What You Don't Know Can Kill You: A Physician's Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care

About three weeks ago, in the middle of the night, my wife and I decided enough was enough and so we went to our local ER. She had developed a stomach ache that had turned into heartburn and throwing up. The on-call doc diagnosed her with some sort of blockage and sent us home with a sleeping potion and a prescription for Miralax. She slept okay and the laxative seemed to work the next day but that night at about 3 AM we found ourselves back in the ER. That night's on-call got her a CT scan and the preliminary read showed a possible for blockage or ulcer. We went home with more sleeping pills. Monday, she went to her own doctor and he referred her to a specialist for a colonoscopy. The result of the colonoscopy and an EGD found diverticulosis of the sigmoid colon, grade 1 internal hemorrhoids, a longer than usual colon, erythema in the antrum (biopsy H-pilori), and an otherwise normal second part of the duodenum and ileum. His prescription, high fiber diet, more Miralax, add Fibercon tabs, and Colace tabs, too. My friend Laura Nathanson signed a copy of her book, What You Don't Know Can Kill You, a week ago after a dance class. I had met her and Chuck Nathanson in 2000 when they signed up for private dance lessons at my studio in Encinitas, CA. They were a quiet but exuberant couple. Since Laura had recently restarted her dancing, I knew Chuck had passed but none of the details so it was with some trepidation that I began reading. There is no way to sugar coat this kind of dying but Laura's response once she had survived the immediate trauma was to think of others in a similar situation. Thus this book which is about how to educate yourself and be prepared for the process of taking care of yourself or someone you love when trying to survive medical care. Communication is this world of internet email and cell phone should be but is not improving. For example, my wife saw four doctors in the space of about a week. Each, after the first, knew of the next and had documentation to pass along. And yet as my wife lay on the table awaiting the effect of the anesthesia, her doctor had to pause while his nurse frantically called the ER to have the CT results faxed over. My wife was under the knife so to speak and her doctor didn't even know what she was looking for. It wasn't intentional on the doctor's part but, as you will learn as you read this book, it happens and quite often with dangerous and disastrous results. But more than that, as you read, you'll learn a strategy to employ and in Part Four of the book you will find a complete workbook to use for the purpose of understanding and controlling the process if and when it happens to you. Buy the book, possibly save your life.

THIS IS A "MUST READ" BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO IS EXPERIENCING ANY TYPE OF MEDICAL PROBLEM, ESPECIALLY A SERIOUS OR LIFE-THREATENING ILLNESS SUCH AS MINE. I HAVE BREAST CANCER, AND THIS BOOK HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL IN GUIDING ME ON THE "HOW TO'S" OF GAINING THE PROPER MEDICAL RECORDS, ANALYZING THEM AND MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS ON MY CARE. I WOULD NOT HAVE ANY TYPE OF SURGERY OR UNDERGO TREATMENT EVER AGAIN WITHOUT CONSULTING THE GUIDES THIS BOOK OFFERS TO HELP ME FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE I AM GETTING THE CARE I NEED, AND THE RECORDS ARE ACCURATE AND FILED IN THE PROPER CHART. HEALTHCARE IS VERY SCARY THESE DAYS, AND THIS BOOK CAN HELP TO SAVE NOT ONLY YOUR LIFE, BUT SOME HEARTBREAKING ERRORS FROM OCCURRING WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE. I WISH I HAD READ THIS BOOK MUCH EARLIER. GREAT AUTHOR!!!!

