1998
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NATIONAL REPORTING |
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Flawed and Sometimes Deadly Part 5: Patients often passed from doctor to doctor
Even highly qualified doctors sometimes have trouble providing the best care to their patients. That's because they're frequently asked to see patients they've never seen before, patients who've been passed from doctor to doctor. Some patients don't meet their surgeons until they are in the operating room or until the operation is over. "They make no effort in my experience to try to match patients with doctors who know something about them," said Stephen Merrill, a former Navy claims officer and former special assistant U.S. Attorney in Virginia. Tech. Sgt. Arthur A. Wells, who often bragged about the high quality of military medicine to the people he recruited into the Air Force, saw 10 doctors in nearly three years of appointments at McChord Air Force Base, just outside of Tacoma, Wash. None found the cancer that eventually killed him. Only five of the 10 reported board certification to the American Medical Association - four in family practice and one in orthopedics. None was identified by the American Board of Internal Medicine as a board certified cancer specialist. "He went in 12 times in three years complaining of abdominal pains.... What gets me is after three years of going in, he never had an X-ray," said his wife, Pollyann Wells, who lives in Texas. "The thing was, he always saw somebody different." Wells' medical records, obtained by his wife, show he complained regularly for years of severe stomach pains, constant congestion or sinus problems: Feb. 4, 1992: doctor notes that Wells "has many stressors," including his recruiting job, his wife's depression and having three children. Prescribes 2 tablespoons of Mylanta after meals and Tagamet. June 10, 1992: doctor notes Wells could have picked up an infection from his son, prescribes more fluids and avoiding dairy products. Oct. 26, 1992: doctor diagnoses Wells as having sinus problems and prescribes Drixoral, an over-the-counter drug. March 17, 1993: doctor gives Wells a physical examination. March 22, 1993: doctor at acute care clinic checks chest and lungs, prescribes Tylenol and liquids. Oct. 28, 1993: doctor notes Wells had sinusitis the previous year and diagnosed him as having "acute sinusitis." Prescribed two antibiotics and a decongestant. March 8, 1994: another physical examination. April 18, 1994: doctor notes that the stomach pains came after meals with spices and coffee. The treatment: "Decrease coffee intake." He prescribed Robitussin for his coughing and counseled him on heartburn. April 26, 1994: diagnoses heartburn and prescribed medication for it. "My husband was so gung-ho military, he just wouldn't think that they wouldn't treat him well," Mrs. Wells said. "He would not question an officer. If they're enlisted men, they're afraid to question officers." In January 1995, at Mrs. Wells' insistence, her husband was allowed to get a CAT scan at a nearby Army hospital. The scan found four tumors below his navel, the largest the size of a grapefruit and two others the size of golf balls. There were too many tumors and too much spreading for doctors to operate. He died in June 1996, leaving a wife and three children. "He loved the Air Force. He thought he was offering young people who had no other options good options," Mrs. Wells said. "The very thing they promised to do - which was take care of him - they didn't do."
next: Questionable doctors hired
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'My husband was so gung-ho military, he just wouldn't think that
they wouldn't treat him well.'
