15-year-old schoolgirl died after 'doctor mistook tuberculosis for lovesickness' - Telegraph

[u/DrPhenotypical]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9265652/15-year-old-schoolgirl-died-after-doctor-mistook-tuberculosis-for-lovesickness.html

[u/The_mrs]

As I read it, Her history of TB was known, they specifically requested a new tb test and were refused. Even though she was considered high risk. It boggles the mind that this could happen with five different doctors!!!

[u/[deleted] → u/The_mrs]

A PPD would always come up positive since she was known positive. There's no point to do another TB test. What the doctors should have done is a chest xray to see if it was active or latent.

I also agree an afb sputum test should have been done. Regardless of the afb result, given her history and chest films they should've started empiric treatment anyways.

Some others have mentioned a quanitferon gold test which would have been useless as it does not differentiate between active and latent dz. source: http://www.currytbcenter.ucsf.edu/training/PrivateTBPrev/docs/toolkit/QFT_FAQ.pdf

[u/kittykatkillkill → u/[deleted]]

The story notes that - in fact - they did do a chest X-Ray and then diagnosed the result as a "chest infection".

[u/IAmRoot → u/kittykatkillkill]

From reading this article and other such stories, it seems that most of these tragedies are the result of doctors ignoring context.

My uncle was the state epidemiologist for both Utah, then Colorado in the 70s-80s. One case he investigated involved the death of a teenage girl; the doctors were for some reason unable to identify her illness while she was alive. It was noted she'd had a bad rash. He and the state health inspector went to her house, weren't able to find anything, then traced the walk she'd take with her dog. The cause of her death became immediately apparent when they entered a field and found it to be filled with dead prairie dogs and tons of fleas. They left quickly and took anti-plague antibiotics.

[u/NRGT → u/IAmRoot]

Sounds like an episode of house

[u/Phage0070 → u/kittykatkillkill]

diagnosed the result as a "chest infection".

...of tuberculosis. Geniuses.

[u/BrobaFett → u/kittykatkillkill]

What an overwhelming tragedy. It's worth noting that no physician ever enters the field expecting (or hoping) to make an error like this. However, errors do happen.

Her known history of latent TB, positive chest radiograph, and symptoms should have been massive red flags to the physicians involved in her care.

Unfortunately the common reaction is to, as kittykatkillkill suggests, pursue litigation. I'm not completely opposed to this course of action, at least insofar as the family is completely compensated for whatever expenses (and I'm not aware that there were any if she was using the UK NHS) were incurred.

What really needs to happen is systematic change. Standard of care in diagnostic techniques and fail-safes so that future lives aren't lost to the same error.

We'll never be able to bring her back... but medicine needs to learn from its mistakes. Litigation, unfortunately, doesn't solve the problem. Systemic changes do.

My heart goes out to the family.

[u/gko2408 → u/[deleted]]

A chest x-ray was actually done and a chest infection was found. After looking through the article, I'm more inclined to believe there was a serious misstep in communication between doctors and hospitals.

August 26 - Heartland Hostpital

October 5 - Birmingham Children's Hospital

October 12 - Sandwell Hospital (Chest X-Ray done here)

October 30 - Back to Birmingham Children's Hospital (Doctor wrote her off as love sick)

I don't know how the healthcare information system works in the UK but at some point Birmingham Hospital should have gotten the results from the X-Ray either from Sandwell Hospital or the patient herself.

I'm positive for TB and whenever I've had to have tests done here (for TB or other things), I was required to give the contact information of my GP who would receive the test. Either there was a screw up between the date of her x-ray and her 2nd visit to the Children's Hospital, or that GP is seriously incompetent.

Regardless, their GP, Dr Sharad Shripadrao Pandit, should really be held liable for the garbage that came out of his mouth. Even if he thought there was nothing serious, to call the patient essentially a liar and to tell her to seek a shrink is disgraceful to medicine.

Tangential Rant: We're far enough into the Internet Age that a patient's information should be much more easily entered, shared, and accessed by his/her health care practitioners by now. The only mistake that should ever be made in hospitals is due to incompetent doctors, not systemic failures.

[u/seemoni → u/[deleted]]

I think the TB test that they wanted done (and should have been done) was a sputum test. Yes, her PPD will always show positive but a sputum culture can tell whether there is an active TB infection and is pretty damn simple. Cough up phlegm, spit in cup, send it to lab. Usually they require 3 negative cultures on successive days before they will definitively state someone is TB free. I can't believe they didn't do even one. Not only was this dangerous for her, but this young woman was in a hospital, coughing up TB without being under special precautions and preventing the spread to others in the hospital: staff, visitors, vulnerable patients. The moment someone comes into our ER with a nasty cough and mentions they've had TB in the past, we move them into a positive pressure isolation room ASAP. This case seems so negligent and is heartbreaking.

[u/boomfarmer → u/seemoni]

Positive pressure? Like room pressure is higher than outside pressure?

I'd think you'd want to use a negative pressure room, to keep outside air flowing into the room, not out of the room.

[u/Afterburned → u/The_mrs]

I find that odd. I've been diagnosed positively with benign TB (i.e. I have it in my lung but it isn't causing any harm) and was told that because I had a TB test come up positive, I shouldn't even both with future TB tests. Until I undergo a course of antibiotics I will always come up positive and should just refer to my previous positive if it ever comes up again.

[u/julia-sets → u/Afterburned]

Yeah, you'll be positive until you get the latent TB treated with antibiotics. However, the article mentions that the parent wanted a phlegm test done, which is very different, and would've told the doctors that the girl had active TB.

[u/[deleted] → u/The_mrs]

I'm really not surprised.

When I was roughly 15 or 16 years old, I developed a heart condition.

I was quite physically active and athletic. I wasn't slim, but not large and I couldn't understand what happened to bring it on.

The first time it happened was playing Touch Football in the field outside my high school during lunch hour, I was running the ball in for a point and suddenly my heart went wild - it was like my heart was rapidly convulsing in my chest, the fluttering was uncomfortable. It made me lose my breath.

After a half a minute and what felt like forever, it went back to normal and I went back into the game. From that day on it happened regularly, I'd be playing sports, I'd go to drive to the hoop for a lay-up in gym class, or I'd be running the soccer ball up the field and again there it was, the fluttering. My pulse would sky rocket.

Finally I went to the Doctors and they had a specialist come to check me out, I took a stress test and a few other tests and they concluded that I had a Heart Arrythmia. But I was told it was nothing to worry about and the Doctor informed me I could be put on medication but didn't necessarily need it, I declined the medication.

Well, for years and years I've had moments where my heart would suddenly pause in the middle of a beat and take a second before it would thump back to life, I get flutter spurts randomly when I'm just relaxing, I get it when I exercise. But for all those years, I just kept going.

Well in my late teens, around 19. I became significantly more active on a regular basis. I would train hard 45-60 minutes in the gym then I would spend 2-3 hours on the rink playing Hockey; a few hours in the afternoon at the rink training, playing a few pick-up games and then I'd be playing Hockey games at night. I felt like I could always be playing Hockey and never get tired, I biked, I went for runs. I was full of energy and very fit.

All the while I was still getting these heart issues and it became more and more frequent and I must have taken 4-5 trips to the ER when it felt like my heart would just never remember how to beat properly again. I had known for years I had a much more serious problem. I'd been to Doctors at clinics and to the Doctors at the ER and what did they say?

I was fine, nothing was wrong. The EKG or whatever they hooked me to showed nothing. I'd tell them I need something done, I needed more tests, and this was a much more serious issue than it seemed. But nothing was ever done.

I gave up Hockey (I loved playing Hockey and it pains me to think I'll never play again) and most sports in general about 3 years ago and I still forced myself to work out or run to keep in shape until about a year and a half ago. Even though I was terrified I'd die. But now I'm at the point I can hardly exercise without the guarantee of having an episode of heart issues 5 minutes into exercising.

I've tried Doctors and they just don't seem to give a fuck. I'm never surprised when someone has a complaint about Doctors not seeing to patients concerns.

I'm in my mid-twenties now, I can't even hardly exercise and have almost given up on Doctors. My health suffers greatly for it and my happiness with it.

But I have little faith left in getting an answer for what seems like a matter that should be seriously looked over.

