This is part two (see part 1 here) of an ongoing article about overmedication by drug pushing doctors, drug side effects and Big Pharma who seem to be at the hub of almost anything to do with health and not in a good way.  Big Pharma’s corruption is having a knock on effect across the whole of the medical fraternity and the public need to stop being so trusting and start asking questions!

I have come to the conclusion that the problems my family have gone through when it comes to their health, is quite normal with all families across the nation suffering similarly and periodically from malpractice, overmedication and misdiagnosis.  This I blame on the healthcare  system which seems to be run by the pharmaceutical companies and not the medical profession.  Below I list all the instances which I deem to be not an acceptable way to treat my family or any other person who has to rely on a medic or hospital to treat their condition.

Prescribed overdose!

One of the 2 sufferers of really high blood pressure (R) was given a new prescription.  On reading the pamphlet inside the packet, R noticed that the dose prescribed was over the maximum dose allowed!  He contacted his doctor and pointed this out and the doctor said he hadn’t noticed, but just keep taking the maximum dose.  If R hadn’t been diligent about reading the dose restrictions he would have been prescribed an overdose of this serious drug!

A London specialist

R has had his blood pressure problem since he was in his teens.  He was so fed up with taking all the BP drugs with none of them relieving his ridiculously high hypertension that he decided to go private.  He has had two strokes and just been diagnosed with diabetes.  R lives in Scotland and travelled all the way to London to see Dr Melvin Lobo a hypertension specialist who works at “Barts” otherwise known as St Bartholomew’s hospital.  When Dr Lobo looked at R’s BP readings he was aghast.  R’s records said “elevated blood pressure”.  The specialist said it was an understatement and it’s a wonder that R was still alive.  This BP reading, he said, was lethal and deadly.  Believe it or not R was relieved and said it was the first time that a doctor actually seemed to be understanding of the seriousness of his hypertension problems and the health conditions that went with it.

The specialist recommends a ‘patch’ for R’s BP

The specialist recommended a new ‘patch’ for his blood pressure which actually releases a drug slowly over a long period.  The patches were very expensive but R got them from the Lloyds pharmacy at Barts for £25 for a pack of 4.  They really worked well for R and he felt much better and was quite excited about getting his BP problem under control.  The specialist said he would write a letter to R’s doctor in Scotland, asking that R be referred to a specialist colleague of his near to where R lived.

R’s doctor is uncooperative

On returning to Scotland R went straight to see his doctor who said that he would not refer him to Dr Lobo’s specialist colleague, nor would he prescribe the patches.  When R asked why, the doctor said it was not in his remit.

Now R is having to look around himself to try and obtain some of these patches that really help his condition.  His doctor has been next to useless and seems unsympathetic to the fact the R has had this problem for all of his adult life.  Why won’t he refer R to the specialist?  R is exasperated and depressed about his condition and who can blame him.  It seems that even his doctor is not interested in helping him be well again.  R is on 9 different medications.  The patches, if he can get them, will cost £270 for 2 months supply! For those who are interested, the last 5 readings for R’s blood pressure have been as follows:   205/123, 175/113, 197/115, 204/122 and 190/119  Would you consider his 4 different hypertensive medications are controlling his hypertension?

“What do you expect at your age?”

Not included in this review of my family’s health, both my Mum and Dad who are now deceased, had bad experiences with doctors and hospitals.  Dad went to the doctor with a digestive problem and the doctor sent him packing with the remark: ” What do you expect at your age?”  He was sent home with no treatment and no advice.  I wanted to complain but Dad didn’t want a fuss saying:  “He’s right, what can I expect at my age.”  Dad’s condition got worse.  He became depressed and his quality of life plumeted.  He died in hospital two years later.  He had colon cancer, a pulmonary embolism and an aneurysm.  The hospital would not treat him because of his age.  If two years earlier the doctor had tried to help him rather than sending him away as though he was a nuisance, Dad’s last years may have been more pleasant.  I totally blame Dad’s doctor, I think he was unfeeling and negligent.

