Posted on 09/28/2007 2:22:53 AM PDT by Daffynition
ATLANTA, Georgia -- The celebrity was John Ritter. art.ritter.getty.jpg
Actor John Ritter died in September 2003 from an aortic dissection, a commonly misdiagnosed condition.
The actor died in 2003 of an aortic dissection -- a tearing of the major artery that comes out of the heart. His widow later settled a wrongful death lawsuit against a California hospital, alleging his condition had been misdiagnosed "at least twice."
Experts who study malpractice cases and autopsy reports say certain diseases are misdiagnosed over and over again. It's worth knowing what they are so you won't be a victim.
1. Aortic dissection: Sometimes aortic dissections are easy to diagnose -- a patient feels a distinct tearing sensation in his or her chest. But other times they're pretty easy to miss because the symptoms could point to other diseases, says Dr. Robert Bonow, past president of the American Heart Association. "Sometimes it feels like heartburn," he says.
2. Cancer: In a Harvard study of malpractice claims in the U.S., cancer was far and away the most misdiagnosed illness, primarily breast and colorectal. Study authors attributed this to doctors failing to stick to cancer screening guidelines.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
In cases where no serious or potentially serious condition is present the patient is,like I said,instructed to get follow-up.
Just remember, one goal in life is to NOT have a disease named after you. Because if you do it means you were the first one with it and they didn’t know what the heck it was.
This topic is a fascinoma.
thanks, bfl
WNL ...lest I sound like a FLK with GLM ...POPTA ...MTF. ;-D
;’) The first place I saw that was years ago in Nat Lamp’s “True Facts”.
Then why do so many of them act like it IS an exact sicence (based on all those numbers they get from your blood tests, etc.) and try to make you think they're the Medicine God and everything they say is gospel truth and you absolutely have no idea what you're talking about? (Even though you live with your body 24/7 and they barely look at you for 15 minutes?)
They'd be more accurate a greater percentage of the time if they'd give their patients some credibility and adopt a little more humility about their own limitations.
Under Hillarycare (or Arnoldcare), this will become an impossibility. The gubmint won't allow it!
That is a great photo! Do you know where it was taken?
A slightly less subtle background would be something like this ...
I am a fan of home made, one of a kind signs and often I will stop and take a picture of them whenever I can.
One of my all time favorites was painted on a large plank and nailed to a tree in the yard of a rundown country home, in red paint was one word [BOMBS]. (What were they thinking?)
Another was also a rundown country home and it said [PHILLIP’S WORM FARM] My husbands name is Phillip but it wasn’t his worm farm. LOL!
On the other hand, I would imagine that getting the sort of subjective answers that most doctors get make diagnosis far more difficult, especially if something isn't obvious. For instance, if I've got a gash in my arm, and blood is pouring out, the doctor has a pretty good idea of what the problem might be. On the other hand (and this is happening right now with my 84 year old aunt), if you tell the doctor "my stomach hurts" it's a bit more work to find out what the problem is. Of course, both of her daughters (a secretary and a photo stylist) are second-guessing the doctor at every step, since he hasn't been able to figure out what the problem is.
I figured I'd see if I could try, and I found that in 5 minutes of questions, I was getting contradictory answers to simple questions like "is the pain sharp or dull? (dull) Is it like heartburn? Do you feel like you've eaten too much? Is it an ache like you've strained yourself, or like what you'd feel with a bruise? (neither)... Anyway, I asked a bunch of questions, and really didn't get much of an answer. Her daughters are convinced that she's got H. Pyloric, and maybe she does. But the Dr doesn't think so, so he's not treating for it.
In the mean time, she's been through test after test, and haven't found anything at this point.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that one of the main reasons (IMHO) that people are mis-diagnosed is because they're not able to communicate clearly with the doctor.
Mark
"Now do you believe I'm sick?"
Mark
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