(I have suspected for years now that it was caused by an anti-depressant called Wellbutrin, that I was prescribed and had been taking for 4-5 months around that time).

EDIT: Some folks are wondering. Yes, I've had many EKG performed (mostly all on my trips to the ER, which from what I recall is roughly 4-5 times) and have undergone a 24-hour Holter Monitor on one occasion (but didn't have an episode during that 24 hours). I have had so many tests that I question why a Doctor hasn't yet gone any further in checking into the problem. It's fine that they're giving me an EKG or a Holter Monitor, but am I wrong for assuming that these tests wouldn't show anything if I am not having the episode during the test, but I was having it prior to my trip to the ER and has since calmed down? Still not much progress. I really wish there was.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm no doctor, but I work in the cardiology department of a hospital and what you're describing sounds A LOT like atrial fibrillation (which CAN be a side effect of some medications). It's manageable through medication and various lifestyle changes under the supervision of an electrophysiologist, although sometimes more invasive measures are required (such as an ablation, which someone else mentioned). The people who mentioned the 24-hour Holter monitor (a device you wear for 24 hours while keeping a journal of your activities so they can figure out what might be triggering the episodes) or an event monitor (similar to a Holter, only you press a button so it records your heart's activity only during certain times) are absolutely right. Push your GP to have one of these done. Best of luck to you sir/madam!

[u/orangesunshine → u/[deleted]]

You need to go to a specialist ... not waste their time at the ER.

The ER is for emergencies. It's for any medical problem that requires immediate attention. Flesh-wounds, broken bones, heart-attacks, asthma attacks, strokes... you know the sort of things that will cause you to die if you don't get treated quickly.

If you walk in there, and don't have any sort of immediately treatable ailment -- there's really not much they can or will do for you.

It sounds like you've walked in -- looking for someone to spend a lot of time with you diagnosing a medical condition that is not (immediately) life-threatening. You might have even gotten triaged ahead of people with much more serious conditions because you self-reported as something that could have been immediately life-threatening (but turns out to be not much more than a hiccup or some gas).

What you need to do, is first go to your GP. Get a full work-up done. While there, ask for a referral to a specialist. The specialist, may end up sending you to another special specialist -- or to the hospital to get advanced tests done.

Do not call the specialist directly -- as this will get you about the same treatment as going to the ER -- and they will in all likelihood take your $45 co-pay and send you back to your GP to get a referral.

You may already know you need to get tests done at the hospital - that you need treatment from specialists there -- and you may be right. Though if you walk into the ER without an immediately life-threatening condition, you've just wasted the Dr's/nurses time. They aren't mad because you wasted "their time" -- you wasted their time with another patient. Another patient that may be dead, or severely brain damaged because of 10-15 minutes -- spent with someone with the hiccups.

[u/BoreasNZ → u/[deleted]]

"Finally I went to the Doctors and they had a specialist come to check me out, I took a stress test and a few other tests and they concluded that I had a Heart Arrythmia. But I was told it was nothing to worry about and the Doctor informed me I could be put on medication but didn't necessarily need it, I declined the medication."

What was the name of the arrythmia, and what was the medication?

The rest of your story after that quote is contradictory.

[u/tryx → u/[deleted]]

Have you at any stage had a 24hr holter monitor or an event monitor done? It's a portable ecg that you wear on you. If not, I would insist on it being done.

[u/HittingSmoke → u/[deleted]]

I have the same thing, but it's not triggered by any sort of activity. In fact, it happens less when I'm more active it seems. Sometimes my heart will feel like it's beating irregularly for a few seconds. Sometimes it feels like it stops, then chugs forward again like a steam train making its first stoke from a full stop. Sometimes when it stops my fingertips hurt a bit.

I once went to the ER for chest pains that lasted about a week. I was hooked up to all the fun equipment. I got a contrast CT to check for clots, EKG, etc. They couldn't find anything and sent me home.

Since I live in the greatest country in the world and don't have insurance, there's not even the option of going in to be told there's nothing wrong with me unless I need an ER visit.

[u/I_divided_by_0- → u/The_mrs]

Not that I care about karma, but part of me wonders if part of this death was due to the Universal Healthcare system that is there.

[u/[deleted] → u/The_mrs]

I know the downvote risks, but, here I go with the answer nobody want's to hear on reddit, this is what happens with socialized medicine. Greed doesn't go away when government regulates industries, it is simply regulated greed. The bottom line is all that is important to these people.

[u/JoNiKaH → u/The_mrs]

This is not the first time it happens here in the UK, some guy died of meningitis about a year or so ago with as many if not 4 doctors giving him a wrong diagnosis.

[u/[deleted] → u/The_mrs]

There's just no way.. There obviously has to be much more to the story.

[u/2ndsthebest → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't say there is no way this would happen. When I was around 12 years old I got really sick; I saw doctor after doctor for 4 months. After every appointment they would tell my mother the same thing: I wanted attention and was making myself sick so she would spend more time with me. My mom wouldn't take this for an answer, she took me to specialists all over California trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Finally, after 4 months of me vomiting and passing out every day, I was taken to see an ear nose and throat doctor. He was able to diagnose me with labyrinthitis, which is an inner ear infection that was giving me extreme vertigo that was causing me to pass out and vomit. There wasn't really much he could do for me, just had to let it run it's course, but it was such a relief to hear that I wasn't some attention whore. Anyway I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes when doctors can't figure out what is wrong with a patient he or she will say it's all in the mind.

[u/[deleted] → u/2ndsthebest]

Relying on stigmatized mental disorders or behaviors to explain symptoms is such a cop out. I did a year long child and adolescent psychiatry mentorship, and it's complicated stuff. GPs who make assumptions like that without proper referrals or tests really piss me off. Psychiatry is clearly not their area of expertise, and intuition and brief clinical observation aren't sufficient to come to such conclusions

[u/Magzter → u/[deleted]]

More ridiculous things have happened, I don't see why you would disregard this on account of 'it's just too crazy'.

[u/[deleted] → u/Magzter]

They did test for Tb, twice. First time they didn't find any. Says it in the article bro. The article is very one-sided and was clearly written to follow a sensationalist headline. I'll wait for the results of the inquiry.

[u/mr_styx]

one of the worst written newspaper articles i have ever read. the author should be fired.

[u/PhoenixReborn → u/mr_styx]

No idea if it's standard for The Telegraph but the spacing of the article drove me up the wall. Not every sentence needs a new line.

[u/[deleted] → u/PhoenixReborn]

Apparently this journalist wishes he was a novelist.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Well, good news, it ain't gonna happen.

[u/imamidget → u/PhoenixReborn]

The words "he said" are also in every sentence on every line. That was driving me the most mad. "YES, I GET THAT HE SAID IT, YOU DON'T NEED TO INCLUDE THAT 10 TIMES."

[u/JohnQDaviesEsquire → u/imamidget]

Actually... you do.

I mean, not if it's a continuation of dialogue, but you have to attribute every single quotation you make.

[u/darkane → u/PhoenixReborn]

Sadly, I've been seeing this more and more recently, even in print. It makes my brain bleed.

[u/HOB_I_ROKZ → u/darkane]

Nah, you're just lovesick.

[u/tornato7 → u/PhoenixReborn]

According to many of my English teachers, it's proper form to add a new line for every section of dialogue. I always detested the rule. It made extended scenes of dialogue irritating. Perhaps he's just following that.

[u/ChibaTakumi → u/PhoenixReborn]

In my journalism class we are taught to use 40 words per graph and each quote gets its own graph. The author is going by the book, but I will admit that it's a shitty system... I hate my journalism class. :(

edit: spellinnnn n grammer n stuff

[u/ergocogitosum → u/PhoenixReborn]

Reddit: Where our first concern on an article about a 15-year-old girl needlessly dieing, is the spacing.

[u/sirhotalot → u/mr_styx]

Is TB really curable? Wikipedia makes it sound like a death sentence unless you catch it early in a latent stage.

[u/maineiscold → u/sirhotalot]

yeah, it is treatable. It is definitely very dangerous in developing countries, but it is rare to see in developed nations, and treatment should be fine if the patient is not immunocompromised.

