A True story....
The following is the story of my very strange experience with Dr. Daniel Kruschinski, in the Emma Klinik, in Seligenstadt, Germany. It was an experience which was very upsetting and baffling to me, and it raised many questions in my mind about this Dr. I thought “What is wrong with him? Did he have a bad day? Did I do something wrong? Is he always rude and angry like this?”
I did not have adhesiolysis, as most of the other American pts. to Germany did. I had a scar revision for neuropathy; the neuropathy was caused by a prior surgery in the U.S.
I went to Germany because Dr. Kruschinski told me he was a plastic surgeon and that he could resolve my neuropathic pain by his technique of revising scars. I was encouraged to go there by two pts. from the IAS message board, who had gone there for adhesiolysis. One of those pts. also went there for scar revision, and she told me that her nerve pain (neuropathy) was cured. I believed what I heard because I was so very desperate.
My surgical outcome from the procedure Dr. Kruschinski did on me was a complete disaster, with the result that I now have very severe and unrelenting nerve pain radiating out from the entire length of the incision that he made on me, which wraps around my body. There is no medication that works, so I am not on any pain meds.
I am a nurse and I have worked in many hospitals in the U.S. I also was a pt, in several hospitals, having both in-pt and out-pt. surgical procedures such as D & C, foot surgery, and gall bladder removal.
In all my experiences as a nurse and as a patient, I never saw any Dr. behave in the manner that Dr. Kruschinski did that evening.
I had surgery in the early morning that day, and I was in bed, back in my room, a single room in the Emma Klinik. It was the early evening of the day I had surgery. A nurse came to my room, and although she did not speak much English, she indicated to me with gestures that she wanted me to get out of bed and walk down the hall with her. I was able to walk on my own, and I did not need to hold onto her. She pushed my IV pole.
As we walked down the hall, I noticed that there were no other people in sight. All the pt. doors were opened and the rooms were not occupied. There was no other nurse that I saw. There were no doctors or visitors in the halls. The place was very quiet.
I remembering thinking, “is this really a hospital? Why are there no other patients here?
Then the nurse walked with me back to my room, and I got back into bed by myself with no problems. The nurse did not tell me to ring for help if I wanted to get out of bed; she did not tell me anything, nor did she give me any instructions.
About 10 minutes later, I got out of bed on my own, to use the bathroom. I pushed my IV pole by myself. The bathroom was just a few steps from my bed. I washed my hands and brushed my teeth. Then I walked the few steps back to my bed, and I got back into bed with no problem. The door to my room was opened. I was watching TV.
About 15 minutes later, Dr. Kruschinski came rushing into my room, with the same nurse. He loudly and angrily shouted at me “I hear you have been doing AEROBIC EXERCISES in your room.” I responded “What?” He did not answer. Then I said, “What is the problem?” Again he did not respond. He seemed very agitated.
Then he loudly and rudely and angrily shouted at me, “Get out of bed!” So I did. I was wearing underpants and a hospital gown, and I was barefoot. He told me to raise my arms above my head and to hold up my gown. I raised one arm and used my other arm to cover my breasts as best I could and I scrunched up the hospital gown to provide as much privacy for myself as possible. The door to my room was still open, but I thought nothing of it since there was nobody else around anyway.
Dr. Kruschinski then ripped off my outer bandage, and examined my incision. It was not bleeding. He was muttering something in German. Again I asked him “What is the problem?”, but he did not respond to me. He put some new gauze bandages on the incision, and applied steri strips. There was some old blood on the dressings he removed.
I again asked him if anything was wrong, but he did not respond. He loudly told me to get back into bed and I did. And he left.
I found his behavior in this incident to be very strange, demeaning to me, and totally unprofessional. On a subsequent day, I asked him what it was all about, and he just shrugged. I never got an explanation.
I still cannot figure it out today. I was certainly not doing aerobic exercises in my room. All I did was walk a couple steps to the bathroom, use the toilet, wash my hands and brush my teeth. I moved slowly and cautiously. The “exercise” involved in this was no more than walking down the hall. I did not do any kind of “exercises”.
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