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PODCAST · health

Medical Error Interviews

by Scott Simpson

Interviews with survivors, victims' families, policy makers, and health care workers. What went wrong? How can we make health care safer? Host Scott Simpson, uses his counselling skills to evoke the secrets, stories and solutions. Be a Patron at Patreon.com/MedicalErrorInterviews

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Episodes

  1. Laura Johnson: Grievous medical incompetence kills her father...and how many more?

    When Laura Johnson’s father Bill, a healthy and active senior, went for a simple medical procedure, Laura’s gut instincts told her to miss work and go with him to keep him safe. But Bill told her he had a friend accompanying him and assured Laura he would be fine because “how bad could they mess...

  2. Carol Sunnucks: The joy of birth, the harm of medicine, the betrayal by the systems

    Medical error and harm can take many forms and occurs in almost every medical context, except perhaps during autopsies. So when a medical error occurs during a joyous event like childbirth, it can not only impact the immediate experience, but may also cause lifelong suffering and disability. This...

  3. Ashanti Daniel, RN: Are nurses immune to doctors’ gaslighting? Not if you’re a black woman

    Ashanti Daniel is one of those people who knew their career destiny as a child - and then made it come to fruition. As a nurse, Ashanti had the inside view of how the health care system operates - so when she got very sick and was hospitalized multiple times, she thought that being a health care...

  4. Andy McCulloch’s daughter Colette: Why Can’t You Hear Me? An inquest into medical negligence

    In the early hours of the 28th of July 2016, Colette McCulloch was hit and killed by a bus. Eighteen hours earlier Colette had walked out of the specialist care facility for autistic adults where she was being treated. Throughout Colette’s short life, her parents Andy and Amanda, sought out…

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  5. Michelle Hedgcoth: How transvaginal mesh ruined my body and my career - but not my spirit

    Implanting plastic mesh inside our bodies doesn’t sound like a smart thing -- and it wouldn’t have happened to Michelle Hedgcoth if a previous medical error hadn’t damaged her body. Michelle was a healthy and happy career woman when she gave birth - but the doctor, who had given Michelle an...

  6. Marc - FQID: Antibiotic fluoroquinolones can cause toxicity and severely injury people: FluoroQuinolone Induced Disability

    Like the vast majority of people, you have probably taken an antibiotic at some point in your life. And it probably helped you. However, a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones can cause permanent and severe damage -- this is known as fluoroquinolone toxicity, or, in the US,...

  7. Marcus Sedgwick: Author of ‘All In Your Head’ - What happens when your doctor doesn’t believe you

    Multiple award winning author Marcus Sedgwick is best known for his popular fiction books, but his experiences with deeply entrenched medical gaslighting inspired his new book titled “All In Your Head - What happens when your doctor doesn’t believe you.” Marcus describes how he got sick with flu...

  8. Alice Urbino: scam ‘lightning process’ causes internalized gaslighting - beware of charlatans

    When Alice Urbino was a young teenager she got the flu and never got better. Her mother - desperate for her daughter to recover - paid for what she thought was a legitimate treatment -- even though young Alice could plainly see the ‘lightning process’ was based on pseudoscience. Nevertheless…

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  9. Ryan Clark: Keep your hair, ruin your life -- how the hair growth medication Propecia broke his body: Post Finasteride Syndrome

    Ryan Clark had it all. Successful career. Great relationships. Healthy body. When Ryan noticed a bit of hair loss, like many men, he took a common medication known as Propecia to promote hair growth. Unbeknownst to Ryan, Propecia can cause post-finasteride syndrome - causing sexual, neurological,...

  10. Sally Maddocks: Removing implanted plastic mesh from organs is like removing gum from hair

    If a surgeon told you that they were going to implant plastic mesh around an organ -- perhaps your bladder or bowel -- and screw the ends into your pelvis and spine -- would you have that surgery? What if the surgeon also told you the plastic mesh may disintegrate and release toxins into your…

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  11. Dr Simon Breidert: How Post Finasteride Syndrome changed his view of his specialty: psychosomatic medicine

    When Dr Simon Breidert tried to discontinue use of the hair growth medication Finasteride, he experienced a myriad of very disturbing and disabling symptoms in multiple body systems. But the medical system doesn’t recognize Post Finasteride Syndrome and has labeled any one who says they…

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  12. Shirley Barker, RN: Witnessing a police sheriff’s death by physician -- and telling the truth

    It is an open secret that hospitals’ standard of practice is to deny, diminish or cover up their medical errors. When they occur, there is often immense pressure from hospital administrators on employees to conform to a narrative that protects the hospital. The employee may feel that their job…

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  13. Dana Parish: Co-author of Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic

    Medicine is so messed up. It has been fatally bitten by its own dogma. When singer-songwriter Dana Parish suddenly got very sick, she quickly had a correct diagnosis of Lyme disease and was given the standard antibiotic treatment. But Dana never fully recovered and eventually ended up in heart...

