Oh, someone wins for clueless doctor in the news. This one may top my top ten.
Mid-South Doctor Gives “Ghetto Booty” Diagnosis
From WERG, Channel 3 Memphis
Posted on: 4:04 pm, July 12, 2013, by Candace McCowan, updated on: 06:49pm, July 13, 2013
A Mid-South woman has filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Health after she said the doctor she went to see for back pain gave her an insulting diagnosis.
“He said ‘I know what the problem is. It’s ghetto booty,’” said 55-year-old Terry Ragland about what she was told by Dr. Timothy Sweo in April.
…. “I think I blacked out after he said ghetto booty. I think my mind was just stuck on the phrase because I couldn’t believe he said that,” said Ragland.
The doctor’s response to the complaint: “I was trying to take a technical conversation regarding your lower back and make it less technical.” and “I think I do understand why her feelings were hurt but I don’t understand what’s offensive about it,” said Sweo.
The patient’s response to the doctor:
“It says to me that he doubts what type of intellect I have, how intelligent I am to be able to understand what he conveys to me in a medical term,” said Ragland.
As Dr. Evil would say,
Final Trick 
sheepinabasket
/ July 17, 2013WTF – how do they all get a license to practice. Don’t people notice ahead of time that something is terribly wrong and not fit to practice medicine?
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 18, 2013OMG! I can’t believe you found this and now I almost choked on my tea. Dr. Dumbass–fitting name. Before I lost so much weight, I totally had THE ghetto booty and I’ve never had lower back pain or hip issues. What a dumb ass for real. The best is when he said lumbar lordosis was a fancy word! I have that in my c-spine–saw it on the X-ray report and Googled the damn thing. Couldn’t he tell her she has a reversal of the normal curvature in her lumbar spine–like that’s soooo hard to understand. I seriously CAN believe this based on the doctors out here, though. Guess there’s one benefit to losing the ghetto booty as they’d blame my EDS on it, but other than that I miss it. Lol. That is really gross to think your doctor is checking out your ass, too. Yikes.
Aside from the whole movie, I love that clip you put up. I do that to MM when we go to sleep and it suddenly becomes meowing 1″ from my face time (well, a little break now that she’s stuck on the floor). Shh. Shh. It was another long day so needed a laugh, not that this woman is laughing. How do these people go to medical school? Maybe he’s a chiropractor–they creep me out.
dyspatient
/ July 18, 2013Oh my god, I totally avoid chiro too. Ghetto booty. Holy crap. I am so glad the patient voiced her objection, and that is was in the frame of her offense at being spoken down to like she was an idiot. Not that there were significant racial overtones, but I think that the speaking down to part was really the basis of what lead Dr. Dumbass to even consider this ill advised term in the first place. Perhaps not a horrible term in the right context, but when telling someone why they have chronic pain and debilitation? Soooooooo not ok!
I thought of you when I posted Dr. Evil. So many great Dr. Evil quotes. My husband does a modified one, “I didn’t go to evil graduate school for 6 years to be called ‘Mister’!”
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 19, 2013Ha about husband’s quote. Best movie ever. I have a big thing for Mr. Bigglesworth, of course (even have a post using that name, but Ms.).
I totally agree with you about the inappropriateness issue, especially in dealing w/chronic pain. I think the patient handled it really well, though! Now I’m wondering just how stupid doctors think we really are. I really liked that cardio I saw, but he never mentioned the aneurysm to me. I did call back and played phone tag with the nurse (not the best clinic) and asked 1. why the doc never told me (I saw it in the report) and 2. did I need to worry about this due to Hx of stroke on the EDS side. I only got 2. answered: it’s seen in 5% of the population (don’t buy that per the journal articles which all said RARE) and it’s benign unless a shunt develops. So, the cardio isn’t as bad as this doc, but it made me wonder if things are even left out of reports. Scary.
dyspatient
/ July 19, 2013Oh ceeeeeeriiiiist I hate that “5% of the population” crap. Someone needs to give the docs who toss that shit around a lecture on stats, focusing on prior probabilities and population parameters. Fuck! I get it on autoantibodies. “5% of the healthy population show antinuclear antibodies…” yes, but I am not a member of the HEALTHY population, is what I want to scream.
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 19, 2013I never heard the 5% comment before, oh great! Well, I have a yr before I need another echo and thanks to the shitty staff, I think I should just find someone else as this place cancelled on me (different docs) numerous times. Oh, where to start…
Thanks for the warning–I honestly never have super weird blood work or much else (“you look good on paper”), so news to me.
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 19, 2013As my brain is slow, I actually never got that when I had a positive ANA, either. The doc in Seattle–a good guy–said you can get a false pos. if it isn’t that high, but I had a malar rash. Hmmm. Well, not a worry at the moment and my ANA never got wonky again to my knowledge–it was even normal when I had an episode of vasculitis (most likely viral), even though I had a + Rheum. Factor.
dyspatient
/ July 19, 2013Never had a positive rheum factor, but my ANA has been consistently moderately high. 1:160 typically, on several tests. 1:80 the last time they did it, a few years ago now I think. I recently connected with a guy with neuropathy who is seeing someone he likes at the granddaddy of all BATHs up here so I’m going to try to get in to see that doc. Hoping I can, hoping it goes ok.
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 19, 2013I was 1:160 when I 1st got sick and had the malar rash. I think it’s odd to consistently have that, so best to see that doc you heard about I think. I believe a + Rh factor only shows up w/vasculitis and RA, and my joints felt like I had RA with that, but normal sed rate and all that. Really weird disorder and it set off all the bruising and venous pattern w/the then unknown EDS. Very strange. I don’t think I would have had enough EDS symptoms for a Dx without that and the KC, so maybe the vasculitis had a silver lining (looking like a road map), but it really was bad–owww. Oh, my complements were off–the one involved with both lupus and vasculitis. Another test to consider.
Well, I’m about to fall asleep due to the long afternoon in the heat and 500 degree car!!! Why can’t we have any trees to park under? I totally overdid it today like normal when I actually get out and then just have to do everything in 1 day and forget how hot it is or how bad my body hurts. Argh.
Talk soon and go sit in an ice bath w/the heat out your way,
A ❤
dyspatient
/ July 20, 2013Unshaded parking lots are the bane of my existence. I’m buying a cooling vest, it’s decided. We should all have one.
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 20, 2013I just need a cooling vest to wrap around the car! Lol! I really can handle the walk from the lot to the store or Dr. office if it’s dry (and where else do I go?). My last car (from Seattle) that I drove into the ground was black and I never had the money to tint the windows, which is the worst combo possible down here with the super high temps. I hate the cold winter, or cold to me, so I try to not complain, but when the humidity comes, it’s like India or something. Beyond awful. Back to my plan of moving to the Sahara…
playingthehandiwasdealt
/ July 19, 2013Meant to say talking down to issue! Ugh. I had the longest day (1/2 dead here), but my OCD thing w/going through the inbox is in overdrive! I do feel it was super inappropriate, but it was just unprofessional and demeaning. Dr. Dumbass.