Ignored by her doctor

Mum was on thyroxin at the time of Dad’s illness and unbeknowns to us, she stopped taking it.  This affected her mentally and she started having signs of dementia.  When Dad died, we found out about her not taking her medication.  We took her to the doctors to get her a new prescription and found out she was on a repeat prescription, which she hadn’t filled for months.  Nobody from the doctor’ s surgery had even bothered to check up on her to ask why she was not getting her prescriptions.  They knew she had lost Dad recently.  Stopping thyroxin is known to produce dementia and depression and that’s exactly what Mum had.  I blame her doctor’s surgery (the same as Dad’s) for not checking their vulnerable patients.  Our family diagnosed that she had pseudo-dementia which is, in effect, depression.  It is very common with those that have lost a life partner.  Mum and Dad had been married for 69 years!  We told the doctor what Mum was suffering from and he prescribed a low dose of an anti-depressant.  It helped Mum’s mood but she was never the same after losing Dad.

Killed by hospital negligence

Xmas 2013, Mum broke her hip in a fall and was taken to hospital (once the ambulance deigned to turn up).  She was operated on and after the operation, aspirated when she was sick from the anaesthetic.  She should have been monitored but when we found her on a visit, she was slumped with her bedding in a mess from being sick.  A patient opposite who was worried for her, was pressing the emergency button continously for 15 minutes but nobody came.  We had to go and find a nurse as the alarm was being ignored.  Mum never fully regained consciousness.

On constant watch

Our family were on constant watch, because the nursing staff kept forgetting to refill her pain medication (morphine) or they didn’t have time.  We would turn up and find Mum moaning, obviously in pain.  She was semi-conscious some of the time.  Forgetting her medication was a common occurance so the family had a rota to visit all times of the day and night to check on her.  On the one night none of us could get there, Mum died which is something that plays on my mind.  We weren’t there for her at the end.

Aspiration Pneumonia

She died of aspiration pneumonia, the result of her aspirating vomit, which is, in my mind, negligence on the part of the hospital.  It was over the Xmas period and there was a staff shortage but it’s still their responsibility.  Aspiration pneumonia is a very common cause of death with elderly patients, but avoidable with the correct care.  Did your loved one die in hospital of this avoidable condition?

Unnecesary visits to hospital!

I took one of my family members (S) to Hereford hospital a total of 7 times before she had a simple operation for removing a small calcified lump from her wrist.  A visit for a consultation, a visit for a scan, a visit for an xray, a visit for another scan, a visit for a test, a visit for a preoperative test and another preoperative visit because the operation was cancelled.  What a waste of time, money and resources.  Why not do this in one, or at the most, two visits?

A painful and unnecessary act

On one of those visits, a medic came into the consulting room and said she would try and get liquid out of the calcification.  It was obvious to a 5 year old that this bony lump would not yield any liquid.  Nevertheless, she plunged a huge needle into it and poor S winced and nearly fainted.  She had to lay down for a while which I think was inconvenient because we were encroaching on another patient’s time quota.  It was a completely unnecessary act and would have saved pain, time, money and resources if it wasn’t done at all.  It did not instill confidence in S either, it just made her more nervous for her next visit.  I can only think that this medic thought to practice her needle skills on S, there is no other reason to do this unnecessary procedure.  Also, she should have asked permission before proceeding.

The surgeon who operated on the lump said it would most likely return.  It hasn’t.  Why is this?  Because S now takes adequate Mg every day, which will prevent further calcifications.  Why doesn’t the surgeon or doctor advise this supplement to halt further calcifications?  They either don’t know what Mg does or they don’t care.  Perhaps they are guaranteeing their future patients!

Overmedicated!

Twelve of my relatives take numerous prescription drugs for various conditions and diseases.  How many of these drugs are causing harm to my family.  All 7 of those taking hypertensive drugs are being over medicated in my opinion.  These drugs have some serious side effects not least kidney disease.  If you read my last post, I covered the dreaded statins which have been given to 4 of my family.  I explain why they are dangerous and what they actually do to the body.  I also explain how magnesium does the job better and naturally reduces LDL “bad” cholesterol and increases HDL “good”cholesterol.

