#medical abuse

[nightmaretour]

Okay now I've gotten myself angry again. Every time a medical professional is abusive/neglectful the overwhelming response is "Their job is so stressful and underpaid! They deal with so many rude and abusive patients, of course they're like that!!"

You know who else has stressful, underpaid jobs and deal with rude and abusive customers a lot? Retail workers. But if a retail worker started assaulting all of their customers you'd hear all about it, wouldn't you? The consequences would be enormous, and there would be an overwhelmingly negative response, even if it was exclusive to rude customers.

Now imagine this was the norm, and it was socially acceptable, encouraged even, in retail jobs to abuse and assault your customers whenever you feel like it, for any perceived sleight, just because they need to buy groceries and you have to serve them. It would be all over the news, it would be an international scandal with arrests all over the place, there would be exposés of the secret culture of abuse and assault in retail workplaces on every channel and news source with interviews with the victims. Everyone would know about it and everyone would care, because of course that's fucked up.

So why is it different when your victims are sick and rely on you to survive?

[thebibliosphere]

Whenever I talk about the medical neglect and ableism I've encountered as a victim of the healthcare system, there's always some cockwaffle who feels entitled to come into my inbox and make the argument of "not all doctors" while talking about how "people like them" (because it's always someone in a field of medicine who does this) are doing their best and it's really hard because so many people fake being ill to get on welfare (Yikes), but like, yeah, obviously #not all doctors, because if all doctors were negligent, bullying scum bags, I'd be dead.

But here's the thing: while I truly believe that the majority of doctors are doing their best in a system stacked against them and their patients, their presence does not negate the mass harm caused by the bad ones. And there are far more bad ones than you realize.

Fuck, John Oliver literally did a segment on this last week:

Yes, the truly bad, malicious doctors are in the minority. Most are just horrifically burned out and fighting a losing battle against a system, killing both them and their patients through a lack of funding and resources and profound overwork.

But the malicious ones do exist, and they will go out of their way to harm patients who don't kowtow to them.

I almost lost my life because when I was in my early twenties, I told a doctor I didn't think she was listening to me, and I disagreed with her assessment of my mental health (she was not a mental health doctor, and I was there for heart palpitations and chronic pain). She retaliated by putting "non-compliant" in my file.

There was also a fun little "doesn't show respect" note too that lives rent-free in my head because I know I wasn't rude. I was polite. I just didn't agree with her, and my refusal to accept her off-handed comment that "you probably have bipolar or BPD" (again, I was there for heart palpitations and chronic pain) meant I was "refusing care."

I wasn't. I just refused to be slapped with a mood/personality disorder when I was there because I kept fucking fainting when I stood up.

(Spoiler alert: it was dysautonomia)

That "non-compliant" marker followed me around for years. It followed me across an ocean and effectively ensured that any doctor I saw was going to treat me like absolute dogshit because no one wants to help Difficult Patients. It wasn't until I was so undeniably ill, literally on the brink of death, that anyone helped me.

I'm alive because of a good doctor. And all the good ones that came after him because of him.

So, I know they exist. You don't have to tell me that.

But I really fucking need you to acknowledge the bad ones and that you're part of a system with a long, long history of abusing minorities and vulnerable people. I need you to acknowledge that because it's the only way we're going to survive this godforsaken nightmare and make things better.

So yeah, #notalldoctors, but if you feel the need to say that because someone talking about being literally left to die by the medical system hurts your feelings, I'm going to have to ask you to take a step back and ask yourself if you're going into medicine for the right reasons.

Namely: do you want to help people, even the "difficult" ones?

Even the ones who might disagree with you?

Even if they're on welfare?

Even if they'll never get "better" in a way that means "cured"?

Just a thought. But hey, what do I know. I'm just someone who experienced hemolytic anemia because doctors kept telling me I was anxious and needed to exercise more 🤷‍♀️.

[the-itzy-bitzy-spider]

I've had that experience in the US too. Kicked out of the ER for "anxiety" when I couldn't breathe from asthma. Told my asthma was "stupid woman hormones." Told my pain after major surgery was constipation and I was refused treatment for anything else. They wouldn't even let me have PT after surgery with noted complications. Ignored over and over and over. I hate seeking medical attention anymore. I'll just be gaslit and lied to and ignored. And I damn sure don't go into any medical office without having done hours and hours of reading until I have basically done my own differential diagnosis because I no longer expect anyone to take the time or make the effort.

"Joy Spence, 21, said she visited emergency departments at two hospitals in St. John's over the course of nearly two weeks this May.

What began as weakness and abdominal pain on her right side quickly deteriorated into blacking out from the agony in her torso.

