Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jul
18
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…I *AM* The Second Opinion.”
“Second opinion? Ah no. I am the boss on the ward tonight. I *am* the second opinion.” OB to mother who asked for a second opinion before an unplanned cesarean.
There are 16 comments to this post.
Okay, since there are no other doctors for a second opinion it means you won’t be doing a cesearean will you?
Maybe he/she means that because he/she is the ranking OB that anybody else’s opinion will be theirs or they will find a way to punish them for not agreeing with them.
[Reply]
Back in the middle ages, these guys would become the lords of little castles and have a stable of six knights to go beat up the peasantry and steal their chickens.
Nowadays, they become obstetricians.
[Reply]
Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Jul 18, 2010 @ 8:29 am (Quote)
Find out reason for justifying Caesarean.
If it’s some bullshit excuse like “failure to progress” (which it probably will be, all things considered) remove jerkwad obstetrician from room. Rearrange furniture. Some of it is bound to be heavy and bulky enough to effectively block the door. 
[Reply]
This is not mine, but it happened to me, too.
We told the doc not to do a pap smear at the first prenatal exam, and he did anyway. (Also, a vaginal ultrasound, the only ultrasound I’ve ever had, to ‘make sure you’re not having twins’. ??!)
When we realized what he’d, my husband told the nurse to throw it out, because we didn’t want the results. (At the beginning of pregnancy, pap smears have a higher false positive rate because of natural changes to the cervix.)
Because of this, we decided to change to a midwife (who turned out to be a ‘med’wife…)
When the ‘head honcho’ of the practice found out that we’d asked for the swab to be discarded, he lost it, yelling, “You don’t tell me what to do, in the delivery room, I’M IN CHARGE!”
My husbands answer? “Well, in that case, I’d like to release her records, since that is not the kind of care we’re looking for.”
[Reply]
Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 3:06 pm (Quote)
That sounds a lot like my first pregnancy and birth, except I didn’t have a medwife as my new caregiver, I had a fresh, idealistic CNM whose senior partner was a medwife and who had to avoid rocking the boat with the head of the hospital’s obstetric unit, and he had a G-d complex…
The hospital was a relatively option-friendly place with the only birthing pool for many miles (broken when I arrived, interestingly enough) and a 14% c-section rate. I’m pretty sure all the c-sections came from the obstetric practice I’d been in prior to transferring my care.
All the episiotomies, too (the group practice I had been in prior to transfer had a 95% episiotomy rate, 100% for first-time mothers who gave birth vaginally, hence my last-minute transfer).
And guess who was the chief obstetrician? Yep, a physician from the group practice I’d just transferred out of.
Isn’t birth politics fun!
[Reply]
Alyson Miers had this to say,
Jul 18, 2010 @ 11:01 am (Quote)
Booooo! Evil doctor! Controlling, imperious, unethical creep!
Can someone clear this up for me: how is major surgery, without medical necessity and against the patient’s wishes, anything other than an act of violence?
[Reply]
Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 3:09 pm (Quote)
It’s an act of violence. However, if you try to sue for malpractice, press criminal charges of assault and battery, or get the doctor in trouble with the state medical board, good luck. It’s your word versus the doctor’s, and the burden of proof is on you. And unless there are records showing obvious bungles and practices that harmed your baby (but not necessarily you), guess who gets off Scot free?
[Reply]
What ever happened to “Do no harm”?
[Reply]
Jane Reply:
July 19th, 2010 at 4:17 am (Quote)
It got moved from “First do no harm” to “First please the malpractice insurance companies” and then “second please the hospital” and “Third please the partners in your practice by following protocols drawn up pretty much at random because that’s what everyone else has always done.”
“Do No Harm” is now in 12th place, I think.
[Reply]
Add Your Comment.
Previous Post
« “…Labor Hurts More Than That, You Know.” Next Post
“…The Baby Will Die In Your Tummy.” »
« “…Labor Hurts More Than That, You Know.” Next Post
“…The Baby Will Die In Your Tummy.” »
Just because he’s the ranking doc, or the doc with the most experiance, doesn’t mean someone else can’t give a second opinion. Or is he saying the other doctors are so incompetent that they are incapable of giving a valid medical opinion? Or perhaps he’s just admitting he’s this controling with everything and knows those under him are too afraid to counter him.
[Reply]