Dr. Jorge kept feeding more and more dangerous antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other psychotropic medications without ever coordinating with Mrs. X's psychotherapist, and in spite of obvious symptoms of Parkinsonism and Restless Legs and Weight Gain. Her husband caught on to what was happening: insomnia, increased depression, helpless tiredness, shaking, inability to stand still, facial twitches, hand tremors, and tried to point it out. She referred Mrs. X to Dr. Noel Delgadillo for ECTS, making a wrongful diagnosis that Mrs. X was beyond help with psychotherapy (remember, Dr. Jorge never coordinated with Mrs. X's psychotherapist) or medications, and that the only thing that could help her would be ECTs. We later learned that Dr. Jorge had either studied under or was a peer student of Dr. Noel Delgadillo at the University of Miami.
Mrs. X, age sixty plus, vulnerable, depressed for several years, and very desperate at her increasingly worsening situation went to see Dr. Delgadillo. He assured her that ECTs are safe, that there was very little danger of death or damage (as if passing a strong electrical current through the brain was indeed not dangerous), and that ECTs had a better chance of improving her situation than medications or psychotherapy. However, he told her that after the ECTs (about ten, he estimated) she would have to continue the program of medications. She turned Dr. Delgadillo down, and changed drug-management doctors.
Doctor Delgadillo was most emphatic in highlighting the benefits, and deemphasizing the negatives of ECTs. He resisted suggestions by Mrs. X's husband to evaluate the impact of antidepressants&Mr. X had done extensive Internet research on the impact of drugs on the nervous system. Dr. Delgadillo acted condescendingly towards Mr. X and tried to get, hurriedly, Mrs. X to accept ECTs without accepting any inputs from Mrs. X's family or without bothering to talk to her psychotherapist. He commended Dr. Jorge as a great psychiatrist who "was prescribing the right medications for Mrs. X."
The new doctor told Mrs. X to stop taking Zyprexa, Prozac, Ambien, Xanax, and changed the meds to try others (trial and error to see what would work). When she went on Paxil and Wellbutrin she got even worse. The Parkinson-like symptoms got worse. A consultant doctor suggested that primarily she should be hospitalized for drug reevaluations, and that there were other, newer antipsychotics that might help in her situation. This doctor suggested that Mrs. X needed the reevaluation to find out if the meds she was using were intoxicating her, but that detoxification needed to be done in the hospital and that insurance companies did not like to authorize hospitalizations for this purpose.
Mrs. X consulted Dr. Delgadillo again. This time, Mrs. X's husband intervened and insisted that first, before anything was tried, Mrs. X needed to be reevaluated in hospital. The doctor assured the couple that if they went to the ER the following Monday morning he would "see what he could do with the insurance company." The doctor agreed to med reevaluation. If that wasn't possible, the couple informed him that she would seek another hospital and doctor for admission for that purpose.
The couple went to the ER as suggested, thinking that Delgadillo had asked Mrs. X there to try and admit her for medication intoxication. Mrs. X was ready to go to another hospital for such a purpose. When the couple showed up, the attendants showed that Mrs. X was supposed to be admitted for ECTs. The couple opted to stay to reassure themselves of what was being proposed by Delgadillo.
Dr. Delgadillo showed up at the ER at 7 am (The couple had already been there one hour, and were both feeling very upset, vulnerable, and the husband had a bad cold and a bad back). Dr. Delgadillo, once again ignoring the husband, went to Mrs. X, hugged her (unauthorizedly), held her hands, got his face within twelve inches of hers, and talked about what he had managed to get from the insurance company: immediate hospitalization. Delgadillo told her that unless she went in she would die, and that unless she had ECTs she would die. Scared, she agreed in spite of the husband's protests that if she went in it would be for reevaluation of meds only.
In the hospital admission form, Delgadillo wrote that Mrs. X had psychotic symptoms, was clinging, demanding, etc. No mention of Parkinsonism caused by meds.
Dr. Delgadillo and Dr. Jorge studied at the U of Miami where there's a clinic of specialists that study Parkinsonism caused by psychotropic drugs. Two other corroborating and admitting doctors working for Cedars agreed with Dr. Delgadillo's assessment&doctors don't seem to want to question other doctors. Mrs. X was admitted under false pretenses. Delgadillo conned her; scared her to death; never made the right diagnosis.
