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worst-medical-horror-stories-on-reddit

Worst Medical Horror Stories On Reddit

we've reacted to Reddit threads before today we're reacting to what was your worst experience at a doctor's office please don't be that bad let's get started I thought I had a broken nose the doc was showing me on a heavy glass x-ray plate that my nose was not broken but as I was looking up he dropped a plate on my nose and broken oh my God who's still using heavy glass x-ray plates and not using computers to show patient X-rays I don't think ever in my training have I ever used a heavy glass x-ray play even using a manual like light up x-ray with the traditional x-ray that you hold against the light the last time I did that was when I worked in El Salvador in a medical Mission with americares went into a urologist he walks in and says drop them pants let's see those balls like yo glad you're a cool guy but tone it down we don't have that Rapport yet my buddy had a hype man that has vasectomy bizarre look there's some patience of mine that I can walk in and be silly right off the bat because we've established that Rapport we know each other literally I walked into rooms and been like you're here again and the instant response that I'm aware that I'm gonna get is we're laughing and we're talking about whatever the problem was that has brought them in if you don't have a rapport with a patient you have to come in like a blank slate you don't know what that patient is comfortable with you don't know what mental state that patient's in and I'm not saying a psychiatric abnormal State they could just be sad they could be really worried these are basic human emotions that you need to adapt to as a provider another patient vomited on me happens all the time that's why I don't get the whole Crocs thing in hospitals it have holes they have holes a doctor once told me that I didn't need antidepressants that I needed to find Jesus and I would be fine um that is not medical advice whatsoever I have nothing against Jesus or people finding religion the decision whether or not to put someone on antidepressants or recommending therapy has nothing to do with religion so yeah in the early 80s at about 12 13 I had a tooth repair that got broken and the guy smoked cigarettes while operating when they finally took the protective cover off the tooth it smelled like I'd been smoking myself what I can't believe that happened I was barely born in the 80s it was rough back then months after a breast lump removal my breast was still numb I had the surgeon recheck it for the reason why he said he didn't cut any nerves flicked my nipple and said you're fine oh my God I hope that didn't happen and if it did that's terrible I'm sorry yeah when you're doing a lot of breast procedures it can be quite tricky because not only can you sever nerves you could also sever the lymphatic system if you damage the lymphatic system you can actually develop lymphedema which is not only incredibly debilitating but really hurts the patient's self-worth because their appearance drastically changes here are some images of Lymphedema that's not something I would wish on anyone especially as a result of getting rid of a cancer what you should be celebrating but then you get that as a side effect the ENT doctor removed the skin cancer from my nose leaving an ugly scar turns out he excised the wrong area and I went to a different doctor to actually remove the cancer that's pretty incredible I mean that's just malpractice because ENT doctors are surgeons they're trained there are some even ENT doctors that practice in plastic surgery but if you're focusing on skin cancer err on the side of caution and see a dermatologist for that or at least an ENT doctor with previous history of working on the area doc forgot to remove the speculum I had to call him back as he was leaving the room to get him to remove it he acted as though I was wasting his time for those who don't know a speculum is a device that we use to take a better look at the cervix visualize the vaginal Canal not only is inserting it problematic if you're doing it incorrectly removing it can be equally problematic I've actually had a really scary story with a speculum before one of those plastic see-through ones I took it out of its packaging and I was about to insert and just before I did it I put a little lubrication on it and as I did it I realized one end was chipped so much so that it was a completely raw Edge plastic sharp so if I did insert it I would have literally cut through my patient's tissue laid on my side with my back to the door for a prostate exam heard people walk by talking while a finger was in my butt and realized the door was open not only is that messed up in this situation but I see this happen so often and I frequently have to remind residents my staff if a patient is going to be undressed the curtain to the door should be drawn so that when I enter the room other people don't see the patient nude we have to do a very very thorough job to make sure that we're treating patients dignity with the same respect that we treat their health not me but a close friend she was having debilitating migraines up to the point where she couldn't work her function she waited nearly a month to see a neurologist Upon A Brief examination he said you don't have anything wrong with you just exercise and try not having headaches that's douchebaggery in medicine 101 first of all three months later he finally relented and did an MRI she had massive lesion on her brain she was diagnosed with Ms the smug bastard was somehow irritated she had a positive diagnosis her health wasn't important as his ego this is the malpractice that I think we need to really go after these are the massive mistakes that doctors make where they're mistreating patients by telling them it's their fault if you're experiencing headaches that get worse with sexual activity with exercise if you're waking up with a headache quite often if your headaches used to be a type of quality and now they've significantly changed or gotten worse these are all reasons to get Imaging walked in with chest pains and severe pain around the left shoulder blade that's a tricky one because a lot of things radiate to the left shoulder blade it could be a musculoskeletal it could be cardiac it could be GI there's a whole host of things that are happening something that's scary that radiates to the back is actually called a dissecting aortic aneurysm where the aorta actually due to a ballooning and out pouching if you will actually ruptures and that's a critical situation doctor walks up first time I saw him hands me discharge papers follow up with your doctor in a few days wife drove 40 miles to another hospital they freak rushed me to Cath Lab had a 200 percent blockage of coronary LED also known as the Widowmaker heart attack having 100 blockage of that is obviously a game changer because you're not getting circulation to the heart but if they had a patient come in with chest pain and severe pain around the shoulder blade and didn't get an EKG draw bloodwork to check white blood cell count to check something known as troponins which are blood tests that we use to see signs of myocardial injury the muscle injury of the heart now there's other reasons why you may have elevated troponins but pair that with chest pain and EKG changes you're going