Stirring up trouble in the Radiology community....

Since my story on GMA aired last weekend, I've gotten lots of emails from people, most of whom I've never met, wanting to know who the doctor was that read my MRI to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them.

I also received a couple emails from Dr. Bradley, the doctor that was on the segment with me. Here is the first one:

Katie,

I was one of the people on the GMA segment with you last Sunday.

I seem to have stirred up a bit of a firestorm in the Radiology community over this piece. Someone has raised a good point, however. do you know for sure that the person that read your MRI was even a radiologist? I have copied all the ABC people on this in case that information is "privileged".

thanks. hope you are doing well.

Bill

My response:

Hi Dr. Bradley,

The radiologist who read my MRI works at Longview Radiolgy. His name is Dr. Hicks. Here is the link to their website. http://longviewradiology.com/our_team.shtml I believe he is the 4th one one the list---all of his information/schooling is listed next to his name.

When I went to the hospital to get the films for Nicole, we saw the first dictation that he did. It basically said everything was normal but then after I saw Dr. Kretzler who said it was in fact not normal, Dr. Hicks covered his tracks and added an addendum to the original dictation. It was frustrating to see that because I really think it was only because my parents called Dr. Gibb, their neighbor and another radiologist at the clinic, and told them Dr. Hicks really messed up and we needed to get the right dictation asap so my insurance company would refer me to the University of Washington.

We have all been pretty fired up after hearing your remarks on Sunday. How many other readings has he messed up on?? Pretty scary.

His response:

Thanks Katie.

It is really the first dictation that counts. What would have happened if you had not challenged his reading? I hate to think...

So he was reasonably well trained but there was clearly a screw up. Hopefully you got your treatment in a timely fashion and will not suffer as a result. I hate to ask but is there a lawsuit? if you still got treated in time, I doubt there will be anything to be gained by a lawsuit.

The GMA segment has raised a firestorm in the radiology community - which is ok by me. We need to curb the readings from the Dr HIcks of this world.

You now have my email address. If you have any new MRIs please get them to give you a CD and send it to me. I will get it to the best Bone radiologist in the WORLD (Don Resnick) who is on our faculty.

Bill

William G. Bradley, Jr, MD, PhD, FACR
Professor and Chairman
Department of Radiology

There wont be a lawsuit, but hopefully no one else will have a totally misread MRI again. I understand people make mistakes, but the fact that it was so obvious is the frustrating part. Thank goodness for the pain I was in!