The physical disfigurement is devastating enough (indeed more than a few deaths have now occurred nationally)... I've found, however, that (without fail) once they are in my office, they are MUCH more willing to accept the deformity (even when I tell them that their problems cannot be completely corrected and the deformity will to some extent be permanent) than they are interested in reporting or complaining about the doctor who caused the injury or deformity.
It never ceases to amaze me.
If you, like me, are asking why this would be the case, let's think carefully about the problem...
Some of these ER doctors, eye doctors, and gynecologists are very aggressive and deceptive in their advertising, employing tactics you wouldn't believe. For example:
- Claiming they do Plastic Surgery, and are "Board Certified"... But not telling you that their certification was by The Board of Ophthalmology, Emergency Medicine, or Gynecology, and NOT The American Board of Plastic Surgery
- Using before and after photographs of people who either had a different procedure than that being advertised, or who did have the procedure, but who had it done by someone else!
- Advertising procedures with new, cute, and catchy names in order to make it look like they've somehow captured magic in a bottle or invented something new, in order to capture new patients. In every case that I am aware of, the "revolutionary new" procedure is:
- Something that has been being done by reputable plastic surgeons for many years, in which case giving the procedure a cute new name makes it possible for the doctor to attract patients who would otherwise not come to them, or it is
- A procedure considered poor practice by reputable plastic surgeons- in which case giving it a cute name shields the procedure and the doctor from the negative information available about the procedure on the web.
If you end up taken in by one of these advertisements, and allow one of these doctors to perform a procedure on you that they were not trained to do in their residency program, and you end up injured or deformed, and then you find out the doctor is not a Plastic Surgeon Certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery, the unfortunate truth is that the overriding emotion you will likely experience is shame.
Shame for falling prey to the cute name, the deceptive ad, or the promise that some television personality allowed them on their show. Shame for making the poor decision to allow someone like this to do plastic surgery on you. Shame for not doing your due diligence and thoroughly researching the doctor before allowing them to do plastic surgery on you.
And all you will want is to make it better. Or as better as possible.
So I guess at this point I understand when women sit with me in my office and tell me that, while they realize they made poor decisions and will have to live with the consequences, and that the doctor they chose was not adequately trained to perform the operation they had, they are not interested in compounding their shame by making their story public and reporting the doctor or complaining about the standard of care they received.
But the real shame of this is that because they never complain, the problem continues to grow out of control.
I urge all of my readers and visitors to contact their congressmen and women, their senators and governors and urge them to pass legislation limiting doctors to practicing medicine in the specialty in which they actually have ACGME (American Council on Graduate Medical Education) training.
Until this happens, I'm afraid we will all soon be made more and more aware of the problem as our friends, mothers, and sisters experience the outcomes I've described.
Visit Us:
Follow Us!
No comments:
Post a Comment