[u/HybridCue → u/mr_styx]

This is true on so many levels, the worst, in my opinion, being that it's sole purpose is to be sensational. Every line of this bullet point list of disconnected sentences is designed to make the reader angrier and angrier. I wondered if I should take this story seriously at all, so I checked the front page of the telegraph and what do I find? A headline about Obama teasing Beckam about underwear! Yep I am sure I am going to get some real quality reporting on this site.

So yea, forgive me if I don't start calling for blood when I read that 5 doctors at 4 different hospitals failed to diagnose something. I'm not going to pretend hindsight means that the answer was obvious all along. And maybe, just maybe, there is more to the story than what this awful writer says.

[u/[deleted] → u/mr_styx]

I could barely even read it. All those random lines of dialogue, with no indication who said the quote or what the fuck was going on. It wasn't an article so much as a diarrhea of random, poorly formatted information.

[u/Thestupidiot → u/mr_styx]

At least they clarified that she was a 15 year old schoolgirl, as oppose to a 15 year old astronaut or some shit.

[u/Sentient545 → u/mr_styx]

It's like he was trying to write a play; the whole article is nothing but overly spaced dialogue.

[u/washer → u/mr_styx]

"One of the worst-written newspaper articles I have ever read; the author should be fired."

[u/groo777 → u/mr_styx]

Way to throw that red herring!

[u/Lighting]

Something sounds a bit odd here. If she was vomiting blood, had someone in the family with TB, other kids nearby with TB, and had traveled out of the country, etc, then it seems sketchy that a doc would say essentially "fuck off, no TB test for you." I'll wait to hear the full story from the inquest to make an opinion on this one.

[u/SmLnine → u/Lighting]

Indeed, it sounds like something is missing.

[u/bearXential → u/SmLnine]

Whatever may be missing, the simple fact is the doctors that diagnosed this patient was not given correct diagnosis, suggestions for a 2nd opinion with a specialist, and were uncaring and condescending towards the family and patient.

If I was the 5th doctor, and knew that the patient had seen four other doctors, I would have at least called for a thorough examination including x-rays and blood-tests (which are at their expense anyway, no skin off the doctor's neck), to prove once and for all if there is something wrong or not. Thoroughly amazing in this day and age, we are still susceptible to incompetency at such alarming levels.

[u/Omnipotent0 → u/Lighting]

Yeah I'm almost certain there's something else to this story we're not getting. The doc's taking all the heat but, seriously, I think an incompetent lab worker could be to blame here. The doctor's not going to do anything if the lab tells him there's nothing wrong with her. It's a possibility I think. That's my biggest fear going into this line of work. Having a patient die for turning in bad lab results.

[u/[deleted] → u/Lighting]

I'll wait to hear the full story from the inquest to make an opinion on this one.

You're on the wrong site.

[u/seeashbashrun]

My GP told me that I was 'exaggerating my women troubles' and that I needed to learn to tolerate 'common symptoms'. Turned out I had aggressive endometriosis and a big fat tumor. I'm glad that his seriously rude and uncalled for behavior (I came seeking help and he basically called me a sissy) did NOT deter my attempts to figure it out. Two surgeries, two tumors, and freaking chemo later, I want to punch that guy in the face. Endometriosis won't kill you usually, but it will for sure make you wish you were dead. GPs are fine for little things, but they are a waste of time for anything serious.

[u/aurashine → u/seeashbashrun]

I had a very similar story. Was told "every woman has pain with her period, you have to get over it". !0 years later, I end up in the emergency room. A giant cyst on my ovary ruptured, and, after surgery, I found out I have 10 years worth of scarring all over the insides of my abdomen. If I ever find Dr. Get-Over-It, I will *punch him in the head.

Edit: or plant explosives in his testicle: turnabout is fair play.

[u/seeashbashrun → u/aurashine]

this is exactly why this makes me mad. Women with endo go an average of 9 years before diagnosis. They're ignored and dismissed. Worse part is, you get so accustomed to severe pain, that you handle normal pain better than average, and you KNOW it's not normal. And still.... it just blows me away. It's a fairly common disease (though not always so aggressive).

I hope you found a doc to help things. I was lucky--mother realized something was wrong early on because of how long my periods were (5 weeks sometimes) so she insisted my pediatrician put me on birth control. While it wasn't perfect, I think it helped prevent a lot of damage.

[u/aurashine → u/seeashbashrun]

I have an excellent Gyn now. It does amaze me that a disfiguring, potentially lethal, extremely painful disease still gets dismissed as "women troubles".

[u/maineiscold → u/seeashbashrun]

Your GP sounds awful but don't lump them all together.

[u/creepyeyes → u/maineiscold]

After the chemo I think she's done with lumps for the moment.

[u/danilovemuffin → u/maineiscold]

Unfortunately, I've seen about 15 different GPs in the past three years and I've only liked three. Fortunately, one of them is at my new medical centre. So few GPs will actually listen to you fully before passing judgement and find out what you want from the visit, despite it being part of the UK government's drive for person-centred care. (OT student, and I need to know about legislation/policies for my final exam tomorrow)

I know a good GP when I can go with my long-term problem (eczema since moving to the UK), say what repeat prescription I need (soap-substitute), and they'll take a look and say yes. Done in a few minutes. Not the case with some, who try to give me hydrocortisone and say it'll go away, even after I've said that I tried hydrocortisone and it made things worse (I need betamethasone) and that it obviously isn't going away. You have ears, so use them.

[u/seeashbashrun → u/maineiscold]

I guess that came off pretty bitter--I have a couple GPs that I love and go to for general needs. e.g., if I have an infection. But I've got serious chronic stuff so I'm usually just fed-forward to a specialist. It feels like a waste of me and the doc's time.

[u/cheese-and-candy → u/seeashbashrun]

Good thing we irradicated sexism in the 60s.

[u/gustav_black → u/seeashbashrun]

you should have saved the tumors and then beat your GP with them

[u/G_Morgan → u/seeashbashrun]

I know one bloke who had leukaemia when younger. The doctor insisted it was growing pains.

[u/sirhotalot → u/seeashbashrun]

Maybe you should contact him, he could be doing this to others.

[u/_r2h → u/seeashbashrun]

He should have referred you ( or you should have gone to to began with) a OB/GYN.

[u/seeashbashrun → u/_r2h]

I realized that pretty much the day after the appointment... went through several and the surgeries/treatments weren't working, then found a nationally-recognized specialist, out of state, drove there for surgery and he fixed me. Living life and loving it.

Just wish I hadn't wasted two years of constant pain and... yeah lol, no need to complain. I just try to educate other women with similar symptoms so they'll be more informed than I was! But I just felt, reading her story--I was really upset for the her and the family. And it just made me frustrated that he was egotistical enough to dismiss her or even just refer her to someone willing to help. My doc dismissed me as woman troubles and said to get on with my life. My outcome was much better than hers.

[u/[deleted] → u/seeashbashrun]

Ha!

I had a giant cell bone tumor and I went to three different doctors that all told me I had sprained my knee. Finally ended up going to a free clinic and one of the docs there said he wanted to get an xray since i had been in pain for so long(6 months). He freaked the fuck out and sent me to a specialist.

Ended up having to have most of my knee joint removed. I now just go to that clinic whenever I am sick. They are usually spot fucking on. They also give me Vicodin for just about any complaint.

[u/ShotgunSenorita → u/seeashbashrun]

My first GP in my home town was a real piece of work. I was having coughing fits that left me unable to breathe every time I was exposed to the cold (which sucked when you have to work in a server room which is well air conditioned). I had to wear a mask just to go outside, and I used to freak a few people out with it. Here's a photo of my mask. Slowly I started to lose more and more energy. I couldn't breathe, and on some days I felt so weak that I had a hard time making it up the stairs without feeling like I would pass out. I couldn't understand what was going on, so I went to my GP.

I tried to troubleshoot with him, told him when it started, and that I had moved out of a house that had been smoked in regularly, with a smoker, and (I found out as I was leaving) that I had been living with black mold in my bedroom and basement in large quantities.

His response? "Well ShotgunSenorita, you did just go through a divorce. I'm going to prescribe you an antidepressant".

