Medical Error Interviews

When Laura Johnson’s father Bill, a healthy and active senior, went for a simple medical procedure, Laura’s gut instincts told her to miss work and go with him to keep him safe. 

But Bill told her he had a friend accompanying him and assured Laura he would be fine because “how bad could they mess this up”.

Tragically, Laura’s instincts were right. Her father was not safe in that hospital under their care. And the doctor responsible for Bill’s care, is the daughter of a doctor who is imprisoned for medical fraud. The medical apple does not fall far from the criminal tree.

Laura shares what happened to her father, how he was blamed when the procedure went wrong, and how staggering levels of medical incompetence lead to his early death.

Connect with Laura Johnson:

https://m.facebook.com/laura.g.johnson.7

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

Medical error and harm can take many forms and occurs in almost every medical context, except perhaps during autopsies.  So when a medical error occurs during a joyous event like childbirth, it can not only impact the immediate experience, but may also cause lifelong suffering and disability.

This is what happened to Carol Sunnucks when she went to the hospital to give birth to her son Kai. It was a hard labour and they had to use a suction device to pull Kai out -- but the doctor failed to check Carol for internal damage after that difficult procedure. This would prove to be catastrophic to Carol’s health and future. 

To make matters exponentially worse, the medical error and the damage it was causing was not detected for so long that any hope of Carol recovering her normal bodily functions is seemingly gone.  

Layered on top of that is the betrayal Carol subsequently experienced by both the health care and legal systems.  Carol and I talk about her experiences and what she’s doing to make meaning out of someone else’s failure to do their job.

Connect with Carol Sunnucks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.sunnucks.92

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kaibaby28

Email: [email protected]

Ashanti Daniel is one of those people who knew their career destiny as a child - and then made it come to fruition. As a nurse, Ashanti had the inside view of how the health care system operates - so when she got very sick and  was hospitalized multiple times, she thought that being a health care worker would afford her legitimacy in the eyes of her medical peers.  

But Ashanti quickly discovered that being a black woman with ‘normal’ results from routine medical tests, trumped years of working as a health care professional.

While medical gaslighting is endemic throughout the health care system, it is especially evident if you have a disease that has no biomarkers, and you are a female of colour.  Ask any one with a complex chronic illness, and you will most assuredly hear a story of doctors denying the patient experience of their own body, and instead attribute physical symptoms to psychological causes. And this is based on nothing except the doctor’s biases, prejudices and ego. For black female patients with a complex disease, it could be argued that the operationalized ‘standard of care’ is gaslighting. 

As Ashanti experienced, a doctor can write whatever they want about a patient in the medical records. It doesn’t have to be true. The amount of power doctors wield over people is the power of life and death. At their whim, they can deny testing, ignore a diagnosis, and label a person as mentally ill. In some jurisdictions, doctors can have a person committed to a mental hospital against their will.

The medical system is a pathological mess, driven and controlled by a god complex culture. Until doctors change their culture, there will continue to be -- as Long COVID patients are discovering en masse -- many doctors that inflict great harm by disbelieving patients.

Connect with Ashanti Daniel, RN

Instagram: @AshantiRN

Twitter: @AshantiRN

Linktr.ee: www.Linktr.ee/AshantiRN

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

In the early hours of the 28th of July 2016, Colette McCulloch was hit and killed by a bus. Eighteen hours earlier Colette had walked out of the specialist care facility for autistic adults where she was being treated.

Throughout Colette’s short life, her parents Andy and Amanda, sought out medical professionals to try to explain and ease their younger daughter’s extraordinary mind. Since Colette’s death Andy and Amanda have been fighting various medical and legal authorities to uncover the failings in her care and treatment. 

In our interview, author Andy McCulloch tells the story of his daughter's life and untimely death: the years in which her autism went undiagnosed, her lifelong battle with eating disorders and the lack of support for her complex needs. In spite of these challenges, Colette forged a path to university to pursue her passion for literature and to have her writing published.

Over the past year Andy and Amanda have written a book about their family’s experience with the health care system titled “Why Can’t You Hear Me?” - and it includes some of Colette’s writing, where she articulates her experiences grappling with a world forever at odds with her. With this book, Colette’s dream of having her words published has come to fruition.

