Mad Marshy: Anaesthesiology? Too Risky if You're Fat.

I saw this post over at First, Do No Harm. I'm going to quote the post in its entirety because a) it's short, and b) it had me so angry that I was almost in tears.

Even though my experience with my doctor when I originally injured my ankle was bad, thank goodness it didn't have the impact on my self esteem and respect for doctors that it has on this person.

I’ve had an ankle condition for the last ten years that doctors have been ignoring because of my weight. It finally looked as though I might be able to have surgery to ameliorate the problem. And then I met the anaesthetist.

“Hello, my name is Dr X. We have a big problem; your weight.”

“Yes, I’m aware it’s a problem.”

“Well, you know what the cause of that is, don’t you? It’s eating too much.”

The consultation went downhill from there. He told me I was at a higher risk for problems from the general anaesthetic (which I knew) but couldn’t or wouldn’t give me any idea of the scale of the risk, despite repeated asking.

He insisted that I cut my food intake in half and lose weight quickly for the operation, and told me to my face that I was lying about my dieting history (all twenty unsuccessful years of it), and that he ‘didn’t believe’ the results of obesity studies. He also informed me that it was healthier to regularly lose and regain weight than it is to keep a stable weight. In short, he gave me inaccurate and actively dangerous advice, and left me in tears with no way of making an informed decision.

At the moment I’m strongly considering giving up all idea of correcting my ankle condition, and just resigning myself to being unable to walk. And when I get fatter and less healthy from lack of exercise, I’m sure that’ll be my fault for eating too much as well.

I’m so angry about this. But what’s the point in complaining?

[formatting and emphasis mine]

I feel the need to punch something.