A SOMEWHAT COMIC TRAGEDY

or

JUST A LITTLE ANXIETY

 

 

 

Presented to

The Chicago Literary Club

on February 13, 2006

 

 

by

Helen R. Rogal



A SOMEWHAT COMIC TRAGEDY

or

JUST A LITTLE ANXIETY

          The following is a true story with all names of people and places changed to protect the innocent and the not so innocent.  As the story moves on, the innocent may become the not so innocent and the not so innocent may become the innocent.

          It was around 5:00 p.m. in late February of 1983.  A glance out the window told me it was dark and stormy.  My office mates and the secretary had left and I was alone in my loop law office, ready to leave for my home in the suburbs where my two young sons awaited my arrival.

          The quiet of the office was broken by the ringing of my phone.  I wanted to just let it ring but my calls had not yet been forwarded to the answering service and I wondered who it might be.  I just could not resist picking it up.  The voice on the other end identified himself as a psychiatrist in a hospital in a suburb far west of the city.  He said that he had a patient named Svea who needed my help.  She had been hospitalized in the psychiatric ward for 6 weeks.  She was suffering from just a little anxiety. 

          The doctor said that the anxiety was totally the fault of her husband so Svea would need a divorce as quickly as possible.  She must be away from him.  She should have custody of the three children since she was only suffering from a little anxiety, and therefore, there should be no problem in her caring for the children.  She will be calling you in a few days. 

          This was puzzling.  I had never before received a call from a psychiatrist seeking a divorce for his patient.  Don’t psychiatrists usually allow the patient to make this decision?  Why would you be in a psychiatric ward for six weeks if you had just a little anxiety?

          A few days later, I received a call from Svea.  She asked to see me about a divorce.  I began to make an appointment for her.  She said that she could not come to my office, that I would need to see her in her home.  This was strange and I was even more puzzled.  No explanation was given as to why she could not meet me in my office as everyone else does.  Just a little anxiety did not seem to be a sufficient explanation.  Since her home was only a mile from mine, I agreed to meet her on my way home from the office.

          Svea lived in an attractive northwest suburban town home, which was some 40 miles from where she had been hospitalized.  She lived with her husband, Willie, and their three children.  Christofer was about ten years old, Stephan was eight and Britta was four or five years old.  All the children were attractive, pleasant and polite, and they all appeared to be intelligent.  The home was neat and filled with recordings of classical music and many books which would be called classic.

          Svea was a tall, stunningly attractive woman obviously of Nordic descent.  She began to tell me her story in English with a slight Swedish accent.  She replaced j’s with y’s. Thus, she liked to chew yuicy fruit gum.  She would tell you that she frequently yumped to conclusions and that when a person committed a crime, they might be sent to yail, not the one in New Haven. 

          Svea’s parents and siblings were still in Sweden.  She had come to this country as an au pair about 13 years earlier right after she finished high school.  While in this country, she met a man named Willie.  He was from Germany.  They had married around 1970.  She said she was very unhappy with Willie but could not tell me why.  From what she told me about Willie, he had no obvious faults such as alcohol or drug use.  He was not abusive.  In fact, from what she told me he seemed to be quite a decent sort.

          Next came the surprise.  She said that she suffered from agoraphobia.  Technically, this originally meant a fear of the market place but it has come to mean a fear of being out in public.  According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in use in the early 1980's, Separation Anxiety Disorder in childhood is a predisposing factor in the development of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia.  Svea most likely suffered from separation anxiety as a child due to the loss of her mother, of which we shall learn more later.  She was unable to leave her home except to see the psychiatrist whose office was approximately half a mile from her home.  She was able to drive there. 

          She told me that, with the exception of the half-mile drive to the doctor’s office, she would have severe panic attacks if she left her home.  She described her heart as racing so fast that she thought she would have a heart attack and die.  She would tremble and shake.  She would think she was going crazy.  She had difficulty breathing.  Is this just a little anxiety? 

The doctor’s office where Svea saw him on an outpatient basis was connected to a hospital where he also practiced.  Why had she not been hospitalized there rather than forty miles from her home.  If close by, her husband and children would have been able to visit more frequently.

          Now I was really confused.  The husband does not appear to be a dreadful person.  She can’t leave the home.  She has no education.  She has no work experience.  The husband works as a manufacturer’s representative and works a second job as a dental lab technician a few evenings a week.  He earns a decent income but not enough to fully support two households, not to mention paying the psychiatric bills. 

          After the divorce, Svea would no longer be covered on his insurance.  If she were able to get a private policy, and this was not likely, it would definitely not cover the panic disorder or the agoraphobia, both pre-existing conditions.  At the time, continuing two year coverage after a divorce was not available.  Even if insurance were available, how would she pay for it?