Colette's story is ultimately a call to action and a message of hope for a future in which autistic people will be better understood, appropriately cared for, and able to flourish.

Connect with Andy McCulloch:

Twitter: @AndyMcCulloch5

Buy his book: Why Can’t You Hear Me?

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

Implanting plastic mesh inside our bodies doesn’t sound like a smart thing -- and it wouldn’t have happened to Michelle Hedgcoth if a previous medical error hadn’t damaged her body.

Michelle was a healthy and happy career woman when she gave birth - but the doctor, who had given Michelle an episiotomy, failed to sew her back up after the baby was delivered. This failure would have devastating consequences on every aspect of Michelle’s life.

In an effort to ‘fix’ their mistake, doctors performed a surgery to implant plastic mesh into Michelle’s abdomen. Plastic mesh that can disintegrate releasing toxic and sickening poisons -- plastic mesh that can twist, break apart and pierce internal organs -- plastic mesh that can attach itself to organs so that it can never be detached.

In this interview, Michelle tells us what happened to her in the health care system, the impact it has had on her body, her health, her family, her career, and what she is doing today to make others aware of the dangers of mesh implants.

Connect with Michelle Hedgcoth:

Twitter: @WCmeshfighter

Facebook: WestCoastMeshFighter  https://www.facebook.com/Westcoastmeshfighter

Instagram:  WestCoastMeshFighter  https://www.instagram.com/westcoastmeshfighter/?hl=en

Website:  http://WestCoastMeshFighter.com

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

Like the vast majority of people, you have probably taken an antibiotic at some point in your life.  And it probably helped you. However, a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones can cause permanent and severe damage -- this is known as fluoroquinolone toxicity, or, in the US, fluoroquinolone induced disability - FQID. This is a global health care problem that few know about -- or are warned about by their doctor. Why is that?

In this episode, I chat with someone who has insight not only into the dynamics that keep this medical harm mostly hidden from the public, but has also been profoundly impacted by fluoroquinolones.

Marc from Germany is just one of 10s of 1000s of people around the planet who have been injured by these antibiotics. Marc shares how he finally connected the dots between his declining health and repeated use of fluoroquinolones, and what he does to help alleviate the toxicity symptoms so that he has an improved quality of life. 

The statistics of harm from fluoroquinolone toxicity are vastly under reported because the toxicity symptoms may not noticeably manifest until days, weeks or months after the antibiotic use. This makes it difficult for those affected to identify the cause of their symptoms, and a challenge for physicians to tease out….or even acknowledge.

Symptoms include tendon rupture, aortic rupture, hypoglycemia, nerve damage, mental health issues and -- surprisingly to me -- a dysfunctional response to exercise known as post exertional malaise, the hallmark symptom of the neurological disease ME, or myalgic encephalomyelitis. As you will hear, Marc postulates that some people diagnosed with ME may have fluoroquinolone toxicity. Is he connecting more dots, that the medical system is missing?

Connect with Marc:

Twitter: @FQID2

Marc’s Doctor is Dr. Stefan Pieper

https://praxisdrpieper.de

Dr Pieper released a "Springer essential" at scientific publisher Springer in German with basic facts about diagnosis and possible treatment regarding FQID (Fluoroquinolone Induced Disability) https://springer.com

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

Multiple award winning author Marcus Sedgwick is best known for his popular fiction books, but his experiences with deeply entrenched medical gaslighting inspired his new book titled “All In Your Head - What happens when your doctor doesn’t believe you.”

Marcus describes how he got sick with flu like symptoms...but they never went away. Marcus was thrown into a world he did not even know existed, a world where very sick people are disbelieved and often belittled by physicians. A world Marcus is also seeing unfold for the millions of Long COVID patients around the world, where their physical symptoms are often dismissed as psychological. With Long COVID we are witnessing millions of people being medically traumatized by global gaslighting. 

Marcus and I discuss the immense pressure physicians are under, from the government and insurance companies, and why the medical system has been set up so that it is in the physician’s best interest to say ‘it’s in your head’ rather than in your body. #FollowTheMoney

Connect with Marcus Sedgwick

www.marcussedgwick.com

‘All In Your Head’ preview: 

https://marcussedgwick.com/all-in-your-head/

Twitter: @marcussedgwick 

Instagram: @marcussedgwick

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

When Alice Urbino was a young teenager she got the flu and never got better. Her mother - desperate for her daughter to recover - paid for what she thought was a legitimate treatment -- even though young Alice could plainly see the ‘lightning process’ was based on pseudoscience.