But no matter how dire her symptoms got, doctors kept sending her home.

"They would just tell me, 'Your bloodwork's normal, there's nothing we can do.' They would send me home, then same thing again," she said. "I would go back again. They would get me to do the bloodwork, say everything's normal."

Ultrasound and CT scans apparently turned up nothing, but Spence, in such severe pain, says she had no option but to keep returning to the hospital, where she says she was eventually left screaming in a waiting room, ignored by hospital staff.

"If somebody doesn't help me, I'm going to die," she recalls wailing, watching doctors and nurses pass her by.

At one point, she was dismissed outright by a walk-in clinic nurse, she adds.

"Somebody said to me, 'I don't know what you expect me to do,'" she said. "'You're a healthy 21-year-old young female.'"

One night, she says, her boyfriend had to help her into an ambulance. Spence was in so much pain she couldn't stay conscious and stand on her own.

"I remember the man in the ambulance telling me … how often he sees other young women going into the hospital and seeing them be misdiagnosed and not taken seriously," she said, speaking through tears.

"He said that he would do his best to … get things going for me."

Spence says she went to an ER at the Health Sciences Centre or St. Clare's Mercy Hospital about 10 times over a 12-day period, beginning on May 21. She also visited her family doctor, who could do little except tell her to speak directly to the surgeon at Health Sciences Centre, she said.

Each time she saw a doctor, she says, she was sent home and told to dance around her living room or do yoga to cure what physicians believed was anxiety or sluggish bowels.

"I had so many laxatives," Spence recalls. "I would tell them … nothing's even coming out anymore. It's not just this, I don't think. But no, they were dead set on the constipation and only constipation. Like, it can only be that."

...

Spence says doctors only began to take her seriously once she began vomiting in a Health Sciences Centre hallway. The contents of her stomach were green and black.

An older doctor walking past her happened to notice, stopping in his tracks. Spence says he immediately identified the issue as appendicitis.

At that doctor's urging, Spence was finally wheeled into an operating room, where she says her burst appendix — now gangrenous — was removed.

"I think when I walked into the room and they seen a 21-year-old young girl, they immediately dismissed me and thought that there couldn't be anything wrong with me," Spence said.

"I was not on their minds and not on their radar. And if they didn't have that preconceived idea of me, those thoughts wouldn't have been formed and maybe I would have gotten the proper care that I should have."

...

Spence is still struggling to recover from her ordeal. Physically, she's now fine: her appendix was removed and her stitches have healed.

But she's lost an alarming amount of weight, she says, wakes up gasping in the middle of the night and can't stop herself from crying whenever she remembers the hospital.

"I've been losing a lot of hair," she said. "Mentally, it's just been a struggle."

Spence only received an apology from the health authority after CBC News requested comment and confirmed that Spence had done an interview — a move she says felt hollow and frustrating, since the manager who called her didn't give her an explanation about why she was repeatedly ignored while waiting to be admitted.

The ripple effect from her illness, and how she says she was treated when seeking care, has uprooted her life. She's taken a year off her studies in Memorial University's social work program and has lost her job. She's looking for trauma therapy, but now doesn't have the money to pay for it, she says.

"I think as young women we're always told what we're supposed to do, how we're supposed to think, and not to trust our instincts," she said.

"But most of the time … the gut instinct is right. I knew I was sick. I knew what was happening wasn't right, and I could have died if I didn't keep going back to the hospital.

"If I had listened to those doctors and went back home — what could have really happened?""

[smoov-criminal]

i just rbed a post about something similar but. i need my white disabled to folks to be more aware of the privileges they have when navigating the healthcare system. every bit of medical ableism one can experience can be made even worse by being a poc. some of us can't threaten to report a doctor to the ethics board, or refuse care from healthcare workers who aren't masking, without jeopardizing our access to care in general or even our physical safety. we are more likely to be seen as drug seeking, or marked as noncompliant, or experience medical abuse and neglect. that's not to say these things don't happen to white disabled people, but i just think it's important to recognize how dangerous receiving medical care can be for disabled poc specifically. please keep this in mind when giving advice on navigating healthcare.

[fenrichaita]

One major factor that makes the nature of psychiatric treatment intrinsically violent is the fact that the boundaries of the patient is considered an obstacle to treatment. The lack of consent of the patient is considered an obstacle to treatment. These obstacles are abhorred by psychiatry and considered things that much be broken down. If the patient has a disagreement with the treatment, or objects to it, this is considered a symptom and therefore is seen as something not to be validated or respected. Thoughts, behaviors, beliefs; these are all considered symptoms if they are in opposition to treatment and must be broken down. However, compliance with treatment is almost never seen as disordered or symptomatic, even if the patient is fawning or similarly complying to avoid more harm done to them. The fact that only extreme compliance is accepted by psychiatry is inherently violent and conditions people to accept abuse. Isolation and violence are not vectors of healing.

