Saturday, July 11, 2009

A William Hamilton Ayres Primer on "Physical" Exams in the Therapeutic Setting

I've been trying to keep a list of all the strange comments Ayres has made about physicals, record keeping, informing parents etc. Here are some of them. Feel free to add to this list
- Ayres says he didn't keep records about the physical exams he did on most of his patients because he had a"really good memory."
-Ayres says he didn't keep records about his physical exams because "other doctors didn't ask for them." ( Wonder why that was ? Could it be that it would never occur to them that a head shrink who was seeing boys for behavioral problems would suddenly decide that he was a pediatrician? )
- Ayres said he felt the need to do physicals on boys because pediatricians "aren't thorough. Their exams are too quick."
-Ayres says he told parents he did physicals on their kids but they just "forgot."
- Ayres said he thought parents would automatically know that a physical exam he did on boys would include a genital exam. ( How about all those rectal exams, Dr. Ayres? Do you think the parents would assume that as well?)
- Ayres said he didn't do physicals on girls because he would need a chaperone. I don't understand why he thinks that boys wouldn't need a chaperone.
- Ayres said he didn't discuss his findings about the physicals with the parents because "they weren't in the waiting room." One mother posted on the Daily Journal Forum that Ayres specifically asked her to leave the waiting room and got angry with her when she didn't. The fact is that Ayres didn't want parents in the waiting room to crimp his style!
- In a 2004 deposition, Ayres said he only did physicals on boys who asked for them. However, several mothers have come forward to say that Ayres told them that their sons were "very difficult" because they wouldn't let him take off their clothes.
-In a 2004 deposition, Ayres said he only touched kids who complained of jock itch or poison oak or a hernia such. But now in his testimony he says he would test for anything medical if he thought it was affecting the child's mental health. He blames his first answer in the civil deposition on that mean old lawyer, Bob Tobin.
- Ayres got angry with the prosecutor for focusing on the genital exam. Does he not know that she is focusing on this because touching boys' genitals and masturbating them to ejaculation is against the law?
As I said, feel free to add to this list. What strikes me is how Ayres never talks about the actual mental health of his kids. He keeps acting as if he is a pediatrician and that he knows better than Board Certified pediatricians. Yet if he thought he could do a better job, why did he not talk to the boys' pediatricians after he performed the medical exams?
It's obvious that the only reason Ayres did not become a pediatrician is because parents are there in the room with the kids. It's clear that Ayres chose child psychiatry because he could be alone with the boys.

[DS NOTE: This was originally posted on 7/11/2009, and moved up for visibility]

4 comments:

  1. Wonder what actual Board Certified pediatricians think about Ayres?

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  2. I may have commented on this before so excuse me for repeating.

    I REALLY don't buy Ayres theory that he gave better care than a pediatrician.

    First, a pediatrician does not have two different standards of care when treating a male or female child.

    If you are a pediatrician you treat both male and female children.

    A pediatrician almost always has a nurse or medical assistant to help and be a CHAPERONE if necessary.

    For Ayres to even imply that he was meeting a better standard of care than a pediatrician by giving less than a full exam to a female is the ultimate example of bad medical care!

    Female children experience puberty. But exams by Ayres to assess the stage of puberty were not given to females. He clearly was not going to treat acne or ASK the female patient if he could check out any of her concerns.

    Was he to cheap to get a CHAPERONE for females?

    Oh no, his motives were not so innocent. He was a pedophile lurking each day on innocent children, the poor male children.

    If I were a pediatrician I would be outraged that he would get up on the stand and state his treatment was superior.

    Was Sam Leavitt not a pediatrician? How does he feel about being down-graded to incompetency by his friend and colleague?

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  3. I heard that Dr. Sheldon Gross is not too happy with Ayres, seeing that he molested his own son. . Dr. Gross's wife told a reporter from the County Times in 2006 that if she weren't sick, she'd be picketing Ayres house.

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  4. A very good point was made, and that point being the reason Ayres chose child psychiatry over prdiatrician. You have done an out standing job on this piece.

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