“You are kræftfri. Congratulations! We quit you from here.”
that was the gist of the message to Michael Nørgaard Nielsen from a young turnuslæge in the summer of 2018.
Michael Nørgaard Nielsen, however, was everything else than kræftfri.
“It is possibly the most grotesque I’ve experienced in my long history. I had to explain that I had precursors to cancer throughout the abdomen. It would be fatal to end me,” says the 49-year-old man.
B. T. in the last few weeks brought stories from the patients themselves had to act and navigate in a health care system that is highly specialized, but where the track is missing and, therefore, it will be up to them to take responsibility for their disease and treatment.
Michael Nørgaard Nielsen is one of the patients who take responsibility themselves, reads his test results, must, ask questions, and get translated lægesproget in its records.
But he discovered, unfortunately too late, how active you as a patient must be to get the right treatment.
When in 2011 he became associated with reumatologisk department due to an inflammation in the back, he was well prepared for his meeting with the Danish health care system.
“I had what I call a hassle to list with. A list of things that I thought was relevant to the doctors. Including, that I had trouble to pee, and that it was getting worse and worse.”
But gigtlægerne was not interested in Michael Nørgaard Nielsen’s problems with awareness. It would later prove to have fatal consequences.
Although Michael Nørgaard Nielsen had been married to his wife for 11 years, suggested to a doctor that his problems with the bladder perhaps that was due to a venereal disease. Another doctor thought it was due to obesity, and later on in the process suggested she was probably talking about anxiety.
Meanwhile, Michael Nørgaard Nielsen’s symptoms got worse and worse, and two years after he first described his problems, he began to pee blood.
Away went the strong.
the President of the medical association Andreas Rudkjøbing tells to B. T., that the doctors can recognize the problem, patients are greeted by an opaque health care system, where the overview is missing.
“unfortunately, It is also something we experience as physicians, as the system becomes more complex,” says Andreas Rudkjøbing.
the Same view, the director of the Danish Patients Morten Freil:
“There is no doubt that the later years with specialization has borne a lot of good things with themselves among other things in the area of cancer, but sygdomsbilledet becoming more and more complex, and there are a lot of healthcare professionals inside of a patient’s treatment.”
After Michael Nørgaard Nielsen was blood in the urine, rushed gigtlægerne to send him on to the urological department.
It turned out that Michael Nørgaard Nielsen had cancer of the bladder, but even though he now had a diagnosis, it started to go up for Michael Nørgaard Nielsen, how much he should get involved in its treatment.
It is now a year and a half ago, Michael Nørgaard Nielsen was close to being completed as the cancer patient in the health service.
He had even been inside to read his test results, must after an operation and had spoken with a professor about them. The professor had he been assigned as the contact person via a pilot.
“I finally had to explain to the doctor that in laboratoriesvarene was that I had precursors to cancer throughout the abdomen. ‘carcinoma in situ in the whole resektionsranden’ was the wording,” says Michael Nørgaard Nielsen, who remembers that the doctor was a little upset, until he found the same place in the journal.
“So was it good enough for a part ‘uh’ and ‘well’, until he found that, ‘so we keep continue a good eye with you and will see you again in three months’. Just think, all of them in the bar joy never would have responded?,” wonder the 49-year-old man.
Just a contact or a patientansvarlig doctor is one of the things that Danish Patients and a number of sundhedsordførere believe, can prevent patients end up as kastebolde in the system.
“When everyone has responsibility, then there is no responsibility,” says director of the Danish Patients, Morten Freil.
Michael Nørgaard Nielsen now receive immunotherapy against his illness, which will hopefully keep the cancer in abeyance.
