Taking a Stand – Janet Lynn Mitchell Discovers Her Doctors Lied for 15 Years

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July 26, 2010 by Rest Ministries  
Filed under Advocacy, Anger, Articles, Books, Caregiver, Doctor, Ethics, Medical Professional, Person w/ Illness, What's New?

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I have known Janet Lynn Mitchell since I met her about five years ago. We don’t see each other   often, but we recently had the chance to catch up at a women’s writers conference and I remembered just how amazing this woman’s story of medical malpractice is. But just as important is the story she chose to live –with joy–nd then tell us about in her book Taking a Stand . . .which Rest Ministries happens to carry in our bookstore! We are marking it down to a discounted price of $7.99 through 8/6/10.

Just last week a new study came out that revealed that “one-third of doctors who knew of peers who were incompetent or impaired, such as from alcohol or drug use, said they did not turn them in.” [ See Many Doctors Don't Report Incompetent Colleagues] The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, covered a variety of medical specialties, including family practice, anesthesiology, internal medicine, cardiology, psychiatry, general surgery, and pediatrics. 17% said they had direct knowledge of a peer incompetent to practice in their hospital, group, or practice; and of this 17%, 67% 17% reported the colleague to relevant authorities.

While we can recognize that medical malpractice insurance prices and rates can be staggering for physicians, what would you do if you discovered your physician didn’t even have medical malpractice insurance? I asked Janet to share her story with us here at Rest Ministries and we will be featuring it over the next few days. I hope it encourages you. Regardless of medical errors or human mistakes, God is still in control and will lead us down the path where He wants us to make a difference for Him.

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Taking a Stand – Janet Lynn Mitchell Discovers Her Doctors Lied for 15 Years

“It’s time you know . . ..” Dr. Ulild sighed while leaning back against the wall in his examining room.

Know what? That I really did hurt myself when I fell?

Instantly, Dr. Ulild broke eye contact with me. “Janet, what has happened to you is water under the bridge . . .. I was there; I was in on your first surgery. Dr. Allgood cut your bone at the wrong angle, the wrong degree. I tried to stop him, to tell him not to cut there, but Allgood goes too fast. Janet, your ligaments were cut. The rest of your surgeries on your right knee were to try to fix this mistake.”

Horrified, my heart began to pound. I could hear each beat. I thought back to high school when Dr. Ulild had become one of my orthopedic surgeons. He had been my confidant as I faced ten surgeries, all performed within three and a half years of each other.

Noooooooo! He couldn’t have, I screamed through my thoughts. Dr. Ulild and Dr. Allgood had told my parents and me that my poor surgical outcome was, “due to a congenital complication—from the way God made me!” I was familiar with Psalms 139 and knew that God had knitted me together in my mother’s womb. My doctor’s explanation made sense.

Yet, now I knew for fifteen years, my doctor’s had lied. I had lost the use of my legs due to a medical blunder and my doctor’s had had the nerve to blame my God!

I fought tears as Dr. Ulild began his list of instructions. “Janet, go to Dr. Allgood, tell him that you found out. See what he will do for you. I’m certain he’s gotten rid of your medical records.” Then leaning back against the wall, he cleared his throat and glared. “I need to make it clear to you, Janet. You’re not to tell anyone who told you this.”

“But Dr. Ulild, why didn’t anyone ever tell me this before? Why didn’t you tell my parents?”

“Janet, we thought we could fix it.”

“But didn’t I, the patient, have a right to know?” I wondered.

Emotionless, Dr. Ulild then reviewed the options I now had concerning the condition of my right knee. A total knee replacement sounded like the best choice, yet it came with no guarantees due to the amount of nerve damage. The good news was that my MRI showed I hurt my knee when I fell. Unfortunately, I had degenerative arthritis in all compartments of my knee. Dr. Ulild described it best when he said, “Janet, your knee is like that of an eighty-year-old woman!”

Dr. Ulild instructed me to think about my surgical options. Before we said good-bye, he reached for the set of X-rays that I had brought to my appointment. So shaken, I stayed silent.

“I’ll make sure you get these back,” he said. “I want to evaluate them, to compare these films with your others.” Little did I know—these X-rays would somehow disappear!

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Watch for tomorrow’s article as Janet describes her hurt and anger at God for allowing this to happen to her as well as grabbing her medical charts and making a run for it! And yes, we as patients understand that the average medical malpractice insurance rates for our doctors are high, but later on Janet shares what she uncovered about her physician and just how long he had been treating patients without the proper insurance!

Rest Ministries is delighted to have Janet Lynn Mitchell’s book, Taking a Stand, available in our bookstore. When Janet and her parents discovered they had been lied to for years and huge chunks of her medical records had been purged (along with x-rays that mysteriously went missing) what was her answer? Read more in Taking a Stand as this woman makes choices about how to find joy despite the betrayals and also make changes in laws that will protect others. Order Taking a Stand today!

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