Author: Foot Doc
Date: 3/7/2007 1:32 pm PDT
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Marta Foster,
I'm not sure what to make out of many of your statements offered both in this post and the one you made about 1/2 hour after this one. You appear to vacillate between your being "talked into surgery," having some post-operative problems, about which you do not necessarily agree with your doctor's opinion, relating brief stories about others with less than fine results and your seemingly high recommendations for the procedure. I have no way of knowing whether you have received good care or not, but I would routinely question anyone's decision to go to surgery with a doctor whose knowledge of that doctor was limited to the fact that he came to ones senior building, seemingly to "promote his practice" and is assessed to be overly aggressive in doing so. I think that the only statement of assessment which you made in his favor was that he was personable, and as I have previously warned, that, by itself, is poor criteria for choosing a quality doctor. Although affability is by no means a negative, the fact is that those with lesser skills and credentials often depend on that very affability to create the allusion of professional competence. So, when I hear that a doctor has been chosen basically for his pleasant personality, and no mention is made of checking out his credentials, training, skills, professional and hospital affiliations and respect among his peers, I get very nervous for the patient. Your toe does not care how glib and engaging he might be. Once you are on the operating table, only skill and experience matter. But in the end, no matter how well-meaning it may be offered, an anecdotal report in which a patient relates his or her solitary and individual experience with a medical or surgical treatment is not an adequate basis for either the recommendation or the denouncing of that sort of procedure. Such information, if taken (as it is apt to be) as more than a single and perhaps atypical event, can be very misleading to those contemplating a supposed similar procedure. Though there are some who wish to hear about the experiences of others to assist them in their decision, they cannot possibly get enough individual input so as to provide them with more than either possibly false security or unwaranted anxiety.
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