ARD Proclamation, March 12th, 2001, Beverly J. Doucette

Offering Hope and Help to the Victims of ARD Worldwide

Written
By a victim of ARD
FOR ALL victims who suffer ARD

ARD Proclamation
March 12th, 2001
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Beverly J. Doucette

Two years ago I was fighting one of the biggest battles of my life,
I was fighting FOR MY LIFE!

I suffer “Adhesion Related Disorder,” and I have suffered with it for 16 years.
All but two of those years found me searching, begging, fighting and battling my way through Dr. after Dr., surgery after surgery, only to find that what I thought was going to be a resolution for my pain and suffering, turned out to complicate it even more! My experience is by no means unique to me as it is repeated time and again to most people who live with ARD!
What happened to me back then was simply due to my being uneducated about my own physical symptoms, and if anyone were to ask me why I wasn't educated about ARD, I would tell them that there was no way that I knew of to secure any information about it. Day after day of searching through the internet, there was no mention of "adhesions" relating to the human body, nothing was mentioned to me by the attending physicians, nor by the surgeons, and last but not least, I could not find any information regarding my symptoms in any reading materials I had access to...
which was quite a few by the way!
It simply was not talked about, even when I went to nursing school, I never heard the word adhesions ever mentioned!

It is easy to understand “Post Surgical Adhesions,
Simply put, “ they stick your internal organs together following a surgery ”
Simple!
But ARD is anything but simple and this conclusion is more then obvious when one looks into the
International Adhesion Societies posting board!
The reason we are all sitting in this room today is the result of seeing far to many desperate people seeking understanding for their suffering, begging for help for their pain, fighting to be recognized for their disease and searching for an explanation for what they have!

I allowed my medical care providers to do anything to me without question, I trusted them without a single doubt that they would do anything but help me get better
to live an active, pain free and comfortable life! That type of intervention was not to be found for me anytime soon, instead I was subject to even worse pain and suffering following each surgery!!
To add insult to injury, I was never offered any information as to why I suffered what I did. I was not only suffering physically, I was tortured psychologically and emotionally by the lack of knowledge that seemed to surround this disorder.
If there was anything positive in any of this, it was that after a number of surgeries and having the pain and associated symptoms of ARD return to plague me repeatedly, I figured out that something wasn’t right here, so I started to question thing’s and I haven’t stopped!!

I’m not going to say that I don’t have some anger and disgust about all of that, as I do,
I am not going to say that what happened to me and to thousands of others who suffer with ARD isn’t the result of negligence, or that it wasn’t due to those within the medical field having no more of a clue about how to effectively resolve my symptoms then I had.
I don’t know why this happened to me and I don’t know why it continues to happen to others, as what happened to me,
did not have to happen!

I may not have been able to be saved from physical suffering by those who I turned to for intervention, but most certainly, I could have been told that my pain was real, and that my affliction had a very real cause, thus, I would have been able to find some peace within my pain and suffering and been spared many lonely and frightening times as I pondered my own sanity! Had my Dr.'s followed their “HIPPOCRATIC OATH” to not cause me more suffering then I presented to them with, both my family and I would have been spared pain that is not rooted so deep within me that yet today I fear any medical intervention I may warrant and do not secure!
I realize that one day, I may die from something that very well could have been cured had it not been for my lack of trust in those who I entrusted my very life to and failed me.
What I do know is that I did not fail myself and today I am standing here healthier then I have ever been in 16 years!

This tells me that there ARE answers, and that there ARE ways to reach out and effectively help the sufferers of
"Adhesion Related Disorder!"
Maybe help will not come in the form of finding relief from the pain and suffering of this disease, but I know that, “ peace ” CAN be found through
EDUCATION, COMMUNICATION, COMPASSION, and RESPECT
of the ARD sufferer!
When those simple measures are not met, it is not the Dr.’s who suffer, nor is it society as a whole who suffer, it is the person and their families who are living with ARD that suffer!
Justice has been referred to as,
"the soothing balm to be applied on those wounds inflicted by societies lack of awareness"
It doesn’t matter the age, gender, or race of the adhesion sufferer, a gapping wound is laid open every time they present with pain and suffering and are met with
IGNORANCE and LACK OF UNDERSTANDING
from society as a whole!

But when there IS no justice, those wounds can never be cleansed and never be healed!

President John F. Kennedy said it best:
And I quote,
“ We face a moral crisis as a country and as a people,
those who do nothing are inviting shame and suffering,
those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality!”

On behalf of all persons who suffer Adhesion Related Disease,
I am asking that you hold all those within the medical society to do
what is right and moral,
because it IS just and Lord knows it is time!

Is it ever to late to do the right thing?
For the sake of justice, and for the hope of all those who suffer ARD
I sincerely pray it is not!

*********************************************************

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH
I swear by Apollo the physician, by )+(sculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath. "To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; to look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction. I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."
Beverly's opinion regarding her surgeons and the "THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH."
In regards to the surgeons who performed an adhesiolysis on me prior to Dr. Harry Reich, April 22, 1999 I am of the opinion that they forgot that they in fact took this oath. Based on prior patients returning to them with adhesions, time and again, knew that they were not skilled enough to offer me an effective resolution to my suffering and knowing what I faced as I approached their respective surgeries, took gross advantage of a vulnerable, desperate patient. I am also of the opinion that most surgeons are of this same mind set and though they know they are not skilled enough to offer the ARD patient effective resolutions to their symptoms, they will do a surgery themselves non the less. Their greed and egos get in the way of allowing them to admit that maybe they are not qualified to help this patient and just maybe they could help this patient by assisting them to surgeons who can offer them a chance to secure some resolutions to their symptoms and a future!

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