Dear Sandy,

I hear share your anger and frustration and continue to try to deal with my issues over the treatment I received form my orthopedic surgeon too.

I'm a bit too tired tonight to go into the history of my failed bunion surgery and the legal mess that created but be assured Mike is right on many points.

Studies are showing that the bedside manner of a doctor does in fact make a difference between whether or not patients seek legal remedies following failed procedure. I recall reading in an article sometime last year in an AMA journal that a simple apology from the doctor would reduce the frequency of legal actions against a doctor. The discussion that took place in the article was whether or not one would be opening themselves up to liability if they were to do so. Clearly the laws of various States and Countries will affect the outcome of a doctors ability to make that admission or not.

Just reading that article brought terrible memories flooding back into my mind of my treatment from my orthopedic doctor. He actually said to me that I had "won the lotto" calling me a slow healer while telling the PT (in writing) that I had mild RSD without explaining what RSD was to me. Have you ever heard of mild RSD? Despite his knowledge that I had in his mind a case of "mild" RSD early on and not disclosing that to me he still insisted that I iced my foot and did not refer me to an appropriate pain management doctor until it was too late. When I think back on it I cringe with every thought of it and have to try to go to my happy place.

I learned a huge lesson from my situation. Malpractice attorneys urge patients to sue doctors - sometimes for legitimate reasons, sometimes for unavoidable bad outcomes. I should have been more careful in selecting my attorney. Just because he believed I had a case did not make him the right one to present it.

Ultimately had to drop my legal action, I lost my job and face each day with the knowledge that I am here on my own to fend for myself. No one wants to pay for the misfortune of a bad surgical outcome, regardless of the liability. They all wanted to wash thier hands clean and did not want to honor their commitment to me as an employee or to my payments made to a disability insurance plan that they funded through a 3rd party insurer.

Those of us with RSD are considered bad long term liabilities and companies that have to deal with us want us off their books. They will do everything within their power to remove us from the financial picture of their obligations and that includes WCB.

For the sake of my health I decided to simply try to move on and forward.

I wish it were that easy but it is not. There have been a couple of occasions that I have seen this surgeon in the Surgery Day Care where I have to go for my lidocaine infusions. Each time I've seen him my blood pressure rises very high. It's a good thing I'm not a violent person. When I see him I have to retreat to my happy place with lots of deep breaths and try to find major forgiveness in my heart. It is the forgiveness that is the hardest to find but I'm getting there.


MsL