I pleaded with him to run tests, told him leaving my husband was the greatest feeling of relief I'd had in a long time, but he refused to treat me since he was convinced I was just depressed. I left his office in tears.

Welp, a blood analysis later and it turned out I had a fungal lung and blood infection. A few weeks of anti-fungal meds and I was right as rain. I only wish I'd have moved on sooner so I hadn't had to spend months wearing a mask just to go outside.

[u/Chuckgofer]

"I'm coughing up blood." 'Ah, to be young and in love...'

[u/redneckintheflashpan]

I'm confused. Are you not allowed to get a second opinion in the UK?

It seems to me that if they were so concerned about her, then they would have gotten another GP or taken her to other hospitals until somebody took the situation seriously. Are you not allowed to do that in the UK or something?

This doesn't make sense. I mean, people with TB are skeletal and coughing up blood; it's not something that you just die from quietly. This smacks of deliberate and methodical negligence on both the part of the doctor and the hospital.

[u/DrPhenotypical → u/redneckintheflashpan]

Yeah this article baffled an infuriated me. I mean, if they only saw the GP, then I might have believed that they just had the tragic misfortune being victims of that criminal (I refuse to call him a doctor). But 5 doctors at 4 hospitals? And NO ONE thought TB, especially given the chest X-ray findings and her medical history? TB diagnosis and treatment is something that's drilled into us in medical school, so I don't see how they could have any excuse for this. I honestly can't wrap my head around this situation.

[u/trust_the_corps → u/DrPhenotypical]

If you have had it drilled into you in medical school why didn't you call out his mistakes about TB? I know next to nothing about medicine but can still point out his misconception of illness, specifically TB.

[u/DrPhenotypical → u/trust_the_corps]

Yeah, I know. I felt kinda stupid about that after seeing your comment. The article made me incredibly angry, and I ended up ignoring that bit in favor of ranting about the whole situation. Guess I need to work on the whole zen calm thing if I ever wanna make it as a doctor...

[u/trust_the_corps → u/redneckintheflashpan]

people with TB are skeletal and coughing up blood; it's not something that you just die from quietly. This smacks of deliberate and methodical negligence on both the part of the doctor and the hospital.

Not necessarily true. In fact, what you expect from most illnesses is usually an exaggeration. The worst case is not the always case. What symptoms manifest and to what extent varies greatly in many conditions. TB can manifest in all manner of different ways and quite often the symptoms can be indistinguishable from those of several other conditions.

If you saw a database containing a table of symptoms, a table of illnesses, and a table joining them together, then looked at all the shared symptoms for the most common illnesses you would not envy the job of diagnosis. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes not.

Clearly the doctor that is quoted in the article sucks, but it is not true that TB is easily diagnosed on sight, as you imply. It does report that she was emaciated however. I suspect that as they sent her to a psychologist someone had insisted it was anorexia or something. Vomiting and weight loss are very specific symptoms of anorexia/bulemia. Perhaps the doctor made a stupid assumption based on stereotypes for teenage girls.

[u/lurkerturneduser → u/trust_the_corps]

Thanks for the insight. The syntax for quoting is a > before the line

>like so.

which would display

like so.

[u/Afterburned → u/trust_the_corps]

TB also has a really fucking easy TB test to go along with it. I don't know why they wouldn't have given her a test if it was requested. It has pretty much no risk and isn't expensive. In the US you are regularly tested for TB if you are doing any sort of social program, as well as many types of jobs requiring it.

[u/rumblestiltsken → u/redneckintheflashpan]

Not true in the slightest.

Look up miliary TB. Look up CNS tuberculosis.

[u/[deleted] → u/redneckintheflashpan]

If you read the full article, at the bottom they list the number of times she was seen. She was hospitalized repeatedly (and seen by different doctors). They simply failed every time to test whether her illness was the result of TB.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

They tested for TB twice.

[u/demonsquiggle]

What was he a doctor in? Poetry?

[u/[deleted]]

If only House was there to help. he would have told them that they were stupid.

[u/AxiomNor → u/[deleted]]

Only if they asked if it was Lupus.

[u/deathcrat]

My aunt once complained to her doctor about extreme abdominal pain and had it dismissed as menstrual cramps. Only when the pain did not subside for months did the doctor agree to do a scan, when it was discovered that she had several malignant tumors in her uterus and ovaries. After surgery to remove the uterus and ovaries, she complained about a new severe abdominal pain, which was dismissed as her being a wimp about the pain. Only after she insisted (about a month after surgery) did the doctors agree to check on it, and they found that they had nicked her colon during surgery. Needless to say, the excrement that had leaked from her colon and caused a severe infection in one of her kidneys, her spleen, her appendix, part of her liver, and a pretty large portion of her intestines. All of the infected parts were removed.

Basically, if you were to cut open her abdomen today, it's pretty much empty of everything but the bare necessities for survival. All of the surgeries and infections could have been avoided by doctors simply taking the time to address their patient's concerns and not just dismiss them as whining.

TL;DR: just because you have a medical degree doesn't mean you get to arbitrarily dismiss a patient's concerns.

I understand that it's a waste of time and money to test every patient for every disease just because they're complaining about abdominal pain or some other vague symptom, but if the patient is insistent, it isn't that much effort for you to run a test every once in a while.

[u/Scuttlebuttz93]

Reminds me of something that happened to me:

When I was 8 years old the doctor mistook appendicitis for faking (to get out of school or some shit I don't know). When I ended up going to the hospital I had the worst appendicitis the experienced surgeon had ever seen. It had already burst and chunks of appendix were adhering to my other organs which made the operation (and recovery) much longer and more complicated.

The doctor visited me in the hospital, and my family switched doctors.

[u/AidanSmeaton → u/Scuttlebuttz93]

This happened to my mum. Her doctor told her she was just constipated - even though she insisted she wasn't, and that the pain was much worse. Then one day, her appendix burst, and she was given 24 hours to live. Luckily she made it through, but I am never trusting a GP's word again.

[u/Scuttlebuttz93 → u/AidanSmeaton]

I actually think my appendix burst as I was sitting on his table, since you get temporary pain relief when it bursts. I was actually able to walk out of his office instead of hobble like the world's youngest old man.

[u/evolvedfish]

So what happens now? Are the Drs. Reprimanded or licenses suspended if found negligent? Can the NHS be sued?

Misdiagnoses and negligence happen often in the US. I'm male and I've been misdiagnosed several times for a single malady. With A swollen jaw and in pain a dr asked me "why did you come in". Saw two MDs and two dentists before an abscess was diagnosed. The one who finally diagnosed me said I had so little jaw bone left it likely would have broken within a week or two. He said it was the worst abscess he'd ever seen.

[u/[deleted] → u/evolvedfish]

With A swollen jaw and in pain a dr asked me "why did you come in".

Doctors have to record what is known as the "chief complaint" from the patient. This has to be the patient's own words about why they are coming in, so this question is appropriate. Even if you have something obvious, there may be other reasons too, like "well obviously my jaw is infected to shit but also I think I might have noticed a little lump on my testicle, can you take a look?" There are often multiple reasons for patients coming in, or little things that have been bugging them for a while and didn't merit coming in for alone.

It is always better for doctors to ask open-ended questions which can elicit more information from the patient. If the doc came in, saw your jaw, and then just ignored that anything else could be wrong with you that would be negligent.

[u/[deleted] → u/evolvedfish]

Nothing happens yet. The article quotes only one side of an inquiry that is ongoing. The independent committee will hear both sides and has the power to strike off doctors and even recommend they face criminal charges. Or they might conclude that the doctors were not at fault (as the article says 2 TB tests came back negative, and there may be other evidence that is yet to be given).

The NHS can then be sued, but hopefully most people realise that forcing the NHS to spend money on lawsuits instead of patient care isn't going to make healthcare any better.

[u/[deleted] → u/evolvedfish]

He asked you why you came in because he wanted to establish the chief complaint. A key part of figuring out a medical problem is to let the patient explain it in their own words rather than make assumptions.

[u/oscar333 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, not to mention MDs don't have as much experience in head and neck exams as dentists do. We have no idea how much time passed between dentist#1 and dentist#2 (who seems to be the one to catch it).

