Are you sure?

By yourekillingme - 19/02/2016 04:12 - United States - Mission

Today, I went to see a doctor because I have been feeling of pressure in my chest. After running numerous tests, I was told I was perfectly healthy and had nothing to worry about. I made it as far as the front door before I collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. FML
I agree, your life sucks 24 094
You deserved it 1 483

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Good news: you're already near a doctor! Bad news: not a very good doctor..

tounces7 27

Well, at least you were at a doctors office when it happened, and not driving on the road home.

Comments

GPs are useless for anything but sick notes and perscriptions for anti-biotics these days. Hope yoh are going to be ok though.

Depending on the tests done, and whatever OP's condition is that caused the collapse, the test that were done could have come back as normal for OP. Or the tests could have been read wrong by the people that actually read results nowadays, since GP's aren't supposed to. Plus conditions that can cause spontaneous collapses like this can just not show up on tests or in the patient's body language. There are tons of stories of people being up and about, doing great one minute and then they're on the ground having a heart attack, a stroke, or bleeding out inside their skull. Add in that 'pressure in the chest' could be something as relatively mild as a panic attack to internal bleeding, and it isn't exactly a narrow field to look for the culprit in. The people on here do a great job of exhibiting how people treat doctors though. If they err on the side of caution and do more tests and procedures and they come back normal, they're money-grubbing frauds. If they decide to wait and see because they don't have enough data for starting treatment, they're medically negligent or an idiot. If a doctor can't find something to justify treatment, they CANNOT just go ahead and treat you anyway, nor should they. Not only would it really make them medically negligent if they did and there really was nothing wrong. Worse, treating someone blindly can make it so the treatment is causing damage without actually halting the damage already being caused. Add to that that if a doctor can't justify treatment to an insurance company that the patient can wind up with $10k or more in testing bills. Doctors are human. This means they are unfortunately just vulnerable to the imperfection that is native to the human condition, which means they are going to make mistakes. Most doctors hate making mistakes- most because their mistake can kill someone, and they have to live with that until they die, with everything that entails. Medical errors suck for everyone involved, even if it is worse for the patient.

Enough people, including me, have suffered life-long consequences do to actual text-book incompetence to justify some of these posts. Doctors make mistakes, but saying someone is fine when the patient is clearly feeling poorly is inexcusable. Even diagnosing something as vague and benign as a panic attack is legit. Telling someone that NOTHING is wrong is not. Doctors make mistakes, but they do have a bit of education and a lot of responsibility to mitigate normal human error.

Considering that I've had unnecessary, and long term harmful, surgeries done because a doctor didn't listen to my family history, I'm not saying that doctors are blameless in every case. I'm saying that when the test come back clear and they don't have the evidence to support a diagnosis there sometimes isn't anything they can do but tell the patient that nothing is wrong on paper. I did phrase it a bit badly, in a way that could be taken as doctors not needing to listen to patients, but that isn't what I meant. That said, I was given improper treatment because the doctor decided that treating me for that illness and getting me out of his clinic was more important than waiting and giving a proper diagnosis and treatment. As such, I have to disagree with you on diagnosing a patient with a possibly wrong specific diagnosis for the sake of giving a diagnosis being a 'legit' medical technique. They have more broad medical codes like 'chest pain' or 'nausea' they are supposed to use if the symptoms presented don't add up to the criteria for a more specific diagnosis.

Well at least you were at the right place when it happened

Same thing happened to my dad. Went to the hospital with chest pain, they let him go, and he had a heart attack on the sidewalk outside of the hospital

OP, I hope you were sent to a doctor in an emergency department. Regardless of age, patients with chest pain or tightness should be evaluated in a hospital emergency setting with electrocardiography and availability of cardiac intervention if at all necessary. Cardiac stress tests should not really be performed at an outpatient setting. If possible, let us know if you are ok.

these doctors suck worse than a doped-up prostitute

You might be able to sue for malpractice

I'm a nurse, I've never heard of a doctor telling someone they are perfectly healthy when they are having pressure in their chest that can't be explained. What should have been done when your family doctor couldn't find a cause or even if they could is send you to the cardiologist. That's why they are your family doctor they see you for general things anything to do with your heart you go to a specialist. It's the same thing as your car, you don't let the guy at jiffy lube that changes your oil rebuild your transmission, same principle. You need to find a different doctor, yours is an idiot.