Complaint Review: Mayo Clinic Florida - Nationwide

This is an update to the complaint I previously filed regarding my cancer misdiagnosis, termination of my medical care and violation of my patients’ rights at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL.

A great deal has transpired since I last filed the original complaint. But, the following did occur as stated in my 1^st complaint. I have not received a resolution or apology:

First and foremost Mayo Clinic did in fact misdiagnose my two cancers: Sarcoma and Thyroid Cancer.

Second: They did in fact refuse me medical treatment and they did in fact violate several of my patients’ rights.

Third: They have not apologized to me or tried to make things right.

Fourth: Mayo Clinic does not want the public to know they misdiagnosed a patient’s two cancers. They suppress negative patient stories. Mayo’s influence and connection with local &  national media networks is far reaching. More on Mayo’s Influence below.

FIFTH & Most Frightening: I have personally experienced a degree of intimidation by Mayo Clinic. I want it for the record here & I have told my family & close friends, that if anything happens to me they know where to look.

MALPRACTICE:

NOTE: I did NOT want to sue Mayo Clinic for money and I have NOT sued Mayo Clinic. This was never my intention. I wanted and still want Mayo Clinic to be held accountable for violating my patients’ rights and punished for their unethical behavior. I believe they should pay patients’ rights violations fines and that the CEO & the misdiagnosing doctors should all be required to take a compassion training and ethics course. I think malpractice is not always the answer. These people have lost their humanity and compassion for patients. They are lost souls. They will only continue to hurt others if the state of Florida, patients, the people and legislators don’t stand up and demand change. More on how people can effect change below.

The attorneys wanted to sue for malpractice and several considered trying but I had a “complicated case” they said. Some were quite intimidated by Mayo Clinic and they said it would cost them a lot of money so they were not going out on a limb for someone who wasn’t dead or almost dying--it wasn't important that I had almost bled to death and I had two cancers that do not respond to any traditional chemotherapy or radiation. It's a miracle I am alive. However, some attorneys were gracious enough to try to help me in certain capacities and offered some guidance and advice. Those whom I consulted and who have experience with Mayo Clinic malpractice cases told me several things about Mayo Clinic and what I should understand and expect:

ONE: “There was definitely ‘some negligence on Mayo’s part’-- that I did suffer delayed cancer diagnoses and misdiagnoses (that’s plural). But they “could not take my case due to the fact that my survival rate was not severely diminished and I wasn’t dying or dead from one or both of the cancers within a year or two. That it would cost them too much money out of their own pockets to fight Mayo’s army of attorneys and it would be hard to get an oncologist on the stand to go up against his buddies.” The other important information is that “so much of Florida’s malpractice legislation that used to protect patients has been stripped away in tort reforms and greatly favors medical providers—not patients”.

TWO: “They definitely violated my patients’ rights and I would have to appeal to my legislators to get the legislation actually enforced and amended—and that is an entirely whole other fight. They advised me to contact my legislators and I did. More on that below and see those photos.

THREE: That “what happened to me at Mayo Clinic is not uncommon. That we don’t hear about it because most patients are humiliated, embarrassed or they don’t think they can do anything about it or they are afraid and they are too sick to fight or they are dead or their stories are buried. And that this behavior is Mayo Clinic’s “modus operandi” to dump patients after they realize their mistakes. That “it is very damaging to their successful patient outcomes, their reputation and their bottom line to have missed and misdiagnosed someone’s cancer--and to miss two cancers, well, that’s pretty damaging”. This attorney went on to explain to me that “Mayo Clinic has meetings where they discuss patients. Present at these meetings are doctors, risk management specialists, insurance specialists, and other assorted administrative team members. In these meetings they weed out the difficult cases and my case was red flagged as I was a risk.” To sum it up, I was punished for their mistakes.

 FOUR: Several attorneys said if I want to get any help with a case that I ‘need to get out of Mayo Clinic’s backyard” here in Jacksonville”. It became apparent to me that Mayo Clinic has a great deal of influence in Jacksonville, FL and across the USA and that I was not going to get an apology from them or any justice or a fair shake at justice or even to have my story heard with the help of local media. More on that Mayo’s Influence below and the media’s suppression of my story.

FLORIDA PATIENTS’ RIGHTS AND MALPRACTICE LEGISLATION: Florida Legislators Are Not Protecting the People. Patients are political pawns for greed and personal gain.