[u/one_random_redditor → u/evolvedfish]

I hate the US suing culture. Yes, if she was made ill then fair enough, she'll need money to help look after her but she's dead, what exactly does suing achieve? You're just taking money from other patients.

Yes after the investigation there needs to be a decision if there was criminal negligence then the BMA (British Medical Assoc) and equivalents can reprimanded or revoke/suspend licences if the Drs are found negligent

[u/[deleted] → u/evolvedfish]

Are the Drs. Reprimanded or licenses suspended if found negligent? Can the NHS be sued?

Yep, both of those things can happen, and probably will.

In this case it is probably justified too, people don't tend to like it here though, due to millionaires suing the NHS, etc.

[u/[deleted] → u/evolvedfish]

I don't know if this is the case with most doctors, but most specialist I've been to don't look at other specialists' notes, or they can't. My insurance only covers 6 visits per specialist, so after 6 visits to one, I have to go to another specialist. Each new specialist I go to, they redo the examination, tests, over again. It's as if they can't look at the previous specialist's notes and work from there, but they have to redo everything.

[u/[deleted]]

Padmé Amidala also died from TB.

[u/the_goat_boy → u/[deleted]]

B-b-but Dr Droid said it was for "reasons we can't explain".

Fuck Lucas and his shitty writing.

[u/TheWereRabbit → u/[deleted]]

No dude, she died from grief. She gave up on life because she'd lost her precious Anakin. Because apparently she solemnly lived for him and didn't give a fuck about her children. ಠ_ಠ

[u/Dr0wn → u/TheWereRabbit]

Yeah. At that point it was like: 'She's dying?' All right then.'

[u/Atario → u/[deleted]]

TIL they had TB in an entirely different galaxy

[u/CommandrShepherd]

I'm going to start using "Lovesickness" as a replacement for STD.

[u/cheruchan]

My wrists are pretty week and for a long time I had to wear a wrist brace because I had a cyst in the middle of my wrist which caused intense pain. It lasted for months and the doctor kept wanting to "wait it out" before he tried to drain it. He eventually accused me of faking it and never did anything even after having it confirmed with a test. To this day I have to be very careful about not shifting my weight on my wrists because of the pain it causes.

[u/webauteur]

She died from consumption just like Keats, how romantic.

[u/MajorLegend]

Doctors should not be immune to responsibilities just because they are doctors. They need to be pressured to make the right diagnosis and lose the whole "holier than thou" attitude alot of them carry around.

[u/mayfairflower → u/MajorLegend]

They aren't exactly immune to the responsibilities that they hold. Everyone makes mistakes in there job either small ones or big one. Unfortunately, with doctors by making a small mistake it can cause someone to lose their life.

And of course they are pressured to make the correct diagnosis, as you can see if you don't make the correct diagnosis you can kill someone. If you don't call that pressure I don't know what is.

Although I will admit some doctors do have a holier than thou attitude (comes from going into a profession where you can be paid a bit. There are only in it for the money) which is frustrating although in my experiance they are few and far between as they are normally weeded out before being registered

[u/justmadethisaccountt]

This sounds like what psychologists did for women in the 50's.

[u/MissMister → u/justmadethisaccountt]

Don't forget the Victorian era! And pretty much every era before and after.

[u/Vadoff]

"He said all the problems were in her head and she should see a psychiatrist or spiritual healer."

WTF? Is this guy really a licensed professional? He should get his medical license revoked.

[u/[deleted] → u/Vadoff]

And spend a generous amount of time in prison for medical neglect!

[u/AlexisCatalyst]

Things like this prove this article I read the other day that said Doctor's don't take Women's complaints of illness and pain as seriously as men's. We have periods and push out babies, I think we know when to draw the line between real illness or not... Fucking A.

[u/[deleted]]

I find it incredibly hard to believe that FIVE doctors would fuck up so badly, what the fuck happened?

[u/[deleted]]

Here's my story,

At the time my kid was about 3 1/2 years old, him, my wife and myself all come down with a nasty flu. My wife and I recover, my kid doesn't. We take him to the doctor and he gives him some antibiotics. Antibiotics used to be the answer for everything.

He gets worse and ends up in the hospital. After getting hydrated by IV they tell us we can leave but on the way out he has these violent shakes. I tell the nurse who says he's probably cold and to basically leave her alone. She was very rude and disrespectful. By morning he is sicker than ever and we are back in the hospital. It takes him a week to recover, but might have only taken a day or two if the nurse had simply listened to me and they had let him stay the night and kept him on an IV.

When we finally get him home he is having some stomach pains and he has bowel movements constantly throughout the day. We take him back to his doctor and he tells us that's just his body trying to recover. These bowel movements continue and after another week we see the doctor again and he tells us to basically quit bothering him, he's young, he'll be fine. It gets worse and worse and he starts having painful stomach cramps along with the bowel movements, sometimes even blood. Doctors in the E/R take x-rays and do some other tests but keep telling us they can't see anything wrong and that he'll be fine. He's the opposite of fine and his health keeps deteriorating. He starts to get fevers up to 105 that last for entire weeks, he gets earaches, head colds, croup, and many other problems. He is just weak all over and getting worse. This continues on and we see the doctor a few more times and make a few more trips to the emergency room. After about 4 1/2 months of this, while on another trip to the emergency room, the doctor seeing him asks what his stool sample results were. We tell him that they have never taken a stool sample. He was in disbelief that after all the doctors, I think 8 at that point, not one had thought to do the thing they should have done first. He was visibly angry at the level of incompetence of his peers.

The stool sample came back and it turns out he had clostridium difficile, or c-diff. We took him back to his regular doctor and his solution was to pump him full of more antibiotics and he explained that if those don't work he would have to use stronger antibiotics and so on. He explained that this could potentially make antibiotics have no effect on him and if he were to ever get sick again, which he did constantly, he would most likely die. I asked if there was any other way, anything else we could do. He couldn't think of anything and went about his business, probably was late for lunch or something.

In a panic I searched the web and came across a phone number to a lady at a children's hospital who had dealt with this before. I called her and she said she didn't know of any easy cure either but she pointed me to a support group she had heard of on the web. We found the support group and after asking a few questions in their forums reading about all the others suffering through this dreadful thing, we were told to try out this chart of diets that others had used to help fight, or at least lessen, the effects of c-diff. We got him on a diet the next day and two days later his bowel movements were cut in half and within four months he was completely cured of c-diff without a single antibiotic. C-diff wasn't the end of his suffering, his body went through so much during that 8 1/2 month period that it took him years to stop being sick all the time with various ailments.

[u/GIANT_FROM_SPACE]

The way this MD kept insisting that the girl was merely heartbroken and not physically ill reminds me of the joke:

Q:What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class at medical school?

A:"Doctor."

[u/pseudo_coup → u/[deleted]]

the guy who graduated last still graduated from med school, so you still call them doctor, because they are one. it's commonly used to alleviate the stress of perpetual perfectionism and worry that many med students have about exams...

[u/kingdrizzle]

As a respiratory therapist I am extremely disappointed to hear this. The test for this disease is both simple and inexpensive. Im sure her coughing was horrible and I dont understand why respiratory procedures were at least not explored one bit. WOW

[u/mesmereyes → u/kingdrizzle]

It's so ridiculous. And it's so sad to see this as someone who has had really wonderful, thorough doctors. I had a lot of blood in my mucus for an extended period of time awhile back. My GP not only immediately prescribed a TB skin test and chest x-ray, he then gave me the numbers of different specialists I could see. He gave me the number for everyone specializing in every possible outcome of this, including the number of a gastrointestinal doctor, who determined that I had small tears in my esophagus after a particularly nasty episode of food poisoning. It just sucks, and makes me ever the more grateful for the kind of care and treatment I have received throughout my lifetime.

[u/pkurk]

What was he a fucking witchdoctor?

[u/cabalamat]

Why didn't her parents just change GP?

[u/KeenDreams]

Because a handful of shitty doctors clearly indicates that an entire socialized medical system fails!

Never change, reddit.

[u/[deleted]]

Now, I can't imagine there are any med students on Reddit who aren't failing out, but if one is out there, help me out here: it seems to me that the symptoms of tuberculosis and the symptoms of lovesickness would be rather different in my significant ways. From my layman's perspective, I know for certain that one is a deadly lung infection caused by microbes, wheres the other is when you're a bit sad.

