Below is another fraud via the flappie:
LASIK-Flap Forum Index =BB General =BB What happened after a recent eye
pain caused failed suicide
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What happened after a recent eye pain caused failed suicide
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:50 am
mrstarmenss
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 11
Location: california
It would have been appropriate I think if this story could have been
told at the FDA hearing on april 25. But I think it probably occurred
after the 25th.
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What happened when I tried to kill myself
________________________________________
Or, "why the psych ward is no place for a dry eye sufferer"
I OD'd (tried to, apparently didn't take enough) and my husband found
me 2 hours later. I went to the ER, and they admitted me to the
hospital on a "72-hour hold."
The ER staff faxed over a copy of my eye regimen (warm compresses, lid
washes, steroid drops, restasis, serum, genteal gel, etc.) and I took
a small cooler with my eye drops with me. It was 1am when I got to the
psychiatric unit.
During the initial questioning, I told the intake nurse about my dry
eye problems stemming from PRK last year. She asked me if I was suing
my surgeon. I said, "No," and she went on and on about how, if my eyes
were damaged because of the surgery, I should file suit. How to
explain to her that this wasn't the result of malpractice but "merely"
a complication? I didn't understand her reaction, but it is par for
the course whenever people hear about what happened to me. First they
ask me, "Aren't there drops you can use?" Then they ask me if I'm
going to sue the doctor. Then they say something to the effect of,
"Surely this isn't as bad as you're making it out to be."
They had to send all of my eye drops to the pharmacy for "approval,"
and I waited a long time for them. The nurse told me to go to sleep. I
told her I needed to do my nightly routine first. When she finally
brought me my drops, the serum drops were no longer cold. She told me
she couldn't give me a warm compress. She was very patronizing.
[Did I mention that I was in a freaking hospital? What part of "these
prescription eye drops need to be refrigerated was so hard to
understand?"]
The next morning, it was a different nurse but the same story. She
acted like she was humoring me when she brought me hot water and a
wash cloth. She was very patronizing, and I was confused. They were
all acting like they didn't believe anything I said about anything,
and I couldn't understand why they weren't allowing me to have my
*prescription* eye drops.
Now I know. I recently received a copy of my records from that brief
hospital stay. This is what the intake nurse wrote about me:
"She was very focused on her 16 month old, alleged eye injury from
Lasix surgery, claiming she has bilateral damage to lacrimal ducts,
'dry eyes'. She does not have a pending legal suit as she acknowledges
she signed an informed consent which prevented any legal action. This
may suggest she may not have sustained injury from the eye surgery but
her perception is that she indeed has eye damage...She is very
controlling as to what medication she can take due to her eye
condition. She was observed to read successfully the consent
forms...She states she has visual impairment, yet does not wear
gl*****..."
She later refers to my nightly eye routine as a "ritual." The morning
nurse noted that I was "preoccupied with eye care," when all I did was
ask for a hot compress and my eye drops.
They though it was all in my head, that I made up this elaborate, time-
consumming routine. It was so enourmously upsetting to be treated that
way.
They described me as "anxious, guarded, and paranoid." Well, when I
ask for my eye drops, which were prescribed by a real, live doctor for
a real medical problem and the nurse sighs and says, "Why don't you
try to sleep now," that's bound to make a person feel like they aren't
to be trusted with her wellbeing.
The whole thing was a horrible experience (I don't recommend it), and
I'm having trouble getting past the "they didn't believe me" shock.
I know from comments elsewhere that some of you don't understand how a
person can get to this point, even given how relentless and awful the
eye pain is and how numbing the sleep deprivation can make you. So
please don't lecture me about how suicide isn't the answer. I know it
was a stupid thing to do.
I'm really hurting and I don't know how to get past this.
Thank you so much for your sup****t.
It was a relief to just write that post, a relief to press "submit"
and a relief to read the replies and PMs everyone has sent to me. You
all had such good advice and kind words. Oh, and this morning, I
ordered the book that Dr. W recommended.
