KICKIN' AND SCREAMIN'...........

Eye doctor sees patient with vision problems; tells her she’s fat and it’s causing diabetes which is causing her vision problems.

Doctor faces disciplinary hearing because apparently we can’t say, “you’re fat” anymore.

In a nutshell:

he recently told a patient she was irresponsible for being unemployed, on Medicaid, and relying on taxpayers to cover another pregnancy after giving birth less than a year earlier. What really galled her, the patient complained, is that Sunderhaus poked her thigh and told her she is fat.

…..

Sunderhaus, who describes himself as a plain-spoken old German, escalated the conflict by writing the patient to drive home his points using numbered paragraphs and signing it “sincerely.”

Then, Sunderhaus fired off opinionated missives to the board, which called him to Raleigh on Thursday for a closed-door meeting.

Sunderhaus’ point — that doctors need to advise patients to lose weight, because obesity is not just a personal issue, it’s a $147 billion public health crisis — may have gotten lost in the delivery.

…..

Sunderhaus ….stormed the beaches in defending his honor.

He wrote Gov. Bev Perdue, referring to the patient’s “irresponsible orgasm” that resulted in children whose medical care is provided by Medicaid.

He fired off numerous letters to the medical board, noting that its rules nauseate him and, among other things, that “the biggest hoax on mankind” is the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Sunderhaus notified The News & Observer that he was about to be “screwed” by the medical board. He admitted he told the patient that thick eyeglasses would not cause her to go blind “but her thick thighs and diabetes would.”

“I poked her thigh to emphasize that diabetes is the leading cause of blindness,” he said Thursday. “People have got to accept criticism without getting their bowels in an uproar.”

Sunderhaus, a trim man who appeared before the board wearing cargo pants and sporting a backpack, makes no apologies for his actions. He blew off a psychiatric test that the board arranged, and he flouted protocol by talking about his case, which the board would like to keep secret.

At the end of a conversation with this reporter, Sunderhaus offered $20 for her efforts. She returned it, but not before he tucked it in her sweater.

I love that last bit. And his attitude:

“I’m 77,” he said. “I can tell them to stick the darn thing.”

So…should he lose his job or be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom?