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crickeys--scary stuff!!!
I think people have to be proactive with their health issues. If I went to the ER and was about to be sent on my way without any reasonable answer or diagnosis I would tell them I'm not comfortable with going home under these conditions so please have someone in charge come speak with me. And I would NOT sign the release forms to leave until I was satisfied.
I was not given release forms to sign and a nurse released me from the ER the first time I was there. Since I had been given a small dose of morphine, my pain was less and I had no reason not to believe the diagnosis that I was given by the ER people.
As long as humans are treated by other humans mistakes will happen....there is no way to guarantee a correct diagnosis will be made every time.
Doctors and other providers make mistakes just like everyone else.
Appendicitis which has been brought up a couple of times here gets misdiagnosed all the time, its not always an easy diagnosis to make.
Appendicitis is extremely dangerous if not caught in time. My regular doctor who was not at the ER thought it was appendicitis when I described my symptoms over the tel. and he told me to go to the ER (which was on a Sunday) and he was not pleased with the ER diagnosis the next day when I saw him in his office and he tried to get me a referral to a surgeon but nobody was available that day that took my insurance. The next day was already too late as I was back in the ER early in the morning. So my impression is that appendicitis is not that difficult to diagnose.
Appendicitis is extremely dangerous if not caught in time. My regular doctor who was not at the ER thought it was appendicitis when I described my symptoms over the tel. and he told me to go to the ER (which was on a Sunday) and he was not pleased with the ER diagnosis the next day when I saw him in his office and he tried to get me a referral to a surgeon but nobody was available that day that took my insurance. The next day was already too late as I was back in the ER early in the morning. So my impression is that appendicitis is not that difficult to diagnose.
I totally agree i mean what would be the first thing to check if you are having side pain and vomiting , anatomy 101 says that it is apendicitis . I have that in my medical home journal here at home .
Imagine your rage if the doctor sided with all these posts here and said "hm, side pain and vomiting, anatomy 101 says it's appendicitis, according to the medical home journal. Get him to yon operating room ASAP!" and cut you open, took your appendix out, stitched you up, and you woke up the next morning with the doctor telling you "oh gee, sorry about that. It was just gas. Your appendix was fine."
I totally agree i mean what would be the first thing to check if you are having side pain and vomiting , anatomy 101 says that it is apendicitis . I have that in my medical home journal here at home .
Lol...9 times out of 10, people complaining of side pain DO NOT have appendicitis.
9 times out of 10 (actually, more like 99 times out of 100), people complaining of chest pain don't have a heart attack, either.
And guess what? I guess patients forget to read the book before they come to the ED with their complaints...because textbook presentations make up a very small percentage of appendicitis, heart attack, and other life-threatening things.
To answer the op, it's tough because people present their diseases differently, and remember, diseases evolve. You don't just BAM have the disease. It starts off with this...then you get a little of that...then the next day you have something over here...and then after enough days go by, it becomes obvious. But it's an evolution. That's why most ED discharge instructions have so many warnings. So you can watch for the evolution of your disease and come back if the next step happens.
It happened to me - long story but I almost died because the ER physician didn't believe me. I told him I had a blood clot in my leg and he told me that wasn't possible because I was too young. He told me it must be a pinched nerve and sent me home to take a Tylenol. The next day the leg swelled up and I couldn't put any weight on it. I went back to ER and was admitted with a large blood clot that, if it had broken off and traveled to my lungs or brain would have killed me in an instant. I was young and learned the hard way never to trust another doctor again.
But that's life. Doctors aren't gods and they don't know everything and can't possibly. You need to be very vigilant about your own health, and at least now we have the internet to help us diagnose and research our own health issues.
It happened to me - long story but I almost died because the ER physician didn't believe me. I told him I had a blood clot in my leg and he told me that wasn't possible because I was too young. He told me it must be a pinched nerve and sent me home to take a Tylenol. The next day the leg swelled up and I couldn't put any weight on it. I went back to ER and was admitted with a large blood clot that, if it had broken off and traveled to my lungs or brain would have killed me in an instant. I was young and learned the hard way never to trust another doctor again..
While I don't agree with that doctor's assessment or statement about how young you were (that was just dumb), only one in every 100 patients who develops DVT dies due to pulmonary embolism.
Appendicitis is extremely dangerous if not caught in time. My regular doctor who was not at the ER thought it was appendicitis when I described my symptoms over the tel. and he told me to go to the ER (which was on a Sunday) and he was not pleased with the ER diagnosis the next day when I saw him in his office and he tried to get me a referral to a surgeon but nobody was available that day that took my insurance. The next day was already too late as I was back in the ER early in the morning. So my impression is that appendicitis is not that difficult to diagnose.
Appendicitis is extremely dangerous if not caught in time. My regular doctor who was not at the ER thought it was appendicitis when I described my symptoms over the tel. and he told me to go to the ER (which was on a Sunday) and he was not pleased with the ER diagnosis the next day when I saw him in his office and he tried to get me a referral to a surgeon but nobody was available that day that took my insurance. The next day was already too late as I was back in the ER early in the morning. So my impression is that appendicitis is not that difficult to diagnose.
It can be very difficult to diagnose. My wife had pain that was classic for appendicitis. She had a CT scan and a complete workup by and ER physician. These diagnostic measures were negative for appendicitis. It was not diagnosed until a colonoscopy was performed. I dare say that no diagnosis (aside from amputations and a few other very obvious conditions) are "easy" to diagnose.
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