking flu/pneumonia shots especially if you're like me with 20 yr history of such illnesses. What if you get that flu shot (1st time in 47 yrs) resulting in another ER visit this time for IV fluid with sinus tachycardia...YUP! You got it! NO THANKS never again.

So what would you think if I told you I had to beg to get this shot and was told that I had to have a doctor's order when I asked the doctor he says, ask the nurse, when I ask the nurse she places in notes," pneumonia shot due since 1979 with a D.O.B. of 1973. Is this good quality care? 

Perhaps you think she's a woman, she's lying, she can't be trusted...
I offer you this for your viewing pleasure: The Chief of Surgery lost his own son literally yesterday (here) in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania (allegedly) this is the exact same issue I had above. "The complaint alleges that Corey’s doctor failed to recommend Corey get a pneumococcal vaccine and that hospital personnel were too slow to react when he went into cardiorespiratory failure." He was 44 years old and father of three (just 3 years younger than myself) https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/wi...
Guess I'm glad I knew my own body and drove myself up to ER as I was extreme light headed, unable to breath, heart palps while doing dishes that day.

What I've long learned is that the payouts, the freebies, the incentives to perform and become pill poppers is rampant. The want, need, or demand for quick treatment, quick payouts, quick service, quick vaccines, and more has resulted in this quick response of give them drugs and send them on their way. Medicare/Medicaid recipients you are guinea pigs so please proceed with caution as it's now Profit over People.

Healthcare and those who enable it are now in a precarious position of going with the grain and staying silent or being ousted and speaking out for morality, legality, and intellectual sake.

I'm speaking from experience when I say I nearly died with a placenta abruption and a premature birth with a son having vater syndrome (skeletal abnormalities) who is turning 20 this November.

I'm also a mom of three high risk kids (SUA -single umbilical artery and Jaundice) both walks in the park in terms of treatment after my son but all this is taxing upon a single mom in extreme poverty dependent upon the system that fails to address our concerns.

My son was stripped of his SSI/SSP upon turning 18 in college when he needed it most as it's meant to sustain life not force him deeper into poverty with a medical disability he's born with for life.

He was also declined recently for Prevacid even though he has esophageal atresia (fused esophagus) with fistulas and more including both stomach and kidney reflux (grade 2 & 4). The reasoning was it was expensive and insurance didn't want to pay till they had concrete reasons for why it was needed even though he's been on and off it his entire life.

As a mom who had to elevate a bed at 35 Degree angle to prevent choking, who witnessed newborns pass away in NICU, who had to have her own son lifeflighted after an emergency c section resulting in 2 pints of blood transfusion and an ambulance to take me to see him an hour away in a children's hospital- I beg of you- Please help those less fortunate-those on medicaid-medicare-and don't assume those who are disabled show signs of disabilities when they are internal only.

Thank you
Signed,
The daughter-of a retired -RN-OBGYN- who worked graveyard shift and went without a pension to help me tend to my son's at home health care needs as it's ongoing -rather than hire out -for an at home nurse.

If you've not been in an ER when you hear code blue and see doctors running to surgery -while pregnant with your second child-and all alone- while your son is in surgery to scoop out an apple pie that was lodged in his throat and now just went into respiratory distress -count yourself lucky.

My wish for those suffering is they find help and my wish for those with the ability to make the changes we need is that one day I live long enough to see empathy, compassion, love, and genuine concern for others be introduced as a course for these doctors and nurses.

Want to know how many times I heard- You look great, you look fine, your son seems good...

To the doctor who declined to fill out a simple paper to prevent our shut off of our utilities in poverty, while divorcing, while waiting for child support, while in extreme and dire circumstances- I can forgive but I can never forget.
Stop the mass distribution of drugs and profits and get back to basics - your body will thank you for it! 

Be a nation that's about humanity and love not hate, anger, and for profit..

We can and must do better. Read this book!