[jchebert1979]

I posted about my recent problem with the doctor who performed my discogram. I feel that his actions were completely out of line and have decided to file a complaint with the medical review board. This is the first time I have done anything like this so I would like it if you guys could read over my complaint and give me any suggestions. Thanks




Description of Complaint



On the date of 6/24/09, I saw Dr. Charles N. Aprill for an invasive diagnostic procedure of the spine called a discogram. While waiting for the procedure to begin Dr. Aprill’s assistant Russell came in and, in his words, informed me that “Dr. Aprill is not known for his bedside manner and he can be antagonistic”. Dr. Aprill is widely known as being one of the best around for this particular procedure and since I was not there for emotional support, neither his personality nor demeanor were an issue for me.

After preliminary X-Rays were taken Dr. Aprill came in and asked me the standard questions about my health and pain patterns. During this time I informed Dr. Aprill that I have had questionable reactions/side effects to the drug Versed and would rather not use it for sedation. He told Russell to give me 25mg of Benadryl intramuscularly. I informed Russell that I would rather not use this either due to the way that it makes me feel. Russell was perfectly fine with this, however when Dr. Aprill returned he got very upset and told me very coldly “I thought it was important”. I started to explain to him why I did not want to use it and he cut me off by saying “maybe your problem is that you are trying to control your medical care”. I believe that Dr. Aprill thought that I was challenging his authority. Had he been willing to listen to my explanation, he would have understood why I did not want to use the drug and we could have come up with an alternative.

The procedure was indicated for the discs of the thoracic spine. The discs in question according to MRI’s that I provided were T1-2, T3-4, T6-7, and T11-12. At that time I was under the assumption that all discs would be evaluated. By the end of the procedure he had not done T1-2, I began to ask about this and again he cut me off by saying “You obviously don’t know anything about discography, the upper levels have to be approached anteriorly and we aren’t doing that now”. He walked out of the room before I could ask him why.

At the ending evaluation I was informed of the findings. At this time it was brought to my attention that Dr. Aprill performed the procedure on the T12-L1 level and not the T11-12 level that was indicated. When asked about this, I was told that Dr. Aprill felt that the MRI report was wrong. I became very upset at this time. This doctor took it upon himself to perform a very invasive and painful diagnostic procedure on my spine on a completely different level that was indicated without informing me. I then called the radiologist who originally reviewed the MRI and was informed that the report is in fact correct. T11-T12 is the disc in question.

In conclusion this doctor’s lack of willingness to have a dialogue with me ended up with him performing a very painful invasive procedure on an inappropriate level without my knowledge or consent. Numerous studies have shown that performing discography on healthy disc levels can increase the chance of degenerative changes later on. Also, my future medical care has been delayed as well because I cannot proceed without information from the upper level he refused to do, and lower level that he did not do. At best this doctors actions were bad medicine, at worst they were criminal.