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| Case number 10 Helen's Case | Return to Case Studies |
- Mis-diagnosis
- Wrong Drugs
- Appalling physical damage
- Eventually treated with correct drug therapy
- Inexplicable termination of this therapy
- Return of appalling physical damage
- Impossibility of obtaining a genuine second opinion: effectively blacklisted & denied access to specialist care
- Potential
litigant : legal route for compensation blocked
- Patient abandoned to suffer
Helen's case is told by her
mother. This is another horror story - this time a
young woman's life has been destroyed by what can surely only be described
as medical malpractice
The Good Times............
The Good Times............
"Our
daughter Helen's physical
health was very good and by the time she was fourteen years old she was
tall and slim weighing 10 .5 stones. She has always been a gentle, shy girl,
reserved by nature, home-loving and family centred. Her mental health had
been fine, too. We live in the country and she loved helping in our small
family business.
The Start of The Troubles........
Everything went well until she was 14 years old and was seriously bullied, and I mean seriously bullied, by a small gang of girls at the school. Overnight she became socially withdrawn and her self esteem and confidence seemed to collapse. Helen became school phobic and was so affected that she even refused to go into town because she was terrified of meeting up with some of the girls who had made her life intolerable.
Her father and I reported the matter to the school and decided that the best option was to ask for a transfer to another school. However, the preferred school was over subscribed and Home Tuition was all that was on offer. We reluctantly accepted this and for two years Helen received Home Education. This did nothing to repair her social confidence.
The Good Doctor........
When Helen became sixteen her father and I realised that before Helen obtained employment she needed counselling to help her build up her self esteem. I was told that there was a very long waiting list for anyone on the NHS so we paid £60 for a psychiatrist to see Helen privately. She turned out to be a lovely doctor who, after assessing Helen, informed us that our daughter was suffering from no mental illness . She went on to confirm what we ourselves had thought and that was that Helen now suffered from low self-confidence having been damaged by school bullies and two years in relative social isolation. This delightful doctor saw Helen on a regular basis for one year for sensitive counselling sessions and helped her enormously. During this time Helen was prescribed no drugs. She was discharged. Unfortunately, this doctor left the area.
The Bad Doctor .............
All went well until Helen was 19 years old and she then began to get attacks of anxiety. This coincided with the death of a very close and much loved member of our family. Helen was always fine at home but became unwilling to socialise on her own. We decided she needed more counselling and consulted our GP. He said that there was a long waiting list but he would contact a consultant psychiatrist at the local hospital who without seeing Helen prescribed Melleril ( thioridazine)
( SIN understands from the medical literature that Mellaril is a very powerful, anti psychotic drug usually approved for the management of schizophrenic patients who have failed to respond adequately to treatment with other anti psychotic drugs! Not a drug of first resort. How could Helen have been prescribed thsi drug without any specialist consultation? Should the GP have prescribed this drug?)
Helen started on the drug and within the first month we were given two appointments at the hospital to see , as we thought, the consultant. However, only psychiatric nurses saw Helen, each time a different one. The questioning was very aggressive and upset us, let alone Helen. For example, Helen was asked who she preferred me or her father, she refused to answer but it was insisted that she made a choice. All this took place in front of a video recording camera.
Her father and I decided that these sessions were too distressing for Helen and, indeed, for ourselves. All we had been wanting was sympathetic counselling. The consultant eventually agreed to come to our home - the first time he had seen Helen. He literally ordered Helen ( who was 19 years old) into the local psychiatric hostel - not I emphasise the local hospital. This hostel does not have a good reputation being the refuge of social misfits, drug abusers and drunks. None of the family liked this idea and Helen became extremely distressed and tearful, begging the consultant to allow her to remain at home during her treatment. He was adamant and the only concession he made was to allow me to sleep at the hostel with Helen. Melleril appeared to be making Helen more anxious and was exacerbating her symptoms. I have always maintained that all that Helen needed was sympathetic counselling and perhaps a mild tranquiliser.