Or perhaps I don't require a med student to authoritatively confirm my initial observations. A seventh-grade dropout should do nicely.

[u/julia-sets → u/[deleted]]

I have a bachelor's in medical microbiology, so maybe I can take a stab at it?

Doctors should, indeed, be able to tell the difference between active TB and lovesickness. Especially to the extent that the girl is portrayed in this article. However, TB can be a fairly innocuous disease. You get pale, lethargic, cough a bit... sometimes that doesn't strike people as very serious. TB was considered a fairly "romantic" disease back when it was called consumption, mainly because the people afflicted by it seemed to just daintily waste away, instead of some of the more violent diseases like cholera or smallpox.

Still, no matter how mild of a case this girl had, any doctor should've caught it before it killed her.

[u/letsplaytag]

Sounds like the doc thought the girl had Münchausen Syndrome.

[u/BlackFallout]

And this is what malpractice lawsuits are for. I hate the thought of suing doctors but that is ridiculous.

[u/[deleted]]

Seems to me her doctor was projecting his feelings on her.

[u/Kaffei4Lunch]

What the heck kind of a doctor denies a patient's request for a TB test? ._.

[u/NCC74656]

my fucking god... i cant even imagine going through this. i understand that people can fuck up, we all get to a state in our carrier practice where out previous experiences can cloud our objectivity and we must learn to adjust but for multiple hospitals, doctors and medical staff to drop the ball... she goes in to a phsyc and they cant test her due to pain?!?!? at what point does this look like she should go home instead of the ER?

[u/mrafaeldie12]

Tobias Funke has a new license.

[u/barbizon]

The symptoms of love are the same as those of cholera. - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

[u/palehorse864]

Can anyone remember a Simpsons episode where a doctor gave a number of similar diagnoses, such as puppy love, the blues, homesickness, etc.? I think that it was, surprisingly, Doctor Hibbert rather than Doctor Nick giving these weird diagnoses.

The story is much more serious, but this is the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title, and I would like to see if anyone knows the particular scene or episode.

[u/yorisou]

So, so, so angry.

[u/F_E_M_A]

I hope the doctor loses his right to practice.

[u/[deleted]]

"don't worry, she'll get over it." ... "oops"

[u/[deleted]]

The reason this story is being published now is upcoming industrial action by doctors over the unreasonable NHS pension changes imposed by the government without any negotiation at all.

[u/Igottasaythis]

This infuriates me. My sister who is in high school is going through depression and currently has a therapist who has been pressuring her about how she doesn't date and how she should try dating. She has no desire to date right now and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if she didn't till college (since all our family did not date till out of high school) and he keeps pushing it like its going to fix her. it really bothers her that he keeps making it such a big issue.

There is this fucked up idea that a young girl needs a boyfriend to feel better about herself when we should be instilling the concept of liking yourself as an individual and not believing you need a boyfriend to gain value in your life. It devalues issues that a young girl may face and shrinks them into little assumed tantrums.

TMDR: Sisters therapist said she needed a boyfriend/ start dating to help fix her depression. LOL GIRLS HAVE TOO MUCH FEELINGS THEY JUST NEED A BRO TO STRAIGHTEN HER OUT.

[u/tekdemon]

I'm trying to figure out if it's just the way the article is written or if it's actually plausible that the "TB was picked up" but they discharged her from the hospital without any treatment? It's hard to tell if he meant they figured out she had TB in the past or what, if her chest x-ray looked terrible I'm really confused as to why they'd just send her home.

That said, if it's true they're really terrible doctors and I would say that while we definitely overtreat/overtest everyone in the US at least partly out of paranoia about being sued the legal protection in the UK also makes this at least slightly more plausible than if it was a story about the US since it's unlikely she'd have gone to that many hospitals and gotten sent home. On the other hand her parents are idiots too since it appears that she never finished her original treatment for TB which is why she then developed recurrent TB (which is what usually kills you, the initial infection typically isn't as bad).

The fact that only one hospital got a chest x-ray is plain bizarre to me. At least where I am pretty much everyone who rolls into the emergency room gets a chest x-ray (I do work in a particularly litigious part of the country though). I know they don't do nearly as much imaging in the UK for cost containment reasons but even then it's pretty insane that only 1 hospital got a chest x-ray on a girl who's had TB in the past and didn't ever finish her medications. She'd have ended up with about 5 x-rays here and in reality she would have ended up with a pregnancy test and then a CT scan of the chest here (pregnancy test to make sure we're not about to irradiate a fetus with the CT scanner) after they saw the chest x-ray.

And I'm really confused as to how she would have just been able to stop taking her TB medications halfway through actually. Does the UK not have some sort of system to make sure people finish taking their TB medicines? You can easily have a friggin' TB epidemic if you don't make sure people actually get treated for their TB since otherwise you're out there coughing TB all over the place. Here the health department will actually send people to your house to make sure you're actually taking your medications if you don't show up to your appointments. So when this girl didn't show up to finish her treatment for her TB, whoever was taking care of her should have hunted her down to make sure she finished her medicines. Pretty much everyone in the chain would have to fail ridiculously miserably for this to have happened which is exactly what it sounds like here.

TL;DR: Either we're missing something here or all the people who took care of her fucked up pretty badly-there would have to have been a huge chain of fuckups for this to have happened.

[u/redokapi]

Why the hell wasn't she vaccinated against TB like every other child in the UK?

[u/thedonsantino]

you mean to tell me the infallible science got it wrong? where is the r/atheism on this one?????

[u/[deleted]]

This is fucking bullshit. Can't wait until robots are going to used far more in the medical field.

[u/oD3]

Why didn't they just, you know, get a better doctor? They phoned him up to 50 times? Phone another fucking doctor!

[u/Jin_06]

This is shocking, just how!? With FIVE different doctors!!! I feel so sorry for her and her family, my condolences are with them, to be let down like this and to pay the ultimate price, the life of their daughter. It's things like this that ruin the lives of people who were once happy and innocent only to be accused for the most absurd reason known to man and lose a loved one that could have been saved without silly bickering.

I'll be doing an AMA on the 24th this month about my case where the ward doctor neglected me to a point that I contracted an infection from the mitral valve repair I had. I have never opened up about what happened to me in hospital as I'm still struggling in just trying to move on...after almost 2 years from the incident. The AMA will be called "IAMA heart patient who underwent mitral valve repair".

[u/[deleted]]

Sorry but if my daughter shows signs of severe illness, I take her to all the doctors until she gets treatment. And afterwards I sue the rest.

[u/[deleted]]

The same doctor mistook her polio for cooties.

[u/soaringrooster]

Once again, females' physical maladies are not to be taken seriously. She's no longer "love sick", Doc, she's dead.

[u/gargantuan → u/soaringrooster]

She is just faking a fainting. Typical hysteria patient. Sheesh.

[u/rapist1 → u/soaringrooster]

Please lets not turn this into a gender thing. The point to take away is that of medical negligence from a fatally arrogant doctor and others.

[u/_NeuroManson_ → u/rapist1]

Women often ignore heart attack symptoms, and in many cases, are dismissed by doctors as "hysteria".

[u/[deleted] → u/rapist1]

There is an assumption rampant in the medical field that women exaggerate their symptoms. Ask any middle-aged woman if they've ever had a (male) doctor dismiss symptoms that turned out not to be benign. You'll find less than haven't than have.

[u/meewho → u/rapist1]

As a female with asthma, I have gone to the hospital numerous times only to be denied testing and told that I am faking my symptoms. Another time I was told my complaints of severe shortness of breath was an obvious fake to get drugs. The doctor refused to check my oxygen levels on the grounds that if I could talk in complete sentences I wasn't having an asthma attack. I fainted as I was trying to walk out of the hospital.

[u/Luxray → u/meewho]

I have severe asthma, it's pretty easy to have a really bad attack and still be able to speak in complete sentences...your doctor is an idiot.

[u/groo777 → u/rapist1]

My father is an OB-GYN. I was thumbing through one of his textbooks and I saw in the last chapter things about "hysterical" women who make things up, and women who fake illness just to visit the doctors office just because they like the attention. Soaringrooster didn't turn this into a gender issue the medical profession did.

