In going through long paper trail of my many letters and e-mail to MGH and doctors involved in my surgery, I came across one I had forgotten. The documentary in question has aired in Australia and England, but not in the US. It is a FOX Network hour long program. The phone message from Dr. May is the one Anne Barnard transcribed, but was unable to include in her story because of its length. This is just one of many correspondence which prove MGH was well aware of my continued efforts to inform the public regarding my negative surgical experience performed at their institution.
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Subj: Documentary
Date: 05/03/2000
To: may.james@mgh.harvard.edu
CC: mongan.james@mgh.harvard.edu
Dr May:
Several people have listened to your phone message informing me that I need not make another appointment at the resident's clinic. In spite of your condescending tone and prolific words of appreciation for my willingness to share my experience with the young doctors, the point of your message was loud and clear: You and they are "too busy" to learn from your errors and have no desire to do so. From this, I must assume that your clinic will continue to use patients as disposable guinea pigs and think nothing of the
ruined lives your mistakes leave behind.
During the past two years of dealing with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital,
I have become a hardened, cynical person. That is what betrayal does to trusting people. I have known many doctors professionally and as personal friends, however, I have never known any of them to be so self centered and insensitive as your lot. I have personally known doctors who have informed patients of errors in treatment when things did not go well, and have never known any of those patients to harbor resentment toward nor hold legally accountable an HONEST doctor whose integrity compelled him to truthfulness.
When I first recognized the problems resulting from my surgery, I approached each and every doctor with an open, accepting attitude. I did everything possible to help you and them help me, including extensive pertinent medical research. I wanted an explanation as to the etiology of my obviously problematic results. Instead, I received contradictory statements from you full of medical inaccuracies. Evidently, everyone believed I was not capable of understanding the medical technicalities or taking my investigation beyond the dubious explanations I received from you and the other doctors involved in my surgeries.
What is the educational value of sweeping errors under the carpet? My case was ideal for further investigation. I was a willing to turn my negative experience into something positive and asked to be introduced into a study or something similar on several occasions. You were in a position to make this possible. Instead, you chose to exploit the emotional distress suffered by every patient whose surgery goes awry, while ignoring the obvious physical mess made of my face by my surgery at MGH.
I made several calls to the resident's clinic and would apologize to the secretaries for the frequency and negative nature of my calls. I was often told that I was one of the "nicest" unhappy patients they dealt with. I was told that there were MANY UNHAPPY PATIENTS who unleashed their wrath upon the innocent person answering the phone. I was thanked for not doing that! Therefore, I know straight from members of the secretarial staff at MGH that my negative experience is not an isolated case, but one of MANY.
I was recently interviewed for a documentary on aesthetic surgery that will air on national television this month. Unfortunately, the original plan to name Mass General and the Resident's Clinic has been rejected by the producer's attorneys for obvious reasons. Therefore, I intend to make it my top priority to personally circulate information on were my surgery was performed and by whom well in advance of this program. I want everyone
watching to know MY story is about Mass General Hospital.
It is unfortunate that so much precious time, energy and my very life's essence has been forced to expenditure in this direction due to the inability of you and your clinic to accept responsibility and offer APPROPRIATE AND TIMELY help to injured patients like me. How many have been intimidated and overpowered by this type of deception? Perhaps my effort will not gain me any offers of help from doctors.. after all, who wants to deal with a patient "tainted" by another doctor's mistakes? If placing a spotlight on the manner in which clinics like yours conduct business and mistreat patients prevents this from happening in the future, I will feel that all my suffering is not in vain.
Lucille Iacovelli