Helen was far more upset than any of us realised for she took an overdose of tablets that evening and I had to rush her to the A& E Department at our local hospital. She was kept in overnight as a precautionary measure. I was astonished to receive a phone call from the consultant early the next morning, just as I was getting ready to fetch Helen from the hospital, informing me that Helen was now in his care. He had, it seems, removed her forceably from the Hospital ward and had taken her himself in his car and admitted her to the Hostel. In our opinion this doctor had literally abducted Helen against her will and forced an adult to be registered at this Hostel in spite of the obvious distress this would cause her and her family.
I rushed to the Hostel and found Helen sitting on the floor weeping, surrounded by what can only be described as 'social misfits'. The staff warned Helen that should she run away the police would return her. To help Helen I went at night to stay with her, but soon found that working during the day at the family business and getting little sleep at night, was making me feel ill. One of Helen's sisters offered to go in my place, but the consultant vetoed this idea!
Before too long Helen did run away. Another sister went to plead with the consultant to allow Helen to remain at home during her treatment. He was furious and said he would have nothing more to do with Helen and was withdrawing from her care. So, basically, Helen never did receive any medical help, but was kept on Melleril. Her GP continued to prescribe this drug for months without specialist testing or monitoring!
(Now that the consultant psychiatrist who had prescribed Mellaril for Helen without any in-depth personal assessment had withdrawn from her treatment, the family had to rely on Helen's GP who continued to prescribe the drug in spite of the adverse symptoms which soon became apparent).
The Nightmare Begins.......
What happened next was like a Frankenstein movie! Within 12 months from
the start of Melleril our lovely, gentle daughter changed before our eyes both mentally and physically. Helen describes it as a nightmare. Her whole personality changed . She had uncharacteristic mood swings with periodic bouts of aggressive, angry behaviour. Her father and I were subjected to verbal and physical attacks. The next moment she would be weeping and cowering in a corner in real fear, pleading with us to forgive her outbursts. This was difficult for us to understand, it was as though she had surges of adrenaline. She became very depressed and withdrawn, even at home with the family.
(Click here to view photos of Helen showing 'before' and 'after' Melleril )
I pleaded with the GP to take Helen off the drug. It seemed that Melleril was causing the very symptoms it is supposed to counteract. He refused. We asked for Helen to see another psychiatrist but were told none was available. We then read in the local papers that the consultant involved with Helen had appeared in court because two of his patients had committed suicide. Later, we understood that he had left the hospital 'under a cloud'.
The Nightmare Continues........
Helen's GP eventually made the decision to take Helen off Melleril only to prescribe an unbelievable cocktail of 5 anti-depressants. Helen began taking 21 tablets a day including Prozac, Lithium and Benzodaisepine. Not surprisingly, she became very sedated and spent long periods sleeping. She was given no diagnosis, tests or clinical monitoring. Neither she nor we, the family, were given any support as she was changed from one drug regime to another. None of these drugs had any effect on her grotesque physical changes which also included bodily hair growth and large quantities of fluid leaking from her breasts at night , causing the sheets to be soaking by morning. Helen endured her symptoms for another two years but our GP remained unfazed by Helen's changes in physical appearance and personality .
The Good Doctors...........
Our family decided to change to another GP who was very sympathetic and took Helen's symptoms seriously. Indeed he seemed to know what the diagnosis could be. He mysteriously referred her to a specialist in osteoporosis. This consultant was also sympathetic and Helen was taken off her anti-depressants. He said that the symptoms could be those of ''Hyperprolactinemia' . He organised two tests for Helen. The first was a bone density scan and the other was a test for a tumour of her pituitary gland. ( The medical literature states that 'hyperprolactinemia' causes osteoporosis and that 'hyperprolactinemia' is caused either by a tumour OR can be drug induced.) We were relieved when tests showed Helen had no tumour so we concluded that Melleril had caused disturbances of the pituitary gland which had resulted in the 'Hyperprolactinemia' and all the appalling associated physical changes Helen had suffered.