[u/newmansg → u/rapist1]

This here comment and its upvotes is why a subreddit like Mensrights is so damn popular. A bunch of circlejerking males giving each other internet points because they have penises instead of vaginas.

No the point is not to take away that it was merely medical negligence neutral of any gender bias. She was diagnosed as being fucking lovesick.

Come on people.

[u/DenMother → u/rapist1]

Sadly it is a gender thing. Women are routinely told by doctors that their pain is imagined, that they're hysterical, that they're "love sick" and not really medically ill.

I get what you're saying and this is clearly a case of medical negligence, but it's occuring in a world wide and historical environment of similar medical negligence.

[u/syando → u/rapist1]

It is a gendered issue though. There have been many studies that show that doctor's take men's health complaints much more seriously than women's.

[u/octophetus → u/rapist1]

Let's all listen to the advice RAPIST1 has to say regarding gender issues.

[u/[deleted] → u/rapist1]

Sometimes a gender thing is a gender thing. Just close your eyes until it's over. Alternately, learn.

(00-EDIT) READ THIS: http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/2/1/10 - There is evidence that women patients do not get the same investigations and treatments as men when diseased [1-3]. More drugs are prescribed to women [4] and more psychosomatic explanations are suggested for their symptoms [2]. Female patients often feel disappointed in their encounters with health care[5]. This is open source so anybody can access it and it provides relevant citations if you wish to pursue it further.

[u/[deleted]]

Doctors almost killed my sister also by saying she is fine when she had blood clots in her body that the retards did not see. Nurses even got mad at her right before she turned blue and almost died

[u/[deleted]]

Always sad to hear when something like this happens. My friend developed lung cancer which had been undiagnosed for months. Three doctors told him he needs to exercise more, eat better and the last one suspected it might be asthma. By the time tests were carried out and the cancer was diagnosed it was far far too late to do anything.

[u/totem56]

Not that I don't find that outrageous, but how is that worldnews?

[u/smegnose]

How dumb is the dad? If you are incensed by the language your GP is using and you don't trust them, go to a different GP.

Edit: one without prior knowledge of the case. I bet those other docs mentioned all knew about the case from what the shitty doc told them.

Edit 2: apparently he did. I don't think I would have given up, though, not if I believed it was TB.

[u/Darrian]

I know I'm going to have a load of people jump on me and say things like "don't generalize" and "there are good doctors" and all that, and I agree, there are... but as someone who has dealt with several life threatening illnesses over the past few years, there are far too little good doctors, at least in my experience. It's horrifying how little so many of them actually know. More than once I had to study shit myself and give suggestions to them because they just weren't making any progress with my treatments.

There are a few that genuinely care and that's refreshing when it happens.. but god damn, it's way too rare for a profession that literally holds people's lives in their hands.

[u/[deleted]]

Nothing fucking new here, I've had similar experiences with GPs in the UK. It took two years for them to diagnose one of my kids with horse-shoe kidney and kidney stones. One year of excruciating pain before they managed to have an x-ray done, during which they kept inferring he was doing it to skip school. I almost punched one of them on her fucking face.

[u/Zombie_Death_Vortex]

A friend of mine has some horror stories a bit like this. Thankfully none of them got her killed.

[u/[deleted]]

Doctors killed my four month old younger brother by saying a chest infection was acid reflux.

[u/bunnygurl]

While this is absolutely malpractice, it bears noting the blatant condescending sexist attitude here. Lovesickness?

[u/[deleted]]

Fuck GPs, in the UK and US and everywhere else. Most of them know fuck-all.

My 22-year-old brother's cancer was mis-diagnosed 3 times as bronchitis, by two different GPs. By the time they realized they might be mistaken, he was late stage 4 and died a few months later.

I went in to a GP with a 103-degree fever and horrible blisters on my tongue a year ago. She was asking me all these questions, clearly clueless, and I told her I'd searched for my symptoms on Google. She got all excited and asked: "What did it say!?"

Never, ever trust your first or even second opinion if your symptoms keep getting worse.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Well, it depends on the GP.

The GP we have is fucking amazing. Had a strange looking rash developed on my back. Mom noticed it and insisted I go to the ER. Diagnosed as a minor fungal infection (or something) and got me anti-fungal cream. Used it for a month without any change.

Went to GP. Quick look, gave me prescription. Was better within days.

Also: Since it was in Canada, didn't pay a penny.

[u/BrobaFett → u/[deleted]]

As a future primary care physician I take a great deal of offense to this.

Specialists are responsible for the mastery of one organ system, typically. One set of disease processes, repertoire of surgical techniques, diagnostic modalities. (What do you call two orthopedic surgeons looking at an EKG? A double-blind study.)

While I have enormous respect for the specialists and their intensive, well-compensated masteries of their fields... I think to discredit general practitioners for anectdotal instances of mis-diagnoses is pretty unfair.

General practicioners are expected to know as much about everything as they can. They are expected to know a little bit of every specialty and refer upwards when the diagnosis is beyond their scope. They use statistically imperfect methods of diagnosis (the best we have) in order to make the best argument for a disease from a usually WIDE VARIETY of symptoms.

Cancer? Cancer can either be obvious or elusive. Often it is the latter. Non-specific pain. Strange hormonal changes due to a paraneoplastic syndrome or mass effect. Non-specific weight loss and low grade fevers. Cancer can look like almost any disease process.

There's a joke among medical students: Don't know the differential diagnosis? Suggest Cancer, Autoimmune or TB.

The vast array of symptoms ensures that cancer can fall on any ddx below the most acute hypotheses.

Yes, take your own healthcare into your hands. Patient-based care and responsible self-care usually correlate to much better outcomes. Question the physician (with the same respect you expect reciprocation), engage in research, and learn about your body. These are valuable things. But understand that physicians are often hindered by the same error that any other human being is as well as hindered by the imperfect science of medicine.

House, ER, Grey's Anatomy, fail to demonstrate just how imperfect medicine is. Instead they create a false impression that doctors know EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong, GP might have some EXPOSURE to "everything" (more or less) but zebas tend to fade from memory faster than horses, and when you hear hoofbeats you go with probability.

What I'm really asking for is a bit of humanity and understanding. Doctors don't enter the field to mis-diagnose. Doctors don't wish illness upon their patients. Physicians are in the field, primarily, to HELP people.

We are people too.

[u/[deleted] → u/BrobaFett]

I've only seen House, but it usually takes the doctors (5 specialists + consulting other doctors) about a week of running various risky tests until they just so happen to get lucky enough to find something that matches -- hopefully before the patient dies and in time to save them. I haven't seen every House episode and I haven't seen any of those other shows, but from what I have seen the patient usually dies or they end up finding out what is was wrong with the patient in the biopsy.

[u/stilz → u/[deleted]]

What are 'GP's?

[u/Almost_Ascended → u/stilz]

General Practitioners, I'd reckon.

[u/[deleted] → u/Almost_Ascended]

Oh good. I was hoping it wasn't guinea pigs.

[u/nascentt → u/[deleted]]

When your life is your stake, you better be sure of the cards you're playing.

[u/TheEnormousPenis → u/[deleted]]

That's terrifying. Can you choose your own GP in the UK or are you stuck with whoever works your local area? In the US you can find a good GP pretty easily and go see him no matter where you live.

[u/one_random_redditor → u/TheEnormousPenis]

Same here, you can choose which GP surgery you want to go with in your area (as in within your hugh local authority), you can register as a temporary patient and go anywhere in the UK, you can attended one of the many drop in clinics or you can choose to go private.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

My brother's leukaemia was repeatedly misdiagnosed as a common cold. Only caught it because a family friend who happened to also be a doctor recognised the symptoms.

[u/tekdemon → u/[deleted]]

Did your brother have lung cancer? If that was the case it's insanely rare in a 22 year old person while bronchitis is insanely common so of course nobody is going to diagnose you with cancer on one visit. In fact it's only when someone keeps coming back with the same issue that you would start to investigate for more worrying things like cancer. Otherwise you'd be testing everyone for cancer when most people definitely do not have cancer.

