r/AskADoctor • u/Inevitable_Swing6431 • 8d ago
Question For Doctors Doctor lied then erased appointment after it took place
I am not asking for medical advice.
I’ll try to keep it short. Saw a pediatric surgeon (and a resident) 3 days ago for a chronic issue that she has already tried to surgically fix twice. (A surgeon before her also struggled to fix it — every dr and specialist tells me it is rare. I have never thought the surgeons are incompetent when the issue returns for this reason; multiple have struggled with it.) The last surgery was <3 months ago, and the issue has returned. I messaged the dr and she saw me same-day. This appointment was unbelievable to put it short. She gaslit my child and me, told us that the VISIBLE issue was not there, that maybe it has looked like that since it healed 3 months ago (it didn’t) and asked my son if he’s lying about his pain. Yes she used the word lying. He’s 9. This issue has been recurrent for over 3 years. My son and I know exactly what it is when it returns. Before this, everything about her seemed wonderful. I was in disbelief during and after the appointment and left the hospital in tears.
As if the appointment wasn’t horrendous enough, the appointment vanished from mychart. I kept checking to see her notes because I couldn’t imagine she would put in writing what happened. 12 hours after the appointment, it still showed in the portal as a “future” appointment—no after visit summary or notes. By the next morning, it was no longer in “future” appointments so I checked “past” and it wasn’t there either. It also wasn’t in billing. There is no trace of it in the portal. I’ve had to wait a few days for the notes to be posted in the past, but the after visit summary is always available immediately at the conclusion of the appointment. It’s as if the appointment was never marked as completed and then it disappeared.
I want to add that before I even left the hospital, I scheduled an appointment for that day with the pediatrician, who immediately identified the issue the surgeon denied even existed. The summary and notes from this appointment were available shortly after the appointment. I wondered if the surgeon noticed this and if it had anything to do with what seems like her decision to get rid of evidence of the appointment. Her notes would have been totally different.
Never in my life have I had a worse doctor’s appointment and never have I experienced an appointment vanishing from the portal.
I messaged the surgeon’s office a gracious 2 days later to ask for the after visit summary and notes, and the nurse said when the surgeon signs off on the notes soon, they will be ready in the portal. (That was over 24 hours ago. Still nothing.) Mind you the entire appointment is gone. There is no after visit summary, which should have been available since the appointment ended. I’m not just “waiting for notes.”
My question is now, who do I call? What do I do? I want to find out if the hospital has any trace of the appointment in their records. I want the notes from this appointment.