This consultant prescribed high dose of the drug Bromocriptine (16.5mgs) and admitted that this was 'all beyond his normal field of operation' and referred her to a consultant endocrinologist, something we felt should had been done as soon as Helen's body showed such great physical changes. Our daughter then received the good medical care she had been denied. For the very first time since Helen had been put on drugs she started to receive regular blood tests and 3 monthly appointments with the consultant for monitoring. During this time several doctors told us verbally that Helen must never, ever come off Bromocriptine. It looked as though she was on this drug for life, we were prepared to live with that now that Helen had returned to normal. A doctor even told her that all her previous symptoms had without doubt been drug induced by Mellaril.
The Medical Literature states that the drug Bromocriptine is the standard antidote for 'Hyperprolactinemia' and will reduce excessive growth and obesity ( eg. her shoe size went from 6 to 8) caused by an over-active pituitary gland ( acromegaly or 'giantess' phenomenon)
The Return of the Good Times......
The next six years were very good for Helen. Her weight reduced to her normal 10.5 stones, her aggressive behaviour and personality changes ceased altogether. We had our daughter back. Helen was very happy and gained in confidence and began to put behind her the awful experience of the last few years. She passed her driving test and had started College. Bromocriptine had been reduced to 2.5mgs per day.
Return of the Nightmare......Dr Jekyll becomes Dr. Hyde.....
In 1998 Helen and we were shocked when the consultant endocrinologist suddenly stopped the prescription of Bromocriptine, stating inexplicably that she no longer needed it. All her monitoring ceased and her next appointment was in one years time. By the end of the 12 months, horrors of horrors , all her old symptoms were returning and she had increased her weight by 4 stones. We all pleaded with this consultant to put Helen back on Bromocriptine. He agreed to admit her to hospital for a check up and she was in for 5 days. The consultant then pronounced that everything was 'fine' and that Helen's problems were all psychological and that the increase in weight was due to an eating disorder. We could not believe our ears and the whole family was distraught. Even the Registrar had shown concern especially about the bruising which appears from time to time on Helen's body and her blurred vision. The consultant suggested that if we were not satisfied we should get a second opinion.
The impossibility of obtaining an independent second opinion....
It took several months before we could obtain an appointment and then we were forced to go privately. We have now reached the year 2000. This consultant endocrinologist merely restated the opinion of the previous consultant. [ Was this the now discredited Bolam technique in operation - if all doctors sing to the same hymn sheet then this will offer protection to all colleagues?] He totally ignored her previous history and the drugs she had been prescribed and dismissed any suggestion that Melleril had caused the adverse symptoms. This consultant refused to see her again.
The Start of The Troubles........
Everything went well until she was 14 years old and was seriously bullied, and I mean seriously bullied, by a small gang of girls at the school. Overnight she became socially withdrawn and her self esteem and confidence seemed to collapse. Helen became school phobic and was so affected that she even refused to go into town because she was terrified of meeting up with some of the girls who had made her life intolerable.
Her father and I reported the matter to the school and decided that the best option was to ask for a transfer to another school. However, the preferred school was over subscribed and Home Tuition was all that was on offer. We reluctantly accepted this and for two years Helen received Home Education. This did nothing to repair her social confidence.
The Good Doctor........
When Helen became sixteen her father and I realised that before Helen obtained employment she needed counselling to help her build up her self esteem. I was told that there was a very long waiting list for anyone on the NHS so we paid £60 for a psychiatrist to see Helen privately. She turned out to be a lovely doctor who, after assessing Helen, informed us that our daughter was suffering from no mental illness . She went on to confirm what we ourselves had thought and that was that Helen now suffered from low self-confidence having been damaged by school bullies and two years in relative social isolation. This delightful doctor saw Helen on a regular basis for one year for sensitive counselling sessions and helped her enormously. During this time Helen was prescribed no drugs. She was discharged. Unfortunately, this doctor left the area.
The Bad Doctor .............