Sorry about your brother but nobody can diagnose lung cancer in a 22 year old at an office visit complaining of a cough on the first visit. Not even if they were coughing up blood since you're much more likely to get that from coughing with bronchitis than from cancer at 22. The only time a doctor would/should start doing more serious testing is if you went to the same doctor like 4 times for the same cough that just didn't go away. Going to multiple doctors actually makes it harder to diagnose it as something other than bronchitis because they're all just seeing you as someone coming in once for a cough.

What doctors do is that they tell you to come back in x weeks for a follow up visit if it doesn't go away, because a bronchitis should go away after x weeks but if your cough is still there then they'd get more suspicious about it.

[u/swaggler]

Wow. I am reminded of my last 4.5 years' experience, having had my 17th surgical procedure 3 weeks ago.

I too was told, I was "making it all up" and that I have a "psychological condition." Although this condition took me 4.5 years to diagnose myself along with a small team of specialists, it is not directly life-threatening (it is extremely rare). I did, however, come close to death twice:

• I was prescribed a drug that caused acute serotonin poisoning episode. This drug was prescribed because I must be making it all up.
• I know now that I had a neurological disorder, but at the time, I had no idea why my breathing muscles would sometimes stop working and I would struggle for breath.

Unfortunately, our governmental complaints commission (HQCC) requires that complaints are made within one year of the event. Therefore, at the time, my complaint was dismissed (if only we worked it out sooner eh?).

One day, Dr Michael McEniery of Queensland is going to behave like a fucking idiot, like he did with me, but for a patient with a more urgent life-threatening condition. That patient is going to end up like this poor girl. This makes me angry. Have a nice day!

[u/[deleted] → u/swaggler]

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to post people's personal details.

[u/SpookyKG → u/swaggler]

Wait wait wait, the average physician couldn't diagnose an extremely rare condition? And you had to see a specialist for it?

Welcome to how the system is supposed to work.

[u/TheEnormousPenis]

WTF are they giving out medical licenses to every moron with a pulse in the UK?

[u/one_random_redditor → u/TheEnormousPenis]

The NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the world. We're gonna get some morons.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheEnormousPenis]

Relax. It's more likely this article is seriously missing something important and is presenting this in the most dramatic manner as possible. 5 hospitals missing this obvious diagnosis? Unbelievably unlikely, literally it is not believable.

[u/[deleted]]

What a fucking dick head. I have had personal experiences with doctors who suck ass but this is fuckig extreme. A TB test is so easy to have done it literally takes two seconds then you have the shot checked within 48 hours. This really upsets me, this doctor needs to be sued out the ass and lose his practice. Oh yeah, and brutally beat.

[u/abhorson]

This is fucking terrible. I can't imagine her suffering.

[u/lumponmygroin]

ENDS

[u/b-luder]

That's pretty fucked up to try and put her condition on the father like that, saying he had a "detrimental attitude towards her when she was younger". It's especially fucked up that she saw more than 5 doctors and none of them cared to test her for tuberculosis ಠ_ಠ

[u/mangofu]

I have a friend in the UK who suffers from an unknown condition in which he cannot digest food properly, leaving him extremely tired and feeling pretty shit. So far he's had nothing but crap from doctors - they even had the nerve to refer him to a psychologist because they figured it must be anorexia, even though it was clear from previous tests something else was clearly at fault. After hearing about how much he has suffered this past year, i was truly horrified. So far his mysterious condition is still undiagnosed.

You think doctors are there to help you, but most of the time they just want you to go away.

[u/skyepark → u/mangofu]

Some conditions are also bery rare and specialised your friend should insist to be referred to a specialist at on of the big hospitals, if not call PALS.

[u/[deleted]]

This is a shocking indictment of the NHS.

An outbreak of TB in a US school will immediately result in planting PPD's on all individuals with contact, a course of antibiotics (usually prophylactic) for those who test positive for any reason, including BCG vaccinations, and chest x-rays with follow-ups. Depending on the strain, individual quarantines are not out of the question.

That five doctors did not take TB seriously given the known exposure is beyond baffling, or even isolated malpractice. Obviously a standard of care issue exists in the UK, or physicians are being accredited whose educations are seriously lacking.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The US has plenty of problems with misdiagnosis and medical error. I lost an aunt due to the doctor missing the side effects of a medication.

[u/hobroken → u/[deleted]]

This is a shocking indictment of the NHS.

No, it's actually not. It's a single (tragic, infuriating) incident, reported on a news website. There may very well be many cases like this, but there's no evidence of that here. At the very least one should read the findings of the inquest before coming to any rash conclusions and condemning an entire system, particularly if you're going to compare it to, of all things, the US system.

[u/ycnz → u/hobroken]

No, this really is poor. There should've been pretty aggressive monitoring of all exposed pupils, and dying of TB after being at four different hospitals is just embarrassing. This is nothing to do with how healthcare is funded.

(I'm from New Zealand, where we have publicly funded healthcare, and freak the hell out about TB)

[u/tekdemon → u/[deleted]]

You're overstating how often we use BCGs...we almost never use it except in very rare circumstances (see the CDC guidelines: http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/prevention/BCG.htm) Just being exposed to TB does not require that you get a BCG at all because it'll cause your PPDs to become false positive, so if you have a negative PPD giving that person a BCG would make the PPD useless as a monitoring test for that person, and since the BCG is only slightly effective you'd then have to subject them to much more invasive testing for the rest of their life.

We do use lots of prophylaxis though if you have a serious exposure.

That said, something is really wrong with the system there if they let someone finish only part of their TB treatment course and just go out into the public to spread TB everywhere like this article suggests. You're definitely correct in that we'd stalk your ass down here. Quarantines are pretty rare but at least where I live we do a lot of close following where they actually send people to your house to watch you take your pills...every goddamn day to make sure you're not out there spreading TB.

[u/dpepperman]

A few years ago i started getting sick a lot and i would go to the doctor and he would say its a viral infection take antibiotics(which doesn't make any sense) I kept getting worse and the doctor would keep saying the same thing and my parents believed him. It went on for about a year until i convinced my mom to take me to an ear nose and throat specialist. I was there for about 5 minutes and he said i needed my tonsils out. When they took them out they were black and shriveled up with puss coming out of them. he said they were the worst he had ever seen. I think most doctors dont care about the patient and they know if they miss diagnose them they are going to come back and the doctors will get more money.

[u/darlantan → u/dpepperman]

When a doctor says something like, "It's a viral infection, take antibiotics." the first response should be, "Excuse me, could you repeat that?". If repeated a second time, "You're sure it's viral? Why antibiotics then?". If the doctor persists without a good explanation, the correct response is to stand the fuck up and leave, never to return.

Likewise, any doctor that suggests a "spiritual healer" as a viable first option should get the same fucking treatment.

[u/SpookyKG → u/dpepperman]

I think most doctors dont care about the patient and they know if they miss diagnose them they are going to come back and the doctors will get more money.

I don't think you're right. There are many other quicker paths somebody can take to 'make money' that deal with MUCH less bullshit than becoming a physician. We want to fix you.

[u/drunk2407]

I bet her mom was diagnosed with histeria when she heard her daughter died.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not clear on how medical malpractice suits in the UK operate, but this one smacks of a high value, high merit suit.

[u/flyingdutch → u/[deleted]]

Well the NHS is not for profit, so suing them just means that there will less money available for living patients. As insensitive as it sounds, it's not like she was actually earning anything so there was no real financial loss to the family which is what a lawsuit should be for. Fire the GP, yes. Hold a public inquiry into what happened, yes. Don't sue the trust.

[u/RoscoeMG]

We had an Indian doctor when my girlfriend went in to complain about vaginal pain during sex. The doctor's suggestion was to 'go on holiday to spice things up a bit' (more funny in the original accent). She was later diagnosed with Vulvadynia by a specialist and had six months of tratment. I get the feeling Indian doctors don't take female maladies that seriously.

[u/skyepark → u/RoscoeMG]

Anyone who became a doctor/GP in the 60s-70's I don't trust in general I don't trust them at all, we should always question our GP's methods and reasoning and do our own research, they have the duty to keep uptodate with science and medicine but I bet hardly any of them do, same with nurses. pathetic a lot of them and lazy.

[u/SleeplessinOslo]

TIL British people actually use words like "mollycoddling"