I have. Frequently, and ad nauseum. When people ask what I do for a living, the odds are about 1 in 6 that my reply will be followed by just such a rant.
But there’s another, serious misrepresentation here. Doctors as a profession aren’t blameworthy. I never said anything like that, and if I seemed to suggest or imply it, it was thoroughly unintentional. SPECIFIC doctors make SPECIFIC mistakes in SPECIFIC cases that have specific bad consequences. Just as do mechanics, teachers (and I HAVE known one or two real lemons) and every other occupation. In the case of doctors, it happens with sufficient frequency and with negative enough results that JAMA thought the article was worth publishing.
I think this is a social hazard with most professions and careers. I use to work for a major commercial airline. When I answered people about where I worked, I would then be forced to listen to their horror stories about how their bags went to Boise while they traveled to Boston, or some such thing. People like to tell other people their stories. It’s the way we are.
I know I’ve made my share of negative comments about doctors on this forum. I still believe that some doctors see their patients in a paternalistic and patronizing way. Some doctors don’t learn enough about their patient’s knowledge of the patient’s disease to generate due respect. Some doctors don’t like it when a patient displays medical knowledge and seeks more than a face value stock answer.
In the end, many doctors are caring, empathic, and supportive people just trying to do an important job well. The system in the US burdens them with unrealistic time constraints and makes them justify the basis of every last clinical decision they make.
I have divided feelings about doctors in general but I make a sincere effort to make my relationship with my doctors workable.
Maybe it’s a Canada/US thing? My dad and brother are both programmers, so I’m around them a fair bit and also mention it to others. I’ve never had anyone go on a rant about them. I used to work as an assistive technology specialist, so I was around people dealing with computers (sometimes very frustrated with them) every day for several years.
I did interpret the comment, “Doctors are among the leading causes of death” as directed at the profession as a whole. So if that was a mistake, my apologies. But also, this site in general tends to make sweeping statements about the competency of doctors (I’m not sure if you specifically have made such comments), and my comment was also with that in mind.
For the record, the vast preponderance of doctors are dedicated professionals who do their level best each and every day. That does not in any way form or fashion negate the fact that there are significant numbers who do not, always, satisfy the standard of care. I’m simply trying to state things precisely. Third behind heart disease and cancer strikes me as being among the “leading” causes. I guess it’s a semantic difference of opinion.
@Terry4, which major airline? I did that too, a century ago in a previous life. The airline data processing community is a small village; I probably knew some people at your company.
I actually do not have a TV although do have streaming internet and not aware of this program series. Very glad to hear that at least a modicum of reality was introduced about diabetes. And yet, I do work in healthcare and there are some extremely serious conditions which absolutely require steroids. Also since it is my direct observation that, these days, a large percentage have T1 or T2, the steroid administration is taken into account when monitoring and assessing glucose levels. To my surprise, there are some folks with diabetes who do not have an extreme reaction (BG elevation, that is) to the steroids, and some do have elevated levels. So they are monitored and treated. BG testing is nearly always a required protocol and this is to manage and treat. BUT, the comment about a little reality at long last is completely right. I, too, grow weary with all the ignorance out there…
No doubt, but things like this (though with less extreme consequences, usually) do happen every day. We have members here who have experienced them and blogged or posted about it. Usually it happens because the doctor prescribing is a GP, perhaps out of school a long time and not very sensitive to the issue, or a specialist in some non-endocrine area who is focused on the problem at hand and either fails to remember the connection or simply does the cost/benefit equation and judges it worthwhile, administers or prescribes the steroids, and sends the patient home. In a hospital setting it’s different, monitoring is available. At home, well . . . individuals vary, don’t they?
And, of course, overwork contributes mightily to all these scenarios.
David Quite right ! Good points all around. In hosp a lot more monitoring is done but to send someone home on their own with Rx for steroids – without a BIG caveat about BG control is unforgivable in my view.
Thank you for your helpful reply and feedback !
Well, this just continues to get more interesting. Same TV show, a later episode. The doctor who is the lead character has a T1 patient who is very difficult and resistant. He has to be taught about prebolusing (yes, they use the right word). He suffers a near-DKA episode and a severe, incapacitating low, during which a bystander correctly asks, “does he need sugar?” Then he is shown how to use a pod, and later on given an alert dog. In fact, it’s almost too accurate. I know that sounds like an impossibility, but this guy is almost too knowledgeable to be a GP.
Anyway, it seems that not only does the production staff have good technical advisors—they actually pay attention to them. Will wonders never cease?
It almost reminds me of a well done industrial video used to train employees about safety. It’s nice to read that at least some in the creative sphere are starting to respect the reality we live within. This is good writing.
Dear god, don’t these scriptwriters hold anything sacred??? The first kiss is always interrupted, a car chase must go through a vegetable stand or the moral equivalent thereof, and goddamnit that diabetic’s gonna need a shot! I feel like the very foundations of the world have cracked, leaving me reeling, groping for some solidity in an unstable and shifting void. Is there nothing we can rely on anymore?
In a way, the shot thing isn’t all that inaccurate. All of us (with Type 1, anyway) need shots (or boluses) multiple times a day. So, if we were in a movie, we’d almost certainly need a shot at some point.
Well, yeah of course, but it’s my shorthand for the fact that they always contrive it so it’s a shot they’re gonna need, even if it seems like a situation where what is really called for is a juice box.
But a shot is so very much more dramatic on screen than a juice box (or a glucose tab or some rainbow-licious Skittles or a packet of “healthy” brown sugar from Starf•cks). Some righteous grimacing and a little blood after the shot for good measure puts some frosting on the cake, don’t you think?
But seriously, I’m all over the importance of accurate depiction of D, screw the drama…
Agree, Rose, and that’s what I liked about this. It looked real. No drama, just an ordinary bolus with about as much attention paid to it as you would to putting on a pair of glasses.