Lastly, me and hubbie

Neither myself or my husband take any form of prescription drugs and have not seen a doctor since our last hapless visits which I document below.  Is it a coincidence that we seem to be in good health, especially as we’re in our sixties?  In my post about ‘white coat syndrome’ you can read how easy it is to get sucked into taking a hypertensive drug when it may not be necessary.

My last visit to the doctors

The last time I saw a doctor, I was referred to Hereford hospital by one of the practice doctors.  Her bedside manner was atrocious.  She really put the frighteners on when she indicated that I could be at death’s door and needed to be referred immediately!  The hospital specialist wanted to do a biopsy for cancer.  There was a nurse standing by just listening and without warning she said “You don’t have to accept the treatment you know”.  I looked at her and detected a slight negative movement of her head.   I refused the treatment.  Once I had convinced the specialist that no way would I be having a biopsy, he admitted to me that he had had a similar problem and that it was very rare for this problem to escalate to cancer!  I then asked this specialist if he had a biopsy done.  “Definitely not!” he said resolutely.

Hospital visits and tests

There have been negative reports on such tests as biopsies, excisions, blood tests and the like and I had the distinct feeling that this test was a ‘dogma’ procedure and I wasn’t going to get on the treadmill of constant visits to the hospital, with perhaps a misdiagnosis leading to a litany of tests, pharmaceutical drugs etc..  I’d rather take my chances and treat myself with natural remedies. This was apart from the expense because the hospital is 75 minutes away and the hospital parking fees are enormous.  I really don’t know how patients needing regular visits, afford the parking fees, apart from the hours waiting around. Hospitals are so disorganised!

A visit to an eye hospital

My husband had a small fleck in his left eye that appeared one day.  His doctor thought it should be checked out to make sure it wasn’t anything serious.  An appointment was made at the local eye hospital in Hereford.  Instruction were given to take a high quality photograph of the iris so the fleck could be seen in more detail.

Hubbie went in and gave his notes to the receptionist and was asked to sit down.  When his name was called he was taken to another area and given an eye test before going to another room where someone put eye drops in his eyes.  Being a little perplexed about having eye drops for a photograph, he was then taken to another room where various lights were shone his eyes.  By this time he knew something was wrong and asked why he needed all this fuss for a photograph.  The nurse gasped with surprise and he was then given more eye drops to try and reverse the first lot.  That didn’t work and hubbie had to wait in the waiting room all afternoon for the eye drops to wear off so that his iris was back to normal for the photograph.

This is a prime example of a hospital blunder and you can understand how patients are actually damaged or even killed when the wrong treatment is given or the patient is overtreated.  There is no excuse, it was just a case of not bothering to read the notes.

My husband’s last visit

My husband’s last visit to the doctor was when he had an ear infection.  He knew it was a fungal infection because he put a sample of what was in his ear, on our microscope and he recognised the fungus as being ‘aspergillis sp’.  He went to the doctor to get an anti fungal treatment and when the prescription was made up it turned out to be an antibiotic, which was completely the wrong remedy.  He threw it away and medicated himself with an over the counter treatment known as ‘Canistan ear drops’ with an active ingredient of ’Clotrimazole’ an anti fungal treatment.  The condition cleared up completely within a few days and it hasn’t returned.  Needless to say, he hasn’t returned to the doctor either.

Mahatma Gandhi quote

Mahatma Gandhi once said “I have endeavoured to show that there is no real service of humanity in the profession of medicine and that it is injurious to mankind.”  This is such a profound statement from  a humanitarian who practised nonviolence and truth in all situations and encouraged others to do the same.
An article by Dr Mercola used the word “Pharmageddon” explaining the word to mean “the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health and when medical progress does more harm than good”

Ches

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