My mother had to be taken to the emergency room for a severe headache accompanied by confusion and what appeared to be delirium. When I got there, they were doing an EKG. So I'm thinking, "ok, she is elderly so this must be routine." When they finished, they prepared to go and I then asked, "What about a CAT scan?" The ER personnel tells me, "Well, the doctor didn't order one." I say, "she is here because she has a blinding headache, and she's delirious. I want a CAT scan!" ER says again, "Dr. so and so was just here and he didn't order one."

Of course, by now, I'm literally screaming at the poor woman and I say, "You find Dr. so and so RIGHT NOW and tell him that I want him or someone to write down for me EXACTLY WHY he has ruled out the need for a CAT scan!" She came back in less than a minute to take my mother down for a CAT scan, which revealed a large mass pushing against her brain. She is now being treated for that.

It scares me to think what might have happened if I hadn't been there on the verge of going postal, insisting on that CAT scan. What if I was the shy, retiring type who felt that if the almighty doctor didn't order a CAT scan, then apparently one wasn't needed?

I lost a beloved cousin 2 years ago because her complaints of pain in her stomach were ignored by the doctors who told her they had operated on her chest and there was no reason that she was having a pain in her stomach (other than the fact that she was bleeding internally and dying a slow death!)

FOLKS, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND THAT OF YOUR LOVED ONES!!! ASK QUESTIONS, MAKE DEMANDS OF DOCTORS AND OTHER HOSPITAL PERSONNEL!!!! AND DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU GET EITHER WHAT YOU WANT OR AN EXPLANATION IN WRITING AS TO WHY YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT!!!!!

TAKE THESE PEOPLE OFF THEIR PEDESTALS!!!! THEY PUT THEIR PANTS ON ONE LEG AT A TIME, JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!!!!!!!!!