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.