Dear Dr. Gott: My 82-year-old father was recently hospitalised in a Midwestern US city with complications from a blood disorder. Medical staff assessed the need for a urinary catheter. The insertion was done with a dry tube surface. When he asked if they could "put something on it", the female nurse told him to "just take a deep breath".

The insertion was done twice, both times without lubricant. One of the results was bloody urine. My poor father said, "Just imagine being 82 years old and having somebody do something like that to you". When he told his hometown doctor, she just about came unglued. A male nurse also informed him that he always "lubes the tubes".

My father is now unable to urinate on his own because of a blockage, which his urologist says may have been due to damage caused by the dry insertions. He now has to live with the catheter.

I cringe whenever I think about his experience and wonder how many other elderly people have been subjected to this kind of abuse.

Please print this letter so the word can get out about this torturous practice.

Reply: I was appalled by your father's experience, and, as an elderly gentleman, cringe at the thought of how painful that must have been.

There is no excuse for putting someone through that pain, especially an older person who is already feeling unwell because of another condition. There is no reason why a lubricant could not have been used.

I urge you and your father to contact the hospital for an explanation of why a dry insertion was done twice and explain that his current situation is likely due to them. Doctors today are often told to never apologise to patients because it admits fault. In this situation, your father deserves an apology from the nurse and/or physician who performed the catheterisations and perhaps even the hospital that allowed it to happen twice!

I know that most people reading this would believe that legal action is best, but in most cases, this one included, it is not appropriate. Unless medical neglect is undeniable, the expense and hassle are not worth it.

First, the blockage may have been caused by the insertions (and my hunch is that it was), but there is no proof that this is the case. Second, at your father's age, the stress of a court case is ill advised, especially since he is already ill with a blood disorder. However, someone needs to understand what was done was wrong, traumatic and unacceptable.

I have printed your letter because others need to know this is not standard practice. You stated that this is abusive behaviour, and I agree.

To give you related information, I am sending you copies of my Health Reports "Blood – Donations and Disorders" and "Bladder and Urinary Tract Infections".

Other readers who would like copies should send a self-addressed, stamped number 10 envelope and $2 per report to Newsletter, PO Box 167, Wickliffe, Ohio 44092. Be sure to mention the title(s).

Dr. Gott is a retired physician and the author of 'Dr. Gott's No Flour, No Sugar Diet' and 'Dr. Gott's No Flour, No Sugar Cookbook'. Contact him c/o United Media, 200 Madison Avenue, fourth floor, New York, New York 10016.