Posted by fayeroe on December 28, 2007, at 18:27:49
In reply to Junkie docs, posted by Jamal Spelling on December 19, 2007, at 17:24:02
I went to ER one night with a "stopped up" ear. My ex was with me and he is a surgeon with three specialities...but doesn't have the gene that recognizes when a fellow physician is impaired.
As soon as the ER physician started talking to me, I started backing up. He was high. He left the room to get the instruments and I told my ex that I was not going to let that man flush my ear out. I insisted that my ex do it.
My ex couldn't understand my being so emphatic about not letting the doctor touch me.
He came home the next week and said, "guess who is off to rehab?". I immediately told him that it was the ER doc. It was, indeed, the ER doctor and he was addicted to demerol.
For years nurses had total access to meds but now they have to enter a code and a computer tallies up what they take out of the locked case, what patient it was for and what size dosage it is. Cut down on abuse dramatically.
Unfortunately, physicians have a little more leeway in access to meds. The state of Oklahoma doesn't allow the physician to practice while in "rehab". They have to complete the program before they are allowed back at work. At least it was that way 10 years ago and I can't imagine it being changed.
I also saw a general practioner drink a martini lunch at the golf club where I played. After he finshed (he was paged) he announced that "I've got to go deliver a baby." I was horrified and told my ex about it. He was Chief of Staff at the hospital and didn't do anything about it. I wrote to the Medical Association in Oklahoma and he was suspended for one year.
However, that being said, there are more drunk and high drivers on the road than there are doctors that use drugs. There are more drug-using teens living in homes where they abuse their parents, parents that abuse and kill their children and spouses and criminal figures that stay high all of the time than there are doctors that use. The prison where I worked has more drugs in it than the doctors are using.
I understand how scary it sounds to say that a crack head doctor will do surgery on you, but I think our chances of being harmed by someone driving drunk or committing mayhem elsewhere is higher......
Examine every profession and you will find drug/alchol abuse. Check it out on some websites that offer statistics about drug use in the workplace.
poster:fayeroe
thread:801618
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071225/msgs/803056.html