Paula Meyer
1/5
My daughter has been begging for a new doctor for months, and now that I’ve done a joint session, I fully understand why. Dr. Dang is difficult to communicate with because she has poor listening skills. She constantly interrupts my child to start lengthy generic speeches that have little application to our situation. My daughter feels like Dr. Dang doesn’t care because she can’t give more than a three word answer before she’s interrupted. I saw it today and it was disturbing.
My daughter was hospitalized for anorexia nine months ago which is in her chart. Dr. Dang actually told her that getting good sleep would help her lose weight and started her lengthy canned speech about sleep and weight loss. In increasing volume, I told her My daughter was anorexic and should not be hearing this, but her sleep/weight loss speech just kept coming. I asked her three times to stop, but she ignored me until I shoved my face into the camera and said stop quite loudly. I should have hung up so my child wouldn’t hear more weight loss advice. She then said that my getting upset is “bad” for my child. I cannot fathom a more appropriate time to “get upset” than when a professional is telling my anorexic child how to lose weight. Dr. Dang - still in front of my anorexic child - told me that she knows teens and weight loss is a great motivation to get girls to go to bed earlier. I was horrified. Please just stop. With surprising calm, I told her that it’s difficult as a patient to not feel heard and to be talked over. I used the format for non violent communication which usually works well in tense situations, but not today. She became defensive and actually changed her clinical plan for my child. When I calmly told her withholding the new medication felt like retaliation, she tried to fire us as patients. This would have left my daughter without even her old medication until we can find a new doctor, and most child psychiatrists have an 8 week wait. Being a PA, I know it’s illegal to fire a patient and refuse to refill current medication without going through a process, but was smart enough not to say it. What she was attempting is called patient abandonment and it’s illegal. She then tried to gaslight me by saying that she never planned to add a new medication and I misunderstood her. She spoke about that plan on our last visit and again today…. before I confronted her about the inappropriate weight loss conversation. My 13 year old daughter heard the same plan and the same change in plan. I’m embarrassed to say what I did for my daughter to get a refill of her old medication. I begged and pleaded. I complimented the doctor about the good attributes she has. I literally begged her to give my daughter her refill. Sudden withdrawal from her meds can be devastating and require hospitalization, so I begged. No parent should ever be placed in that position. Please avoid this doctor. And yes, I’m reporting this to the medical board in hopes that nobody else is treated like this. I wasn’t going to add this, but it’s important for people to know. She also insulted my parenting and told my daughter that she’s lucky that she’s not in extracurricular music/sports/debate team until 8 pm every night and then come home to do homework “because that’s what good parents do when they want their children to have a successful life.” My daughter has encephalitis, if I used this doctors plan for a successful life, my child would need hospitalization. It was just a dig at her patients mom to try to put me in my place. This is the exact opposite of being a good psychiatrist. I calmly stood up to the bully and it wasn’t pretty. A doctor in her position should easily be able to handle a patient’s parent who has a legitimate concern about care. I’m glad my daughter recorded the conversation without my knowledge because I feared that maybe I was inappropriate. After reviewing the videos, I’m more appalled by her lack of professionalism and lack of self awareness. Patients deserve better.