[cartoonscientist]

I feel like one of the most insidious types of sanism is this thing I’ve noticed lately where mentally ill people report that their doctors just refuse to treat them or acknowledge their health problems, especially GI doctors; they’ll refuse to read the patient chart, tell the patient they’re lying about their officially recorded diagnoses and test results, and insist they see a therapist instead when usually the patient has been in therapy for years already

my own GI doctor refused to treat my ulcers or hernia or test me for gastroparesis after multiple scope exams and told me it’s all in my head, and my GP is currently gaslighting me about not having scoliosis and never having it on my record when I have actual adaptive devices prescribed to me

only my psychiatrist and therapist, dermatologist, pulmonologist, gynecologist and physical therapists take me seriously as a mature and cognizant person

this is really disturbing to me for obvious reasons

[crimeronan]

house md is wild cause it feels like in creating a show based on "irreverent doctor who is garbage, unlike the saint docs on all the boring medical soap operas rn" they completely accidentally created one of the most compelling and important concepts of all time, in "disabled chronic pain doctor distrusts medical institutions because of his experiences with addiction and disability, therefore he is constantly breaking the law and hospital administrative policy rules to get marginalized patients care that they would otherwise be denied, and the show uses this as a way to spotlight various forms of institutional patient inequity"

but BECAUSE the writers lucked into this concept by accident and have no idea WHY it's important, half of the show is Also "doctor commits constant heinous malpractice on vulnerable patients and treats them like shit and traumatizes them and this is considered a normal good protag thing to do because it will always be shown to be retroactively justified, because actually the patient always Was lying or being unreasonable, and this doctor is so so so smart and special that no rules ever apply to him, and no consequences will ever be shown" which is obviously. eaugh

so when it's good it's SO SO SO SO SO FUCKING GOOOOOD but it's also like. not something i can in good conscience recommend to Any other chronic illness people. u feel me.

[neuroticboyfriend]

honestly you probably shouldn't go into the medical profession if you aren't prepared to treat patients with dignity and respect - even if your job exploits you, even if your bosses suck, even if you're exhausted.

yes, you are allowed to have feelings and be tired. but you have to be willing and able to either admit when you can't do something (and take the consequences), or put how you feel aside and do your job. for the sake of your patient.

you and your job may be harmed by the medical industrial complex's wrongness, but to your patients, you are part of the complex that is also gravely failing them. you have the power to be a force of goodwill and care, or an instrument of oppression.

that is what you're signing up for when you become a medical professional. don't like it? don't become a medical professional.

[certifiedsexed]

Im a trans woman, im 18. I get periods.

Ive been on estrogen since I was 16, 2 years and three months... and my cramps are debilitating. I turn suicidal for a week every month and i sometimes throw up from the stinging/dull pain combo. there is bloating, severe depression, mood swings and extreme dysphoria.

My endocrinologist said that i should beware because my brain is decepting me and that can hinder meaningful conversation in my last meetup a month ago. i swear that im not making this up.

painkillers dont even work on my third/fourth day (i start counting the first day from when i get depressed, the other symptoms start the next day, and there is alot of sharp, radiating cramps, headache and other shittery the third day)

what should i do? am i really such a fraudster? i cant keep going on like this. its reducing my quality of life. is it really possible for me to have this much pain at a 26-27 day cycle??

So, I don't say this lightly: your endocrinologist should go to to hell! You're not a fraud and your brain isn't "deceiving" you. Those are literal textbook symptoms of something like PMDD and it's actually vile of him to straight-up diminish your symptoms and do nothing about it.

My first suggestion is get a different endocrinologist, if you can. That person is committing medical neglect against you and its loaded with medical trans/misogyny. If you can, you do not want to have to continue dealing with that.

Secondly, I want to suggest you try to find an OB/GYN. You have a few choices for dealing with it. If your AGAB is on file, it might be hard to find one that will take you, especially depending on where you live.

If you AGAB is not on file, it'll be easier to get in but medical misogyny, coupled with medical transmisogyny/transphobia is going to make getting help harder.

This does not mean you're faking it or that it's not worth trying [speaking as someone who cannot get diagnosed partially because of bigotry!], it just means people are bigoted assholes sometimes.

You might have to try numerous doctors. I cannot emphasis this enough: if you can, take someone with you! Doctors WILL treat you better.