          I pointed all this out to her and suggested that she might not want to get a divorce, at least not at the present time.

          Svea insisted that she must get a divorce immediately and that I was not to worry about how she would take care of herself and the children.  She could not tolerate her husband any longer and she needed to be away from him as soon as possible.  She believed that this was the only way that she could recover from the agoraphobia and the accompanying panic attacks.

          Before we begin the story of the road to destruction that these characters are about to embark on, it’s time for a brief background on each.

          The doctor who shall henceforth be called Doctor Hassan bin Ethical was born in Lebanon and brought up in a Christian faith.  He went to school in Germany.  I do not know whether it was college and medical school or just college.  I do know that he had several residencies  in hospitals in Toronto.  He did residencies in cardiology obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, psychiatry and possibly one or two others.  He was quiet, soft spoken and was always dressed in a tweed jacket and usually carried a pipe.  He looked like a distinguished professor.

          Svea was born in Angleholm Sweden in the late 1940's.  Her mother divorced her father and left the home when Svea was quite young.  Her mother left so that she could marry someone else.  She took her older daughter, Svea’s sister, with her.  The older sister was a successful business woman in Stockholm in the 1980's.  Svea’s father was quite angry about the situation so he never allowed Svea to see her mother or sister again, the probable cause of the panic attacks and agoraphobia as was alluded to earlier.  At the time I met Svea, she was in touch with her mother and sister on a regular basis, but not her father.  She was angry at him for not allowing her to see her mother or sister during her childhood.

          Willie was born in Germany in 1945.  He never met his father who never returned from World War II and was presumed to have been killed.  Willie had an older brother who was frightfully maimed during a bombing raid by American planes.  Willie said he hated Americans because of the damage done to Germany by American bombings during the war.  Nevertheless, he moved to this country and served in the U.S. Army and became a U.S. Citizen.  This is just one more of the many confusing facts in this case that are difficult if not impossible to understand.

          Svea and Willie were rather isolated in this country. Svea’s only friends were from her recent stay in the psychiatric ward.  Most were clinically depressed and suicidal.  Willie was less isolated since he worked with many people and yet he did not seem to have any friends nor did he have any activities outside of his work.

          I don’t know whether or not the doctor also led an isolated life but I suspect that he did.

          Now the story begins.  The divorce is filed and the husband is served with papers.  Willie is extremely upset.  How will Svea take care of herself?  If Svea has custody, who will take the children to the doctor if they are ill?  Who will buy the groceries?  How will clothing be purchased for the children? 

          Svea is calm, in fact, very calm for a person who suffers from panic attacks and can’t leave her home and who is about to be divorced.  She says that no one is to worry.  She is just suffering from a little anxiety.

          Willie hired an attorney and all was quiet and routine for a year or so.  Svea continued to see the psychiatrist once a week but did not improve at all.  She claimed that this was due to the fact that she was still living with Willie.  Willie continued to pay the doctor whatever sum was not covered by insurance.

          Although things seem to be quiet during the year, Willie has been thinking and thinking and thinking some more.  He thinks that the only reason that Svea could possibly want a divorce, considering her condition at this time, is that she has some kind of relationship with Doctor Hassan bin Ethical. 

          Unknown to Svea or to the doctor, Willie began to go to the doctor’s office whenever she had an appointment.  He would listen at the door but heard nothing.  After a few months at the listening post, he decided to confront Svea and the doctor.  When confronted, Svea denied that there was anything between her and the doctor.  When confronted, Doctor Hassan bin Ethical denied the allegation but immediately dropped Svea as a patient without a referral to anyone else.  Dropping a psychiatric patient still in the course of treatment without arranging continued treatment is considered completely unprofessional if not unethical.

          Svea then admitted to Willie and to me that she was sexually involved with the doctor, though some people, including a famous ex-president, would not consider what Svea said happened between her and the doctor to be sex.  She said it was strictly oral and only pleasuring the doctor. 

          The doctor, of course, denied that anything at all happened between them.  His denial is not surprising since such a relationship between doctor and patient is totally forbidden under the tenets of the medical profession and extremely damaging to the patient.  I advised Svea that this would be malpractice but that she should think about this carefully before letting me know what she wanted to do.

          In the meantime, Svea was furious at Willie because he had caused her to lose the relationship with the doctor.  I don’t know whether or not the doctor planned to continue this relationship.  It is possible that Svea had “yumped” to a conclusion or it is equally possible that the doctor did intend to maintain the relationship since it was he who was insisting upon the need for a divorce. 