Two mornings later, Mrs. X had the first ECT after signing a CONSENT FORM that did not specify the dangers of ECTs to the patient. She had already been vigorously sedated. When Mr. X saw her in the hospital, prior to the ECTs, she was a zombie.in addition to the innumerable meds she had been subjected for the past two years by Dr. Jorge, to the changes made more recently by two other doctors, Dr. Delgadillo did not hesitate to pump her full of thorazine, an older antipsychotic often used in mental hospitals to keep patients "under control."
How could Mrs. X be considered capable of an informed decision, in the hospital, to sign a consent form that didn't even specify the dangers. Her husband should have been consulted. Her psychotherapist should have been consulted. Her internist should have been consulted. None were.
After the first ECT, Mrs. X got worse. The Parkinsonism and Restless legs, the twitching of mouth and eyelids, etc., got much worse. It was scary. Dr. Delgadillo kept upping the doses of Klonopin, antidepressants, and antipsychotics, and kept denying to the husband that they caused those symptoms. Mr. X found a report by the University of Miami (among many others), where Delgadillo was now an Asst. Professor, indicating that these drugs had indeed many negative side-effects including Mrs. X's symptoms that included a worsening of the depression, and an increasing inability to sleep or get out of bed.
After four ECTs, Mrs. X had to withdraw from the treatments. Dr. Delgadillo insisted on going back to Zyprexa, one of the meds that Dr. Jorge had originally prescribed and one that had been discussed with him by the husband as a potential cause for the Parkinsonism. Dr. Delgadillo laughed at Mr. X's increased insistence that these drugs be stopped gradually, and ignored the fact that on the last visit by the couple to his office, Mrs. X could not stay still any more. She sat, stood up, sat, experiencing an irresistible anxiety. At this insistence by Delgadillo to deny the side-effects of the meds, and to deny the black-flagging already issued at the time for one of the antidepressants he had prescribed to replace previous ones (Serzone &NOW, MONTHS AFTER MRS. X'S PROBLEMS, BANNED IN THE USA, and previously banned in CANADA and EUROPE).
Mr. X questioned Serzone. Dr. Delgadillo laughed. Mr. X questioned Thorazine and Zyprexa. Dr. Delgadillo got really condescendingly annoyed.
Mr. X convinced Mrs. X to drop Delgadillo and found another psychiatrist through a relative. This new psychiatrist immediately diagnosed the damage by antidepressants/antipsychotics to Mrs. X, and withint two weeks the Parsinsonism had subsided and she was sleeping at least 4-4 hrs a night. Her anxiety and depression were much better. This was accomplished by, out of the hospital, taking her off all meds, and prescribing Benadryl, an anti-cholinergic and something Mr. X had suggested to Dr. Delgadillo (He denied knowing about anti-cholinergics).
Those psychiatrists misdiagnosed and stonewalled, recommending ECTs because that's why they do. This shows the deplorable state of the mental health industry in the USA. Cedars Hospital agreed to change their Consent Form through the Xs request for an outside agency to look into the matter, but the hospital never replied to the Xs.
The state of Florida medical board washed their hands from this disgraceful case.
Lawyers in FL are afraid to take action in cases like this, because the damage inflicted to Mrs. X, is not obvious and apparent, and did not involve death. Mrs. X remains unaware&memory loss never explained to her before ECTs&to today of many of her life's events. She suffered memory loss, and some loss of cognition. Things have to be explained to her sometimes three or four times.
The insurance company itself was deceived on the diagnosis made to allow Mrs. X into the hospital. The thing was to get her to the ER where the doctor could help himself by pronouncing the case as an emergency so he could get her checked in. Once there, a sixty plus year old woman was lost in the web of deception that abounds in such places.
Look well into a doctor's credentials, especially psychiatry. The industry is full of phantoms, especially in a place like Miami where many doctors get their original education outside the USA.
The ban on some medications like Serzone speaks for itself. The warnings on the other antidepressants and antipsychotics are now obvious by the FDA, and are all over the Internet.
Attempts to obtain medical records from Dr. Jorge failed. Her address became unknown. Even the State of Florida attempted to contact her and failed.
Delgadillo appeared on Miami, Spanish TV about six or eight months ago as an expert on EXORCISMS.
Consumer/Patients, especially elderly, beware.
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