My question involves malpractice in the state of: California
I was given a referral and went to see an orthopedic doctor on 4/16/2018. It was for a consultation over a torn meniscus. I provided him with the MRI and X-ray of my knee. It's a large tear, and was even very obvious to my untrained eye on the MRI. I noted some strange things. First of all, he took me ahead of a lot of patients he had in the waiting room. I don't know why. Secondly, I noted that he was acting very strange the moment he came in. It was some strong state of emotion.
He told me something like my medial meniscus tear was a pathology that needs to be removed. I let him know that I was not interested in partial removal due to it being comparable to placebo. I was interested in sutures. He looked upset by this. He went to test/examine my leg. He told me to lay back on his table but he did not tell me what he was going to do. Most of the things he did to test my leg to start with were to test my ligaments, which I had done by my PT and my doctor, but this was just going through the motions more than anything else. I recall he told me to relax my leg. He applied pressure on the medial side of my knee outwards, while pushing and twisting my foot/ankle in the other direction. While doing this, he bent my leg up and down at the knee joint, while pushing my tibia into my meniscus – sometimes with circular motions. I recall smiling like it was amusing, thinking that he was trying to hurt me, but not fully comprehending why. I could tell it was aggressive. I felt something scratching on the inside of my knee joint, not really getting what it was. He torqued my leg around to the extreme edges of my flexibility. At some point he stopped, went to the other side of the room, and handed me a pamphlet on the procedure he wanted to do to me. I noted he was acting funny, with long pauses between saying things. At some point, I also recall asking him about sutures again, trying to make sure he would not humor such an angle.
Now I think he went to hand me a pamphlet from the other side of the room to see if I could walk at all.
As I walked out, I recall the receptionist asking about another appointment, and the orthopedic surgeon saying I was not getting one. I recall it was hard to pick my foot up. I saw a MRI data CD sitting on a desk, and thought it might be mine, but I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I left it. I could feel the scratchiness on the inside of my knee. At some point in time I noted that it felt a lot like a scab that had been picked off… itchy and swollen. At some point I noted that I could feel my heart beating in my leg. I knew something bad happened, but I did not really fully get it, nor the long-term pain I was in store for. I took the stairs up to get to him and the elevator down. I was trying to deny that a doctor could assault me in such a way.
When I got home, I started piecing together what happened. I got very angry and wrote all sorts of stuff that were fragments of a reality that happened to me. I wrote all sorts of negative reviews about what a terrible person the surgeon was. I rambled endlessly to my poor doctor about it because I partially blamed him for sending me to him, and because he made me trust him through his words. At some point in time I began to question everything because I lost all sanity, while conscious life was a nightmare of pain and paranoia – I took all my reviews down. I even made a police report trying to file assault charges, but it was rejected because they said it wasn’t an issue for them to handle since it was medically related.
I mostly spent the next few days in bed going completely crazy, in incredible pain, and unable to walk, with all sorts of ideas about why. I forgot to eat or drink, not that I could get out of bed to do so anyway, and got very paranoid. I even had auditory hallucinations. I felt completely defeated. I did not feel I could prove it, as it was his word against mine. Any damage that might be found could be blamed on me. I felt completely destroyed by someone I went to for help. Even my ankle hurt. I had gone to a physical therapist so at least there is probably some record of how much better off I once was, and I improved even more since I had seen him by doing his exercises daily. Further, I live with someone that can corroborate my having spent a tremendous amount of time in bed, as well as a notable improvement in my ability to walk around, and do things before my meeting with the orthopedic doctor. My room mate saw that I had a slight limp for quite a while before seeing the surgeon, and she saw me return from my appointment hardly able to walk.
When I could finally walk...(barely) I believe this was 4/20/2018, I went to see the doctor. I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner. I was worried that I had septic arthritis or sepsis. I was totally out of it and still suffering from auditory hallucinations. I noticed that the scale said 170-171lbs when I was weighed, which was incredibly low for me, but I didn't really believe my eyes. I was confused about everything at that point. The NP was only interested in my psychological state, and did not even look at my leg when I asked her if she wanted to. She spent a few minutes with me, asking me questions, and asked me if I would take "a drug". I figured she didn't want to tell me because it was lithium or something, since I felt crazy, and she didn't want to tell me; I agreed to it. I went to the Walmart Pharmacy to pick it up, only it wasn't available, so I went home without it.