Nevertheless, Alice was pressured to partake in a cult like atmosphere with absurd rituals that amounted to brain washing. Alice was made to believe that she chose to be sick, and that even expressing feelings of nausea or fatigue were signs that she wasn’t trying hard enough and that she had the wrong attitude and that’s why she was still sick.

Not surprisingly, young Alice was brain washed and internalized the blame and shame and soon became depressed and started hating herself. For years, belief in this ‘treatment’ affected Alice’s mental health and belief in herself and the physical symptoms she experienced.

In our interview, Alice tells us how she overcame the internalized gaslighting caused by the lightning process, and to warn us about what she learned about the lightning process’s infamous founder Phil Parker, who professes to have the “ability to step into other people’s bodies...to assist them in their healing”. Parker - who is often called out as a charlatan on social media - has a long history of financially preying on the sick, vulnerable and desperate.

Link to Phil Parker’s old prototype page: https://t.co/VNjPRdxjjd?amp=1

Connect with Alice Urbino:

twitter and instagram are both @aliceurbino

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

Ryan Clark had it all. Successful career. Great relationships. Healthy body.

When Ryan noticed a bit of hair loss, like many men, he took a common medication known as Propecia to promote hair growth. 

Unbeknownst to Ryan, Propecia can cause post-finasteride syndrome - causing sexual, neurological, physical and cognitive adverse reactions - it is a condition with no known cure and few, if any, effective treatments. 

In the ensuing years, Ryan’s body started to break down and unfamiliar and confusing symptoms manifested: anxiety, trouble sleeping, erectile dysfunction and memory problems. 

But his doctors were not making the connection between Ryan’s symptoms and the hair growth medication -- even after Ryan developed testicular cancer -- very few physicians are even aware of post finasteride syndrome. 

In our interview Ryan shares the heartbreaking losses he’s suffered to his health, his relationships and his career as a direct result of the medication -- and Ryan shares about how he’s finding meaning in helping and supporting other men who’ve had their lives ruined by a medication the health care system fails to recognize, let alone treat.

Connect with Ryan Clark

https://twitter.com/RyanCla64726007

https://www.facebook.com/ryan.clark.589583

https://www.propeciahelp.com/

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

If a surgeon told you that they were going to implant plastic mesh around an organ -- perhaps your bladder or bowel -- and screw the ends into your pelvis and spine -- would you have that surgery?

What if the surgeon also told you the plastic mesh may disintegrate and release toxins into your body causing multi system dysfunction -- and that the plastic may twist and puncture your organs or press against nerves causing suicidal level pain when you move -- would you have that surgery?

What if the surgeon also told you that if you experience these symptoms --- that no doctor will have been educated to look for the signs of plastic mesh injury  --- that no doctor will believe you if you think the symptoms are caused by the plastic mesh --- that you will be gaslighted so often that the gaslighting becomes internalized -- would you have that surgery?

What if the surgeon told you that the plastic mesh has an expiry date and that protects the manufacturer from medical negligence lawsuits --- and that the expiry date is not from the date of the implant, but from the date of manufacturing -- so the plastic mesh can sit on the shelf for many years before it gets implanted -- would you have that surgery?

If a surgeon told you that plastic mesh may ruin your physical health, cause intractable pain, disable you from working or exercising or socializing so that you lose your career, your home and your future and quality of life may plummet -- would you have that surgery?

Sally Maddocks was not informed of any of these possible outcomes when the doctor recommended surgery. And Sally is not alone in having her life irrevocably harmed by corporate profits over patient safety. But Sally is fighting back with a petition to raise awareness so others avoid potential harm, and to hold her government accountable for their actions.

Connect with Sally Maddocks:

https://twitter.com/maddocks_sally

https://facebook.com/groups/2327576

https://facebook.com/groups/1567096

https://facebook.com/groups/117040

https://facebook.com/groups/2039629

https://facebook.com/groups/325473

Be a podcast patron

Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions. 

Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month.

Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  [email protected] 

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.** 

Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  [email protected]

Scott Simpson: 

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here. 

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.