Restaurant Patron Stunned After Waiter Leaves Note Urging Them To See Doctor After Noticing Worrisome Mole

Giving unsolicited advice is generally frowned upon and considered inappropriate, but when it comes to medical concerns, sometimes it's better to offer the advice just in case it could help someone.

In the "Mildly Interesting" subReddit, Redditor jpdiv shared an experience where they were visiting a restaurant, and before they left the venue at the end of their meal, a waiter gave them a note from a fellow restaurant patron.

The Redditor was concerned about what the note entailed:

"Dear Sir, I am a medical doctor, and I couldn't help but notice your mole on your upper right arm."

"It appears worrisome to me on first glance."

"I would recommend seeing a dermatologist or plastic surgeon to have it more closely evaluated."

You can see the note here:

u/jpdiv/Reddit

Fellow Redditors were glad the patron had said something and cited moments from their own lives that helped people.

"This reminds me of when Tarek El Mousa, an HGTV star, was warned by a fan (who is a nurse) who was watching his show. She contacted the network and said, 'I’ve noticed a bump on his neck, and he needs to get it checked out.'"

"The network contacted him, and he got checked. He was diagnosed with stage-three thyroid cancer! He credited her several times with saving his life." - newtnewtriot

"A long time ago, my roommate was a nursing student. I was looking at one of her books. There was a chapter on physical examinations of the patient’s hands. Hands can tell you a lot about a person’s health."

"Anyway, there was a picture of somebody’s hands, and the tips of the fingernails were curled down, almost as if they were made of wax and had melted. They were trimmed close, so it wasn’t extra nail length or anything like that. The nails like this can indicate a decrease in blood oxygen."

"That same week I had seen that photo in the book, I was on a product photo shoot at a local photographer’s studio."

"After I had set my stuff up, and the photographer was setting up his lights and camera, I was idly looking at photographs on the wall. There was a photo of a guy holding a cologne bottle, and his fingernails were that same weird melted appearance that was in my roommate’s textbook."

"I told the photographer about the guy’s fingernails, the heart condition, etc. He told me he’d contact the guy."

"A few days later, when the photos were developed, the photographer let me know that the man in the picture went to his doctor and was diagnosed with this heart condition. He wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Eventually, there was a procedure done, and he was doing better."

"It’s weird how a chance reading of a page in a nursing textbook can lead to helping out a stranger who had funny-looking nails!" - Specialist-Jello7544

"My spouse was handed a similar note a few years back. He did have melanoma."

"A bored dermatologist on the plane told him he stared at the spot on his bald head the entire flight. Get it checked out!" - LocationAcademic1731

"I was a server a while back, and a physician told my coworker that the mole on her face looked cancerous, and I think he even might have given her money to get it checked out."

"It was, and she got it taken out."

"Bless the hawk-eyed people who do this. My uncle barely survived skin cancer that had gone into his lymph nodes. It's no joke." - Violet624

"One of my friends was at a Mets game, and a guy came up to him and told him he needed to get the mole on his leg checked."

"My friend said, 'Yeah, okay, I will,' and the guy got real insistent and said, 'No, you will call the dermatology practice at NYU hospital first thing tomorrow morning and make an appointment for this week,' and handed him the phone number."

"That guy was an angel from heaven who saved his life. He ended up having a melanoma on his calf. They removed a softball-sized amount of flesh, and he had additional treatments, but 25 years later, he’s still alive and cancer-free." - angelaelle

"Pregnancy and my hawk-eyed dermatologist saved me from melanoma."

"My face got swollen, and it made a mole change, and it concerned me. The dermatologist that looked at it said it was fine, but the pointed at my wrist and said, 'But that one is not.'"

"Cancer diagnosis during a high-risk pregnancy was an experience. But one I lived through!" - crzdsnowfire

"A med student at A Seattle Kraken game noticed a pre-cancerous growth on the other team’s coach and was able to get his attention to tell him. She saved his life." - Loose-Set4266

"When I was a waitress, a customer gave me a $50 bill as a tip, along with his business card. He said he was a dermatologist and he was concerned about one of my moles."

"He said I didn't need to call him specifically if that made me uncomfortable, but that he was giving me $50 to demonstrate how serious he was. I do have a lot of moles, so I went to another dermatologist."

"The spot he was concerned about was benign, but the dermatologist found one on my shoulder that turned out to be melanoma."

"It's 20 years later, and I do skin checks every three months. I've had two other melanomas, all of them at the superficial stage, and countless skin biopsies."

"It took some rando customer giving me cash and a stern talking-to to get me to take my skin seriously. I am grateful to him to this day." - Ecthelion510

"I was on a tour in France, with my mom. On the last day, a doctor on our tour asked how he could reach me after the tour. He was pretty insistent, but I thought maybe he was planning a visit to California."

"Well, just a couple hours after I arrived home, he texted me that he was very concerned about a mole that my mom had on her arm. Thankfully, I was able to get her into a dermatologist quickly."

"She did have melanoma, but it hadn’t spread, and she lived normally after that. Thank you, Dr Jim!" - HollysStaff

"Get checked out."

"A stranger came up to me one day when I was at Costco, and my child was about one. She said, 'Hi, you may not want to hear this, but I think you should take your child to the eye doctor to be looked at. I know this is strange, don't think I'm trying to insult you, but I think her eyes should be looked at. A stranger came to me when my child was little and said the same thing to me. Ok, bye,' and she left."

"I stood there stunned, mouth agape. I did take my child to the optometrist, who then referred her to an ophthalmologist. My child had amblyopia (crossed eye(s) and, if not treated, could lead to blindness and is the number one reason for blindness in children."

"I'm glad a stranger made me huffy one day to let me know my child might need help." - Olderbutnotdead619

It can be annoying to receive advice from someone else when we didn't ask for it, but when it comes to medical advice, doctors and nurses have more knowledge, and some people unfortunately have more experience with certain diagnoses than we do.

It's better to speak up and have it turn out to be nothing than to stay quiet and risk a much more life-threatening diagnosis.