Dr. Brook,
Very well stated. Fresh from the death of my MIL, from a botched abdominal hernia surgery, I witnessed many errors made by ICU staff and doctors. We organized a 24hour ICU watch to add a little insurance. We questioned the patient monitor display, the IV bags, dose rates, lab work, even vent settings, etc.

OCF main mission is to educate patients to advocate for themselves, question doctors and procedures/protocols, determine the risks and benefits of different treatment modalities, insure that all lab work and workups are done and, in general, enable a patient or caregiver (many patients do not want to know) to have a somewhat informed dialog with care providers, so the burden of medical advocacy can be alleviated as much as possible. I brought my wife with me to every doctor appointment to transcribe every word said. You can't have too many sets of eyes looking at this stuff. I also requested a copy of every medical record, scan report, etc. I even have CD's and DVD's of all of my scans. Plus patients are typically pushed into life changing decisions in very short periods to time. I truly think that the doctors, knowing that I was proactive in my care, were more careful.

It is surprising and disturbing to me that a medical professional, such as yourself, would not have received the highest quality and/or standards of care. It brings to mind the movie "The Doctor" with William Hurt. (footnote - I forgot my CD one day so the RT technologist suggested "Time" by Enya, which was the same song that they played in the movie when his cancer patient friend died - in San Francisco no less). Nothing like a little New Age music to enhance your treatment experience.

Truth be known, most of us were misdiagnosed or diagnosed very late in the process. I went to a dentist, oral surgeon, my GP (twice) before I finally got a referal to an ENT and he was able to Dx me in about 15 milliseconds. I am certain that the 1 year delay probably advanced me a stage or 2. My H&N surgeon estimated that the tumor was about 2 years old when finally properly biopsied and diagnosed.

IMHO, taking an active roll in your treatment increases your chances that less errors will be made. This is an unforgiving disease and errors are frequently fatal. Very few of us has had second or third chances.