photo by me

On Wednesday afternoon, as I drove home from work, I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR. As I sat at a train crossing, waiting for an abnormally long train to pass by, I listened to Howard Dully tell his story of being the “recipient”of an orbital lobotomy when he was twelve years old. (His story can be heard or read at NPR’s site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080.)

Tears streamed down my face as I listened to his words. This man, once a boy, went through such a traumatic experience that changed his life. In this narrative, he spoke with his father and asked him “why”. Why did he allow it to happen? Why didn’t he stick up for his son?

Howard had a stepmother who did not like him. She “documented” all of these crimes that he was committing as a family member: he didn’t want to take a bath, he wouldn’t talk, etc. He sounded like a typical twelve-year-old to me.

What really astounded me is that Lithium had already been developed and was being prescribed to people who needed it. This doctor, however, refused to believe that his operation was not needed anymore and continued to bilk people for money for an archaic prodedure. If Howard had needed any help at all (which I highly doubt), he could have taken Lithium instead of having sterilized ice picks shoved into his brain through his eyes.

This made me start thinking about medical procedures. What kinds of procedures are being performed out there that are no longer needed? What doctors are making a buck off of unknowing patients who could get better treatment through more humane methods? Or, even worse, like this doctor, how many doctors out there are performing treatments that they KNOW are not beneficial to their patients but keep doing it for that almight buck?

Grrrr.

It makes me so angry. Howard was one of the lucky ones. His procedure did not leave him as a walking zombie or as a five-year-old. However, he was changed, irrevocably, for the worst.

How many people out there have had the same thing happen to them?