This is bananas too!


http://www.nbc17.com/news...etail.html

New Hampshire Doctor Outraged By Complaint

POSTED: 5:29 pm EDT August 22, 2005
UPDATED: 6:08 pm EDT August 22, 2005

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating a Rochester doctor because a patient complained that he bluntly told her she needed to lose weight.

Dr. Terry Bennett said that he's outraged by what he calls a baseless complaint. A patient was apparently insulted when Bennett told her that she was obese and could only get healthier by losing weight.

"It's an epidemic in the United States, and it's croaking us," Bennett said.

Bennett said that it's a lecture he gives to many of his overweight patients.

"It's your weight, ... and there's dozens of programs," Bennett said. "You don't have to come in here. You can join Jenny Craig. You can go see Weight Watchers."

Bennett said he tells obese patients that their weight is bad for their health and their love lives. But the lecture drove one patient to write a letter to the Board of Medicine, which has passed on the complaint to the Attorney General's Office.

"Did I sleep with somebody? Did I give somebody drugs? Was I careless? No. End of story," Bennett said. "That should have been the end of it."

Now, other overweight patients are coming to Bennett's defense.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," patient Mindy Haney said. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said that Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but, at first, she didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

Haney is so upset at the complaint that she has started a petition demanding that the attorney general be fired. So far, she's gathered 100 signatures.

Bennett said that the Attorney General's Office tried to get him to settle the matter by agreeing to attend a medical education course, which he refused.

"I'm sorry," Bennett said. "If she's watching, I'm devoutly sorry to have offended you. I didn't mean to offend you. I meant to tell you the truth. And that's what I tried to do."

The Board of Medicine would not comment on the case, but Vice President Kevin Costin said, "Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone."

Bennett said that he thinks his apology should be enough.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Only in New Hampshire.

Ugh.


I'm so tired of people saying you can be fat and healthy.
It's not possible. Your risk goes up for all manner of diseases for every pound of weight over your recommended max.

We've got to stop treating this like a rude or dirty secret and just adress it and reverse it.


.
[Edited 8/23/05 5:18am]

Imago777 said:

I agree with you.

elusivefatale said:

you're hawt!

If your doctor cant even tell you you are obese then god help you.


....
[Edited 8/23/05 5:35am]

well come on folks there are 2 sides to every story.

Maybe when the doctor said "Well im sorry to say this you are clinically obese"
she thought he actually said "You have to go on a diet you fat fuck you cant even see your knees".



maybe we will never know the truth.

I dont care what he said, if she took it personally enough to complain against

the poor man for his job, when all he was doing was trying to save her life, he

should have said the second thing! Sometimes people need to be shocked out of

things im afraid.

Im sorry if im cold, but it is life-threatening! Im assuming thats all he was

tring to tell her!

I did not see anything unprofessional about what he did. I would be outraged too. And that woman should be ashamed of herself.

susannah said:

In her case stupidity, not so much obesity, is life threatening.

there is no helping some people
and when she gets seriously ill because of it that will be someone elses fault too i suppose.

Raine said:

and there it is

JoeyMFinCoco said:

i guess i was trying to be PC!unfortunately this is the case for a lot of people!

denial too, I think is a problem...

I could see her complaining about the doctor being unprofessional in how he told her that, but for simply suggesting she loose weight as a reccomendation is ridiculous. What would happen if he didn't say anything about her weight, and she got diabetes or had a heart attack, would she sue him for not diagnosing her weight problem?

Tom said:

Raine said:

exactly I whinge and complain about my weight (I'm highly overweight for someone my height to the point of being dangerous) but I admit I know I'm the only one who can do anything about it... hopefully this woman sees the light before it's too late

Natisse said:

Good for you! I think thats a big part of the problem, not realising, or denying, that there is a problem! Which is easy to do, we all deny our physical flaws, i think its hard for people to remember that this isnt just physical though.
[Edited 8/23/05 6:24am]

susannah said:

I agree... it's definately phsycological as well (mostly)

muirdo said:

JoeyMFinCoco said:

exactly.

being politically correct is NOT the way to go on this issue.

when we address the issue of alcohol addiction or drug addiction we don't hesitate to call it what it is: a life threatening addiction.

obesity is the same thing. it's a life threatening addiction to food.

Natisse said:

that is not an excuse. yes it's partly psychological but that's still no excuse. people who over-indulge on alcohol also have psychological problems. why should we treat people who over-indulge on food any differently?

XxAxX said:

I know it's not an excuse, believe me... but it IS a factor at least I assure you

XxAxX said:

We can conquer it while not being politically correct, but not being mean to people either. theyre not always stupid, sometimes just extremely unhappy. like an alchoholic might be. Its not always their fault, we all need to depend on something sometimes. some people choose chocolate.

i SERIOUSLY doubt this woman is having issues over her doctor telling her she needs to lose weight, come on now, we are all smarter than that.


after reading the article, i think its pretty safe to say that the doctor was harsh about the way he said it, perhaps she found that to be the problem


i think thats where the answer lies how the doctor talked to her... was he abusive in the way he dealt with her ?? thats the only reason i can see this woman becomming upset. and if thats the reason behind this, then maybe the doctor will remember the next time, and treat his patients like people and not just clumps of cash walking through his door

susannah said:

addicition is the right word it's something that you don't quite "get" unless you've been there or are there, but losing large amounts of weight is the hardest thing I've ever done and will have to do it again very very soon because I can feel it affecting my health again

Its the hardest thing I've ever done, personally speaking, to try and resist the addiction to food you are craving (for me it's McDonalds, take away food in general) it's INCREDIBLY hard and as I said you don't quite get exactly HOW hard it is till you've been there

I think what I was trying to say was that a degree of compassion is important. Ive never dealt with it personally but a number of my friends and family have, along with other addictions, and these undoubtedly start because of pain.

Its very difficult to cure the symptom before you cure the cause, hence the compassion.

It really depends on how much she weighed. Most people looking at me would not say I am obese, but according to my height and weight, I am clinically. My idea of obese is 200 pounds or higher and I am no where near that. My BMI is at 32.2 and it should be a 30 and below. I am dieting now, but most people think I look fine. Doctors like to use the word obese loosely

nakedpianoplayer said:

Did we read the same article?

XxAxX said:

Amen. This country's going f-ing nuts.