Sometimes even going to the ER when you're experiencing these symptoms to have them run tests to narrow-down what disability you're dealing with can help. But do not let your endocrinologist force you into believing that the pain you're living with is normal or okay.

I'm not sure if this helps but I hope so, Anon! Let me know if you have any other questions or need anything else, fr. <3333

If anyone else has info that might help Anon, please add on in comments, reblogs and/or asks. Thank you.

[thebibliosphere]

I'm not sure the novelty of a doctor actually providing me with compassionate and competent treatment will ever wear off.

Like... I've known for years I am sick. Logically I am aware I've been ignored, abused, and violated. But there's still that abused and gaslit part of my brain fearfully murmuring, "But what if I am doing this for attention and I just don't know it? what if I am a Bad Patient?"

And it's so ingrained that even when a doctor tells me they ran biopsies that confirm my diagnosis irrefutably, I'm still like, "Wow, I sure am a good liar being able to fake biopsies like that." Like bitch, the fuck did I do? Manifest a fake result through the power of my brain?

What kind of Matilda-ass-nonsense do I think I'm capable of? And why am I not using it to make Elon Musk explode at will?

Anyway. I hope my therapist's great-grandkids enjoy the college education I'm about to bankroll. Fuck me.

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

[pro-birth]

Amber Thurman's hospital is flooded with negative reviews from patients who complain about the neglectful care they received there, in all sorts of medical situations.

Further proof that pro-aborts will use dead women's bodies to fearmonger society about abortion laws, when the REAL culprit has always been shit healthcare to begin with. If you want to give af about birth and reproductive justice, then STOP IGNORING WHAT'S ACTUALLY HURTING US.

[fenrichaita]

The thing that I find truly disgusting about psychiatry and the mental health institution is how many times you have to lie to the practitioner to escape, much in the way you would have to lie to an abusive partner or parent to escape. Both are unsafe situations where your autonomy is purposefully limited and held hostage, where it is made difficult for the victim or the patient to escape on their own terms. So often, to leave these situations, it is necessary to tell the practitioner what they want to hear to make them believe that you are "well" --- because they will not listen to reason or anything else. I truly believe the fact that many "patients" are forced to do this ends up giving the mental health professional a distorted view of the effectiveness of their treatments. Each time they refuse to listen to anything else but capitulation from their patients, their beliefs that forcibly detaining and drugging people against their will is valid treatment is reinforced. In their minds, patients who are well will eventually thank them for taking their autonomy away from them --- and patients who respond in other ways are less than well. In how many cases is the practitioner truly aware of when the patient is simply telling them what they want to hear?

[heyftinally]

"You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me."

Somehow I don't think this is where Taylor Swift was raised.

Asylums we centers of horrific abuse, primarily of disabled people.

They were tied or chained up.

They were experimented on.

They were sexually abused and raped.

They were beaten.

They were degraded.

They were neglected.

They were murdered.

Asylums served as a way to hide away people with disabilities from society, pretend they never existed, and leave them to die alone, afraid, and in pain. Many having little to no idea why.

The fact that Taylor Swift, an able bodied, neurotypical billionaire who has never encountered even a fraction of the oppression asylum victims did and disabled people still do, thinks this is an acceptable metaphor is nothing short of selfish, vile, out of touch ableism.

She is profiting off of the abuse and the murder of disabled people. She's making light of their abuse by comparing it to her cushy, well to do childhood.

Let's take a look at Taylor Swift's "asylum":

Huge house. Huge yard. Detached two-car garage. In ground pool.

This is not an asylum. It's a home. She had a home. She had her family around her. That family did what they could to support her and make her successful.

That is not asylum life.

She was not experimented on by doctors who believed she was incapable of thinking or feeling. She was not left for dead because nobody could be bothered to clean and feed her when she was incapable of doing so herself. She was not denied access to society or human connection. She was not murdered for being disabled.

Might she have been abused? Sure. Abuse does not make an asylum.

This lyric is nothing short of ableist, and it demonstrates with incredible clarity that Taylor Swift only supports minorities when it makes her look good and suits her purposes. She doesn't care about actually being informed about oppression or being a good person. She'll use minorities in whatever ways she believe will rake in the most profit. She doesn't care who she hurts, as long as she adds another couple millions to her billions.

It's time to demand some real accountability.

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom I truly do not understand why so many doctors in your era seem to hate chronically ill patients so much, enough to body-shame them and/or refuse to diagnose them properly and/or treat them with any degree of consistent care. Why become a doctor only to not care? emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 2:24 PM · Mar 15, 2024

[kivinelock]

"Give Curly his fucking medicine!"