All went well until Helen was 19 years old and she then began to get attacks of anxiety. This coincided with the death of a very close and much loved member of our family. Helen was always fine at home but became unwilling to socialise on her own. We decided she needed more counselling and consulted our GP. He said that there was a long waiting list but he would contact a consultant psychiatrist at the local hospital who without seeing Helen prescribed Melleril ( thioridazine)
( SIN understands from the medical literature that Mellaril is a very powerful, anti psychotic drug usually approved for the management of schizophrenic patients who have failed to respond adequately to treatment with other anti psychotic drugs! Not a drug of first resort. How could Helen have been prescribed thsi drug without any specialist consultation? Should the GP have prescribed this drug?)
Helen started on the drug and within the first month we were given two appointments at the hospital to see , as we thought, the consultant. However, only psychiatric nurses saw Helen, each time a different one. The questioning was very aggressive and upset us, let alone Helen. For example, Helen was asked who she preferred me or her father, she refused to answer but it was insisted that she made a choice. All this took place in front of a video recording camera.
Her father and I decided that these sessions were too distressing for Helen and, indeed, for ourselves. All we had been wanting was sympathetic counselling. The consultant eventually agreed to come to our home - the first time he had seen Helen. He literally ordered Helen ( who was 19 years old) into the local psychiatric hostel - not I emphasise the local hospital. This hostel does not have a good reputation being the refuge of social misfits, drug abusers and drunks. None of the family liked this idea and Helen became extremely distressed and tearful, begging the consultant to allow her to remain at home during her treatment. He was adamant and the only concession he made was to allow me to sleep at the hostel with Helen. Melleril appeared to be making Helen more anxious and was exacerbating her symptoms. I have always maintained that all that Helen needed was sympathetic counselling and perhaps a mild tranquiliser.
Helen was far more upset than any of us realised for she took an overdose of tablets that evening and I had to rush her to the A& E Department at our local hospital. She was kept in overnight as a precautionary measure. I was astonished to receive a phone call from the consultant early the next morning, just as I was getting ready to fetch Helen from the hospital, informing me that Helen was now in his care. He had, it seems, removed her forceably from the Hospital ward and had taken her himself in his car and admitted her to the Hostel. In our opinion this doctor had literally abducted Helen against her will and forced an adult to be registered at this Hostel in spite of the obvious distress this would cause her and her family.
I rushed to the Hostel and found Helen sitting on the floor weeping, surrounded by what can only be described as 'social misfits'. The staff warned Helen that should she run away the police would return her. To help Helen I went at night to stay with her, but soon found that working during the day at the family business and getting little sleep at night, was making me feel ill. One of Helen's sisters offered to go in my place, but the consultant vetoed this idea!
Before too long Helen did run away. Another sister went to plead with the consultant to allow Helen to remain at home during her treatment. He was furious and said he would have nothing more to do with Helen and was withdrawing from her care. So, basically, Helen never did receive any medical help, but was kept on Melleril. Her GP continued to prescribe this drug for months without specialist testing or monitoring!
(Now that the consultant psychiatrist who had prescribed Mellaril for Helen without any in-depth personal assessment had withdrawn from her treatment, the family had to rely on Helen's GP who continued to prescribe the drug in spite of the adverse symptoms which soon became apparent).
The Nightmare Begins.......
What happened next was like a Frankenstein movie! Within 12 months from
the start of Melleril our lovely, gentle daughter changed before our eyes both mentally and physically. Helen describes it as a nightmare. Her whole personality changed . She had uncharacteristic mood swings with periodic bouts of aggressive, angry behaviour. Her father and I were subjected to verbal and physical attacks. The next moment she would be weeping and cowering in a corner in real fear, pleading with us to forgive her outbursts. This was difficult for us to understand, it was as though she had surges of adrenaline. She became very depressed and withdrawn, even at home with the family.
