From: john@anasazi.com (John R. Moore)
Subject: Re: "Incompetent doctors" (was Xanax or someth
Reply-To: john@anasazi.com
Organization: Anasazi Inc, Phoenix AZ USA
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 16:38:03 GMT

Keywords: 

In article <1992Sep10.213038.5896@exu.ericsson.se> exudnw@exu.ericsson.se writes:
]As a medical retiree of the USAF, I can shed a little light on the issue of
]military doctors.  

I guess I'll throw out a couple of horror stories about my experience with
navy medical system.

1967 - Navy Boot Camp - Waukeegan, Il. 

Eye exam... the opthomologist had just been drafted, and did the best
eye exam I had ever had. When he discovered that I was curious about
the optics of things, he gave me a detail explanation and showed me all his
toys and told me how much he hated being drafted. Good guy.

I came down with a respiratory infection (as did over 50% of all recruits).
When fever was 100, infirmary (which had standing procedures to do so) ignored
it. When fever hit 102 (a couples of weeks later), was given a "light duty chit"
and aspirin. This even though I was coughing up blood mixed with green slime!
 When fiver hit 104 (a few days later), I was hospitalized.
The entire treatment in the hospital consisted of forced hydration
of grape juice (to the point where I was throwing it up). At one point,
when I fell asleep at 2AM with a thermometer in my mouth, I was forced
to stand at attemtion for 1/2 hour (with a fever of 105). After four
days, I was unable to stand up (we had to stand at attention when the
ward doctor came in), so the doctor prescribed an antibiotic. My fever
was normal in 8 hours, and I was discharged two days later.  Obviously
that antibiotic could have been prescribed weeks earlier when I first
got sick, and that would have been the end of the problem. So many people
had the problem that the snow outside the mess hall was green and red
from all the stuff people were hacking up. (Oh yeah, everyone was
doing things like standing in formation for 2 hours in ice water with
the temperature at 10 below zero while sick with this!)

I was sick for a total of 4 weeks, and lost 50 poinds of weight. When I
asked what the problem was, they said "URI." The
treatment was lousy! My lungs have never been the same. I have reason
to believe that the entire experience was part of some experiment
(since LATER I was offered the opportunity to take an experimental vaccine
for this disease). 

1967 - NAS Moffett Field - Mountain View, CA
Flight Physical... I was very nervous because if I passed, I became an
aircrewman (something I very much wanted to do), and if I failed I would
be treated like every other grunt. I failed on high blood pressure.
I went to the squadron flight surgeon and told him how nervous I was,
and he said that he would run the blood pressure test three times a day
for three days. He did, I relaxed a bit, and passed with no problem.
He was a good guy!

1968 - NAS Moffett Field - Mountain View, CA

My non-flight duties included repairing electronics equipment. Some
of this stuff weighed over 80 pounds. One day I hurt my back carrying
a 80 pound tactical computer.  I went to a Dr. and when I went into 
his office, he treated me like a malingerer and prescribed exercise. 
He never even examined me or questioned me... he just looked at the 
complaint on the paper he had and immediately went into this bit of 
prescribing. He did not relieve me of the requirement to lift these heavy
computers. I had never had back trouble before, and have never been 
free of it since.

When I outprocessed from the Navy, they managed to not catch the
fact that my work around the airplanes had knocked down the hearing
in my left ear by over 30 decibels.

So, I would say that my experience with the military medical system
(25 years ago) was not very good, but that there were some good
individuals in it.
-- 
John Moore NJ7E, 7525 Clearwater Pkwy, Scottsdale, AZ 85253  (602-951-9326)
john@anasazi.com ncar!noao!asuvax!anasaz!john anasaz!john@asuvax.eas.asu.edu
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