It was Freud who first noticed that many of his women patients fell in love with him.  Today, we call this transference.  In therapy, the patient transfers feelings about some one else to the therapist.  It often manifests itself as an erotic attraction towards or by a therapist.  If handled properly by the therapist, i.e. dealing with the feelings only, it can be helpful.  If mishandled, such as by engaging in a sexual relationship, it is very damaging to the patient.

          In her anger, Svea thought and thought about what to do to get back at Willie.  She finally thought of a few things that she might do. 

          One cold day in February, Willie, dressed only in his underwear, took the garbage out to the attached unheated garage.  As soon as he got into the garage, he heard a click as Svea locked him out.  I do not know when or how he got back into the home. 

          A few weeks later, Willie had to make a business trip.  He only had one pair of good dress shoes.  As he was running around his home the morning that he had an early flight to catch, he could only find one shoe.  Svea had hidden the other one and was not about to tell him where it was.  Willie left without his dress shoes. 

          Svea also began to call Willie’s employer.  She had figured out a way to call so that all of the employer’s lines would be tied up and they could not receive any calls.  This was a daily event. 

Svea began to shop by phone and credit card.  Ironically, she bought numerous pairs of shoes for herself for $200.00 a pair, although she was unable to go outside and usually walked around barefoot in the house.

          Willie too was furious.  He was furious at Svea for having a relationship with the doctor and he thought and thought about what he might do. 

          First he sold his car and bought a used car that was the exact same model, year, make and color of the doctor’s car.  Then he wrote a song that he and the children could sing.  It was to the tune of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” but was called “Doctor Hassan bin Ethical Got Run Over by a Camel”.  The camel, of course, was more suitable than a reindeer for someone from the Middle East.  Willie and the children would march around the house singing this song as loud as they could and banging pots with great glee.

          Obviously, it became impossible for Svea and Willie to live together and at some point Willie moved out.  He continued to work both jobs, paid the household bills, and bought the groceries.  After a while, Svea refused to let him in the house with the groceries so he would leave the bags by the front door and ring the bell.  He would then return to the car and wait until Svea came to the door and took the bags of groceries inside. 

          One day she did not respond to his ring or call.  He waited in the car for quite some time but she did not reach out for the groceries.  Willie left for his second job but was worried. She could not have left the home.  The children should be home from school.  Were she and the children ill?  Could she have killed the children and herself? 

          Upon returning from his second job late that night, he stopped by the home.  The bags were still standing by the front door.  He was terrified and went running to the door in a panic.  The bags were empty.  She had taken the groceries inside and presumably left the empty bags in the same place so that he would be alarmed.

          In the meantime, Svea was no longer beautiful.  She had become obese and looked haggard at the age of 38.  She blamed the obesity on Willie’s cooking.  Interestingly, he had cooked most of their meals while he was still living in the home and, even after he left, he would return and cook for her and the children whenever he was allowed into the home.

          And as to, the doctor, not much is known about what he did during the two years after he was confronted by Willie.  He did talk to Svea by phone on several occasions.  She taped these conversations and said that he had admitted the relationship.  There were two problems with the tapes.  First, the doctor was very soft spoken and it was not possible to hear what he said.  Second, in Illinois it is a felony to tape a person’s conversation unless the person being taped has given consent.  Svea may have been committing a felony by recording the doctor’s conversation.  Nevertheless, we had the tapes enhanced but still could not hear what he said.

          I do know that about two years after Willie confronted him, Doctor Hassan bin Ethical married.  I was shocked to see a picture of the doctor and his new wife at a social function in a suburban newspaper.  His wife looked exactly like Svea had looked at her best.  Think back to Willie’s car.

          Now, back to a month or so after the confrontations; Svea decided she wanted to sue the doctor.  I told her of my concerns as to her ability to get to court as well as the emotional trauma involved in a lawsuit.  She assured me that she would be able to go to court.  She said she would have to be picked up at her door by someone she could trust and dropped off at the door of the courthouse.  She thought she could deal with the trauma.  After all, she only suffered from just a little anxiety.  Neither of us understood at that time how she would deteriorate over the next few years.

          After filing a malpractice action, I hired a special process server and had Doctor Hassan bin Ethical served.  Within days, I received a call from an attorney representing Chubb, the insurer.  He offered $100,000.00 to be paid within a few weeks.  This would have been the easiest $33,000.00 that I had ever earned.  I conveyed this offer, as is my duty, to my client.  She refused, correctly so.  The damage was much greater than $100,000.00.  In retrospect, it might have been better for all to have accepted the offer.  The case continued. 

          The doctor then hired a major defense firm in the city and a large defense firm from another state.  The insurance company hired a bigger, better and more competent law firm.  On Svea’s side there was me and a little help from two other attorneys.