These personality
changes were bad enough, but nothing could have prepared her or us
for the gross physical changes which occurred. Our slim, attractive daughter
became overnight a veritable giantess, you can imagine how distressing
this was for Helen. Within 12 months of this disgusting drug her
weight had risen from 10.5 stones to an unbelievable 22 stones!!!
(Click here to view photos of Helen showing 'before' and 'after' Melleril )
I pleaded with the GP to take Helen off the drug. It seemed that Melleril was causing the very symptoms it is supposed to counteract. He refused. We asked for Helen to see another psychiatrist but were told none was available. We then read in the local papers that the consultant involved with Helen had appeared in court because two of his patients had committed suicide. Later, we understood that he had left the hospital 'under a cloud'.
The Nightmare Continues........
Helen's GP eventually made the decision to take Helen off Melleril only to prescribe an unbelievable cocktail of 5 anti-depressants. Helen began taking 21 tablets a day including Prozac, Lithium and Benzodaisepine. Not surprisingly, she became very sedated and spent long periods sleeping. She was given no diagnosis, tests or clinical monitoring. Neither she nor we, the family, were given any support as she was changed from one drug regime to another. None of these drugs had any effect on her grotesque physical changes which also included bodily hair growth and large quantities of fluid leaking from her breasts at night , causing the sheets to be soaking by morning. Helen endured her symptoms for another two years but our GP remained unfazed by Helen's changes in physical appearance and personality .
The Good Doctors...........
Our family decided to change to another GP who was very sympathetic and took Helen's symptoms seriously. Indeed he seemed to know what the diagnosis could be. He mysteriously referred her to a specialist in osteoporosis. This consultant was also sympathetic and Helen was taken off her anti-depressants. He said that the symptoms could be those of ''Hyperprolactinemia' . He organised two tests for Helen. The first was a bone density scan and the other was a test for a tumour of her pituitary gland. ( The medical literature states that 'hyperprolactinemia' causes osteoporosis and that 'hyperprolactinemia' is caused either by a tumour OR can be drug induced.) We were relieved when tests showed Helen had no tumour so we concluded that Melleril had caused disturbances of the pituitary gland which had resulted in the 'Hyperprolactinemia' and all the appalling associated physical changes Helen had suffered.
This consultant prescribed high dose of the drug Bromocriptine (16.5mgs) and admitted that this was 'all beyond his normal field of operation' and referred her to a consultant endocrinologist, something we felt should had been done as soon as Helen's body showed such great physical changes. Our daughter then received the good medical care she had been denied. For the very first time since Helen had been put on drugs she started to receive regular blood tests and 3 monthly appointments with the consultant for monitoring. During this time several doctors told us verbally that Helen must never, ever come off Bromocriptine. It looked as though she was on this drug for life, we were prepared to live with that now that Helen had returned to normal. A doctor even told her that all her previous symptoms had without doubt been drug induced by Mellaril.
The Medical Literature states that the drug Bromocriptine is the standard antidote for 'Hyperprolactinemia' and will reduce excessive growth and obesity ( eg. her shoe size went from 6 to 8) caused by an over-active pituitary gland ( acromegaly or 'giantess' phenomenon)
The Return of the Good Times......
The next six years were very good for Helen. Her weight reduced to her normal 10.5 stones, her aggressive behaviour and personality changes ceased altogether. We had our daughter back. Helen was very happy and gained in confidence and began to put behind her the awful experience of the last few years. She passed her driving test and had started College. Bromocriptine had been reduced to 2.5mgs per day.
Return of the Nightmare......Dr Jekyll becomes Dr. Hyde.....
In 1998 Helen and we were shocked when the consultant endocrinologist suddenly stopped the prescription of Bromocriptine, stating inexplicably that she no longer needed it. All her monitoring ceased and her next appointment was in one years time. By the end of the 12 months, horrors of horrors , all her old symptoms were returning and she had increased her weight by 4 stones. We all pleaded with this consultant to put Helen back on Bromocriptine. He agreed to admit her to hospital for a check up and she was in for 5 days. The consultant then pronounced that everything was 'fine' and that Helen's problems were all psychological and that the increase in weight was due to an eating disorder. We could not believe our ears and the whole family was distraught. Even the Registrar had shown concern especially about the bruising which appears from time to time on Helen's body and her blurred vision. The consultant suggested that if we were not satisfied we should get a second opinion.
