When doctors are wrong

Namine has an appointment with her pediatrician today, but as I haven’t heard from my love how that went (if it’s even over yet), I’ll talk about something else. Ellen from Love That Max tweets: “When doctors tell you bad things – and they are WRONG. My cautionary tale.” She’s got a point. Doctors get…

Namine has an appointment with her pediatrician today, but as I haven’t heard from my love how that went (if it’s even over yet), I’ll talk about something else. Ellen from Love That Max tweets: “When doctors tell you bad things – and they are WRONG. My cautionary tale.” She’s got a point. Doctors get things wrong all the time. My dad likes to say, “that’s why they call it practicing medicine.” Funny, but true. But what’s not funny is when it could turn your whole life upside down. It could result in worsening sickness. It could result in death.

A perfect example of doctors, thinking they were right, being very wrong, is Jessica’s former OB/GYN. It’s no secret that Namine was born with problems, but doctors screwed things up all by themselves, straight from day one. Namine was breach, so they had to do a c-section. The c-section itself was cut in the wrong place, which made healing more difficult. But even the healing had its own complications; Jessica dealt with infection after infection, her doctor all the while denying that anything was wrong. I ended up bringing her to the ER one night, only to discover that she had cellulitis (which can be fatal) under the skin all across her midsection. Jessica has since switched doctors. (You can find a more detailed post here.)

An earlier example will do you one better, though. When we first discovered that Namine would not be a normal baby, she was originally thought to have spina bifida. It was later discovered that she had something much rarer, caudal regression, but doctors’ advice remained the same. They recommended that we abort Namine. She would be unable to have a normal life, they reasoned, and there was no reason to try to keep her alive. She would not survive for a month, they believed; she would most likely need heart surgery as soon as she was born, if she even survived the birth.

Once the caudal regression was discovered, they informed us that Namine would never be able to walk, much less even be able to move her legs at all. She would most certainly be mentally handicapped, and because of all her surgeries, would likely have sensory issues. In fact, they predicted, she probably wouldn’t like hugs or kisses, either.

Have you met my daughter? She loves hugging and kissing. We can hardly stop her sometimes. She is smart as a whip, and she is well on her way to learning to walk. Her first two heart surgeries went so smoothly, her surgeon could hardly believe it. He has high hopes for the third, which her cardiologists believe won’t need to happen for perhaps another year.

Yes, doctors can be wrong. They could not have been more wrong. We are blessed every day with an amazing girl, and thank God we didn’t listen to the doctors. If we had, we wouldn’t have our Namine, and we would be much poorer without her.

And check out Ellen’s post here.

4 responses

  1. nobody perfect, its better to think of all the good things they have done =]

  2. Yes, indeed. And we do! But we’d like to think that doctors are infallible; after all, they’re the ones who have to fix us. :) But despite all their schooling, they can be wrong. So take what they say with a grain of salt (and a ton of research).

  3. Thank goodness the doctors’ worst fears were not realized for Namine. But my heart goes out to all those families for whom the terrible prognosis came true, or worse. Namine has been remarkably lucky not to have suffered a more devastating outcome.

  4. Michele Eiche Avatar
    Michele Eiche

    She wouldn’t like kissing and hugging??? She has to hug & kiss her food before eating it!!! She’s the most loving child I know!

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