GPs- Better safe than sorry?

[ChocolatChip]

For the past couple of days I've been feeling dreadful with some similiar symptoms of flu, and yesterday decided to go to the doctors. By this point I had to have people to hold me up to get me there (Doctors wouldn't do home visit.)
My doctor Diagnosed me with pneumonia, heart palpitations and a 'type' of septicaemia, which is not watched could become meningtis. And if my symptoms got worse, then I should go to A+E.
I was taken home and my parents and my partner kept a close eye on me, and my symptoms quickly got worse.
So I was taken to hospital, where a doctor there simply said that I have a viral infection, and I'd be fine in a week or so.
I felt that the GP was a bit over the top, she put the fear of God into me and my family, when there was nothing seriously wrong.
So do you think she was over pre-cautious and should have had more proof to diagnose such illnesses? Or was it better to be safe than sorry?

[FUZZYBEE]

Are you sure you heard your doctor right? I'm not saying you're wrong but there is no way on earth if you were diagnosed with pneumonia and any type of septicaemia (which is blood poisoning) he would have or SHOULD have sent you home. Both of those would have required medical intervention immediately starting with a chest x-ray bllod test and iv fluids. If that really is the case then he should be struck off !!
Was a chest x-ray performed at hospital ??
Keep an eye on yourself and rest up if you are not happy get back to hospital.
hope you feel better soon.

[redcrx]

better safe than sorry.
My mother in law started with a cold last year, then it got worse and she didnt want to bother her GP so stayed at home trying to recover.
Luckily at 11pm one eve she managed to call her daughter and just say 'help' before collapsing. By the time the ambulance arrived she was almost dead.
she spent 7 days in intensive care, had a heart attack, and the family was prepared for the worst as she had septecemia too as well as pneumonia.
Im happy to say she did recover and although she had a stent put in because of the damage to her heart she is well and can almost do the things she used to do although she gets out of breath very quickly.
so its always best to get things checked out if you feel bad.

[daffy654]

Both pneumonia and septicemia require tests for definite diagnosis anyway,the GP couldn't have performed either an xray for the pneumonia or a blood teast and gotten immediate results for septicemia in a 10 minute appointment.

[ChocolatChip]

Yes fuzzybee, I was most definitely diagnosed with them. And yes, when I went to the hospital I had a chest X-ray and everything was fine. She diagnosed it because I had a dull-ness in the lower part of my chest.
Gosh Redcrx, how awfu!? I'm glad that she is somewhat better now. I'm lucky that I wasn't as ill as my doctor first diagnosed.

And daffy, shouldn't she have sent me straight to hospital for the tests then really?

[Beads]

Choc Chip, that is a scary experience and I am glad you feel well enough to type out a note to us all. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry - especially after reading about Redcrx poor mum-in-law.
Look after yourself and if you don't feel well then get a second opinion by someone different - at the end of the day you have to look after number one and s0d what the doctors think!
Take care, Beads :)

[daffy654]

If a doctor suspects pneumonia they should send you to the nearest hospital with an xray machine or to A&E.What a doctor should do and what they actually do are frequently two different things these days.

[bednobs]

better safe than sorry in my opinion. Doctors are just human beings, not wonder-beings, they have to cover all options. personally i would rather be made more aware of how bad things could be and then find out i was well than go home, collapse and die because i thought it would be ok "in a week or so"
Who's to say the different doctor was any more right than the gp? how do they know its a viral infection as opposed to a bacterial infection?

[Whickerman]

Don't forget the old maxim - medicine is an art, not an exact science. Doctors get it wrong - a lot- because unfortunately the human body isn't like, say, a car, that you can hook up to a computer and get instant diagnosis.

I would rather err on the side of caution. I reckon your doctor suspected these symptoms could indeed have been pneumonia etc, and told your family so that if he/she was correct they'd get you to a hospital. I'd say they fell down a bit by not sending you there straight away, to at least dismiss this.

[babybombo]

Your always better safe than sorry.
I know that must have been terrible for you but some doctors are the opposite and that also causes problems.

My friend had been having pains for weeks and were beginning to make her unwell, she went to the doctors three times, each time saw a different doctor, and all told her that she just had a simple virus and was to rest up. One doctor even said to her "For God's sake its not like your dying" because she started crying at the last one.
She then asked to see another doctor who took her seriously and sent her for tests, she was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries. Not that its exactly life threatening but caused her alot of pain and had to be treated.