  14. Denise Crawley: To err is human: A nurse shares her medical errors and how the system responded

    When nurse Denise Crawley connected with me about sharing her experiences with her own medical errors in the workplace, I thought it was a great opportunity to hear from a health care worker from their side and perspective of medical errors. As Denise states, there is a big problem with how the...

  15. Maya Dusenbery: Author of "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick"

    When author Maya Dusenbery started to experience pain after a viral infection, she was introduced to a medical system that mostly marginalizes women and dismisses diseases that predominantly affect women. This of course will come as no surprise to any female that has a disease the medical system...

  16. Anton for Holger Klintenberg: #HelpHolgerNow: “We’re fighting for his life” against the medical system

    “We’re living in a horror movie” says Anton, speaking for his brother Holger who is so severely sick that he cannot eat or drink and has to be tube fed. Yet the Swedish medical system thinks Holger has a psychiatric disorder and has threatened to have him forcibly committed to an institution...

  17. Sarah Colero: “Owe my life to medical cannabis” -- life with brain surgeries, migraines and opioids

    Medical knowledge is embryonic. They are still discovering new body parts. Sometimes medicine doesn’t break new ground, but has to be dragged into the light. A case in point is cannabis. The therapeutic value of cannabis has been known for millennia, yet modern medicine vilified the medication,...

  18. Maija Haavisto: Medical Writer talks about Continuous Medical Trauma and MEcfs and Long Covid (aka post Covid syndrome)

    Author and writer Maija Haavisto caught my attention with her article titled ‘Medical Trauma: Gaslighting and Continuous Stress Eating Away at Your Self Worth’. In her writing, Maija accurately captures the consequences of harmful medical experiences I witness in my counseling clients. As I’ve…

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  19. Jessica Pin: My labia minora removed without my consent - the pathologization of female sexuality

    One of the good things about interviewing people about their medical error experiences is the feel good stories about making the health system safer, and making meaning out of trauma, a phenomenon known as post traumatic growth. In this interview with Jessica Pin, she shares the insights she’s...

  20. Jeanne McArdle: My thyroid grew back - “impossible” says the doctor - and other tales of medical gaslighting

    When you’ve been sick since a child - as Jeanne McArdle has been - you gain a preternatural insight into the world of medicine and medical care. And if you have a disease unknown or misunderstood by medicine, you get the advantage of being an ‘outsider’ while inside the system. Of course, this…

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  21. Liz Perloff: Dislocated foot bone missed for years leads to medical gaslighting for years

    When yoga teacher Liz fell down a flight of stairs while moving a mattress and injured her foot, she had no idea that multiple misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis would cause her years of medical gaslighting and chronic pain. Liz’s health care experience is littered with story after story of...

  22. Daria Oller: Physical Therapist with Long Covid - what she was taught was wrong

    When Daria Oller got sick with mild Covid symptoms in mid March, she assumed she’d be back to full health in a week or two. Now over 7 months later, Daria -- a physical therapist, athletic trainer, runner and dancer -- is still beset with physical symptoms, especially a delayed and dysfunctional...

  23. MaryAnne Martin-Smith: Given death rites 3 times - how simple surgery went so wrong

    Unless you’ve experienced it yourself, it is hard to fathom the cruelty and abuse by some doctors and nurses on sick, vulnerable and dying people. It is hard to reconcile that the ultimate helping professions can have so many people who exhibit truly sadistic and sociopathic behaviour. To...

  24. Melinda Maxwell: Craniocervical instability -- decades of suffering before diagnosis

    What is the connection between a ‘weak bladder’ in childhood and spine surgery in adulthood? For Melinda Maxwell, a diagnosis of craniocervical instability (or CCI) provided clarity of that connection after decades of doctors dismissing her symptoms or giving a misdiagnosis. Craniocervical...

  25. Jonah McGarva: Long Covid - Politically invisibilized and medically gaslighted

    Jonah McGarva is one of what will be millions of people around the globe with Long Covid. And many pandemic survivors that develop Long Covid are frustrated by their government’s lack of appropriate response. Most government health leaders barely mention - or even warn the public - about Long...

