Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #DoctorsAreDickheads
Most recents (7)
⚠️ AN APOLOGY.
Earlier today, I participated in the #NN19 #FixTheDamnHealthcare panel with @lpackard, @ElenaHung202, @mattbc, @DrSriram and @glparodi. For the most part, I thought it went well...between us we managed to cram a ton of complicated policy stuff into an hour. 1/
Earlier today, I participated in the #NN19 #FixTheDamnHealthcare panel with @lpackard, @ElenaHung202, @mattbc, @DrSriram and @glparodi. For the most part, I thought it went well...between us we managed to cram a ton of complicated policy stuff into an hour. 1/
All of the feedback I received from those who were there in person, as well as those who watched the livestream & who commented via Twitter and Facebook, was very positive. 2/
When @mattbc was introducing his segment on #MedicareForAmerica, he mentioned the hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads, which I had never heard before. @DrSriram jokingly quipped "why is everyone looking at me?", and I kiddingly said "not all doctors?" to him. This was out of line. 3/
I’ve been amplifying the #DoctorsAreDickHeads hashtag the last few days but haven’t actually shared my own story. It starts there, traverses through #DoctorIRespect and #DoctorsAreAwesome and ends with #DoctorsAreHuman (something for everyone!)
And of course it is not the entire profession, but the profession has a major systemic problem when it comes to disabled patients and those with #chronicillness that it seems to have little to no knowledge or self-awareness of. THAT – not the hashtag – is the problem #medtwitter
#MedTwitter, your patients have been trying FOR YEARS to speak out on hashtags like #spoonies #pwd #medtrauma and no one has listened (on this platform) at this scale until patients got....confrontational #DoctorsAreDickheads
I know that I’ve been using the #DoctorsAreDickheads hashtag a lot, but please understand.
There is a HORRIBLE problem in the medical community, and I have firsthand experience on the damage it does to patients. 1/3
There is a HORRIBLE problem in the medical community, and I have firsthand experience on the damage it does to patients. 1/3
I have post traumatic stress disorder due in large part to how doctors have treated me. I am living with mental AND physical pain, reminders of that mistreatment, every single day. We are not disgruntled customers complaining about a lack of ice. #DoctorsAreDickheads 2/3
We are patients with no other choice but to put our lives in other peoples’ hands, and in many of our cases, they were not handled with care, and we suffer because of it.
If you took offense before attempting understanding, you STILL aren’t listening.
#DoctorsAreDickheads 3/3
If you took offense before attempting understanding, you STILL aren’t listening.
#DoctorsAreDickheads 3/3
I'm seeing some pushback against the #DoctorsAreDickheads hashtag, so let me tell you a story. 1/x
A few years ago, my wife went to the ER with excruciating pain in her abdomen. Her anguish was downplayed and ignored for over 12 hours. She ended up losing her ovary. It was a traumatizing experience. I wrote about it here: theatlantic.com/health/archive… #DoctorsAreDickheads
Reporting the piece, I was stunned to find out how dramatically unequal medical treatment can be. The simple fact is this: Women don’t receive the same quality of care that men do. #doctorsaredickheads
A lot of patients have had bad experiences with medicine. There are lots of reasons for that. It's really complicated, for one. Our knowledge isn't perfect. Our tests aren't perfect. Our treatments aren't perfect. And the people who do the jobs...well, we're far from perfect (1/)
There are other reasons, too. Historically, we've done a really bad job taking care of certain groups of people. Women with "hysteria," for instance. Locking away people with mental health disorders. Treating homosexuality as a disease. Treating addiction as a moral failure. (2/)
It's a really long list. And on top of that, some doctors are really bad. Sometimes it's incompetence. Sometimes it's a lack of compassion or understanding about people who aren't like themselves (in a profession that was traditionally occupied mostly by white men). (3/)
Had an emergency C-section. Doctor called me stupid when I asked if the baby would survive -- as he sliced me open. After surgery, he told me he'd found a likely cancerous cyst on my ovary. He laughed as he told me I might not live to raise my newborn child. #DoctorsAreDickheads
I was in the hospital for a week because he botched my C-section. Every day he'd harass me. Luckily I did not have cancer. But he wrote in my paperwork that he'd *removed my ovaries*, causing me to go to another doctor who confirmed they were there. He lied. #DoctorsAreDickheads
I was a 28-year-old new mom recovering from major surgery, as vulnerable as could be. I don't know why this sadist doctor did this to me. I switched ob-gyns and had a good experience with my next child's birth. But this has haunted me. He is an evil man. #DoctorsAreDickheads
I do think medicine needs a Catholic Church-style reckoning. I know that might sound like an odd analogy but when you stop talking about bad apples and realize the problem is fundamental and systemic, that it destroys lives... #DoctorsAreDickheads #medtwitter
...and that the reverence we have for the individuals that comprise the system helps no one (not our doctors, not the patients they are sworn to protect), only then can you hope to fix it. But you have to kill your old illusions first. #DoctorsAreDickheads #medtwitter
(I don’t know how or when that will happen.)
