BAD doctors.

[funkymoped]

how many of us have SUFFERED as a result of having seen a doctor who has mis-diagnosed ???
from the simple things to major issues.

i know it can be tough at the top, but people have died as a result of neglegent medics....

[lilacben]

my father in law at 52 was diagnosed with a slipped disc and died 6 months later with bowel cancer.

[Eve]

I was in hospital and sent for a scan which involved injecting dye into me. A guy got me ready and asked if i was epiletic or diabetic. Said I'm not but that I'm asthmatic, he said that was fine. Radiographer came in and was mentioned I'm asthmatic which she said was fine.

A short while later when I was lying on the table with my arm out ready for the injection they came in and said they couldn't do the scan then.

Turned out with my asthma it could have triggered a huge attack and potentially killed me and I should have been put on steroids for days previously! I checked and being asthmatic was on every page of my notes!

[bednobs]

funky moped, doctors are human beings, and are thus prone to making mistakes. I am quite sure that except in exceedingly rare cases, they are doing/diagnosing what they see in front of them at the time and what they think is the best course for that patient. People have died as a result of negligent coach drivers, bus drivers, lorry drivers etc but no-one blames the whole profession for it. Most of us are lucky that we have jobs where if we muck up, the cost is merely in resources (Money, extra time putting it right etc) whereas unfortunately doctors dont have that luxury

[crete]

quite honestly funky, as someone who worked in the health service for a very long time, my experiences fairly recently of the health service have been horific.

I ruptured the tendon sheath in my thumb three years ago. Saw a specialist who said they could do nothing! After putting up with this for two and a half years I asked for a second opinion. I now see a surgeon at the end of March who is going to operate!!
Not life threatening but has certainly made life difficult for the last few years as i'm right handed and wear a splint constantly.
lilacben - sorry to hear about your father in law.

[funkymoped]

bednobs, doctors CAN AND SHOULD get a second opinion.
yes we all make mistakes, but my mistakes wouldnt kill someone.
my brother was taken with stomach cancer, one doctor told him he had cancer, another told him he didnt !!

that sort of MISTAKE can never be excused !
:-(

[philandlil]

My mother's Partner was taken into hospital for the first time at the end of Oct 05, he had various tests, X-rays (they believed he'd had an heart attack) he was in and out of hospital throughout november he was told he had heart disease, In December he was told it was Lung Cancer he Died in January 06.

[bednobs]

if every doctor got a second opinion about every patient, you would never be able to get an appointment. And i quite agree that your job mistakes wouldnt kill someone, but it is the burden of doctors that theirs does! poor people!

[funkymoped]

"poor people" indeed...

�100,000 a year and no one to answer to..

who cares if you make one lethal mistake ? it can be covered up and no one will ever know.

[Carakeel]

I have a lot of respect for good doctors, who listen to their patients properly, evaluate them thoroughly and treat them with respect and the appropriate treatments. Sadly though, as in all professions, there are those who are either in the profession for the wrong reasons or who have simply lost interest in their work, the latter being understandable to some degree when faced with the NHS!
My father died aged 58 due to proven gross medical negligence and an arrogant senior doctor who thought he was God. He wasn't! My son Kevin died three days before his 21st birthday because of ignorance, arrogance and proven gross medical negligence by local doctors that stunned leading medical specialists, who then took over his case. Sadly, the damage had been done and it was too late to save my beautiful boy. I nearly lost my own life because a doctor didn't bother to send a biopsy to be evaluated and put a lump in my arm down to being a ganglion, which it wasn't. It took me several months to convince doctors that there was something seriously wrong with me. It turned out I was suffering from two forms of bone cancer and due to the delay in diagnosis the cancer then spread to other tissues in my body. Due to good, - no GREAT doctors, I am here to tell the story and have now been clear of cancer for over 18 years! Nine days ago I had my first total knee replacement. It was performed by a brilliant NHS surgeon in a desperately understaffed NHS hospital. I cannot praise the over-worked doctors and nurses there enough, although I could happily strangle the hospital cooks! When medicine or doctors go wrong, the consequences can be unbelievably devastating! But we must not forget that there are also amazing, courageous hard working doctors who are incredibly dedicated to saving and improving the lives of those in their care. These doctors give their all despite hospital cutbacks, staff shortages and all the other problems facing the NHS today. Let's not forget them, please.

[Goodsoulette]

I used to have a rubbish doctor, I had an ear infection and he sent me to the emergancy dentist saying I had a jaw problem. He told me my son had asthma as a baby when it fact it was an allergy to cows milk causing too much mucas. He told me my blood results were normal when I was fainting all over the place due to anaemia, then i got a phone call from a different doctor at the practice to ask why I hadnt called for my results. Then he told my friends dad to stop worrying he was just having a panic attack, which turned out to be a heart attack, he nearly died and had to have a triple heart bypass surgery.

