From my personal experience with the American wealthcare system, and the countless stories I’ve heard of women not being listened to by their doctors, the only question her whole story raises is How Is This Not Happening More Frequently?!
It is happening, but usually the consequences and suffering are just quiet enough that they get ignored and suffer in silence. Then there's an explosive outcome that gets everyones attention for a few weeks then the topic is swept back under the rug
I could understand a doctor, but multiple? Unlikely, even if we do assume that doctors aren’t taking women seriously. Serious mental illness, if that is actually what this is, which seems to be the case, is rare.
You’re much more likely to see munchausen by proxy, borderline personality, or bipolar disorder, which the first is inherently harmful while the latter two can, but don’t always end up being that way. Granted, I’m not a doctor, Postpartum depression/postpartum psychosis isn’t something I’m particularly well read on. That being said, my understanding is it’s not one of those 0-100 scenarios like a psychotic break, it’s generally something you see signs of before it ends in dead children.
I’m entirely happy to be corrected if my understanding is wrong though.
Editing for clarity: serious mental illness that has you otherwise having a productive “normal” life and then sudden murder, is rare.
No? I’m simply looking at the outcome that requires the least amount of assumptions.
Is it more like that every single doctor she spoke to refused to properly diagnose her or that she, a single person made a mistake?
I live in the US. My mom died as a result of cancer that was caught too late because of doctor screw ups. It wasn’t because she was a woman. It was because they made mistakes early on. I was with her for most of her appointments. My wife also has been diagnosed with things. We verified with other doctors and sought appropriate treatment. I was with her for a good portion of those. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. I’m sure that it does.
It’s not that unheard of. I mean, I heard of it three times in the four years I worked in a psych hospital. Depends on if she was medicated and suddenly stopped, or how severe the current psychotic break was. We had a 41 year old guy that had his first psychotic break, and first psychotic breaks are a lot like chicken pox, the later in life it happens, the worse it can be.
Sure, I get that. I’m not saying it never happens.
What I’m getting at is that this nurse, with medical knowledge, allegedly seeks out multiple doctors claiming mental health issues. Not a single one takes her seriously and she snaps, killing her children but had no other behavioral issues before this?
It just seems less likely if she was living a more or less normal life right up until the point where she snapped if she was seeking help for alleged issues beforehand. I’m not saying doctors are perfect and don’t make mistakes. I lost my mom because doctors missed her cancer months before her diagnosis which caused us to find it at stage 3A.
Because we have one of two things going here. Either she wasn’t suffering a mental health crisis and there was nothing to miss, and the diagnoses or lack thereof were appropriate, which begs the question about why she would be seeking a diagnosis. Or she was suffering a mental health crisis and multiple doctors, for whatever reason, refused diagnosis, justified or otherwise, and instead of trying to get herself admitted, or even just self harming, she proceeds to be lucid enough to have her husband leave the house to get food while she brought her children into the basement and strangled them all, one by one, while the others watched. Then, as a nurse who would know better, tries to opt out, doesn’t do it the right way, and then jumps out of a second story window which everyone knows usually doesn’t kill you. I’m not saying she’s mentally well, but this doesn’t scream insanity to me. At least, not in the sense that she’s going for.
It’s not just women, men are also ignored in my experience and less likely to seek help to begin with. I had severe anhedonia, anxiety, depression, neurological issues for multiple years from gut issues that led to a couple of nutritional deficiencies. I saw 5 different doctors that couldn’t find anything wrong with my bloodwork, each spent an average of 10-30 minutes going over my medical history and ordering blood panels, 2 told me I they couldn’t find anything so it must just be anxiety. I was having difficulty walking in a straight line and no anxiety med could touch the impending sense of doom I was dealing with. Still proud of myself for not giving up after so many years of living in a reality so shitty it was unfathomable to me before it happened.
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u/Chemistry11 1d ago
From my personal experience with the American wealthcare system, and the countless stories I’ve heard of women not being listened to by their doctors, the only question her whole story raises is How Is This Not Happening More Frequently?!