posted
Well, my duck was a very bad duck this week and sent me a letter terminating my care with him. I talked to a former doc (out of state, can't treat me) about it, and he said it might constitute medical abandonment.
Anyway, I hadn't realized there was this legal term: medical abandonment. And I'm fairly sure what my duck just did WOULD qualify. He did not give any medical justification for cutting me off, and terminating my care is very dangerous to me since I'm homebound, can't go to doctor's offices, and have had no luck getting another doctor to come here.
It all started a few weeks ago, when I sent the duck a letter rescinding the permission I had given him to talk to other ducks and my family. I particularly wanted him to not talk to my LLMD (who cannot do home visits and take over the rest of my care that isn't Lyme), since I was getting this increasing sense that he didn't believe me.
Around the same time, I also wrote and requested a copy of my medical file from this duck, including his notes.
He was alarmed that I had rescinded his permission to talk to other docs and my family, since I had previously given him carte blanche. But my family has been treating me like I'm crazy for some time, and having him talk to them didn't seem to be helping matters any. He left me a voicemail asking me to explain why I had rescinded the permission.
This state has really intense medical privacy laws, and what I did is simply exercise my right to privacy, that's it, and scale back to where we were at the beginning, when he had to get permission for each person he talked to.
So I wrote another letter explaining in very neutral terms that I did not feel like it was serving my medical care to have it so open-ended, and I wanted to exercise my right to privacy, period.
Soon after that, I got the medical records I had requested. They were horrifying. He talks about me in derogatory language at various points, and moreover, he REMOVED MY POSITIVE LYME W BLOT TEST FROM THE FILE, kept the negative one (which came before the positive), and wrote in his notes that I was "absolutely convinced" of having chronic Lyme "despite negative tests."!!!!!!!!!
So yeah, I was "absolutely convinced" by those letters at the top of the omitted test that spelled P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E, moron!
Then I received his letter stating that he was terminating my care. He gave no medical justification, just talked about "trust" in our "relationship" and how I obviously did not "trust" him. Yeah, I wonder why? But I never said that to HIM, that I didn't trust him. I simply exercised my right to privacy.
My question is: can I take action against him for medical abandonment? He was treating me for many things besides Lyme, since the Lyme dx is new for me and I was severely disabled before I got it.
I know ducks do these atrocities all the time. Unfortunately, I have tried for 3 1/2 years to get another doctor to do home visits, with no luck. This could mean I lose my medical care, and my LLMD requires that I have a local physician working with me as well.
Argh.
Posts: 929 | From Massachusetts | Registered: Oct 2007
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shazdancer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1436
posted
Hi LymeCFID,
That stinks to be dumped by your doctor. I do not think it constitutes medical abandonment, however, unless you are injured as a result of it.
From Legal Aspects of Health Information Management (found on Google Books), page 54:
quote: If there is abandonment but no injury, the physician will not be held liable.
You might try contacting your local Department of Health and Human Services, and see if they can refer you to someone who can care for you at home.
Take care, Shaz
Posts: 1558 | From the Berkshires | Registered: Jul 2001
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heiwalove
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6467
posted
i have no helpful advice but i am so, so sorry this happened to you. it makes me furious and sad and i wish i could give you a hug.
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