  26. Tracy Fossum: Chronic pain, chronic gaslighting, chronic bias and a heart attack

    When Tracy Fossum had all the symptoms of a heart attack, the emergency room doctors thought Tracy was drug seeking and sent her away. Then her pain specialist physician implored her to go to a different hospital’s emergency room because they were heart attack specialists and would have to run...

  27. Melissa Shiff: Her life intersects with wife murdering surgeon, medical error and human rights

    When Melissa Shiff had surgery on a cyst in her back, the surgeon nicked her spinal fluid canal causing it to leak spinal fluid. This medical error would lead to more errors and medical harm for Melissa. As Melissa wrote to me after the interview: “I get internal tremors, non epileptic seizures,...

  28. Terri Lewis PhD: Medicine’s Problem: Drive-by Transactional Medicine

    Dr Terri Lewis is a clinical educator with more than 30 years of experience in the development and administration of community rehabilitation and counseling programs. Terri’s insights into the machinations of the medical system come from both her professional career and her role as a mother. When...

  29. Miranda Levy: Psychiatric Safari - A journalist’s experience with psychiatry and their medications

    When journalist Miranda Levy couldn’t sleep due to a relationship upheaval, she sought support from her doctor and fell down a multi year rabbit hole into the wacky world of psychiatric medicine. Miranda lost herself in a health care system that has little understanding of the powerful…

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  30. Beau Tiffany: The Medical Care Racket - 2 damaging surgeries for illnesses he didn’t have

    If you had any doubt the medical system, in collusion with the legal, political and insurance systems, were corrupt, those doubts will be waylaid when you hear Beau Tiffany’s experiences with medical error. Beau has had to endure and battle biased systems since he slipped and fell hard down wet...

  31. Jenna Payne: Stupid Stuff Doctors Say: "You’re depressed because your unmarried and childless"

    Pretty much everyone who’s had a chronic or complex illness will have a story to tell about some of the most ignorant and arrogant - and dangerous - utterations made by physicians. I’ve spoken with a lot of health care workers and patients from a wide variety of health care systems, and…

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  32. Casey Steidle: How is this happening? MRI Gadolinium toxicity - life consuming, life ruining

    Have you had an MRI? Was it an MRI ‘with contrast’? That’s when the MRI technician injects you with a chemical called gadolinium so they can read the MRI easier. They probably told you to drink a lot of water to flush it out of your system, and that it would be gone from your body in 24 hours.…

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  33. Donald Lepp: Heart Broken - A family’s journey through medical help, harm and mayhem

    When Donald’s pregnant wife was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, and then a few months later their newborn son was also diagnosed with a similar, but different, life threatening heart condition, the Lepp family started 2 similar, but different, simultaneous journey’s in the health care...

  34. Dr Susan Cunliffe: Escaping Psychiatry and ECT - A Physician’s Experience

    In spite of our great science and medical advances in the last 100 years, what we know about how the body works is still embryonic. Especially when it comes to our body’s most complex organ - the brain - as Dr Susan Cunliffe can attest. Dr Cunliffe received numerous rounds of ECT - aka shock...

  35. Mackenzie Doyle: 20 years to get correct diagnosis - mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)

    Mack Doyle has been sickly since birth -- and along the way medicine gave her numerous diagnoses to explain her symptoms, none of which turned out to be correct. When Mack’s allergy skin tests showed her positive to over 140 foods, grasses, and pollen, the doctor didn’t believe it. “Impossible”…

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  36. Charis Hill: Accused of fusing own back bones - Post Traumatic Growth - from Athlete to Advocate

    If you’re living with a complex chronic illness, you’ve probably had many medical appointments -- and probably experienced many medical errors, from the benign errors that did not impact your life, to potentially serious errors that will forever lower your quality of life. When Charis Hill’s pain...

  37. Candia McCullough: Sliced to bits: illegal mesh surgically implanted without consent

    When Candia McCullough went in for routine hysterectomy surgery for her heavy periods, she was expecting the surgery to give her a better quality of life. What she was not expecting - and did not consent - was to have a medical device implanted into her abdomen and have it attached to her spine,...

  38. Rachel Winters (part 2): Accutane Injury -- Doubly Deceived by Medicine and Family

    As we learned in part 1 of Rachel’s interview, she comes from a family of physicians, and when she was seriously injured by Accutane, a medication many teens and young adults take for acne, Rachel found herself at odds with her family’s complete buy-in to the corporate pharmaceutical narrative…

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  39. Rachel Winters (part 1): Medical Betrayal and a Family of Physicians -- Decision Based Evidence Making

    Growing up in an affluent community, but as the only non-white kid in her school, Rachel Winters learned early how our social narratives, be they ethnic or medical, can have profound impacts on our life trajectory. Coming from a family of physicians with a ‘better living through chemistry’…

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  40. Chandra Pasma: Long Haul COVID - Will this end for my family?

