I lost one

[novopsych]

[redacted]

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[Frazier]

Dance therapy + psychiatry: here we are in the 1920s...

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/19th-and-20th-century-psychiatry-22-rare-photos/16/

 

[novopsych]

Dance therapy + psychiatry: here we are in the 1920s...

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/19th-and-20th-century-psychiatry-22-rare-photos/16/

Our treatment of the mentally ill has waxed and waned so much throughout history with regard to our humanity. The 1920s was a very progressive time, so seeing this does not surprise me.

 

[hamstergang]

You're making a joke out of our patients actually dying. This is a rather disgraceful thread.

 

[Ceke2002]

I just recently lost a former-patient of mine, and it’s hitting harder than I expected. This was a wonderful woman. She was in her 80s and suffered from depression and refractory somatoform disorder, but she really never gave up until the end when she deteriorated quickly. She died of pneumonia following surgery, and there was nothing I could have done for her. As psychiatrists we can bring the living back to life, but we can’t raise the dead. She wasn’t even in treatment with me when she passed, but that does not change my feelings toward her.
I just wanted to pass this along, as I believe in honoring our patients in both life and death. Sometimes we become so distant and clinical, we forget the traditions of the doctor who would visit door-to-door or pay his respects when a patient passed.

Wait is this the same elderly patient with Somatoform disorder that you left lying on the floor with a broken hip whilst you continued to dance, and now you're going to dance at her funeral and you're banging on about Physicians becoming clinical and distant? It's all about you isn't it. Hypocrite.

My condolences to her family, if it is the same patient I hope they read these boards one day and haul your arse in for malpractice. You are a disgrace to the profession and to the dance.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

This just gets more and more strange by the moment. If it was meant as a joke, the persistence stretched the humor out beyond what was funny about 10 posts ago. Now it is just creepy. I give up, is our gullibility being tested, or is this for real?

 

[Ceke2002]

This just gets more and more strange by the moment. If it was meant as a joke, the persistence stretched the humor out beyond what was funny about 10 posts ago. Now it is just creepy. I give up, is our gullibility being tested, or is this for real?

Yes I must admit the believability factor is being stretched beyond its limits. I'm pretty much ready to call troll on this one, but I guess I'm still responding as if it were a real situation, because 1) I have actually come across practitioners who are as whack jobbed as Novopych appears to be, and 2) in the hope that anyone else thinking of operating in a complementary or alternative manner, whether as an adjunct to traditional treatment or not, might read these comments and see that pole vaulting over the line into cloud ****oo land is not going to win you the respect of your peers, or patients alike for that matter.

 

[Armadillos]

This is clearly a joke, no way any physician would completely take over a patient's funeral. I do have to commend the writer's talent though, this line in particular was some particularly impressive dark humor.

After she is buried, the three young animals will be allowed to run free for several minutes and then returned to their trailer.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I like the "given the etymology of the word idiot" bit. Nice touch. I am thinking the posters on this board should probably stay away from terms like ***** or imbecile, as well. Does anyone know the origin of words like "quack" or "charlatan"? maybe could throw those around more.

 

[erg923]

A board complaint has already been initiated.

 

[Ceke2002]

A board complaint has already been initiated.

Oh bravo! And now I shall proceed to perform a life affirming interpretive dance in celebration.

 

[whopper]

I've lost two due to suicide. Both weren't my fault, but knowing that I still could've done something-outside my knowledge, bothered me for a few weeks.

1-was bipolar depressed, we got her better, but I thought her long-term prognosis was bad given that she loved being a teacher and having a manic episode during work pretty much blacklists the patient for life. I had a gutt feeling that her not being able to teach for the rest of her life would come back and bite her mental state a few months down the road. I told this to her family-telling them she was better for now but a few months she could become a risk again and needed very good outpatient treatment. I also SPECIFICALLY asked the family if they had guns and they told me no.

She killed herself with her father's gun. Turned out they had dozens of them, all laid out for her to use. She also died about 6 months after the discharge. Her father called me up and apologized for lying to me, telling me he didn't think guns increased the risk of suicide and I was being some liberal-nut when I asked about them.

2-Had a depressed girl in my outpatient office that was just discharged from the hospital. The girl was stunningly attractive-looked like a cover-girl. She did not look like the type of person that would be depressed. The family told me they were worried about her safety and she didn't look depressed so I thought to myself maybe this family were a bunch of worry-warts.

I excused myself for a few minutes to go to the bathroom, and during that time she told the family something to the effect that if she died it wouldn't be a big deal-they'd only feel bad for a month, but if she lived, she'd have to feel bad the rest of her life. That's when I walked back into the office and I heard that from her mouth. From there I had an ominous feeling that she really was depressed and it was perhaps a serious biological depression because her family told me she was depressed since she was a small child.

I had her sent back to the hospital, demanded to talk to the psychiatrist on duty to tell them what I heard, they never called me back, they discharged her. She killed herself a few days later.

Had two die from medical causes while on the geriatric unit. Again not my fault to my knowledge, and in both those cases I dissected it. Those had me disturbed for a few days, but knowing it wasn't my fault cleared my head.

1-Died from an aortic dissection. The IM doctor was called, missed the problem. I noticed something was up but couldn't tell and the IM doctor telling me he was just going to observe the patient made me think it was outside my field, leave it to the IM. By then the aortic bleed was minimal and she lived about 1-2 days. On the weekend, it bled out, she died in minutes, was sent to the ER but it did no good. I wasn't there when it happened.
2-I wrote about it on this thread. Lady had catatonia and was being treated with Ativan. She had a heart attack and died. There was no way to predict the heart attack was going to happen that day. It just happened. I was especially upset at myself about this one in particular because her husband is an African-American decorated WW-II vet and I was short with him a few days before she died.

I'm figuring if someone died and it was my fault I'd probably feel bad about it for the rest of my life.

 

[Ceke2002]

I know all of this probably happened a while ago, but my condolences anyway, Whopper. I've lost so many friends and acquaintances to suicide I'm almost beginning to lose count - and that doesn't include those with eating disorders who died of other causes (heart failure, gastric rupture) or the friends battling various addictions who died of accidental overdoses. After the fourth, fifth, or even sixth time it happens you almost start to think the news is going to get easier to hear, but it still sucker punches me every single time. I know a few of the people I've lost were receiving excellent treatment at the time - best psychiatric care their family could find for them, daily home visits from community mental health nurses, peer support from various online and outpatient support groups - it still didn't keep them here. It's a depressing, but unfortunately all too realistic point of view - some people just can't be saved. I do know how close the therapeutic bond between patient and Psychiatrist can be, sometimes as patients I think we forget that bond can go both ways.