Live data from Hacker News

Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

minnesota.cbslocal.com

11–20 of 180 posts

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#11
post #5

Wow. That's really horrifying. Imagine losing your rights to decide your own medical treatment because overzealous doctors made up a 'mental health problem'. I lost a huge amount of respect for Mayo clinic today.

It's especially scary if you have no trusted friends or relatives. There's an awful lot of people with asocial tendencies on the internet.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#12

The medical profession really scares me. They have no respect or concern for patients and are largely going through the motions of providing care with no concern for successful outcomes. I find this to be consistently true in every encounter. I fired my last PCP because they lied about treating me for depression complete with fictional prescriptions. I found out when I couldn't get disability insurance (at a sane pri…

It seems pretty unfair to malign the entire field of medicine due to a single bad actor. I went to medical school prior to becoming an engineer and my impression was that most if not all of my classmates were genuine in their desire to help improve the lives of others. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with your previous PCP but they don't represent the profession as a whole.

Also, if ADD is not a mental illness then what is it? I think this point is a conflation between medical definitions and social stigma.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#13

The medical profession really scares me. They have no respect or concern for patients and are largely going through the motions of providing care with no concern for successful outcomes. I find this to be consistently true in every encounter. I fired my last PCP because they lied about treating me for depression complete with fictional prescriptions. I found out when I couldn't get disability insurance (at a sane pri…

You seem to have terrible luck finding PCPs. What area of the country are you in? Big or small city?

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#14
So, this looks awful. I would expect for the Mayo clinic to come out with a response sometime soon. In the meantime, I'm just trying to remind myself that news stories that stoke outrage often turn out to be telling the story in the way best tuned to get forwarded and clicked on, not always the most accurate way. But, really, this looks awful.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#15
post #7
post #2

There is a huge conflict of interest here. The hospital makes diagnosis, requests that the person lose their autonomy, gets control over that person, financially benefits from that control, and can use that control to hide any misdeeds or contrary evidence. There is also a profound disrespect for human autonomy. Hospitals disrespect autonomy for many people in many ways, with the most common being when birthing mothe…

> credit goes to a couple judges who denied the Mayo clinic's requests Also to the police, who refused to pursue the "abduction" once it was clear that the patient was being taken care of at another hospital.

The patient should not need to be checked into another hospital in order for the police to assist the patient and her family, if only because the reason they cannot check into another hospital is that the patient is being illegally detained. To the contrary, the police should be the ones telling the hospital that it's illegal for them to detain the patient, and then assisting the patient in leaving without interference by the hospital staff.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#17
It's easy to attribute this whole situation to greed and/or malice but I think that fails Hanlon's razor. I can easily see this whole situation occurring because of poor communication and the culture of paternalism in medicine. It is not hard to imagine a team of healthcare providers that know or think they know what is good for their patient and do a poor job explaining why they are making the decisions that they are making whether that is because of poor communication skills or because they are simply too busy. I think the article proposes a good solution in calling up the hospital's ethics council. This should be standard operating procedure when a patient disagrees with medical staff and the presence of this resource should be communicated to the patient early on and by a employee who isn't directly involved with the patient's care.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, we have thousands of obviously mentally ill people on the street homeless because we can't commit them because of that human autonomy that you mention. It all points to public healthcare where there is governance at a political level and not profit level.

It's unconscionable to suggest that hospitals be allowed to legally kidnap people because of something as hand wavy as 'some homeless are mentally ill'.

This is a complicated issue. I've seen this happen in practice. As long as the process remains conservative and respectful of the patient, it results in better outcomes for the patient and a more peaceful society.

The cases where I have seen this happen: schizophrenia, drug-induced psychosis, acute mania, dementia.

Patients come out far better in an institutionalized setting, as opposed to being on the streets and walking aimlessly in dangerous traffic.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#19
post #2

There is a huge conflict of interest here. The hospital makes diagnosis, requests that the person lose their autonomy, gets control over that person, financially benefits from that control, and can use that control to hide any misdeeds or contrary evidence. There is also a profound disrespect for human autonomy. Hospitals disrespect autonomy for many people in many ways, with the most common being when birthing mothe…

On the flip side, we have thousands of obviously mentally ill people on the street homeless because we can't commit them because of that human autonomy that you mention. It all points to public healthcare where there is governance at a political level and not profit level.

> It all points to public healthcare where there is governance at a political level and not profit level.

Might want to consider that political abuse of psychiatric diagnoses to get opponents or agitators involuntarily committed to asylums or hospitals is not exactly unheard of.

Re: Parents Break Teen Out of Mayo Clinic

#20
post #2

There is a huge conflict of interest here. The hospital makes diagnosis, requests that the person lose their autonomy, gets control over that person, financially benefits from that control, and can use that control to hide any misdeeds or contrary evidence. There is also a profound disrespect for human autonomy. Hospitals disrespect autonomy for many people in many ways, with the most common being when birthing mothe…

On the flip side, we have thousands of obviously mentally ill people on the street homeless because we can't commit them because of that human autonomy that you mention. It all points to public healthcare where there is governance at a political level and not profit level.

obviously mentally ill people on the street homeless because we can't commit them because of that human autonomy that you mention.

Obviously mentally ill, or politically out of favor? I see what you're getting at, and I'm sympathetic. OTOH, history has shown that slope to be unbelievably steep and not very grippy, IMO. I wish I had even the remotest hint where to start to find the happy medium.

Post reply on HN