Dr. Nathanson's husband was diagnosed with a deadly, but treatable, form of cancer that tragically took his life. And much of the tragedy rests in the fact that his tumor went undiagnosed for nearly a year, despite several evaluations by physicians. As a result, she has written a book for the patient designed to help people get actively involved in their own healthcare and take a role in preventing the sorts of medical errors that undoubtedly played a role in her husband's death. She educates the reader on how to navigate their medical records. She teaches how to spot certain terms that could represent problems in their care, how to determine if their physician is certain of a diagnosis and if the "scary things" have been effectively ruled out, and how to know when they are being cared for by medical students, residents or fully qualified physicians. She encourages and instructs people to comb through their records and push aside the nearly 90% of impertinent material to find the things that play a key role in their health status. She has devised a method that any person, with or without prior medical knowledge, could use. What Dr. Nathanson has done is made it clear to people that mistakes happen in medicine, and the diligent patient or family member can do their part to help minimize these mistakes. As a physician, I see this as a good thing. Any physician who feels threatened by Dr. Nathanson's efforts should seriously re-evaluate his ego. The patient is central in medicine and should always be, so any instrument that minimizes or potentially minimizes harmful outcomes for the patient is an instrument that should be welcomed in the medical community. Unfortunately, such instruments in the past have often been brought about by government bureaucracies that do nothing but add more paperwork and headache for healthcare workers while doing little for the patients themselves. This is not the case with Dr. Nathanson's book, and is thus a refreshing concept. I agree with her notion that patients can have a profound impact on their own care if they take an active role in that care, and I salute her for putting this book out. My only concern would be that even though her message is clear to me, some may interpret her words to mean "don't trust your doctor." I certainly hope this will not be the case as it can be very detrimental to the doctor-patient relationship, and I would caution readers to avoid slipping into this way of thinking. With that said, all in all this book is well-done and can potentially have a lasting impact in the medical world.

Even if you are in good health, this is a must read book for when you or someone you love is sick.Written by a doctor who lost her husband to a mis-diagnosis,shows that it can happen even to the people on the inside! The author will teach you how to stay calm and how to read the lingo that is swirling around above your head in the time of need! She gives you tricks in boiling down the test results to language you will understand,the red flags you should look for in any medical situation. The author has included work sheets in the back so you can learn how to keep track of everything going on during your emergency! This is a book to read NOW, not when you need it and are under a good deal of stress.Just read it,work with it and down the road, you will glad that you did!

Well, I'll say one thing right away. I wish this was the book I had in my hands last year when I was hospitalized for a cardiac problem. "What You Don't Know Can Kill You" by Dr. Laura Nathanson is a valuable guide to walking through the miasma of the world of current medical practice. Having this book at hand, for instance, would have caused me to question much more intensely the rather exorbitant bill (in my opinion) from the initial emergency room visit -- I mean, over three thousand dollars for a couple of hours stay and not that much was done for me, except to recommend that I go to a cardiac center for treatment. I still don't know what charges in detail were on the bill since I never received an itemized bill. And I thoughtlessly let it go at that. No more, after reading this book. Next time will be a different story. The purpose of this book is to help us protect ourselves and our loved ones from medical disasters, most of which may be preventable with just a little knowledge of the medical game. Our health care system has become so complex and, from the view of the ordinary consumer, so frustrating and impenetrable that professional help is needed. And Nathanson is apparently committed to helping with this task. She also has a personal interest in the project. She was widowed after the misdiagnosis of her husband. Nathanson divides her work into four parts: (1) The Dicey Diagnosis; (2) In The Hospital; (3) Afterwards; and (4) a Workbook to use, which walks you through medical charts, physician narratives, data reports, and so forth. The first part provides some "red flags" to be aware of during the diagnosis stage. The second part discusses the "sensitive" sentinel, the "vigilant" sentinel, and the "hypervigilant" sentinel. In other words, be on your guard, whether it's you or someone else that's involved in medical treatment. Be forewarned. Be watchful. Ask. Don't assume. Be "vigilant." Valuable recommendations these days. While this is a very practical guide to see one through any medical experience, Nathanson's narrative is very personal as she relates her own experiences as she goes through the trials and tribulations with her husband's problems, which eventually results in his death. One can only sympathize with her in this regard. But one can also learn much from her own personal experience and she freely contributes that to us and for that I thank her. I only wish I had had this book in hand last year!