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Interviews with survivors, victims' families, policy makers, and health care workers. What went wrong? How can we make health care safer? Host Scott Simpson, uses his counselling skills to evoke the secrets, stories and solutions. https://www.patreon.com/rss/MedicalErrorInterviews?auth=2eY8hVY9bd5o78a8cmpNSURYZ2VrqXrq
Episodes
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
In the early hours of the 28th of July 2016, Colette McCulloch was hit and killed by a bus. Eighteen hours earlier Colette had walked out of the specialist care facility for autistic adults where she was being treated.
Throughout Colette’s short life, her parents Andy and Amanda, sought out medical professionals to try to explain and ease their younger daughter’s extraordinary mind. Since Colette’s death Andy and Amanda have been fighting various medical and legal authorities to uncover the failings in her care and treatment.
In our interview, author Andy McCulloch tells the story of his daughter's life and untimely death: the years in which her autism went undiagnosed, her lifelong battle with eating disorders and the lack of support for her complex needs. In spite of these challenges, Colette forged a path to university to pursue her passion for literature and to have her writing published.
Over the past year Andy and Amanda have written a book about their family’s experience with the health care system titled “Why Can’t You Hear Me?” - and it includes some of Colette’s writing, where she articulates her experiences grappling with a world forever at odds with her. With this book, Colette’s dream of having her words published has come to fruition.
Colette's story is ultimately a call to action and a message of hope for a future in which autistic people will be better understood, appropriately cared for, and able to flourish.
Connect with Andy McCulloch:
Twitter: @AndyMcCulloch5
Buy his book: Why Can’t You Hear Me?
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Apr 19, 2021
Monday Apr 19, 2021
Implanting plastic mesh inside our bodies doesn’t sound like a smart thing -- and it wouldn’t have happened to Michelle Hedgcoth if a previous medical error hadn’t damaged her body.
Michelle was a healthy and happy career woman when she gave birth - but the doctor, who had given Michelle an episiotomy, failed to sew her back up after the baby was delivered. This failure would have devastating consequences on every aspect of Michelle’s life.
In an effort to ‘fix’ their mistake, doctors performed a surgery to implant plastic mesh into Michelle’s abdomen. Plastic mesh that can disintegrate releasing toxic and sickening poisons -- plastic mesh that can twist, break apart and pierce internal organs -- plastic mesh that can attach itself to organs so that it can never be detached.
In this interview, Michelle tells us what happened to her in the health care system, the impact it has had on her body, her health, her family, her career, and what she is doing today to make others aware of the dangers of mesh implants.
Connect with Michelle Hedgcoth:
Twitter: @WCmeshfighter
Facebook: WestCoastMeshFighter https://www.facebook.com/Westcoastmeshfighter
Instagram: WestCoastMeshFighter https://www.instagram.com/westcoastmeshfighter/?hl=en
Website: http://WestCoastMeshFighter.com
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Like the vast majority of people, you have probably taken an antibiotic at some point in your life. And it probably helped you. However, a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones can cause permanent and severe damage -- this is known as fluoroquinolone toxicity, or, in the US, fluoroquinolone induced disability - FQID. This is a global health care problem that few know about -- or are warned about by their doctor. Why is that?
In this episode, I chat with someone who has insight not only into the dynamics that keep this medical harm mostly hidden from the public, but has also been profoundly impacted by fluoroquinolones.
Marc from Germany is just one of 10s of 1000s of people around the planet who have been injured by these antibiotics. Marc shares how he finally connected the dots between his declining health and repeated use of fluoroquinolones, and what he does to help alleviate the toxicity symptoms so that he has an improved quality of life.
The statistics of harm from fluoroquinolone toxicity are vastly under reported because the toxicity symptoms may not noticeably manifest until days, weeks or months after the antibiotic use. This makes it difficult for those affected to identify the cause of their symptoms, and a challenge for physicians to tease out….or even acknowledge.
Symptoms include tendon rupture, aortic rupture, hypoglycemia, nerve damage, mental health issues and -- surprisingly to me -- a dysfunctional response to exercise known as post exertional malaise, the hallmark symptom of the neurological disease ME, or myalgic encephalomyelitis. As you will hear, Marc postulates that some people diagnosed with ME may have fluoroquinolone toxicity. Is he connecting more dots, that the medical system is missing?
Connect with Marc:
Twitter: @FQID2
Marc’s Doctor is Dr. Stefan Pieper
Dr Pieper released a "Springer essential" at scientific publisher Springer in German with basic facts about diagnosis and possible treatment regarding FQID (Fluoroquinolone Induced Disability) https://springer.com
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Mar 22, 2021
Monday Mar 22, 2021
Multiple award winning author Marcus Sedgwick is best known for his popular fiction books, but his experiences with deeply entrenched medical gaslighting inspired his new book titled “All In Your Head - What happens when your doctor doesn’t believe you.”
