Since I was a young man I have never wanted kids of my own. I asked a doctor for a vasectomy when I turned 18 and they said no way. Every couple of years I would bring it up again and repeatedly doctors said that I was too young to make that kind of decision and they wouldn’t do it. Finally, when I turned 30 I told the doctor that if he didn’t do the vasectomy that I would sue him. He agreed to do the surgery, but first I had to get a letter from a psychologist saying that I was clearly making this decision AND I had to get the written approval from my then live in girl friend.
So sometime in 2001 I got the vasectomy as an outpatient procedure at Southern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, VT. That hospital is a death trap, but that is fodder for another blog post. Needless to say, the doctor fucked up. I ended up getting a bad infection in my scrotum. The surgeon refused to make an appointment for me to come back in as, “Some infection was normal.” Some infection? My balls were the size of oranges and completely black and I had pus coming out of the stitches! I said, “Fuck this!” and got myself good and drunk and high on pot and used a handheld mirror and an exacto knife and cut the damn stitches out myself and cleaned everything up with alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. Everything cleared up and returned to “normal” within a day or two of my removing the stitches myself.
After the infection and swelling cleared up, I still had pain in my scrotum. I figured some pain was normal and lived with it… for years! At some point, maybe about 10 or 12 years ago, I made an appointment with Dr. Ernest Bove in Rutland, VT. He is NOT the surgeon that did the vasectomy. I got to his office and filled out the initial patient visit forms and waited to see the doctor. At the time my insurance was Medicare as I was on disability.
When I finally got in to see Dr. Bove he asked me what was wrong. I explained what had happened with the vasectomy that had been performed several years prior and said that I was still experiencing pain in my scrotum. He looks over my file and questioned me why I was on Medicare. Seriously. If a doctor suspects fraud, then they should report it, but it’s not really his business why I was on Medicare. I told him the truth.
I told Dr. Bove that I was on disability after shooting myself in the chest with a 9mm gun and then overdosing 6 months after that and that my disability was psychological. He asked me what psych meds I was on at the ti,me. I told him. I wasn’t on any pysch meds. I am what is considered “treatment resistant” meaning that pysch meds do not work on me! He immediately called me a fraud. He told me that I was bilking the Medicare program and he would not be part of it. He then threw me out of his office!!!! He refused to treat me because I was not on pyshc meds and he therefore concluded that I was a fraud.
Imagine how surprised I was when I got the paperwork showing that Dr. Bove had BILLED MEDICARE for my visit!!!! So… he calls me a fraud… tells me I am scamming Medicare… and then he bills them for refusing to see me. To add insult to injury, he had me in collections for 7 years because I refused to pay him for telling me I am a scum bag.
Who is the real scum bag? Dr. Bove discriminated against me because I have a psychological disorder and didn’t fit his stigmatized parameters for someone who is disabled. Why am I writing this now a decade later? Because I am finally able to stand up for myself and articulate what happened without wanting to or threatening to punch the man in the face.