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Insensitive medical professionals

B_lily

I’ve had a rather traumatising morning and was wondering if this was a problem other people on the spectrum have encountered?

4 years ago I had shingles. The past couple of days I’ve been getting horrendous burning pain that feels like shingles did last time. It’s a bank holiday so we phoned 111 and ended up going to an outpatient clinic at the hospital. The doctor (male) said he needed to examine me. My mum was with me, as was a chaperone (female nurse) and we explained to him that I was autistic and that I was very stressed at the thought of being examined as the pain was around the groin area and I've never had anyone have to examine me there before. I had hoped that would be enough to make him mindful of being delicate. He was not. It was horrible. I was lying on the bed, holding onto my Mum’s hand, crying my eyes out and having to shut my eyes. He said he couldn’t see any blisters so couldn’t give any antivirals in case it wasn’t shingles, which I completely understand (I study biomedical science at university and was worried that this scenario would happen), but his whole manner was wrong. He was very unsympathetic to my extreme distress and kept saying how he was “only helping”. 

Several years ago I had a similar experience where a female doctor needed to listen to my heart through a stethoscope and started pulling my vest up without my permission because she was frustrated that I was trying to cover myself up given my mum was in the room. So I got very distressed at the feeling of exposure and her lack of sympathy or delicacy.  (This was before I had my autism diagnosis)  

I would be very interested to hear of anyone who has similar stories, as maybe this is a problem that really needs to be advocated for in hospitals  

Parents

  • Hi yes this really needs to be brought to the attention of the british medical association the nhs and all health care providers in general

    i have experienced this recently i had a knee specalist ask me 'can you straighten it' i didnt know what he meant i asked what do you mean he got visibly angry grabbed my leg and straightened it. he didnt ask first didn't explain didnt wait for my full informed consent just thought he could do what he liked with my body without checking i knew what he was doing and giving permission

    I also asked for reasonable adjustments to be made to my care because i am autistic and nothing changed, if anything it got worse and this same guy was saying comments like 'you need to work' as though my asking to my rights to be upheld under the equality act would change with the amount of work i do. i would always have the same questions about my health care irrespective of work.

    Any behaviour like this is against the equality act and breaking the law. Its not making reasonable adjustments for your disability and is discriminatory. Record all hospital appointments care take a voice recorder and write to the british medical association about this the health care providers keep their names etc and do your best to avoid them in future at all costs complain to the local health board some people just plain refuse to accept autism exists you deserve better

Reply

  • Hi yes this really needs to be brought to the attention of the british medical association the nhs and all health care providers in general

    i have experienced this recently i had a knee specalist ask me 'can you straighten it' i didnt know what he meant i asked what do you mean he got visibly angry grabbed my leg and straightened it. he didnt ask first didn't explain didnt wait for my full informed consent just thought he could do what he liked with my body without checking i knew what he was doing and giving permission

    I also asked for reasonable adjustments to be made to my care because i am autistic and nothing changed, if anything it got worse and this same guy was saying comments like 'you need to work' as though my asking to my rights to be upheld under the equality act would change with the amount of work i do. i would always have the same questions about my health care irrespective of work.

    Any behaviour like this is against the equality act and breaking the law. Its not making reasonable adjustments for your disability and is discriminatory. Record all hospital appointments care take a voice recorder and write to the british medical association about this the health care providers keep their names etc and do your best to avoid them in future at all costs complain to the local health board some people just plain refuse to accept autism exists you deserve better

Children
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