Laxman P. Patel. (continued) Incompetence Personified. 

Introduction: As I have already explained in one of my most recent articles, (referred to in its title as an introduction to Dr. Laxman P. Patel, 02/16 /13), this man was the first psychiatrist at The Arizona State Hospital assigned the responsibility of overseeing my care and treatment there. And from day one, a doctor with as much or more experience at ASH than any other radically screwed up my flow of treatment in a manner that has literal life and death implications in terms of my specific diagnosis. With respect for the information about this so called health care professional included in my previous article, I have several other things I want to get off my chest about his conduct, as well.

1) During that four month period of time during which I was under Patel's direct "care" (my quotes), there were a number of instances wherein Patel made statements that he would later deny. He did this in front of my entire inpatient treatment team on more than one occasion, much to my chagrin and to that of the other team members. But at ASH, these psychiatric professionals exercise an inordinate amount of power over all other ASH staff, which effectively affords them the opportunity to conduct themselves however they want, with no concern about how lower ranking staff feel about them. So far as my own role in these discussions, I feel comfortable in asserting that I have reasonable communication skills, even excellent communication skills in most settings, including my ability to listen very closely anytime I am in an important discussion; and I definitely consider each and every communication I have with doctors of any kind to be quite important, and thus make it a priority to pay very careful attention anytime I am engaging in medical consultation(s) of any kind. In this sense, Patel proved to me on several very pointed occasions that he could not be taken on his word. But what was most infuriating about this aspect of Patel's ineptitude, was the fact that when I brought such miscommunication(s) up, he would always state the same freaking thing: 

"You are hearing what you want to hear."  

As noted already, Patel stated this one mare than one occassion in formal meetings of my inpatient team, thus bringing into question the veracity of my character, and more than potentially altering the terms of my treatment and care in ways that may carry inherent harm. There is myriad evidence to the effect that this particular pattern of mental health staff placing the blame for breakdowns in communications (and any other number of like matters) on the patients is one of the oldest practices known to public mental facilities such as ASH, and in fact, in yesterday's news article in the Arizona Republic newspaper (reporting the failure of the Arizona Department of Heath Services to reasonably care for mentally and behaviorally troubled juveniles) included ADHS Director Will Humble directly attributing the merits of that report to "dishonest" teenage patients (see "Busted...", Feb. 17, 2013). It should be no surprise then, that this is also the standard practice at ASH. Many/most staff at ASH exhibit a Pavlovian reaction whenever patients choose to report wrongdoing in any capacity, by declaring the patient(s) as delusional, over emotional, pathologically dishonest, or in my case, as "hearing what (I) want to hear."  But as illustrated by the statements made by Patel when he conducted the ASH Psychiatric Admissions Assessment that I discussed in my previous article about this quack, it is Patel who suffers from selective memory and/or dysfunctional hearing (see "Laxman P. Patel: Herein an Introduction…." Feb. 16, 2013). Here again, a clear example of the substandard health care conditions at ASH, and the role that incompetent senior clinicians play in contributing to these conditions. Only at ASH. 

2) Not long before Patel and I parted ways, he refused to pay attention to my  heightening concerns about patient abuse and related staff misconduct. Rather than avail himself in the context of considering the implications of my concerns, he exhibited a patently cold-hearted lack of compassion for such matters, and initially stated this:

"You need to focus on your treatment, and not that of the other patients. What goes on in the lives of other patients is none of your business, and the manner in which my associates choose to treat their patients is none of my business."

Laxman  P. Patel's statements to this effect are in strict contradiction to his most fundamental obligations as a physician, obligates spelled out in the Hippocratic Oath, and the specific terms of his professional license as an American doctor. By refusing to concern himself with my reports in this context, this so called care provider literally pissed on the most humanitarian aspects of contemporary health care. Only in Arizona, only at ASH. At the time (April 2011), I was less than three months through my total hospitalization at ASH, and in terms of my diagnosis, I was still working to regain fluidity in my own thinking, and related stability to my emotional state, and being so new to ASH in this sense, I didn't really know how to respond to Patel's statements at the time. (In hindsight, I should have reported his ass to the state medical board). So I merely tried to emphasize to him that the issue has direct impact on the patient community in general, and the fact that in my case, these issues were causing me deep-seated anxiety and fear about my own safety, and were not something that I could simply ignore. But there was little point in my making that effort, for Patel effectively ignored my concerns, and only furthered the disconnect between me as his patient and himself as my doctor that much more by stating:   

"What? Do you think you can change the system?" 

Suffice it to say in this instance, that it doesn't take an American citizen steeped in civics and government to realize the extent to which the ideals of self-determination, pro-active participation, and open/free discourse have shaped our nation's history.  But I feel that it does take an American, and by birth and upbringing, Patel is definitely not an American. He was born and raised in India circa a time of great upheaval and corruption; India, a nation that is undemocratic, has an archaic and yet still in effect closed caste system, and hardly ranks in terms of progressive thought and practice in the context of western democratic values. I was a but stunned (at the time) to hear this so called professional caregiver state this, but I clearly recall gathering my wits and rustling up as civil and sincere a response as I could, saying something quite to the effect of:

"The system will run just fine no matter what I do. But I was raised to understand that it is upon me as an American to participate in this system if I want to effect change, so yes, in this sense, I am intent on changing the system, at least to the extent that I can by merely participating in it in this specific context. What do you suggest, doctor? That I just sit back and ignore the physical and emotional abuse of my peers? " 

This was one of the last meaningful conversations I was capable of having with Dr. Laxman P. Patel, because at that point in time, my willingness to trust his skills and character as a doctor began to crumble. As stated already, I do have reasonable communication skills, including formal training in the area of conflict resolution and formal mediation; and when it comes to critical discourse of any kind, I am reasonably adept at spotting trouble. In the context of my life history (as survivor of childhood abuse, for example), once I recognize a snake, I tend to cut that individual out my loop pretty directly. To some extent this happens as a consequence of my legal training, while to some extent it occurs as an acquired survival skill; and at The Arizona State Hospital, it occurred so often it made my head spin at times, days when I virtually interacted with one dishonest or abusive staff person after another. There are a lot of snakes working at ASH,  and the worst of them are the very ones running the show in that accursed place, people who reflect long entrenched discriminations against mentally ill persons and an absolute incapacity for reasonable compassion and fairness in this context. These are age old issues that still threaten to undermine the well being of Arizona's most seriously mentally ill and disabled citizens. Personally, in contemporary terms, I interpret these issues as a manifestation of evil, and in a hospital setting, at that, for at the expense of Arizona's citizens as whole, these individuals draw fat paychecks and the related benefits of state employment, while simultaneously engaging in graphic misconduct, in blatant defiance of the public trust, and to the detriment of ASH's patients.   

Nothing could be more wrong.  

Only in Arizona, only at ASH. 

  paoloreed@gmail.com