 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Is this legal?From: A (anonymous@obgyn.net)Wed, 31 Mar 1999 14:37:15 -0600 (CST)
At Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Susan wrote: I'm sorry, Susan, but there isn't anything legally wrong with a doctor telling a patient that everything is likely to be fine, IF, in fact, everything IS likely to be fine. In the case of delivering vaginally, without being an OB, it appears to me that everything IS likely to be fine UNTIL proven otherwise. Just because it doesn't turn out that way doesn't mean the doctor was lying. I think a doctor does a much bigger disservice by scaring her patients with highly unlikely gloom and doom scenarios, particularly since it has been shown in some studies that a patient's belief that she is sick can actually make her symptomatic. I recently suffered needlessly for 10 days awaiting the results of a test due to a doctor's alarmist bedside manner - he failed to tell me how remote the possibility of a bad result would be, and I was too scared to ask. Later, when I found out everything was fine, I had the courage to ask him what the odds of the "bad" scenario were. Turned out that the odds were something like 1 in 30 multiplied by every day of my life over the next 50 years. Should I have sued him for inflicting emotional distress? Of course, you are the medical consumer, and your choice of doctors is up to you. Perhaps it is your preference to have a doctor give you all of the possibilities, even the remote bad ones. If that is the case, and you feel that your OB is overly optimistic and that such optimism translates into talking down to you in some way (i.e., treating you like you're an idiot who doesn't know better), then you should find another doctor.
>
|
|
Return to ![[ Women's Health Forum ]](http://www.obgyn.net/images_women/wh-forum.gif)
Report TECHNICAL Problems ONLY to: webmaster@obgyn.net
Last Updated: Mon Nov 2 07:17:15 2009
Women's Insurance Checklist from Auto Insurance Quote
home | medical professionals | women | industry | forums | international