Another thing I learned since I first filed my complaint here is that the people of Florida are not protected by the Patients’ Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. It is, in essence, fake legislation. Florida actually has the harshest Patients’ Rights bill in the USA. It provides for zero legal recourse, either administratively, civilly or otherwise and there is a clause in the bill that specifically states this. The Patients’ Bill of Rights, Statute 381.026, in the state of Florida is not honored, not enforced and “was enacted for political show so the people think they are protected but they are not…that “the bill was snuck in by legislators working for the medical lobby who have a lot of money and the bill was passed under the falsehood of the fabricated, alleged medical malpractice crisis for which other legislation has been built on which benefits the providers and the insurers to the detriment of patients”. This is an actual quote from a medical malpractice professor/lawyer and has been confirmed by other legal experts I consulted with in my research.

Mayo Clinic’s Influence: Intimidation Tactics, Media Presence on Social Media, Google, Yelp, and other Business Review sites.

Mayo Clinic spends millions on marketing campaigns & advertising. Mayo employs thousands of people and many of them are marketing team, social media, etc… and they work solely to effect a positive image and to bury the negative information.

NEGATIVE REVIEWS ONLINE: If you write a review about your bad experience or your cancer misdiagnoses at Mayo Clinic like I have you will find your review will be hidden under the “not recommended reviews” on Google, Yelp, Health Grades, etc…You will need to re-post them and do it from a fresh IP address if you can because these sites read the IP’s.  The negative reviews are suppressed on these sites, sometimes not even published and they are suppressed in search results so you have to be like a mole and keep popping up in new places to keep your story going.  If you dig online, you will find that news articles about Mayo are not present since about 2010 going back. And, if newer articles pop up, they disappear and I have found that many articles have disappeared. Mayo Clinic has worked hard since the Mayo-Florida-radiology-tech-with-hepatitis-stealing-IV-drugs-from-patients-story was published back around 2010. Mayo Clinic pays a ton of money to hide their dirt.

TWO: Social Media – if you leave a comment on their Facebook page(s) they can click on “hide comment” so the public cannot view it. 

THREE: Media/News – If you comment on a story about Mayo medical malpractice on a local news station’s page, they will hide the comment. If you put a link to your story or to another page’s site that has your story, they’ll hide it or remove it if they can. They don't always catch them all but most.

FOUR: Intimidation—They have “people”—They will investigate you, stake out your home, follow your car, and perform intimidating tasks for the bosses & God knows what else. These people are not messing around and I have received their message loud and clear. This intimidation came on the heels (but may have been sooner) of my publicly protesting in front of Mayo Clinic on the street and my travels to Capitol Hill and the Florida Capitol to meet with my state senators and congressional reps, or was it possibly the congressional inquiry that was submitted on my behalf by a congressman or was it my interviews with news reporters who had the story shut down or was it that TV news team who were on their way that day to see me at the protest then were told not to broadcast my story? Or was it my promise to never go quietly away? Bottom line, Mayo Clinic scares me. Note: a congressional representative’s aide told my husband & me in a meeting at the Florida Capitol that “Mayo Clinic is very powerful. Be careful. Watch yourself.”

HINDSIGHT: I should have run but I trusted them. They were the doctors. I was the patient.

Remembering the words of my Mayo Clinic GI doctor I saw for 3 years at Mayo--it occurred to me that he was aware something was going on in my case. He had said “I think the way you are being treated here is not right. I am going to discuss your case with the board at our next meeting.” This was right after I was in the hospital again at Mayo for another internal hemorrhage from a bleeding, cancerous tumor in my small intestines that docs have now missed and misdiagnosed and insisted was gynecological. They did not listen to me. The hematologist and gyn docs were dismissive & pompous. They had to label me with something so they slapped me w/ a wrong diagnosis. I sat in chemo units for years, getting IV’s for anemia, surrounded by cancer patients & all those years I had cancer. Anyway, I really did not understand what the GI doc meant at the time but it came later that he knew something was not right & he was trying to help me I think. It was finally my GI doc who did help find my first cancer. I am grateful to him and I want him to know I think he is a good man & a good doctor. I know he tried. Heartfelt thanks Dr. MP in Gastroenterology on Mayo Clinic’s 6^th floor, Davis Bldg. There are many good people at Mayo but when they make mistakes, the patients are not always treated fairly & this is directly related to the culture created by the leadership of Mayo Clinic. A good, compassionate leader would not allow patients to be treated the way he treated me.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.

If you are experiencing problems with your medical care, lack of diagnosis or you think you’re being misdiagnosed. Find a better doctor. Make it happen. Don’t waste time.

HELP AMEND & ENFORCE FLORIDA PATIENTS’ BILL OF RIGHTS

CALL/EMAIL/WRITE your congressional leaders/senators and ask them to amend Statute 381.026, Florida Patients’ Bill of Rights and to enforce the people’s rights. Ask them to fine providers who violate patients’ rights and to create a review board to review & investigate violators. Require ethics and compassion education for violators. Restore compassion and humanity to Florida healthcare and demand justice for patients harmed by malpractice.