          Experts were hired by both sides.  The doctor’s expert, a well known forensic psychiatrist, said that if what my client said was true, it was clearly malpractice.  I had hired two experts.  One said that even if what my client said was not true, it was still malpractice.  Svea had not been given appropriate treatment for agoraphobia.  The proper treatment at that time was not hospitalization but getting the client to face her fears by going out little by little, usually with a mental health worker, and possibly medication.  The other expert said that her deterioration and that of the entire family indicated that she was being truthful and that the relationship with the doctor had occurred.  She was being treated with love which, even though it sounds pleasant enough, is not an appropriate treatment for agoraphobia.

          Depositions of the experts and the parties were taken.  A deposition is a sworn statement made in the presence of a court reporter.  It usually takes place in the attorney’s office but in Svea’s case we all went to her home.  Eight attorneys, Svea and the court reporter crowded around her dining room table. 

          During this process, the chief of psychiatry at the hospital where Svea had been a patient asked to meet with me.  I met him at the hospital and he begged me to try the case, not settle it, because he wanted to get Dr. Hassan bin Ethical out of the hospital and felt that he could only do that if he were found liable after a trial.

          A man from Chubb made an appointment to see me.  The insurer and all the defense attorneys were frightened of a multi-million dollar judgment.  I, on the other hand, was afraid my client would not appear in court.

          Svea’s agoraphobia had greatly increased over the years.  She was unable to leave the home at all.  She was extremely depressed and had become very frightened about her condition because she was hearing voices.  She received no treatment and now insisted she could not and would not go to court.  She said she was too frightened and too nervous.  I spoke to her the day before I was to meet with the man from Chubb.  I explained that it was very reasonable and normal to be frightened and nervous about a trial in a case like this and that, in fact, I was frightened and nervous and that I would bet that Dr. Hassan bin Ethical and his attorneys were probably pretty nervous too.  We all had just a little anxiety.  She seemed to accept this and I patted myself on the back for doing such a wonderful job. 

          The next day, I was in my office and the man from Chubb was in my reception area.  I had forwarded my calls to my answering service and told them not to interrupt me except for a serious emergency.  Just as I was about to bring the man from Chubb into my office, the phone rang.  It was the answering service with an urgent message from Svea.  The message was: “You’re fired.  Doesn’t want nervous attorney.”

          Somehow, I managed to meet with the man from Chubb.  He said that if she just appeared in the courthouse, the settlement would be much larger than what we had recently discussed.

          A few days later, all the attorneys met and worked out a settlement.  Part of any settlement is that the doctor does not admit liability.  In this case, this was all that we could do.   

The settlement was accepted by Svea.  I did not know whether or not she would even see me but she did and she seemed happy with the sum awarded to her and did not mention that I had been fired.  Willie also received a settlement for loss of consortium.  We then finished the divorce.

          However, it was not the end for these folks. 

          Shortly after the settlement and divorce, Christofer, now a teenager, physically attacked his mother.  I understand it was a serious attack and she was injured.  The police were called. Christofer was arrested and was to appear in juvenile court but prior to the court date, Christofer was sent to Sweden to live with Svea’s father.  I have heard that he was not happy in Sweden.  He did not like his grandfather, had difficulty learning Swedish, did poorly in school and, in general, did not adjust to living in Sweden.

          Svea and the two younger children moved to New Orleans.  We had once talked about her going to New Orleans where she could get on a ship and return to Sweden but she didn’t think she could get there.  The reason for New Orleans and the ship was because she was sure she could not manage a flight to Sweden.  How did she get to New Orleans?  I don’t know.  She would never tell. 

          She did not put Stephan or Britta in school in New Orleans.  She said she couldn’t leave her home to register them in school.  A peculiar statement as somehow she had gotten to New Orleans.  I have heard that she later married a New Orleans police officer.  I don’t know whether she was still in New Orleans during Katrina, or if still there, whether or not she could leave.

          Willie returned to Germany.  After the divorce and settlement, he had tried to snatch Stephan and take him with him to Germany.  He was not successful and believed he would be arrested if he returned to this country.  But later he learned that the children were not in school.  So he came to New Orleans and did snatch Stephan and took him to Germany.  How did he do this?  I don’t know.  He would never tell.

          A few years ago, Willie called me at my office to tell me that he was a grandfather.  Stephan had married and had a child.  Stephan was serving in the German Army at that time.

          Britta remained with her mother.  The last I heard she was not in school. 

          The doctor is no longer practicing or living in this area.  I don’t know what happened to him.

          The case is over.  The damage has been done.