Rachel Winters (part 2): Accutane Injury -- Doubly Deceived by Medicine and Family

Medical Error Interviews

As we learned in part 1 of Rachel’s interview, she comes from a family of physicians, and when she was seriously injured by Accutane, a medication many teens and young adults take for acne, Rachel found herself at odds with her family’s complete buy-in to the corporate pharmaceutical narrative and their wholesale acceptance of Big Pharma’s so-called research.

All the doctors denied Accutane injured Rachel and diagnosed her as psychosomatic. Rachel’s family also didn’t believe her, calling into question her mental stability.

Not surprisingly Rachel felt doubly deceived by medicine and her family, and as pretty much any one who’s experienced a medical error can attest, when doctors and hospitals deny the error or the harm it caused, that invalidated trauma gets deepened.

In part 2, Rachel tells about the pressure from her family to abandon natural approaches to health and embrace ‘better living through chemistry’, including taking Accutane for moderate acne.

We then hear the hellish side effects Rachel has and continues to endure, what she learned when she took a deep dive into Accutane side effects and the pharmaceutical industry, and how she’s coping with through advocacy and education.

Connect with Rachel and community:

Accutane Long-Term Side Effects 3.3k members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/214733665588935/

Accutane Survivors, Roaccutane, Isotretinoin Injuries & Side Effects 10.7k members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AccutaneSurvivors/

Life After Accutane - A Group For People Damaged By Isotretinoin - 300 members (for accutane survivors only)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?https://www.facebook.com/groups/lifeafteraccutane/

RxPilld (our awareness platform for pharmaceutical injuries):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2FCCzGU8gWCFrzS5CbjCoQ

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Be my Guest

I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer.

If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description: [e-mail]

Need a Counsellor?

Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error.

If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments.

**For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**

Email me to learn more or book an appointment: [e-mail]

Scott Simpson:

Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete

I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard.

I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships.

Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life.

I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life.

Counseling / Research

I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.

Patient participants would often report varying degrees of medical neglect, error and harms as part of their counseling sessions.

Patient Advocacy

I am co-founder of the ME patient advocacy non-profit Millions Missing Canada, and on the Executive Committee of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network.

I am also a patient advisor for Health Quality Ontario’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, and member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

Medical Error Interviews podcast and vidcast emerged to give voice to victims, witnesses and participants in this hidden epidemic so we can create change toward a safer health care system.

My golden retriever Gladys is a constant source of love and joy. I hope to be well enough again one day to race triathlons again. Or even shovel the snow off the sidewalk.