Janet Mitchell:  

"It's time you know . . .. " Dr. Ulild said with a sigh, while leaning back against the wall. Know what? I wondered, as I sat on his examining table. Instantly, Dr. Ulild broke eye contact with me. "Janet, I was there during your first surgery. Dr. Allgood cut your bone wrong. The cut went diagonally, up to the joint space of your knee, cutting your ligaments causing the instability. The rest of your surgeries on your right leg were to try to fix this mistake." Immediately my stomach drew up into knots, and I wept uncontrollably. How could my doctors have done this to me? Through ten surgeries, I had trusted them! They were my heroes! My childlike faith and trust in people had, in a flash, been shaken to the core. I had lost the use of my legs during my senior year of high school and became wheelchair bound due to another's negligence. For the next fifteen years, my doctors had told me that my right knee problems were due to a congenital complication, "because of the way God made me." My doctors had lied...and had the nerve to blame my God! I was angry! The thought of living the rest of my life with the consequences of someone else's secrets, mistakes, and lies made my stomach churn with fury! To many victims of medical malpractice, anger is looked upon as a positive-energy to fuel one in his efforts for justice. Yet, to me, my anger became an inferno that charred my soul. Dr. Ulild hadn't even said he was sorry! And yet, as a Christian, Scripture told me that I was to forgive. Truthfully, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the desire to do so. I'm not ready to say that what happened to me doesn't matter! Unsuccessfully blinking back my tears, I shamefully cried, God, don't you understand? I, can't do this! I'm sorry, but I'm still too angry! Pausing for a moment to catch my breath the thought came to me. Forgiveness is a choice, not an emotion. I don't have to wait until my emotions "feel like forgiving" to forgive. I had learned that forgiveness was an act of my will and needed to begin with the decision to forgive. I clearly understood that forgiveness would in no way change my past, but somehow, I knew it would free my future. I realized that I would live the rest of my life suffering the consequences of someone else's secrets, mistakes, and lies. The only choice I had was how I was going to live it. Was I going to believe that living with a disability due to medical negligence was a life-long sentence? Or was I was going to believe that God would bring good out of evil? I did forgive, yet much to my surprise, rage still brewed from deep within. I thought that once I "forgave," my soul would be at rest. Instead, my emotions rode a roller coaster, What if my doctors injure another? How could any of this be part of God's plan for my life? What good could God create out of this mess? Despite the shock and anger Dr. Ulild's revelation brought, I knew that his confession was not a surprise to God, and that God did have a special purpose for this situation. Still fighting my fury, I paid a visit to Norman Wright, psychologist and coauthor of Good Women Get Angry . "Janet," he said, "it's not a sin to experience anger, but you can't allow your anger to lead to bitterness and resentment. What happened to you was wrong!" Motionless I listened to Norman Wright's great words of wisdom. "The experience of anger is normal and natural. As part of being made in God's image, humans have emotions, and one of these emotions is anger. Like all of God's gifts, anger has tremendous potential for good. We can choose to express our anger in ways that help or in ways that hinder, in ways that build, or in ways that destroy. Janet, it's your choice." I wrestled with my convictions. What should a person do when they learn that he or she has become victims of medical fraud? What should they do when they discover that their same doctors have injured many others and some patients have even died? Through godly counsel, I was reminded that I needed to get the facts-find out the truth regarding my past medical care. I was not to spend precious time worrying about the what ifs. The what ifs are deadly. They carry our thoughts and imaginations to places we will never visit. They take us to places where God isn't. Because of this, I concluded that I had a responsibility to take a closer look at my medical history. I discovered that my medical records had been tampered with. I found that an entire year of my medical treatment had disappeared. X-rays of my right leg proving the mistakes were also mysteriously missing, yet my left leg x-rays of 1977-78 were readily produced. I wished I had kept my own set of records and had requested a copy of my medical chart. I was stunned to learn that our laws don't require doctors to "own up to," "tell the truth," or "inform a patient" of the true cause of his or her condition. I had no idea that medical malpractice is the eighth most common cause of death in America and that these preventable deaths exceed the deaths attributed to car accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS! I researched information pertaining to my doctors. Even though they were in "good standing" with the California Medical Board, court records showed they had been...Expand for more