On Sept 2nd, 2010 the Today show ran a segment on Gentrie McKall Hansen, a girl, who recently was diagnosed with Gastroparesis & underwent surgery for an Enterra neuro-stimulator implant. I am glad Gastroparesis is getting some national attention. Her story highlights major issues with our medical system here in the United States. So many things are written off as being “in your head” or mental problems. We’re starting to have a problem with “fast food” doctors, who do not truly care about or listen to their patients or possibly are under immense pressure to push patients in & out the door. I think another story that highlights this is Michael Douglas’ recent diagnosis of stage 4 throat cancer, even though he had been trying to find the reason for his sore throat and ear ache for months, no one caught his cancer early until now. It makes me angry, isn’t the United States supposedly the best healthcare system in the world?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
References:
Gentrie’s Hunger Game
Gentrie McKall Hansen’s facebook
G-PACT
Gastroparesis & Dysmotilities Association
Living With Gastroparesis
I am so glad this story was published. My daughter is being treated for Gastroparesis as well- now a candidate for pacemaker. It has been a horrible two years for her. She was 16 when diagnosed.
Please thank Dr. Nancy Snyderman for her interest in this condition.
Patricia Amon
Thank you for publishing this story. My grandaughter has been going through this same scenario as Gentrie for over a year. She went from 130 lbs. to 90 lbs during this period, and was mis-diagonosed from anorexia, bulimia, to emotionally unstable, krohn’s disease, etc. by major hospitals, and mistreated with meds that should never have been prescribed for her, until, finally, I, with my daughter, stayed with her at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Children’s Hospital in N.C. for nearly a month for diagnosis and treatment for gastroparesis. She is now home with her mother, and is, seemingly, being treated with the appropriate treatments through appropriate nutrition W/small amounts of food over 4-5 small portions a day, in addition with antibiotics. We were never told aboaut the pacemaker that Gentrie is using for her treatment. Should we ask her doctors about the possible use of one in her case? And, as she is 17 and will be 18 in three months, will we need to locate a doctor who treats adults? And, she is currently being treated by a pediatrician internist from UNC Children’s Hospital in N.C. who is teamed up with a neurologist, child psychiatrist, nutritionist, G.I. specialist, etc. Are we on the right track? And, if so, and, if not, please advise that we are on the right track, and how to keep going in the right direction and to ask the right questions——-and, if we are on the wrong track, please advise how we should follow up and pursue the right plan of “attack’ to get the right, care, diagnosis, treatment, etc. Our family has been on a roller coaster ride, now, for over a year, and especially so, because, our daughter lost the older sister of her current teenager three years ago when, as a healthy teenager, she went into a hospital , and she died within 24 hours because of incompetent staff,doctors, etc. misdiagnosed her and mistreated her which led to her death. We, currently, for the past three years have sued the hospital, staff, etc., and it is an on-going thing, As you can imagine, my daughter, her immediate family, and my wife and I are, and have been going through “hell” for the past three years, and presently, are going through our current bout with our grandaughter with gastropareses.
I apologize for rambling, but our family is very distraught with our supposedly “best medical system” in the world, as we already have lost one grandaughter to the incompetency of the system, and we do not want to lose another one.
My frustration is bringing myself to tears as I am trying to explain the need for us to do whatever we must do to prevent us from losing another grandaughter because of weaknesses within our healthcare system. I guess, you can say that, I am desperate, and our family is desperate in wanting to find the right advice from the right people to make sure that we can we can put our grandaughter in the right hands by the right healthcare people to help her live a normal life with the right treatment. It was so refreshing to hear the symptoms that Gentrie had, and that she was a goal-oriented student with good grades, etc, and that, she, wanted, in fact, to live!, and, wanted to eat. Our grandaughter was home-schooled all last year, and received all A’s , in spite of her school not cooperating in wanting to support my daugter and grandaughter’s rights to have her educated.
Believe me, this ordeal has been a real nightmare for all of us.
Thank you for reading this message, and I do hope to hear from someone as soon as possible with advice as to what to do.
Thank you, sincerely, Bill Killen
I am sorry to hear about your granddaughter’s struggles. I’ve sent you an e-mail Bill with information. I’ve merged that information into a post on the site as well.
Hopefully your granddaughter can rebound like Gentrie did :).