Eventually Ethan and I turned our anger into something with a name. We started a patient advocacy organization aimed at helping people navigate complaints against negligent providers and understand what steps were available when medicine failed them. We worked with attorneys, former board investigators, nurses, patient-rights groups, and ethics scholars. We created guides on obtaining medical records, documenting timelines, filing with licensing boards, distinguishing bad outcomes from negligence, and identifying when bias may have shaped care. We spoke at universities. We consulted with families. We tried to build, in some small corner of the world, the support network I knew so many patients lacked.
My son called from the emergency room before dawn and said, “Dad, the doctor is refusing to treat me. He says I’m faking it for drugs.” When I got there, the doctor’s s…
Start from the beginning Page 61 of 65