'Fat' remark snares Asheville doctor

[bijou]

An Asheville eye doctor said he is prepared to go to court against the N.C. Medical Board if it reprimands him for telling a patient she was fat.

Dr. Earl Sunderhaus, of Asheville Eye Center on Tunnel Road, is awaiting word from the board about any actions it may take against him for making cutting criticisms of a female patient, including telling her she was fat and poking her thigh.

The Medical Board will decide if Sunderhaus overstepped the bounds of professional decency. Sunderhaus could lose his medical license.

"They are chastising me for telling her she should lose some weight because it is raising the cost of health care and it is also bad for her children and she is going to end up with diabetes," Sunderhaus said. "I had to take three days out of my practice and go down to Raleigh, losing income, just because somebody didn't like that I told her that she was fat."

The patient complained that Sunderhaus poked her thigh and told her she was fat, and scolded her as irresponsible for being unemployed and relying on taxpayers to pay for another pregnancy.

"I told her the thick glasses were not going to blind her, she would go blind because of her thick thighs because diabetes is the No. 1 cause of blindness in this country," Sunderhaus said.

In response to the patient's complaint, Sunderhaus wrote back to the patient and sent letters to Gov. Bev Perdue, The Raleigh News and Observer and blasted the Medical Board. ...

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20091121/NEWS01/311210013

[formerlurker]

Uh, this eye doctor has some serious issues -- all of the things he talked to her about is outside his field of practice.   Most bizarre individual. 

That said, running his mouth shouldn't equate to losing his license or being reprimanded (by anyone outside his employer).    Silly nonsense.

[formerlurker]

A self-described brusque, aggressive, hard-headed, 77-year-old German, Sunderhaus has written numerous letters to the editor published in the Citizen-Times. He has called for government-imposed tubal ligation and vasectomy or castration to control overpopulation and for the city of Asheville to disband its government and merge with Buncombe County, and criticized the high school curriculum and the Drug Enforcement Agency, among other issues

 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I would have told her, "You're the picture of health...in a very, very large frame."

[Alpha Mare]

I asked my eye dr's opinion on a pending procedure concerning my head (behind the eye). He prefaced his reply with "if it was me..." and saved me from an unneeded surgery for a misdiagnosis. I   my eye guy!

[Baruch Menachem]

Senile and idiotic and way out of line.

But, if diabetes is a cause of her blindness, she should be told

[lastparker]

All he did wrong was neglecting to explain which Earl Sunderhaus was doing the talking.  He should have said something like,

"Dr. Sunderhaus suggests you try to lose some weight for both your general health as well as the potential damage to your eyes due to diabetes.  Private Citizen Sunderhaus suggests you could lose weight by getting off your lazy a$$, getting a job or two to support yourself, and keeping your legs together until you can support your own offspring.  That is all."

[Thor]

Uh, this eye doctor has some serious issues -- all of the things he talked to her about is outside his field of practice.   Most bizarre individual. 

That said, running his mouth shouldn't equate to losing his license or being reprimanded (by anyone outside his employer).    Silly nonsense.

That's not really true. Being overweight causes diabetes, which, in turn, causes eye problems, in particular, macular degeneration. Was it really outside his field?? I don't think so.