This morning I was on Dr. Oz's website. I had missed most of the shows last week and thought I would see what I had missed. I then noticed a section called; Be on the show! NYC Area: Is your doctor Not listening to you? So I clicked on the link. Never thinking in a million years that that someone from the U.S. is willing to help others from another country. So I filled out the form.
Here is the letter I wrote; (names have been removed)
This is the story of a young woman, in the prime of her life, who is struggling against all odds to get back to "normal". My daughter was 27 years old the night she left her job in a Montreal suburb to walk home. She was struck by a passing car in a well lit crosswalk. Although she is fortunate to be alive, she sustained multiple injuries to her pelvis and knee. That was in November of 2008, we were never advised on surgical options or necessary treatment when it came to repairing the injury to her knee.
Highly controversial products were used during the surgery (information we have just recently uncovered, people should be warned). Not only did these products lead to very serious complications post op, but none of the attending medical staff where knowledgeable in her post op care. After two years and two botched knee surgeries (the second one performed to correct the initial surgery) she is still unable to walk or bend her knee in a pain free and unassisted capacity. After a huge altercation with her surgeon in March 2010, she stopped seeing him.
As my daughter turned to the medical community for answers and recommendations, she was met with an unbelievable amount of condescension, humiliation and disrespect by the very people who were supposed to be on her side.
This past August, after visiting Dr. Peter Millett of the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, she sent out 35 letters to surgeons and hospitals in the Province seeking their testament that the services she requires to repair her knee are or are not available in the province. While the majority have not answered her letter for help, some have sent a sticky note reply and a couple have sent formal letters. Most recommended her former surgeon.
One surgeon at _____ General Hospital used scare tactics to redirect her efforts as he verbally abused and belittled us. This past January we contacted the distributor of the products that were implanted in her knee. In their e-mail they said they wanted to help. We met with the owner on January 5th, 2011. He told us that her former surgeon is relentlessly maligning her every effort of finding a surgeon here. He revealed to us that her former surgeon was slandering us to other orthopaedic surgeons. He asked if we would send copies of her MRI and CT scan, and we did. We never heard back from him.
Last October we sent the Provincial Health Care a letter (over 100 pages)with all the information, medical history and research pertaining to her unique and unfortunate set of circumstances. They have denied her claim for treatment outside of Canada. She finds the struggle with the Provincial Health Care both defeating and debilitating. Her former surgeon’s prominence and influence is obviously far reaching throughout the province, she has no chance of recuperating from this condition.
It has been a year since she has been without a doctor. Her former surgeon is the only one in the province that deals with multi-ligament reconstruction with LARS.
She just wants the mobility that is within her grasp. It seems that objectivity and a real focus on what is best for her, the patient, is unattainable within the tight knit orthopaedic community of this province. We now fear the worst; a lifetime of living with a crippling knee injury that we know is fixable. She just wants someone to say,” yes there has been a mistake, let’s fix it“. She needs to have corrective surgery performed by a competent surgeon, yet no one in this Province is willing to either do it or allow her to have it done elsewhere.
Her debilitating knee issues could have been avoided had the correct treatments been performed when this horrific accident first occurred. Her former surgeon had the information on how to successfully treat her condition. It was accessible and at his disposal however he chose to ignore it, there is no excuse for this type of negligence. It is a surgeons responsibility to monitor their patients progress recognize early warning signs of complications and listen to the patients complaints and yet, due to his listlessness and the disesteem of those responsible for her recovery, she is once again a victim.
Her condition has deteriorated even more since her visit with Dr. Millett. MRI report; ”The findings were: ” Hoffa pad and intercondylar notch are keeping with severe arthrofibrosis. Possible previous PCL repair. The graft is not well seen and this ligament is probably torn.” In the CT scan; “We note mild to moderate joint space narrowing of the medial tibiofemoral compartment, associated with some marginal osteophytosis, in keeping with moderate osteoarthritis. Early osteophytosis is also seen at the patellofemoral joint, and some spurring is also noted at the proximal tiblofibular joint etc.
I understand that this is one of many requests that come across your desk. My daughters story runs much greater than what we can possibly describe within this page and we would be quite willing to share more of her painful saga in detail, if you need.(I have emails, letters etc.) You will not believe what you are going to hear, it‘s Pandora‘s box of chaos, mayhem, attempted fraud and slander. Please, I am willing to do anything. We have passports and are willing to appear on your show. This has affected our whole family here in Canada and in the U.S.
Sincerely,
