Dear Listfriends, I am finally recovering from DISASTER at Dr. Colette's office, the Medicaid-paid oral surgeon, whom I had never met before he butchered me on Wednesday. The oral surgeon, left me in the chair alone for almost an hour, from 11:00 AM til nearly noon, after I told him I needed ONLY the 3rd lower molar extracted I had no caregiver with me (she was patiently sitting in the waiting room out front) to find out what was going on. I finally got out of the chair, and tracked him down myself. He was sitting at a desk in what lookede like a medieval recovery room. Two patients were sitting in the other corner of the room with huge whitebandages fwrapped around their heads. Dr, Colette told me he was looking up the rates on his services. I thought, why isn't his office staff doing this? There were at least five different women working there that I saw. Dr. Colette said he had been on the telephone to Augusta, talking to the regulators. He admitted to me that they had told him that I was RIGHT, that if I was experiencing pain, the other teeth could be treated, rather than being extracted. Again, I'm thinking, and I have to be ignored and left alone while he calculates how much money he'll make?? Maybe he was behind on payments for his new car or his boat......... This long wait, until 11:58, left just two minutes for the ENTIRE extraction pocedure.. Because he wanted to extract more teeth, and make more money, despite my having told him I wanted to save them instead, I suffered nearly a complete loss of the time allotted for my appointment. So then, the "procedure" began. He spilled liquid novocaine on my tongue, after he jammed the syringe in and out of my cheek, leaving me writhing in pain, and setting off dyskinesia. He ignored me when I complained that I needed help to stay still, that I needed a few moments to try to settle down. My right foot and knee for falling off the dental chair. Also, the left arm of the chair had nothing to hold on to, my neck was not adjusted comfortably, and I was starting to panic when he pulled out what looked like two HUGE steel shoe horns.. The butcher proceeded anyway. He pulled my jaw so hard that my head, arms, and back were up IN THE AIR while he meanwhile wrenched and wrenched at the third molar . I am not kidding, I WAS EXTREMELY FRIGHTENED. Out came the molar, while my torso was still in MID-AIR (no belt, noone holding me down) in less than a minute. It was AWFUL. I did not know until 7:15 PM that he had LEFT ignored, laying in the wound, which bled ALL day, a large chip of freshly severed jawbone, and, a piece of the tooth in front. Dr. Collette did NOT clean the wound. . All Dr. Collette did was to stuff a huge wad of gauze in my mouth, and disappear down the hall in his blue, open-heeled clogs, while his dental hygienist sheepishly smiled, and told me I was all done. It was when I fnally regained normal movement of my tongue just after 7:00( remember that Dr. Collete spilled novocaine on it as he withdrew the syringe),that I discovered the bone chip, floating under the scar tissue. Also, the floating piece of tooth enamel.. The bone chip had been piercing the scar tissue for seven hours, so I could not stop the bleeding. He had broken off the back 1/6 of the 2nd molar. That was the enamel. also down in the pit where the 3rd molar had been. Now I have to search for a different surgeon, while meanwhile, the broken second molar can't be seen by my regular dentist until January 4th. And I have to make decisions about penicillin, which I was on prior to the 3rd molar disaster, because I had pain going on. I am disgusted, angry and know I'm not the only one who gets mistreated. I hope Dr. Colette is hauled before the Licensure Board and investigated. And what about damages for my pain and suffering? I'm caught in a nightmare. Meanwhile, II still have NO nighttime caregiver- noone wants to take the job since the pay is ridiculously low. So my nighttime care is at this moment UNCOVERED after December 25th. When I appear on the Jim Lehrer News Hour in January, I'll have LOTS to say about lots of subjects. If anyone has an e-mail address for National Public Television station WETA in Washington, please send it so I can forward things I need them to know to the Lehrer News Hour producers. Thank you. IVAN ^^^^^^ WARM GREETINGS FROM ^^^^^^^^^^^^ :-) Ivan Suzman 49/39/36 [log in to unmask] :-) Portland, Maine land of lighthouses 27 deg. F :-) snow ******************************************************************** On Fri, 18 Dec 1998 20:00:58 -0500 Camilla Flintermann <[log in to unmask]> writes: >First, I hope we can be a little more tender with each other---we're >all >in this togetjher, one way or another! > >Second, I talked with Ivan today, and he has had a terrible experience >with >an oral surgeon who *butchered* him, this on top of the CG gap he's >facing. >He seldom has strength to read the list or post, but if anyone wants >to >cheer him up, a call would be welcome: (207)797-8488. >