Epilepsy Scare Will Pass

September 4, 2006
by Brent Kellogg

As if more proof is needed that Lynn Marie Latham, the top dog responsible for the nonsense we see everyday in Genoa City, and that she and her lackeys Jack Smith and Kay Alden are so far removed from reality and do not, despite their claims to the contrary, create anything meaningful or engaging, let us look back to 2002 when Smith and Alden - channeling through Dr. Nora Thompson - botched Ashley Carlton's breast cancer.

It was March 18, 2002, when there seemed to be no doubt that Dr. Thompson was out to dethrone Dr. Olivia Winters as Genoa City's most inept medical practitioner.

Before she up and left Genoa City suddenly, the squinty-eyed Winters was responsible for so many deaths in this city there isn't enough space here to list them all. Patients repeatedly complained that Winters didn't listen to them, wouldn't take or return phone calls, always seems distracted and rushed, kept patients waiting, couldn't seem to remember important details of their cases, repeatedly interrupted them, called them by the wrong name and often traveled long distances to check on patients whose only symptoms were flu-like.

Complaints to have Winters charged with, and convicted of dereliction for performing emergency room duties, when she was barely skilled in general practice, fell on deaf ears.

And nobody seemed to know if Dr. Thompson had then, or now, a specialty as patients saw her for a variety of reasons. For example, Mrs. Ashley Carlton saw Thompson when she came down with breast cancer even though Thompson had said a few days earlier that Carlton was, "a little young" to have a mammogram.

Prior to the discovery of a lump on Carlton's breast, Thompson didn't believe much in mammograms at all. "A woman should do what she feels is best for her," she said.

Thompson's ineptness was further illuminated when she urged Carlton to have an immediate biopsy. Upon learning she has a lump, not that Carlton is one and many think she's really a man, a normal woman would want time to think about the implications. As a matter of routine real doctors allow patients to digest such shocking news before rushing to probe their breasts.

But not Dr. Thompson.

Citing her "star patient" role, Thompson reminded Carlton that because she sat as the chairperson on a local breast cancer awareness committee, any and all medical information would be made public. "It will be quite a story," Thompson said, and without giving Carlton a choice to opt out, she bumped Carlton up on the list of those waiting for biopsies. When asked what the odds were that Carlton had cancer, Thompson said, "In the majority of these cases, nothing is wrong."

Again Dr. Thompson displayed her total ignorance.

Experts agree that mammography detects tumors when they are smaller, that they detect more tumors, and that because of early detection, mammography gives women more options for treatment. The odds were 100-1 that Carlton had cancer.

Proudly, but irresponsibly and unwisely soldiering on, denying the significance of the warning signs, Dr. Thompson sent a message to breast cancer patients not to worry if a mammogram finds a lump or two in their breasts. As the whole world watched, the message was that power and position are more important than life itself.

Not that it matters, the cancer awareness committee was apparently disbanded as Carlton never sat on it again, or made any reference to her cancer once the crisis had passed as surely the current epilepsy scare in Genoa City will too.