There are instances where doctors literally have our life in their hands.
Trained and seasoned professionals that they are, we'd like to trust them with any diagnosis they give us.
But being mortal, even doctors make mistakes.
With that in mind, we might find ourselves confused that we don’t seem to be any better, if anything we might be getting worse, despite our doctors assurances that everything was fine.
Sometimes these mistakes or oversights which result in little to no consequences, other times having deadly consequences.
Redditor Gorgon_the_Dragon was eager to from doctors about the worst oversights and mistakes they've ever discovered from other doctors, leading them to ask:
"Doctors of Reddit, what was the worse thing you've seen for a patient that another Doctor overlooked?"
Doctors Should Probably Assume The Worst...
"Rattlesnake bite."
"On a 2 year old."
"Patient and dad out in the fields near a small town that is several hours away from the nearest big city, where I work."
"Dad takes the child to the ER in the small town with an obvious snake bite."
"Doctor there says 'eh it’s ok she probably didn’t get envenomated'."
"Doesn’t give the patient antivenin, which they had at that hospital, and instead of electing to send the child to us by helicopter, he sent her by ambulance."
"Several hours later patient shows up to our hospital coding, and ended up dying."
"Probably didn’t get envenomated?!? "
"What the f*ck kind of stupid a** idea is that."
"If a tiny child gets bitten by a rattlesnake, you assume they’ve been envenomated and you treat them as though that had been."
"That means antivenin, physiological support, etc."
"Completely absurd."- USMC0317
Not Like Any Kind Of Anxiety I Ever Heard Of
"From the age of about 17 I start getting regular abdominal pain every day and terrible gut problems."
"I can't seem to eat much anymore."
"I get fluctuating diarrhea and constipation."
"Menstruation gets more and more painful."
"I start losing enormous amounts of blood despite being incredibly small, less than 5ft."
"Now you would think any doctor worth her salt could figure out it's a gynecological problem."
"But my doctor, a woman by the way, at the time insists it anxiety and says she 'wouldn't bother testing for or treating a gynecological problem unless I was older and having trouble conceiving."
"Over the next few years, my gut and uterus symptoms slowly deteriorate."
"I get bounced around the system to dozens of different specialists."
"I get told it's just stress, anxiety, are you pregnant?"
"'ARe yOu SuUuUrE yOuRE NoT prEGnAnt?'"
"'Every woman has painful periods, it's just constipation take this over the counter product' etc. Etc."
"Meanwhile my gut function slowly grinds to a halt."
"A functional gut test took 6 hours to pass an egg sandwich when it should have taken 90 minutes."
"I weighed only 40kg."
"It get's so bad I even start losing bowel control."
"No treatment seems to work."
"I was 24 and unable to work because I was literally uncontrollably sh*tting my pants."
"Doctors suggest I should maybe seek therapy and suggest I could be exaggerating."
"Anyway one day I see a new GP for some regular sexual health tests but get an abnormal pap smear."
"Within 2 weeks I go in for an exploratory laparoscopy to rule out cervical cancer only to discover I am absolutely riddled with endometriosis."
"On my bowel."
"On my cervix."
"On my perineum."
"On some ligaments."
"Ovarian cyst the size of a tennis ball."
"It was even in my gall bladder."
"With excisions + treatment I had my gut function back within 3 months."
"I will never be able to have children."
"If that woman when I was 17 had just done her goddamn job I wouldn't have lost 7 years of my life, my gall bladder, my fertility and my mental health."- LilPeaHen
Many Diseases Share Symptoms...
"During my residency we had this lady in her 60s who was getting progressively more forgetful, just overall declining and getting less and less able to take care of herself."
"She had been seeing her pcp who diagnosed her with dementia."
"And she saw a neurologist who agreed."
"She was not really able to provide an accurate history."
"After talking to her family and friends it became apparent that her symptoms were progressing unusually quickly."
"I remember seeing the point where her new hair growth met her bright red dye and also her grown out nails with hot pink polish thinking, wow, it really wasn't too long ago that she was not only taking care of herself but like, going to get her hair and nails done."
"The lady in front of me was so far from that."
"The neurologist I was training with recognized this, had her admitted and did every test including lumbar puncture."
"Workup eventually showed Creutzfeld Jakob disease ('mad cow') which there is unfortunately no treatment for."
"She died a few months later but at least we were able to prepare her family that she would only continue to decline so they could make arrangements."
"Really sad situation."- apoptoticmeow
Malpractice Written All Over It
"He put the pacemaker lead in the subclavian artery, and across the aortic valve into the left ventricle."
"The proper approach is: subclavian vein to right ventricle."
"And then he didn’t notice it for over a year."
"I saw the patient, a 25 yo woman who didn’t need the pacemaker in the first place, when she was in congestive heart failure because the pacemaker lead had destroyed the valve!"
"A surgeon and I had to do surgery to remove the pacemaker and lead."
"Then replace the aortic valve!"
"Totally inexcusable."
"Well, 50% of doctors are below average, but everybody thinks theirs is in the top 10%"- dofeveg655
Nothing Wrong With A Second Opinion... Or A Third Or Fourth
"I was 26 and found a lump in my breast."
"Planned Parenthood had taught me self checks and so I knew it felt different than a cyst."
"It felt exactly like the tumors I'd been taught to recognize."
"First doctor says 'you're too young for breast cancer'."
"I didn't accept that and went to a second doctor where I got 'it hurts when I mash it right'."
"Uh no."
"'It gets bigger with your period right'."
"Uh no."
"'Sure it does!'."
"Third doctor: 'You'll have an ugly scar if I biopsy it'."
"Fourth doctor I told him to call the police to get my naked topless self off his table because I wasn't leaving without scheduling a biopsy."
"It turned out I had Stage 2 cancer and after surgery, 9 months of chemo, 3 months of radiation, and being told I couldn't have kids."
"I survived!"
"I now have 3 kids and I'm 62 years old."
"If you think the doctor is wrong, get a second, third, whatever opinion."
"Listen to your suspicions."- pillowofcanines
We always want to trust our doctors, and listen to any advice they might give.
But if you think there's something wrong that your doctor somehow might have missed, there's sadly a very good chance that you're right.
Never cut corners when it comes to your health.
