Doctors Getting thing wrong

Yes and I very nearly died.

Yes, and it made me very ill - diagnosed Myasthenia Gravis , when I have Mitochondrial Myopathy - In Southampton Hospital

At least yours had a happy outcome tcherry.

A GP at my surgery misdiagnosed himself. He asked one of his receptionists to nip to chemist at lunch time to get him something fir heartburn. By the time she returned after her lunch break he had been whisked away in an ambulance suffering a heart attack.

Yes - I was told that I would probably have great difficulty conceiving so we threw away the pills - 9 months later DD1 arrived. And from thereon in, we only had to smile at each other and - bingo!

It is too easy to pick out misdisgnoses and somehow "diss" the medical profession as a consequence. Let's face it tcherry if you didn't know you were pregnsnt how on rarth do you expect the doctor to unless you have a pregnancy test?

DH was sent home from A&E with a ruptured tendon in his leg. They x-rayed him but didn't think to rule out a anything else. He got out the car on our return home and promptly collapsed on the drive.
Major surgery followed.

My ex went to his GP with a burned finger and was given advice for a sore throat!!!

Years ago I was under a particularly obnoxious Consultant for a breast problem. He had pulled and pushed my breast around and decided that I needed an operation for a discharge from my breast. I was in the hospital bed waiting for the pre-med when he came round with his students. 'Expose your left breast Mrs S he bellowed' I did as I was told. He again squeezed, pulled and pushed and found nothing untoward. 'Right he said, what am I supposed to operate on if there is nothing to operate on?' 'I don't know' I replied 'You are the surgeon'. He promptly discharged me saying that it was probably a cyst that had burst and dispersed (which is exactly what my GP had said a month before)

Soutra Of course you are right and one doctor's stupidity or understandable mistake doesn't mean that the whole profession fails. In my case, I made the mistake - at the age of 20 and home for the Easter vacation - of suggesting that I had appendicitis as I was vomiting with central abdominal pain that had moved down to right-hand side. I was then diagnosed on the telephone - although he came to see me later the same day - as having indigestion and prescribed some peppermint flavoured antacid. That was Monday. By Thursday I was in severe pain, unable to keep even water down and soiling the bed (tmi) but he said - on the phone again - that it was just the infection working its way through and to ring him again if I hadn't improved over the weekend. The next day was Good Friday and my parents didn't want to disturb this long-standing family GP over the holiday. By Saturday, I was completely listless, cold, wheezing but no longer in pain. He came, rang an ambulance and I was admitted to hospital with a perforated appendix, peritonitis and pleurisy with a temperature so low it wouldn't register on the thermometer.

Some hours of surgery followed during the night because the day had been spent shoving umpteen drips into me in the hope that I would be strong enough to survive it. My parents were told that I had less than a 20% chance of survival. I still can't imagine how they must have felt. I did survive, obviously, and survived more surgery three weeks later and a dose of pneumonia thanks to superb and dedicated surgeons and wonderful nursing care. For some 20 years afterwards, I endured intermittent excruciating acute pain owing to adhesions until emergency surgery solved that problem too - once again, by superb surgeons who were in awe of the fact that I had been a patient of a consultant and registrar (later a consultant himself) who were their heroes.

The whole experience has left me with a certain scepticism about GPs, although I have known some very good ones, and profound gratitude for surgeons.

My poor mum was diagnosed and treat by her GP for a pulled muscle in her shoulder. He continuously refused to refer her until her entire arm just "packed up" and she couldn't move it. A trip to A&E proved that it was secondary bone cancer that had spread from the breast. The GP very soon after took early retirement. Sorry I hate these horror stories but it's absolutely true.

I wonder what percentage of diagnoses by trained medics is? My guess is that it's quite a low percentage, at least of diagnoses that actually cause further problems. Doctors are human too. There are bound to be mis-diagnoses especially with vague symptoms. I bet most of them suffer agonies of professional angst as a result of any serious mis-diagnoses.

bags I think there are still doctors who may not be James Robertson Justice but who still regard their patients as something slightly above pond scum in terms of intellect.

And I thought I was a cynic of the first order

I agree with bags that doctors are human and some make mistakes. They have a problem most of us don't have in that some of their mistakes have dreadful consequences. But I also remember that a lot of research has gone into how much patients remember and how much they understand of what is said to them. Not because they are stupid, but because they are worried and tense and possibly expecting something different from what the doctor is saying.

How long have you got ?

who still regard their patients as something slightly above pond scum in terms of intellect.

Not if the Doctors' slang, medical slang and medical acronyms are anything to go by (which can be looked up using those words). Remember in the news not all that long ago, the furore in the UK when it was found that doctors were writing TUBE on female patient notes to let each other know that a Totally Unnecessary Breast Examination was possible with that patient.

And how about NF--- the blanks being the home town?
Normal for ----
Usually used as a derogatory comment ( I've also known it used by lawyers)

I remember a surgeon friend telling my late husband (a builder) that while my DH had to live with his mistakes, a surgeon buried his! I would hasten to add that he was an excellent surgeon and was joking

When a clergyman friend of mine said the same thing, I pointed out that that made him an accomplice!

Or PGM - poor genetic material.

I was quite irritated recently at being told (at length) about the spine being rather like a Jengo tower - when I had already said I had a good idea of the anatomy......

When I was involved in childbirth education, we used to suggest women took an impressive book with them to read while they waited (and waited and waited.....) to show that they had a functioning brain as well as a uterus so they could have a sensible discussion. But if you give a very tired, very junior doctor that impression you may get told much, much more than you really wanted to know.

My absolutely wonderful GP prescribed for me (I was 50) HRT patches. A couple of weeks later I was on holiday and suffered the most terrible flooding, I had to sit on towels and bin bags as it was so bad. I went to a local surgery (15 mile away) and was prescribed by the doctor there progestrogen tablets and to take 6 at once and 2 every 6 hours. This worked and slowed the flow. I returned to my own GP and told him the whole sorry story. He apologised profusely and asked when I had had my last period, I said they are every 28 days still. He said that he thought I must have gone through the menopause by now!!!. Slapped wrist dear Doctor, lovely though you may be I was still an ovulating member of the species. My meno paused 5 years later!!!!! But then my gran had her last baby at 52. I forgave him.

I took my DD to the A & E when she was little. She had fallen while skating and I thought she may have done something to her wrist (sprained or broken). The rather dozy doctor came back with the x-ray when it was ready and popped it in the light box. He was muttering about getting it plastered when I chimed up "I didn't know hands look so like feet in an x-ray" - being fairly sure it was a foot.

Suddenly the poor man woke up; heaven know how many hours he had done. He got the right x-ray and it was only a sprain but I never found out what happened to the owner of the foot