Personal Stories from Others

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Christy's Story

This is in reference to a workman's comp injury, so I have no choice in who my doctor is. I knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall and it landed on my foot and broke the pinky toe and chipped the bone in the toe next to it. This happened in June. It took 12 days for employee health to get me an appointment, took another month before the doctor would do surgery. He would only operate on the pinky even though the fourth toe is also an issue. Three weeks later when I got my stitches out and told him yet again how painful the other toe is, he told me I wasn't speaking out loudly enough.

I've been off work 3 months, still having pain, and cannot be on my feet for more than an hour or 2 without extreme pain in my toes. Cannot wear a regular shoe either. He finally ordered an MRI that shows edema in the bone marrow of the 4th and 5th toes, in 2 bones on each toe. It also shows air or something metallic between the 3rd and 4th toes. By the time I go back and see him, it will have been 2 weeks since the MRI. He told the employee health lady that he was sending me for the MRI, but that he didn't know why because it would not find anything wrong.

My husband and I are looking into legal options and attorneys.

Zahra's Stories

I had a giant spider bite so I went to CVS minute clinic. The doctor said they’d give me antibiotics so I told her I could be pregnant because I was trying. She looked a little nervous and asked when my period was and said it’s probably fine. I looked on NCBI and it said it can cause neural tube defects as well as other issues. So I waited to take the antibiotics. Then a few days later, it turned out I was pregnant. I was glad I was reluctant because most people would just do it without questioning a doctor.

During my first birth, I was given Pitocin in my iv to speed things up even though I was already in the last phase of labor. Then I had fetal distress and back-to-back contractions so they gave me anti Pitocin which actually slowed things down. Then they kept asking if I was too tired and I was sick of answering them so they brought in the doctor and did the suction cup bc I didn’t want a cesarean. The second labor I did mostly at home so I didn’t have to deal with those people again. I spent like 15 mins there before giving birth. No iv or anything.

Shelley's Story

I knew two people who were suffering from congestive heart failure. One of them was my mother. Her's was fatal because she was poor; the other individual could afford the medication, which was $100.00 per pill at the time and lived. The treatment was available, but not to my mom. I was told years later by a family friend that my mom "simply did not advocate for herself, or the help would have been there." I don't believe that is true. I was laughed out of an Orthodontist's office as a teenager when I needed a $50,000 surgery to fix my jaw. Being poor has always meant being treated differently in medicine.

A Story from Anonymous

I was put on add meds through a lot of school bc I was depressed and didn’t pay attention. It affected my memory, my appetite, it made me even more depressed because it turns people into zombies and it felt like I lost personality. I told my mom and my doctor some of these things. But he ignored me and my mom only cared what my doctor said.