The impossibility of obtaining an independent second opinion....
It took several months before we could obtain an appointment and then we were forced to go privately. We have now reached the year 2000. This consultant endocrinologist merely restated the opinion of the previous consultant. [ Was this the now discredited Bolam technique in operation - if all doctors sing to the same hymn sheet then this will offer protection to all colleagues?] He totally ignored her previous history and the drugs she had been prescribed and dismissed any suggestion that Melleril had caused the adverse symptoms. This consultant refused to see her again.
Click here
to see recent photos of Helen showing the return of her slim figure on Bromocriptine
and the huge increase in size when this drug was inexplicably stopped.
Attempt to take Legal Action.....
We decided that we had no alternative now but to enquire about taking legal action. The solicitor we approached thought this was a terrible case, one of the worst he had heard . Helen obtained £ 3000 in Legal Aid money . However, the solicitor quickly changed his tone, used up the money and then said he had more serious cases to attend to, returning the file.
The Nightmare continues ...... there is no way out......
We feel that everyone has abandoned us. The medical profession which caused the nightmare, ruining Helen's and our lives completely, are in particular to blame. Neighbours and friends are shocked at the changes in Helen but are powerless, as we are, to do anything about it. The Medical Profession who could do something are turning a blind eye to her suffering. Helen's weight is now 20 stones and I would say she is 'muscle-bound' , if you feel her muscles they are as hard as a board. She has no flexibility, she can bend and move only with great difficulty. We believe that her skeleton is suffering because of the great load it is bearing and indeed she suffers awful backache and has been told she has crushed vertebrae at the base of her spine. We have the underlying fear that she is suffering from osteoporosis. We have also brought up the subject of her adrenal glands and have asked if these have been affected , but no doctor will address this issue, indeed, one doctor told us we must never refer to the adrenal glands again! Interestingly, no doctor will record Helen's weight although this has been requested many times. [ This is a very common experience of iatrogenic patients: critical symptoms which prove the iatrogenic damage are never recorded. This is contrary to GMC regulations and represents gross professional misconduct because it puts the patient at risk. It also means that a denial and cover-up is in progress!].
Final comment......
No one will ever know the terrible trauma and stress Helen has had to live through and is still living through, although anyone who reads this account will surely sympathise with us. I am heart broken as ,indeed, is the whole family to see what these doctors have done to our lovely daughter. We have to live on a daily basis with what has happend to Helen and to see how her life has been destroyed. We, her family, admire Helen tremendously for her courage and her good humour as she bears her misfortunes with great fortitude. She tries to help herself by keeping as busy as she can, in spite of her severe back pain, by helping around the home and takes what solace and enjoyment she can from the love and warmth of her extended family. Helen has not been on any drugs since she came off Bromocriptine. We believe that this shows her extremely strong character, as she has learnt to cope with this horror, in the words of Helen:
SIN's comments: This is truly a terrible case, a young girl's life being needlessly ruined and the doctors responsible simply 'averting the gaze' and 'turning a blind eye' unwilling to accept personal responsibility for what they have done to another human being who put herself trustingly in their care. This case shows, what many cases show, the appalling abuse of medical power resulting in iatrogenic damage which is denied and covered up. It is very difficult to unravel the reasons behind Helen's mistreatment:
1. Certainly the psychiatrist who prescribed Melleril without seeing Helen was highly irresponsible and must surely be guilty of gross professional misconduct? He never legally sectioned her becasue he had no grounds to do so, although he forced Helen to be admitted to the Hostel, against her will. Surely, he was breaking the law?
2 Was he utterly incompetent and negligent or was he actually being malicious?
Could he really have been unaware of the dangers of Melleril? In any case, the GP should have had a legal responsibility to have informed the consultant of the changes happening to Helen.
