Chiang Mai Ram

[mistymateasia68]

Has anyone been overdiagnosed at Chiang mai ram and received bigger bills than they were expecting.

What to do?

[Ajarn]

Negotiate with accounting on the 4th floor

[ThaiPauly]

Who was your Doctor?

[Loaded]

I know a farang sports teacher who was diagnosed with a spinal injury when he attended this hospital complaining of sharp pain through his hip and back. The 'specialist' said he would need surgery and there was a 50% chance he would end up in a wheel chair. Obviously he was concerned and wanted a second opinion - the swiss chiropractor across from central viewed the x-rays and said it wasn't a spinal injury. Long story short, after 2 MRI scans, x-rays, 2 weeks in hospital and a great deal of stress and worry the 'specialist' found the problem: infected muscle in his thigh. Drained in minutes and out in hours.

I will avoid this hospital unless I have a heart condition (best equipment in CM)

[Loaded]

^ ps

They billed him close to 200 000 baht for their expertise.

[Dustoff]

~

Long story but I only go to ANY Thai hospital if I already know what my problem is and am ready to order my own tests through a doctor.

I had serious symptoms and the docs told me:

CM Ram Hematologist: (No tests or physical exam in spite of my insistence) "Don't worry about it. Light massage and warm heat."

CM University Hospital Vein/Artery Specialist: (No tests or physical exam in spite of my insistence) "I THINK you have an infection." He mis-prescribed antibiotics and two different anti-inflamatories, telling me mistakenly that one was a pain medication and they were sadly contra-indicated.

Bumrangrad Hospital Bangkok Hematologist: - 25,000 baht CT-scan and blood tests, diagnosed polycythemia and prescribed Aspirin - TOTALLY contra-indicated with the meds I was already on and I damned near died of the medications before I wised up!

Intensive Internet research on my part told me that life expectancy with my condition was two years without proper therapy and I had already been through two years of mis-diagnosis and potentially deadly mixes of prescriptions.

I no longer rely on the Thai medical community and the great number of stories I have heard/witnessed over here tells me that I had better learn to take care of myself.

Over the last six months I have ordered my own tests, taken my own prescribed medications, altered my diet and taken appropriate suppliments and am now in complete remission!

During a reading of my latest blood tests, my cardiologist (the best I have found in this entire country) at CM Ram said, "Huh? How did you do THAT?"

Exactly..

I think that dentistry here is pretty damned good (Grace Clinic) but when it comes to medical, you had better learn to heal thyself!

In a medical emergency, rather than subject myself to the rusty surgical bayonets of the CM hospitals, I would head for Bumrangrad Hosp (Sukumvit Soi 3) in BKK.

[Ajarn]

~

Long story but I only go to ANY Thai hospital if I already know what my problem is and am ready to order my own tests through a doctor.

I had serious symptoms and the docs told me.....

Gawd, if I had taken every Thai doc's suggestion, I'd be dead a long time ago, like when the doc prescribed me a medicine without telling me that studies have shown users of this drug increase their risk of death.... I found out by having a small heart attack. Or the time when a Ram 1 doc told me that anything below 300 (sucrose level) is fine...I'm a diabetic and it's not true at all... "Fine" is more like 120... Or the McCormick doc who can't read an X-ray, and missed the spot of TB on my wife's lungs, later caught by a Ram doc!....

Anyway, got a million of them, it seems... The best way is to use the internet to investigate any drugs, and the experiences of others as your basic guide. Be as proactive as possible.

Oh, and common sense here rarely comes easy

They haven't got me yet, but they're close.

[Dustoff]

~

It is not only Thailand, just to avoid the thought that prejudice is happening here.

In the States, the number of people who die from medical malpractice per year is equal to the number of coalition troops that would die, given the current rate, over the next what, seventy years of war...?

How many people die a year of snakebite or malaria in Thailand?

Selfish guy that I am, I just don't want to be one of them...

It is all in our perspective, yah?

Edited January 3, 2006 by Dustoff

[chanchao]

What a scary picture you're all painting..

And I thought hospitals were pretty good here.. Esp Ram and Lanna..

[briley]

Hospitals are not good places - lots of people die there.

But seriously, medicine is an art form not a science so diagnosing is all too often a matter of luck - both on your part and the doctors.

Prescribing should be more accurate, but anyone, anywhere, who does not read the leaflet that comes with all medicines is asking for trouble.

The best advice came from my father who said go away, if it is still bad in 24 hours I'll look at it. Normally it was better in 24 hours (or I'd forgotten about the problem!)

[Norman d'Plume]

Hospitals are not good places - lots of people die there.

Not for want of trying - Some get better too.

It's like the old joke - Two boys in bed next to each other, one asks the other: "Are you medical or Surgical?"

"What's that mean"

"Did you come in to get well, or get sick?"

Prescribing should be more accurate, but anyone, anywhere, who does not read the leaflet that comes with all medicines is asking for trouble.

And only a fool accepts hospital medicine without demanding a copy of the leaflet.

The best advice came from my father who said go away, if it is still bad in 24 hours I'll look at it. Normally it was better in 24 hours (or I'd forgotten about the problem!)

Works almost every time with my children!

"Daddy, I'm ill. I can't go to school."

Quick check, hand on forehead. No temperature.

"Okay. We'll visit the school nurse. If she sends you home, you don't have to stay at school."

[kerryk]

What a scary picture you're all painting..

And I thought hospitals were pretty good here.. Esp Ram and Lanna..

I went to RAM I had bacterial food poisoning and a skin ulcer that just would not heal. I had been to two other doctors who had prescribed doxycycline and that did not work. The Doc at Ram gave me cravit and it cleared them both up in three days. I was pleased with the service, quick and efficient and both the Doctor and Pharmacy there asked me if I was allergic to any medications. The medication and the visit were 700 Bht. Both the other two Doctors at clinics were 300 each.

[rrose070]

We had very good experience with Ram, it was my husband's "home away from home" a few months ago, as we had a couple of moto accidents - one big, one small. Very, very impressed with the doctor and the care.