Powerful article
August 15, 2005
Over the past 4.5 years, as Psychologist for the Bridges Surgical Weight Loss Program at St. Luke's Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, I have been privileged to personally interview more than 2000 patients seeking bariatric surgery. This experience has obliged me to reflect on the treatment that many have received at the hands of the very people who these vulnerable individuals contact for help with this traumatic condition. It is not a secret that the base rate of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) in the obese population is higher than in the nonobese population.[2] The stories that have been shared with me about how these people have been treated by friends, family members, and yes, even medical professionals have revealed the cruel and inhumane conduct to which the obese patient is regularly exposed.[3,4] Why those trained under the principle of primum non nocere would engage in emotionally harming those who have come to them for help is a mystery and speaks more to the issues of the professional than to the physical status of the patient.
This is a really powerful article. I can't tell you how many times a health care professional has made being overweight worse that it is.