A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Dentist

I got a call the other day, from my Dentist. (hmmmm, your Dentist called YOU?) "We would like you to come in and discuss something. (hmmm, WE ?) "How is Friday Afternoon for you ?" Works for me... 1:00 on Friday. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS COULD BE ABOUT ! I've gone through every conceivable scenario in my head to try to figure this out. They want money? - no, the VA covers it. There's been some mix-up and they gave me a wrong medication? - no, it's been a month since I was there last, and I'm fine. W H A T ?

So I get there today and Dr. so-&-so, the Senior Dentist in charge of the office takes me down the hall, through a door, another hall and into an office with a Oak meeting table, Oak Desk, Oak bookshelves and a $500.00 suit and tie guy sitting there (Dr. whats-his-name, MD - Chief of Staff). Also seated is the VA Patient Advocate and the VA Social Services representative. At this point they have me completely confused ! (not hard to do) They introduce themselves and the Chief of Staff says "Dr. so-&-so is going to read something about your case and then we'll discuss it.

To put this, briefly, (hard to do) when they extracted one of my teeth, that was supposed to be bad, they "accidentally" took the wrong one. In boot camp, back in 1980, they pulled my wisdom teeth, but, because of an earlier bicuspid extraction, they left one wisdom tooth so my teeth would shift forward. Well, they didn't shift, they tilted forward. If you LOOK in my mouth you see one thing, and if you look at an X-RAY you see the truth. Got That ?

Well, my current dentist WROTE that he was going to pull teeth x & y, then looked and the pulled y & z. Well they had to go back in the following month and pull x. This means that they made a mistake that could lead to a malpractice suite. They were falling all over themselves, giving me, by law, all of my options. 1) Fix the problems with a partial or bridge. 2) Let me go to a regular dentist for second opinion and pay to have them fix it. 3) Sue the VA and the US Government for Malpractice. I could practically see them sweating. This went on for a good 10 minutes. "Full Disclosure..." "We're sorry !" "... honest mistake", "anything we can do..."

Now comes the weird part. Guess which Doug stepped forward? The SOBER Doug... The Karma Doug... The Christian Doug ! And it was good ! The VA had admitted their mistake, apologized for it and offered to make it right. What more could I possibly want. The Drinking & Drugging and Vengeful Doug never had the chance to stand up and be counted. I said "First, get off your tiptoes and un-clench your butt cheeks" (we actually SAID that). "you've owned up to a non-life-threatening mistake, and offered to make it right... I forgive you - Draft up a plan for indemnity, conditional to your repairing the issue to my satisfaction, and I'll sign it today. It was an honest mistake !" The group then took a collective breath, and everyone smiled.

In retrospect, not only was it the right thing to do, I will benefit in the long run, which was never the point. So remember to always "Do unto others..." and "Pay it Forward" "What's done is done - and for a greater reason that we can comprehend" God truly works in strange and mysterious ways... don't question them, just do what's put in front of you whats put in you and trust, trust, trust"