Everyday people walk into doctor’s offices, hospitals, or cosmetic centers and blindly trust their healthcare providers. Today we are speaking with guests who say they are living in their own
personal hell because of healthcare situations. Patty says her bright and healthy 22-year-old son Michael died as a result of a botched brain surgery. After allegedly undergoing unnecessary surgery, Michael was left unable to speak, see or feed himself. After suffering many seizures his parents decided to take him off of life support. Patty is now trying to prevent other tragedies like this from occurring to other patients and their families. Bill is a man that is on a mission to save other women from the same fate as his wife, Maureen, who was misdiagnosed three times and told she did not have breast cancer. Bill and Maureen’s sons, Ryan and Erik, will be here to talk about their mother’s ordeal. You won’t believe what happened to Angela after having a laser hair removal treatment. As a patient what can we do to protect ourselves from harm? Attorney Judith Livingston will be here to speak extensively about patient safety issues, patient rights, and the kinds of medical errors she sees in her practice everyday.
Bill Thiel is on a mission. His mission is twofold. He wants to educate women about the standard
of care for the detection of breast lumps. He also wants to better the system in order to save women's lives. Through Bill's own personal experience with his late wife Maureen, he has identified two critical areas where systematic change and increased education are desperately needed: - A Universal Standard of Care for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of breast lumps must be established. - Women must be given the legal right to demand a biopsy.
The current problem with the standard of care is that it is anything but standard. The standard varies in all areas and doctors are not even legally required to follow that particular standard. Women also must have the right to insist that a biopsy be done if they so choose. Bill has been working with both state and federal legislators to pass a law that will give women the legal right to demand a biopsy of a breast lump and that will educate women about their legal rights through a government-funded public relations initiative.
Bill's ultimate goal is saving women's lives. Establishing a Universal Standard of Care for breast lumps and granting women the right to demand a biopsy may save hundreds, even thousands of lives each year in the United States. The horrible truth is that, even as you are reading this, somewhere a woman is being sent home with a lump in her breast. She is being told what Bill's wife Maureen was told: "Don't worry. It's not cancer. Come back in a year for your annual mammogram."
Maureen's Mission began with a promise Bill Thiel made to his wife, Maureen, before she died. Maureen asked him to make sure he told her story so that other women wouldn’t have to face the same fate as her. She didn’t want her life - or her death - to be in vain. She did not another woman to have to suffer the pain she dealt with due to her misdiagnosis.
Remember, even as you read through this website, somewhere there is a woman being sent home and told not to be worried about the lump in her breast. That woman may have an excellent reason to be distraught and not be sure where to turn. Maureen's Mission wants to ensure that never happens again. Maureen's Mission wants to establish a Universal Standard of Care for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of breast lumps, for every woman, everywhere in the United States.
"Fulfilling this promise in telling Maureens story is the hardest thing I have ever done, but is worth all the pain, every time I tell it, if I can save another women's life. When I first received the box with the book in it, I drove around for three hours, I never had this feeling. I wanted to share opening this box and seeing this book for the first time with someone. I knew I need only share it with Maureen. When I opened this box it was like Unleashing Maureen. All her pain, her anger, everything just came out, it was like ok world here is Maureens story. It was like stepping down from all the work we have done and letting the book out, to do what it was meant to do. Save lives." author Bill Thiel
http://www.maureensmission.org
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