3. Was not the first GP guilty of gross professional misconduct by acting outside his field of competence by prescribing all the anti-depressants when it was obvious that he should have referred Helen immediately to an endocrinologist? Was he trying to pretend, by giving her a cocktail of anti-depressants, that she had a severe psychological problem, thereby excusing the prescription of Melleril?
4. The second GP new immediately what was wrong - then surely the first would also have known and wilfully, in our opinion, denied Helen the appropriate clinical care, impervious to the damage being done to her system.
5. Why did the endocrinologist keep her on the Bromocriptine and having noted
Helen's return to normality for six years , then stopped the drug ? Since all the other doctors were aware that Helen must never come off this drug why did this endocrinologist stop the drug knowing full well that all Helen's appalling symptoms would return? Was this not wicked and cruel?
6. How dare this consultant add to Helen's misery by insinuating her problems were all psychological and her increase in weight was due to an eating disorder, knowing full well that he had himself caused the return of symptoms by taking her off Bromocriptine. How can this man live with himself?
7. Have the family been able to fill in a 'Yellow Card' which is the offical way of registering adverse drug reactions? Usually only doctors are able to do this. Can
we trust them to do this honestly?
8 The inability to obtain a genuine second opinion is common amongst iatrogenic patients. This disgraceful professional allegiance must stop!
9. Helen's legal case was 'caste iron' - terrible drug induced damage - all the evidence. Only after they were refused treatment did the family seek legal help. Who put a stop to this? The Local Health Authority fearing the pay-out, or the local medical mafia?
10. The awful thought has struck us - was this all a cruel experiment? - testing out the drug Melleril on a normal, unsuspecting patient - monitoring the changes, then giving the prescribed antidote and then callously removing this to see what would happen - and then abandoning the patient? Or is she still being monitored?
11 Is the fact that Helen is now perceived as a potential litigant, fully entitled to substantial damages, preventing her from receivng the urgent specialist care she requires?
12 We believe that all the doctors involved in Helen's 'care' should hang their collective heads in shame!!!!
Surely, adjectives such as cruel' 'sadistic' and 'wicked' could be used to describe some of the doctors involved with Helen's care, or should we say lack of care? What would the Health Authority, the Regional Office, the D.o.H, the BMA Ethical Committee, the GMC and Royal Colleges ......say about this case??? Are we looking at criminal malpactice?
We decided that we had no alternative now but to enquire about taking legal action. The solicitor we approached thought this was a terrible case, one of the worst he had heard . Helen obtained £ 3000 in Legal Aid money . However, the solicitor quickly changed his tone, used up the money and then said he had more serious cases to attend to, returning the file.
The Nightmare continues ...... there is no way out......
We feel that everyone has abandoned us. The medical profession which caused the nightmare, ruining Helen's and our lives completely, are in particular to blame. Neighbours and friends are shocked at the changes in Helen but are powerless, as we are, to do anything about it. The Medical Profession who could do something are turning a blind eye to her suffering. Helen's weight is now 20 stones and I would say she is 'muscle-bound' , if you feel her muscles they are as hard as a board. She has no flexibility, she can bend and move only with great difficulty. We believe that her skeleton is suffering because of the great load it is bearing and indeed she suffers awful backache and has been told she has crushed vertebrae at the base of her spine. We have the underlying fear that she is suffering from osteoporosis. We have also brought up the subject of her adrenal glands and have asked if these have been affected , but no doctor will address this issue, indeed, one doctor told us we must never refer to the adrenal glands again! Interestingly, no doctor will record Helen's weight although this has been requested many times. [ This is a very common experience of iatrogenic patients: critical symptoms which prove the iatrogenic damage are never recorded. This is contrary to GMC regulations and represents gross professional misconduct because it puts the patient at risk. It also means that a denial and cover-up is in progress!].
Final comment......
