Re: Doctor-Caused Disease

20% of all surgery is unnecesary. I think it might be more than that.

When I was 2 I had polio. (OK, that was a long time ago)

When I was 6-7 my mother took me to a doctor because I was a bit pigeon toed and he put me in dance classes. (A GOOD doctor!)

My mother took me out of the classes a 8, and took me to another doctor at 10.

To make a long story short, he started operating on me...and four surgeries later, at the age of 14 I not only had every tendon and ligament re-arranged inside my foot and ankel possible, (with 8 incisions to prove it, including one up the back of my leg at least 6 inches long), but some of the bones in my ankle were fused together and I had the joint in my big toe removed. Each surgery caused me to have to wear a cast for months and a metal leg brace for even longer afterwards.

Ever since the last one, my right calf is atrophied...I walk with a limp...I can't stand on my toes on my right foot....and I have no balance whatsoever.

The punch line is I now bear all my weight on the inside of my right foot and big toe, so my foot is still straining to be pigeon toed. I don't even access the bones on my outer foot (and they are very thin as a result).

The second punch line is, he was so impressed with his work, he actually wanted to do the same thing to my other ankle...but by then I was old enough to veto it, and my mother allowed me to do so.

All of this surgery was 100% uncessary. At 7 I was a little ballerina and tap dancer.

Want another laugh? At 30 I found out that this very possile outcome had been known about in advance by all... (except me) and they went ahead and did it anyway. It was considered to be an "experimental techinque" and was eventually discarded because it turned out this way most of the time.

So I am thinking that 20% is way to low .....so much emphasis is put on the dangers of drugs in modern health care, and so little is said about surgery... Tweet