Once I got home, I googled how to stop auditory hallucinations. Something came up that dehydration can cause it. I realized that I hadn't been drinking or eating since I got stuck in bed for 3-4 days. I drank half a gallon of milk and weighed myself on my scale, seeing 169lbs. A weight I haven't seen since high school. So I'm happy I figured this out and message the NP that I was severely dehydrated and noted that my mind seemed to be clearing. She doesn't reply with anything.
So time passes and I don't really get why people don't seem to be addressing the severity of the accusations I put against the orthopedic doctor. Everyone just wants to pretend it didn't happen. My doctor at least let me know that what I was describing was the McMurray test. I looked up youtube videos of it and recognized it, only what the doctor did to me was much more aggressive and repetitive. Further, I didn't understand why he would need to do it at all since my tear was already so obvious. My doctor told me that the Orthopedic doctor said i felt pain from the test in his notes he sent him. When I complained to my insurance company, the orthopedic doctor made a statement to my insurance company that he didn't do it, as there was no need to do it for such an extensive tear. (My reasoning exactly, only he really did do it.) I go to check what i was diagnosed with and see, "Mental Illness" in my chart, which is something I would agree with. There was definitely mental illness involved. However, when I realized there must be something more to it, I figured out that they had diagnosed me as delusional.
This is when I realized that she didn't look at my leg because she was pretending the whole thing was a complete delusion. It looks like a attempt at a cover up to me. I confront her about it on the messaging system, explaining that I was severely dehydrated, and she responds that I wasn't. My room mate, a PM for dignity health, had noted that I hadn't come out of my room for days, and even tried to get me to drink fluids, which I rejected because I was too out of it to realize what was going on, and my body wasn't telling me I needed anything. There was just endless pain, and insanity going on in my mind. She denied about the only thing I had figured out at that point, and then would not respond to anything I said outlining her incompetence, including that my weight dropped by quite a lot.
My account was disabled presumably for my contempt towards the NP, which were basically my outlining her incompetence, while she refused to respond to any of my questions or accusations. Every time I confront my doctor or the NP about what in the world they were thinking, they do not reply. Ever since that point, they have said absolutely nothing.
I got my account enabled myself and came back on to find a letter they had sent me I never got since my account was disabled, that they were suspending me from their care for inappropriate messages.
I have faxed them, I have called them, I have left complaints to the voice messaging system, I have called and called again the administrator of the group, and no one responds. I'm always avoided completely.
I want the diagnosis removed obviously. It discredits me. I also want explanations from them as to why they came to a delusional diagnosis, as well as proof of it. I want to know if they thought I was faking the pain, if I was faking a limp. I know something is going on because I've never been diagnosed as delusional before, and my mind cleared on its own after re hydrating myself and giving it time. My leg still hurts more than before I saw the orthopedic doctor, I went through hell where my body and mind failed all at once in the biggest crisis I've ever been in, and I come to find it's all treated as one big delusion. I'm offended. I want answers, and no one gives them to me.
Also, I went to a new orthopedic doctor, and found out I had a MCL tear in the original MRI that no one else noticed.
Obviously it all smells like a cover up to me, but I can hardly believe that everyone I went to could be so evil. I want answers, I want justice. I'm getting a new MRI soon, but any ligament damage that I suspect I have from the orthopedic doctor will probably be healed by now, and I fear this will be another way they'll pretend it was all made up. I got the appointment and the new MRI as fast as I possibly could, but the system works so slow.
How do I force getting the answers I deserve and need? I think they ignore my faxes to request they remove the delusional diagnosis. Also, their records keeper lied to me and said she couldn't give me the notes from the Orthopedic Doctor because it violates HIPAA law. In the state of California, it's actually a law that they have to. This whole situation is so wrong it's hard to believe.
Thanks for any help.
Edit: Also, my room mate told me even my ankle was swollen. I hadn't noticed that. I did notice that my knee was very swollen. She also said she saw me covered in sweat when she looked in at me.
I Was Hurt by an Orthopedic Doctor, and It Seems to Be Covered Up