    When I saw that Chandra Pasma was interviewed by media outlets, and that she lead the push for health officials to acknowledge and act upon patients still sick with COVID, I knew I needed to reach out to her and find out her experience with COVID and the health care system. While the medical…

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  41. Debbie Lambert: Black Box Warning: MRI with Contrast can cause Gadolinium Toxicity

    When I first connected with Debbie Lambert about her experience with gadolinium toxicity, I had to google ‘gadolinium’. When I read that gadolinium is the substance they inject you when you get an ‘MRI with contrast’ and that it can cause toxicity, I immediately started to search my memory. I can...

  42. Tammy Smick: Alex’s mother on how health ‘care’ killed him

    When you have a family member or loved one that needs medical care, and you do the research to find one the best doctors and one of the best hospitals to provide safe care, you expect that person will receive proper medical support. What you don’t expect, is that they will kill your loved one.…

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  43. Amber Wysocki: Pain much worse than childbirth: Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction

    As a child, Amber had a very rare illness that made the small blood vessels in her skin, joints, intestines, and kidneys inflamed and bleed. Amber was so ill her mother thought Amber was dying. But Amber survived, got married and had children and thrived...until 3 days after having her…

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  44. Adin Burroughs: Missed diagnosis means cyclical vomiting and wishing for death

    Growing up in the shadow of Cape Kennedy, Adin Burroughs had designs on becoming an astronaut. But When Adin’s body started rejecting any food he ate with cramps, fever, vomiting, diarrhea - he of course went to his doctor. In Adin’s family, a lot of people have problems with their gall bladder,...

  45. Dr Jill Murphy: Physician Heal Thy Self

    Evidently having a doctorate in physical therapy and working in the health care field does not protect you from medical incompetence, arrogance and errors. When Dr Jill Murphy went to the ER with potential stroke symptoms, the staff called the neurologist to examine Jill. But he refused, so the...

  46. Troy McKnight: Laser eye surgery safety has a huge blind spot

    When I first heard of laser eye surgery many moons ago, my first reaction was suspicion - on the face of it, it sounded very dangerous. But after years of exposure to laser eye surgery advertisements, it squirmed its way on my list for consideration so that I didn’t have the bother of contact...

  47. Jocelyn Pedersen: A Journey Through Medication and Madness Toward Meaning

    Until I started doing this podcast, I was mostly ignorant to the extent of the harm sometimes caused by psychiatric and antibiotic medications. In spite of my own 2 week experience with disabling withdrawal symptoms from an antidepressant 20 years ago, and contemporary reports of withdrawal...

  48. Jeffery Smith: COVID Gaslighting Warning: If you don’t recover, doctors may call it psychosomatic

    Imagine back to when you had a bad flu. Remember the nausea, head spins, pain and soreness, vomiting and diarrhea, and crushing fatigue? Remember how the worst lasted for a few days? Now imagine having that flu for a few weeks. Or a few months. Or like Jeffery Smith, for a few decades. Now think…

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  49. Larry & Jane (part 2): Profit and Punishment: profiteering hospitals intersect with religious bigotry

    A quick recap - in part 1 of the interview, Larry was having chest pain and his wife Jane drove him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a heart attack and sent by air ambulance to another hospital, a Catholic hospital, where they were met with hostility and a chaplain determined to keep...

  50. Larry & Jane (part 1): Profit and Punishment: profiteering hospitals intersect with religious bigotry

    When Larry was doubled over with chest pain, his wife Jane drove him to the nearest ER where he was diagnosed with a heart attack. The health care Larry received over the next few hours was motivated by profit and punishment. At each turn, hospitals sought to maximize their profits, including…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Interviews with survivors, victims' families, policy makers, and health care workers. What went wrong? How can we make health care safer? Host Scott Simpson, uses his counselling skills to evoke the secrets, stories and solutions. Be a Patron at Patreon.com/MedicalErrorInterviews

HOSTED BY

Scott Simpson

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How many episodes does Medical Error Interviews have?

Medical Error Interviews currently has 94 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Medical Error Interviews about?

Interviews with survivors, victims' families, policy makers, and health care workers. What went wrong? How can we make health care safer? Host Scott Simpson, uses his counselling skills to evoke the secrets, stories and solutions. Be a Patron at Patreon.com/MedicalErrorInterviews

How often does Medical Error Interviews release new episodes?

Medical Error Interviews has 94 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

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Who hosts Medical Error Interviews?

Medical Error Interviews is created and hosted by Scott Simpson.
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