Marcus describes how he got sick with flu like symptoms...but they never went away. Marcus was thrown into a world he did not even know existed, a world where very sick people are disbelieved and often belittled by physicians. A world Marcus is also seeing unfold for the millions of Long COVID patients around the world, where their physical symptoms are often dismissed as psychological. With Long COVID we are witnessing millions of people being medically traumatized by global gaslighting.
Marcus and I discuss the immense pressure physicians are under, from the government and insurance companies, and why the medical system has been set up so that it is in the physician’s best interest to say ‘it’s in your head’ rather than in your body. #FollowTheMoney
Connect with Marcus Sedgwick
‘All In Your Head’ preview:
https://marcussedgwick.com/all-in-your-head/
Twitter: @marcussedgwick
Instagram: @marcussedgwick
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Ryan Clark had it all. Successful career. Great relationships. Healthy body.
When Ryan noticed a bit of hair loss, like many men, he took a common medication known as Propecia to promote hair growth.
Unbeknownst to Ryan, Propecia can cause post-finasteride syndrome - causing sexual, neurological, physical and cognitive adverse reactions - it is a condition with no known cure and few, if any, effective treatments.
In the ensuing years, Ryan’s body started to break down and unfamiliar and confusing symptoms manifested: anxiety, trouble sleeping, erectile dysfunction and memory problems.
But his doctors were not making the connection between Ryan’s symptoms and the hair growth medication -- even after Ryan developed testicular cancer -- very few physicians are even aware of post finasteride syndrome.
In our interview Ryan shares the heartbreaking losses he’s suffered to his health, his relationships and his career as a direct result of the medication -- and Ryan shares about how he’s finding meaning in helping and supporting other men who’ve had their lives ruined by a medication the health care system fails to recognize, let alone treat.
Connect with Ryan Clark
https://twitter.com/RyanCla64726007
https://www.facebook.com/ryan.clark.589583
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Monday Feb 08, 2021
If a surgeon told you that they were going to implant plastic mesh around an organ -- perhaps your bladder or bowel -- and screw the ends into your pelvis and spine -- would you have that surgery?
What if the surgeon also told you the plastic mesh may disintegrate and release toxins into your body causing multi system dysfunction -- and that the plastic may twist and puncture your organs or press against nerves causing suicidal level pain when you move -- would you have that surgery?
What if the surgeon also told you that if you experience these symptoms --- that no doctor will have been educated to look for the signs of plastic mesh injury --- that no doctor will believe you if you think the symptoms are caused by the plastic mesh --- that you will be gaslighted so often that the gaslighting becomes internalized -- would you have that surgery?
What if the surgeon told you that the plastic mesh has an expiry date and that protects the manufacturer from medical negligence lawsuits --- and that the expiry date is not from the date of the implant, but from the date of manufacturing -- so the plastic mesh can sit on the shelf for many years before it gets implanted -- would you have that surgery?
If a surgeon told you that plastic mesh may ruin your physical health, cause intractable pain, disable you from working or exercising or socializing so that you lose your career, your home and your future and quality of life may plummet -- would you have that surgery?
Sally Maddocks was not informed of any of these possible outcomes when the doctor recommended surgery. And Sally is not alone in having her life irrevocably harmed by corporate profits over patient safety. But Sally is fighting back with a petition to raise awareness so others avoid potential harm, and to hold her government accountable for their actions.
Connect with Sally Maddocks:
https://twitter.com/maddocks_sally
https://facebook.com/groups/2327576
https://facebook.com/groups/1567096
https://facebook.com/groups/117040
https://facebook.com/groups/2039629
https://facebook.com/groups/325473
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Jan 25, 2021
Monday Jan 25, 2021
It is an open secret that hospitals’ standard of practice is to deny, diminish or cover up their medical errors. When they occur, there is often immense pressure from hospital administrators on employees to conform to a narrative that protects the hospital. The employee may feel that their job and career are in jeopardy, and they may feel peer pressure to ‘not rock the boat’ and protect their health care colleagues.
Nurse Shirley Barker found herself in exactly that pressure cooker when a police sheriff who was shot multiple times in a high profile shoot out ended up under Shirley’s care. Although seriously injured, the next day he was recovering and his family was in the waiting room while the doctor examined him. The physician asked Shirley to administer a medication, but she refused because of safety concerns. The physician himself then injected the medication -- and immediately the sheriff’s vital signs dropped and Shirley witnessed his death...by physician.
In our interview Shirley shares the highly pressured experience of being a hospital’s employee and a key witness in a court case about a medical death in that hospital. Shirley also shares how her father’s death involved medical error and how these cumulative experiences have impacted her life’s path.
