Personal Injury 101

Wow. I just had a conversation with a personal injury attorney. He helped one of my patients and also confirmed for me the big, ugly, giant flaws in the medical system, the things I rant about, the stuff that drives me nuts.

Naomi had migraines for 20 years. One day last year, she passed out in a gym. She is in her 60's and the DMV threatened to take her driver's license away. She had to go to the doctors to figure out why she passed out. The neurologist said it was not seizures and left it at that. The cardiologist said her heart was perfectly fine. No one explained why she passed out. I can.

She found me quite accidentally. Found my brochure in the lobby while waiting for her cardiology appointment (I sublease space to them). She was willing to give O.M.T a try. Needless to say, it took 11 visits and her years of migraines, fibromyalgia, back pain were much improved, without needing meds. Then, one day after a good, productive visit, she was waiting at a stop sign and another car hit her from behind. This accident set us back so far, it took another 11 visits just to get her back to where she was with me as she was getting better.

The 'wow' that I learned from my quick tutorial on injury from this lawyer was the built in flaws of the medical system. I mentioned my other new patient had numbness in one hand and went to her PCP. Generally numbness and tingling are neurologic signs and should be evaluated/worked up. Instead she was sent straight to P.T. (physical therapy) After traction, she developed numbness and tingling in BOTH arms and hands. Clearly the physical therapy caused her new symptom on the other side. When she went back to her PCP, then she got an x-ray - which turned out hideous.

Apparently from the legal side, doctors are allowed "best guesses." Man, that is a lot of leeway. Is that what other non-medical people think we are doing? No wonder there is increasing disrespect for doctors. What if that 'best guess' sucked? and you were hurt by a lousy guess. Too bad. That does not constitute a problem. It is simply a bad guess.

Here, we have two medical professionals who did not take heed of neurologic signs and proceed with caution. Now, it is my job to clean this up.

I complained to the lawyer that I see this all the time! I see so many people hurt by what is considered an acceptable treatment modality. I told him that if my patients had not been touched previously (another rant and blog), what I call, pure, unadulterated physical/mechanical strains, they would be so much easier for me to treat - they would think that I'm a miracle worker. Do you know what he said to me?

He said of course! After 25 years of working in personal injury and dealing with different types of doctors; clearly this guy is one of the good guys and a real decent lawyer. He stated that this is "built into the system." that this is how it is done and there is no way to change it.

WOW. All you people out there better be careful. Take caution. Do your research. Do not put yourself, or your body into the hands of fakes, frauds or wannabes (another blog for another time). Even with physicians, listen to their words and explanations. All of it better make sense and listen to your instincts. Anyone who is going to help you better get you lasting, sustainable results.

Good luck and always proceed with caution.