to the cath lab my friend I was taken back to an examination room and got really thirsty while waiting for the dermatologist I went to the front to ask for water on my way back I walked into the wrong room and saw the doctor another patient he was holding the guy's penis I said I am so sorry and the guy mumbled it's okay as I raced off I still feel awful I mentioned to my boyfriend that I didn't realize dermatologists inspect penises and he was like contrary to popular belief scientists have found that penises are covered in skin dermatologists not only do check penises but you have to check the entire skin for signs of cancer because sometimes cancer can form in non-sun exposed areas like the penis the scrotum the buttock you gotta be thorough if you want to do a full body exam as a dermatologist I was mistaken for a dead kid I was right across the hall from the kid that passed away somehow the staff got her paperwork mixed up and went to inform my parents that I had died one of the many people that hospital has made she's so bad they had to replace the board members staff and even change the name of the hospital some hospitals get really bad they have to do a whole overhaul like a new system comes into place making mistakes on which body part you're operating on or which patient is yours those are no-go's had a doctor tell me that a birth deformity I have was really ugly don't give your subjective interpretation of what's ugly or not unless you're giving a nice friendly compliment and I say friendly so that you're not being flirty and making the patient feel uncomfortable I've seen like terrible stories of gynecologists commenting on patients body parts arts and their underwear Choice that's not appropriate I was 17 had an infected ingrown toenail which actually happens quite frequently and it's not enough to treat the infection in most cases usually we have to treat it by removing the side portion of the nail and then damaging the nail Matrix so that it doesn't grow back again and cause the same problem my pediatrician tried cutting and digging it out with what looked like pliers and bracing his leg against the table after feeling around for a bit he realized he wasn't gonna get it no numbing gel or anything her like a mofo scheduled an appointment with a podiatrist he numbed it had it removed in about two minutes and told me never see a doctor again yes yes yes yes yes yes the problem with the medical system is that when you get a degree you get a degree in medicine and surgery pretty broad wouldn't you say and obviously insurance companies and Hospital Systems try and Reign that in but there's some doctors if they take cash technically they have the license to do whatever they want the most important part about that is their malpractice insurance will go way through the roof because they're not trained or board certified to do those procedures I was getting a bone density scan for some odd reason I don't know why the odd reason is we actually do recommend bone density scans in older patients usually especially women when they have higher rates of developing osteoporosis or osteopenia but let's see what happened here the dock came in a while later and told me at osteoporosis this was not why I was there in the first place and was completely surprised I asked if I could see the chart and it was for a 70 year old woman I was a 30-something man and he had the wrong chart what turns out I did not have any issues at all well bone density related that's pretty incredible this is the reason why we always ask for two patient identifiers and what's unique is in hospitals you'll actually see a sign that says like name alert if there's a patient that's admitted near you that has a similar name we also have the same name alerts for medications as you can see see here woke up in the ER tied to a bed screaming my husband's name I had no memory of how I got there or why kidney infection went septic I didn't even know I had a kidney infection I seriously almost died those are really scary moments because you could have an uncomplicated UTI that goes untreated that can spread to the kidneys causing a pyelonephritis you can end up spreading that infection to your blood leading to septic shock where you're not providing enough circulation to vital organs like the brain and if you're not doing that you're then acting out of character going septic is scary I've torn cartilage in my shoulder and the third time I went to the doctor about it he immediately stopped caring once I said it didn't hurt that bad even though it hurt every day just had to come back if it gets worse it did but very progressively so I didn't think about it for months went to a fourth doctor who actually diagnosed the issue and pushed me to surgery I opted for physical therapy instead and it seems to be the right choice four Orthopedist to diagnose it and only one physical therapist to fix it the single worst experience was being flat out ignored by the Third doctor which led me to further damaging myself if I just started PT back then I'd probably be in better shape I probably tend to agree when it comes to subjective feeling of pain and discomfort limitations we have to listen to our patients a question that I actually started asking my patients frequently is if I tell you that there is nothing scary going on in this scenario and that I am not overly concerned about this pain is that enough reassurance or is the pain stopping you from doing something else that that wouldn't be sufficient because that tells me a lot that one question if they say yeah if you just tell me it's something serious I'll be good to God the pain doesn't really bother me that much or they say no you know what even if it's nothing serious I want to get to the bottom because it's preventing me from doing my activities boom two different treatment Pathways same patient it took me 13 years to find out my gallbladder was dead I went to my doctor repeatedly then another then another seven different doctors I had excruciating pain that never moved always flared when I ate it would last for hours went to the ER a few times they gave me all Shine off the old sound because they saw no gallstones they always wrote it off after begging for a referral to another specialist they gave me a full body MRI and several hours of testing of a Haida scan this was a test that caught it to watch the minute-by-minute function of my organs turns out my gallbladder had 93 non-function just a mostly dead organ I would say like paralyzed organs a better term I mean this patient was describing a gallbladder issue the fact that they were only doing ultrasounds and writing it off and not sending you to a GI specialist there's something wrong there if you're not getting answers from ERS or primary care doctors request to see a specialist like one of the reasons I refer patients to Specialists is that they want a second opinion or they don't agree with my logic and that is okay we need to put our egos aside there are times where maybe a patient feels like their symptoms are out of scope of with what I diagnosed them with and that's good I want patients to advocate for themselves that way so I hope that this could be a learning opportunity to those at home here's one Health hack from every type of doctor click here to check that out and as always stay happy and healthy [Music]

Dr.

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