I think on the whole doctors and nurses are brilliant though,

[RATTER15]

I lost my Brother at the age of 32 through negligence, he was rushed into hospital after having a seizure late at night, this was not uncommon, however the next day he would normally have been released in the morning.
My sister went to the hospital to collect him as she usually did, but to find he was still having seizures, this had never happened before, my sister asked the hospital if they had checked him for drugs (prescribed for epilepsy) and alcohol, they said yes and their was no alcohol or drugs in his system, he died after 3 days of almost continual seizures.

The official coroners verdict was death due to massive drug overdose aggravated by alcohol, he committed suicide!!

He took his own life after personal problems aggravated by his epilepsy and many years of prescription drugs taking their toll on his brain, and for my brother it was a way out, so I am not blaming the Hospital for his death, the point remains, they did not detect any drugs or alcohol when they say they checked his blood!!

[funkymoped]

Carakeel, i can only give you my respect.

some people will NEVER know what it is to suffer at the hands of negligence.. others know only too well how one decision could have changed a person or familys life.

[johnlambert]

To be fair goodsoulette, the Dr gets the results from the phlebotomist. he passes on the results to you and suggests a course of action.

[spurslady]

My mum was being treated for depression, bad back and menopause (which she hadn't started) at our local doctors, they sent her for physiotherapy too. One doctor even went as far to say that the extreme pain she was experiencing was in her head.

It all came to a head when she developed gall stones and the hospital found a huge mass in her stomach. Turned out my mum had a 12" tumor wrapped around her main artery in her stomach and several smaller tumors on her kidneys which was non Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. Apparently it had been there for some time growing.

Thank goodness she had the treatment she needed, went into remission for it to come back 10 weeks later. She had aggressive chemo and bone marrow transplant and at the moment is OK. It will come back but the stupid fools failed to see the signs and very nearly cost my mum her life at 49.

[wizard69]

ive had numerous experiances of second rate doctors.Once had a cousin who was being treated by her gp for stomach problems..turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy.My nephew was born with severe spinabifida and my sister was told that it would be best to leave him in the hospital as he wouldnt live long.He's now 25 and has more of a social life than I do.
Doctors get paid huge amounts of money to treat us and if they make mistakes like they do then they should be struck off.

[Goodsoulette]

John, the point is that my results were the same ones each doctor read. I was at an appointment for a pill check asked them if my results were back, he just looked at them and said yup they are fine. Then 2 days later another doctor called me to say I was anaemic, I had called the practise because I had fainted 2 twice in the same amount of days, and they dug the results out of my files which had been signed and checked by the oobish doctor.

[johnlambert]

Im not defending the Dr goodsoulette, mistakes happen. I know soldiers that have said to me that I was lucky coz I can bury my mistakes,,,,,, ouch that hurts, and I reckon your local quack felt pretty rotten when he realised his/her mistake.
anyway im off to celebrate Valentines day with Mrs johnlambert.
Night all
Happy St V's day
Xxxxx

[kaylamay]

I went to the doctors for a pain in my knee and he said, "oh, it's probably house maids knee", i was like, "Ah, NO!" He then proceeded to tell me he could order an MRI scan, but it was a very expensive test and I better hope it came back with something(Can you believe the nerve!!?) I had the scan a few days later and guess what? TUMOR in my knee of which took major knee surgery to remove. I was actually so glad the scan came back positive because the doctor had threatened me.
I was never so happy to have something wrong with me as i then. We got to stand up for ourselves! House Maids knee indeed!!!!!

[auzzie]

My mother in law is in hospital with "chronic kidney failure" through dehydration. This is the second time in a month she has been put in hospital. The first time they just took her off the drip and sent her home telling her to drink more! She is also constantly throwing up! Needless to say she didn't get any better and was re-admitted. She has seen several doctors who all seem to have big differences in her treatment. One doctor asked her why she was being sick? Duh your the doctor and days later the same doctor asked her if she had a temperature!! She is 76 years old and very ill. This morning she had a heart attack and is not only on a drip for her dehydration but is also on oxygen.
There is never a nurse around to ask for help, they are all too busy with other patients. My Mum In Law had been sick in the same bowl all day, she had requested several times for a new bowl. when i arrived at 7 oclock she still had not had a new bowl. I fetched it myself. I went through cupboards and was not challenged once.
So much for the caring profession. Doctors that dont agree (why have more than one anyway) and nurses you cant find. I have always hated going in hospital, this hasn't helped at all. WE can only hope and pray that there is a doctor somewhere in that hospital that does know his stuff otherwise my mum in law may not survive.