No one will ever know the terrible trauma and stress Helen has had to live through and is still living through, although anyone who reads this account will surely sympathise with us. I am heart broken as ,indeed, is the whole family to see what these doctors have done to our lovely daughter. We have to live on a daily basis with what has happend to Helen and to see how her life has been destroyed. We, her family, admire Helen tremendously for her courage and her good humour as she bears her misfortunes with great fortitude. She tries to help herself by keeping as busy as she can, in spite of her severe back pain, by helping around the home and takes what solace and enjoyment she can from the love and warmth of her extended family. Helen has not been on any drugs since she came off Bromocriptine. We believe that this shows her extremely strong character, as she has learnt to cope with this horror, in the words of Helen:
.
The worst thing is that there is NO HELP and NO SUPPORT....."
SIN's comments: This is truly a terrible case, a young girl's life being needlessly ruined and the doctors responsible simply 'averting the gaze' and 'turning a blind eye' unwilling to accept personal responsibility for what they have done to another human being who put herself trustingly in their care. This case shows, what many cases show, the appalling abuse of medical power resulting in iatrogenic damage which is denied and covered up. It is very difficult to unravel the reasons behind Helen's mistreatment:
1. Certainly the psychiatrist who prescribed Melleril without seeing Helen was highly irresponsible and must surely be guilty of gross professional misconduct? He never legally sectioned her becasue he had no grounds to do so, although he forced Helen to be admitted to the Hostel, against her will. Surely, he was breaking the law?
2 Was he utterly incompetent and negligent or was he actually being malicious?
Could he really have been unaware of the dangers of Melleril? In any case, the GP should have had a legal responsibility to have informed the consultant of the changes happening to Helen.
3. Was not the first GP guilty of gross professional misconduct by acting outside his field of competence by prescribing all the anti-depressants when it was obvious that he should have referred Helen immediately to an endocrinologist? Was he trying to pretend, by giving her a cocktail of anti-depressants, that she had a severe psychological problem, thereby excusing the prescription of Melleril?
4. The second GP new immediately what was wrong - then surely the first would also have known and wilfully, in our opinion, denied Helen the appropriate clinical care, impervious to the damage being done to her system.
5. Why did the endocrinologist keep her on the Bromocriptine and having noted
Helen's return to normality for six years , then stopped the drug ? Since all the other doctors were aware that Helen must never come off this drug why did this endocrinologist stop the drug knowing full well that all Helen's appalling symptoms would return? Was this not wicked and cruel?
6. How dare this consultant add to Helen's misery by insinuating her problems were all psychological and her increase in weight was due to an eating disorder, knowing full well that he had himself caused the return of symptoms by taking her off Bromocriptine. How can this man live with himself?
7. Have the family been able to fill in a 'Yellow Card' which is the offical way of registering adverse drug reactions? Usually only doctors are able to do this. Can
we trust them to do this honestly?
8 The inability to obtain a genuine second opinion is common amongst iatrogenic patients. This disgraceful professional allegiance must stop!
9. Helen's legal case was 'caste iron' - terrible drug induced damage - all the evidence. Only after they were refused treatment did the family seek legal help. Who put a stop to this? The Local Health Authority fearing the pay-out, or the local medical mafia?
10. The awful thought has struck us - was this all a cruel experiment? - testing out the drug Melleril on a normal, unsuspecting patient - monitoring the changes, then giving the prescribed antidote and then callously removing this to see what would happen - and then abandoning the patient? Or is she still being monitored?
11 Is the fact that Helen is now perceived as a potential litigant, fully entitled to substantial damages, preventing her from receivng the urgent specialist care she requires?
12 We believe that all the doctors involved in Helen's 'care' should hang their collective heads in shame!!!!
Surely, adjectives such as cruel' 'sadistic' and 'wicked' could be used to describe some of the doctors involved with Helen's care, or should we say lack of care? What would the Health Authority, the Regional Office, the D.o.H, the BMA Ethical Committee, the GMC and Royal Colleges ......say about this case??? Are we looking at criminal malpactice?
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