Dr. Gott: Critic with ‘advice’ misinformed

Dear Dr. Gott: You have no business dispensing medical advice in any field in which you are not a specialist. An 88-year-old man has absolutely no business having an abdominal aortic aneurysm repaired. Do you have any idea how extensive this surgery is? It will most likely kill this man, if not on the operating table then within a year from surgery even if he were in good physical condition. I wish I had access to your files, and if I had this man’s name, I would warn him. If he died, I’d have you up for criminal prosecution. How the heck does someone like you ever get to write a column of this type? I have read your column in the past and seen the ludicrous medical advice you have given on other issues, but this one takes the cake. Stop giving medical advice to people on the basis of their letters and suggest only that they see a real specialist in the field of their condition and symptoms. I am contacting my local paper and requesting your column be pulled from this and any other newspapers their parent company owns. I’ll also contact the Newspaper Enterprise Association. This stupidity has got to stop! Get it?

You are the “Dear Abby” of medical journalism, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

I am, by profession, a consumer advocate, so you had better take my words seriously.

For the purpose of this letter, I will remain anonymous; however, you will know my name if this malpractice continues.

Dear reader: I’m sorry that you disagree with my column, which I write to keep people informed about medical issues. Judging from the 2,500 letters I receive each week, my readers are glad to have this information. I think this makes me a successful consumer advocate. In all the years I have written this column, I have received only a handful of letters such as yours. Sadly, you’re missing the point.

Now, to the column in question. If you had read the letter from this gentleman, you would have known that his vascular surgeon recommended the surgery. He also had a friend (who happened to be a physician) recommend surgery if the aneurysm grew. So, you see, I was simply a third-party physician who recommended the surgery as well. I hope your next letter, which I am certain will be a response to this, will be more thought out. Thanks for writing.