The reason I requested a copy of my medical records is because I'm
trying to set up a psych consult at Johns Hopkins. I had no idea how
upsetting reading them was going to be.
The whole story is worse than what I posted (more egregious statements
in the medical records by the nurses and doctors). I can hardly
believe what happened, but your stories show that it's depressingly
common. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given how I was treated by
eye doctors last year. (One eye doctor told me, when I said I felt I
wasn't being taken seriously, "Honestly, your eyes just don't look
like they should be that painful.")
Is there a section here for our medical horror stories? (Eight hours
on grand rounds and they tell you to see a psychologist??)
I have been seeing a psychologist since last fall (he's very warm and
compassionate and he is helping me), and he, my husband, and my
psychiatrist all knew I was having suicidal thoughts. I didn't tell
them how serious these thoughts were; I was afraid they'd hospitalize
me. I was on Wellbutrin and going to therapy and I thought I was doing
everything I could do, but nothing seemed to be working. I was filled
with such despair....
I'm not very good at asking for or accepting help from other people,
but I am so glad I asked for your help. I think I could write a really
good post on why what I did was a really bad idea and why no one else
should ever do it.
The thing is, my eyes have been improving. They are so much better
than they were six months ago. It's like I held it together by a
shoestring for months and months through the worst of it, and when it
looked like I reached a livable state with regards to my eye pain, I
lost it.
I had a rather thrilling thing happen a couple of weeks ago, and it's
happened repeatedly since then. I was eating some really hot salsa and
got a piece of jalapeno stuck in my throat. I was all choking and
coughing, and MY EYES WATERED! This hadn't happened since my surgery,
and I was so thrilled and excited. On my good days, I think that I'm
still healing, and, on my bad days, I think it's really pathetic to
get that excited over something so small.
I've had a good couple of days, but when I have another bad day (and I
will, I'm sure), I may take some of you up on your offers to PM.
Thanks again for your sup****t. There are some really special, giving
people here.
=2E I know what Rojzen means by anguish. I have thought the same thing.
I decided it was grieving, for something you've lost and will likely
never regain.
I've dealt with chronic pain before, as well as chronic s****ts
injuries, but nothing laid me out like this eye pain. It effects every
aspect of my life, and I don't know if I'm supposed to be going
through the grieving process and accepting that I've lost some things
forever or if I'm supposed to be fighting and believing I will get
better and get all of those things back.
2. and others noted, this is apparantly a problem not limited to
psychiatric units or my particular hospital. Apparently, contrary to
what one might assume, hospitals don't consider eye drops to be
"medicine" in the same way oral medications are. You can believe that
if you had to have surgery and were on any prescription oral
medication, they'd make sure you got it. But maybe they think eye
drops are on par with, say, bru****ng and flossing your teeth?
Any nurses or MD's out there who can verify or explain this? What is
the procedure we should be using for dealing with this?
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:10 pm
rpetris
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
Posts: 1
DEAR LASIKFLAP ADMINISTRATOR:
I have not received any reply to my email and there is no contact
information whatsoever on this website that I could find, so I
registered and am posting this here as my only way to contact the
site:
The above posting contains a post copied verbatim from the following
page of Dry Eye Talk (a website I own and run):
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=3D6211
All content on Dry Eye Talk is subject to copyright and in that regard
I have a general objection to postings being copied outright from our
bulletin board with no credits, though I understand this is sometimes
done simply from ignorance on the part of the person posting.
In this case, the sensitive nature of the post (which is from a
suicidal patient seeking emotional sup****t) makes plagiarism without
our and the author's consent highly objectionable as it could easily
serve to inflict additional distress on an already distressed
patient.
Please remove this thread from your site as soon as possible. Thank
you in advance for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Petris
Founder/Owner
The Dry Eye Company
www.dryeyezone.com
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:29 am
Brent Hanson
Joined: 15 Nov 2005
Posts: 135
Rebecca:
Perhaps the following forum would be more to your liking? Exposing the
LASIK Scam - One Surgeon at a Time
Sorry Rebecca, it now remains forever. Proof that they are only a
handful of losers who have to steal their content.
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