Connect with Shirley Barker:
Facebook.com/Wellness-Island
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Medicine is so messed up. It has been fatally bitten by its own dogma.
When singer-songwriter Dana Parish suddenly got very sick, she quickly had a correct diagnosis of Lyme disease and was given the standard antibiotic treatment. But Dana never fully recovered and eventually ended up in heart failure.
Dana saw many top doctors in New York and they all missed the ongoing underlying infection that would lead to Dana’s heart failure. None of these physicians could wrap their heads around the idea that Dana had been under treated for Lyme disease and it was causing her impending death.
Like other medically marginalized and discriminated diseases, chronic Lyme infection has been maligned and neglected by the very system that purports to provide medical care. This reflects the heart of the problem with our health care: entrenched discriminatory dogma in a closed system.
Eventually Dana found Dr Steven Phillips, who was already an internationally renowned physician specializing in complex, chronic diseases when he became a patient himself. After nearly dying from his own mystery illness, he experienced firsthand the medical community’s ignorance about the pathogens that underlie a deep spectrum of serious conditions—from fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis and myalgic encephalomyelitis (MEcfs) to depression, anxiety, OCD and neurodegenerative disorders.
In their book Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic, Dana and Dr Phillips explore the science behind common infections that are difficult to diagnose and treat and debunk widely held false beliefs by doctors that keep patients chronically sick.
With the Covid pandemic still going parabolic, and the number of Long Covid patients with chronic autoimmune symptoms also skyrocketing, their book could not be more timely.
Connect with Dana Parish:
Thechronicbook.com
Facebook.com/thechronicbook
Twitter @Lymebook
IG: Instagram.com/thechronicbook
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Monday Jan 11, 2021
When nurse Denise Crawley connected with me about sharing her experiences with her own medical errors in the workplace, I thought it was a great opportunity to hear from a health care worker from their side and perspective of medical errors.
As Denise states, there is a big problem with how the health care system responds to medical error, especially how systemic contributors to medical error are rarely addressed, and how the response tends to focus on individual blame. This in turn fosters a medical culture of cover up, denial and fear.
With medical error being the 3rd leading cause of death for many decades, it is self evident that the current process of dealing with medical mistakes is fatally flawed.
Denise refers to it as the Swiss Cheese model of how medical errors manifest in that within the various layers of healthcare, there are holes in each layer, and when these holes line up, medical harm and death can happen.
While we often think of medical trauma exclusive to the patient, as Denise shares, health care workers can be traumatized by participating or witnessing or covering up medical errors. Denise has had to deal with the trauma, and as you’ll hear, is experiencing post traumatic growth.
Connect with Denise Crawley
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denise.elaine0218
Twitter: https://twitter.com/denisecrawley
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Monday Nov 23, 2020
When yoga teacher Liz fell down a flight of stairs while moving a mattress and injured her foot, she had no idea that multiple misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis would cause her years of medical gaslighting and chronic pain. Liz’s health care experience is littered with story after story of incredible incompetence, false accusations and patient blaming.
With a few exceptions, most of us are raised to believe that our health care systems are looking out for our best interests, that they are self correcting institutions that prioritize patient safety. In reality, the health care system has morphed into a system that prioritizes and protects the status quo of physicians as god-like entities that can do no wrong. And unless you’ve experienced medical harm, neglect or gaslighting from the health care system it is hard to fathom that a strong element of the ‘helping’ profession is really about helping themselves.
This is evidenced by the alliance of physicians with lawyers to protect doctors when they harm or kill patients. Those high priced lawyers will try to delay court cases to run up the lawyer fees, essentially bankrupting the injured patient. Or the lawyers use stall and delay tactics in hopes the patient dies before the case goes to trial.
To complete the moat around their elite status, physicians worked the political system to have laws and policies implemented that further protect doctors from accountability.
This further entrenches the medical system as unaccountable for their actions. Yet we only have to consider that medical error is the 3rd leading cause of death to recognize that the doctor / lawyer / politician triumvirate is effectively working to protect a high harm and death rate.
Liz shares the failures of the medical system, and the gem of a physician she found that has helped improve her quality of life --- a quality needlessly diminished by repeated medical errors.
Connect with Liz Perloff:
Twitter @thepenof
Website: FromThePenOf.com
Be a podcast patron
Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.
Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.
Be my Guest
I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.
If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: RemediesPodcast@gmail.com
Need a Counsellor?
Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.
If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.
**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**
Email me to learn more or book an appointment: RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com
Scott Simpson:
Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete
I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.
I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.
Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.
I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.
Counseling / Research
I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.
Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.
Patient Advocacy
I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.
I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.
Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.
My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.