Doctors and interns at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center were having trouble inducing labor on a patient. They found out why when they switched to a Caesarian section only to find no baby in the woman’s womb.
Dr. Gerianne Geszler insisted that various doctors examined the woman before the C-section and did an epidural on her.
Now there is the remarkable thing. The North Carolina Medical Board issued the doctors a letter of concern. A letter of concern? Wow, that is right up there with a note of alarm.
The letter stated “you attempted to perform a Caesarean section delivery on Patient A after a failed attempt at induction of labor … and at the time of surgery, it was discovered the patient was not pregnant.”
The board blamed an intern with insufficient experience or training. It turned out that the patient suffered from pseudocyesis, which is the medical term for “false pregnancy.”
I guess that is why it is called Cape Fear.
Curious in New York –
After 30+ years of taking notes of the medical lunacy around me, I simply decided to take on a new career.
Now that my book on the subject is out and about, I receive 30-40 emails per day from people with a story to tell – mostly nurses, but a surprising number of doctors telling on their peers.
The sad fact is, just last year, 2,490 physicians were convicted of serious misbehavior – 11,000 in the last decade alone. The NPDB holds files on nearly 1/4 million medical miscreants, including 329 for murder. There are 204 known doctors behind bars for murder now, and thousands more for rape, child molestation, drug-running and medical fraud.
The media still treats this phenomenon as an ‘occasional oddity’ even though these crimes cost taxpayers 1/2 trillion a year to investigate & prosecute.
If you care to see the size of the problem, take a peak at “America’s Dumbest Doctors” or the Medical Maniacs website.
Thanks for asking.
P.S. What a miscarriage of justice
Forget the two doctors who went on the word of the resident…hope I am never a patient of that resident! How the hell did this “lets play doctor” resident ever get into med school!
PatricParamedic, what exactly is a physician misbehavior researcher?
Gingerbaker,
Truly, well played.
“Gingerbaker, that was great.”
Thanks – I’m here all week. 🙂
Gingerbaker, that was great.
Glad we’re enacting tort reform as this story and the previous one about the doctor who refused to treat Obama supporters demonstrates that they rarely make mistakes and don’t think of themselves as God-like, right?
In the entire two years of ‘health care reform’ babble, how many words were spoken? Trillions? More? Now ask yourself how many times you heard ANY mention of ‘medical errors,’ and how to prevent them. I am a physician misbehavior researcher, and I follow pretty much everything that has to do with the subject. I can tell you how many times I heard it mentioned: Never.
How is it remotely possible for any level of H.C. system improvement to be had, when lawmakers on both sides of the isle completely ignore the 6th leading cause of death in this country?
By what stretch of the imagination can our medical plans be upgraded for all concerned, when 350 people die everyday, for no better reason than, “oops. We screwed up” – and there is nothing but silence from those who have so much to say about everything else?
When a deranged doctor in Texas, Nidel Hasan, walked around a military base and executed 13 people, we all stopped and stared and said, “Oh, my God.”
Yet when 18 people die everyday for no more important reason than childlike, undisciplined physician handwriting on charts and prescription pads – where are the headlines? Who cares?
This so-called ‘health care reform’ plan had every opportunity to put a real dent in the god-awful volume of physician misbehavior, and it’s impact on society. Instead, it refused to even consider the issue. And the media? Their focus is plain & simply ridiculous. 195,000 Americans die every year precisely because they do have health care. And the media chooses instead to focus on a handful of run-away Prius cars with goofy gas pedals.
Lord have mercy.
Thats a good article… would use it and link back.
How most appropriate for Easter – am empty womb story!
When you go into a hospital to have a baby,they often try to hook up a fetal monitor to the baby’s head. Heck, even a doppler used over the stomach can find a heartbeat! You can even buy these on eBay for $70. And a medical one at that!
A doctor or nurse can even feel a baby’s head when you are dilated enough. You would think that while checking the cervix they would have touched a baby’s head. They can also feel your belly and figure out the position that the baby is in.
Also did this woman not get any prenatal care? An ultrasound would have obviously revealed no baby and could have helped this woman.
I can see women actually having pregnancy symtoms and thinking they’re pregnant when they’re not. But wouldn’t any woman who was desperately trying to get pregnant or wanted to be pregnant immediately seek prenatal care to ensure a safe pregnancy?
Just another example why we need Tort Reform????????? Wow. Should the term be 9 months of “false pregnancy”? And the Right was worried about “Death Panels”?
And thank goodness that it was not a head injury. Maybe these Dr’s mommas dropped them on their head when they were born…..