I have always heard about misdiagnosis, and I have always been told that there is a way teaching hospitals work that makes it look like they are intentionally neglecting their patients both public and private. I had not had a first hand experience of both because I have only visited a teaching hospital for treatment myself twice, the first being when I had a dislocated arm and the other when I had severe chest pain. For misdiagnosis, I never experienced it until I had the chest pain. While I am fine currently, I will give my total experience at the hospital a 2 over 10 because of a lot of things.
Which should I discuss first, the misdiagnosis, or the neglect of patients. Let me start with the misdiagnosis because it is one that worries me a lot. Anyone going to the hospital goes there with the hope of meeting the doctor, doing a proper check and being able to get a proper diagnosis so they can be treated since we all still have a lot to accomplish in our lives but the day I went to the hospital and met with the first doctor, his questions were quick and his diagnosis was very fast even when I was at the Accident and Emergency department.
He only asked where I was feeling the pain, what pain I was feeling, and what medications I had used. Then he told a nurse to take my vitals which included blood pressure, weight, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation after which he told me I was suffering from costochondritis. I wanted to ask him a lot of questions like how did he come to conclusion, why did he think it was costochondritis, why didn't he ask for previous activities or history of what happened in the last 24 hours, and why did he not ask for a test or a scan. I could be suffering from something worse and he had just taking the most vital part of solving my health issue with levity but why would I question a doctor when I wanted a solution to my pain.
He wrote some anti-inflammatory tablet for me and asked me to use an anti-inflammatory ointment that was hot on my chest for the pain to go. He also just asked me to go home which was very worrisome because I expected that I could have been monitored for a while before being allowed to go home. I cannot deny that the hospital tend to have less doctors than patient and the same thing with consultants. When I went to the hospital was when I confirmed that the majority of the doctors in the country have migrated for greener pasture so as to get better pay.
Long story short, I was back to the hospital in less than 24 hours because when I used the ointment, I was in severe pains and I couldn't breath properly without feeling a heart piercing pain. I even started hearing sounds in my chest every time I took a breath in and it was worrisome. When I got to the hospital my next doctor encounter was with a doctor who had to google everything and I was worried because I saw him checking the heart on his phone for possible causes of my signs and symptoms. These people looked like student doctors and they were placed in the emergency unit?
Anyways, he was the one who demanded an ECG scan and when I brought the result, he was first concerned about the paper being quality than the ones others bring to them. For goodness sake, I was losing myself gradually and I had to call him to order but I noticed that he was doing that to stall so he can check the result against what he could find online. Finally, he looked at the result and told me to get certain medication which included Non-inflammatory drug again and Co-codamol 8mg/500mg which is still a pain relief. In fact, I was being pumped different pain relieves. When I asked him what was his diagnosis? He said and I quote "I think you are suffering from pericarditis". Hearing the word "I think" pissed me off because I wasn't expecting him to think, I was expecting him to order for all the possible test and scan that was needed, and then be able to cross out any possible thoughts but that was all I could get from him since he already left me on the chair and went to attend to another patient in the Emergency ward.
He asked me to go home as well but booked an appointment with a cardiologist 3 days later. The medications he gave me actually did its job and very slowly the pain relieved me. When I visited the Cardiologist, he told me that the result from my ECG showed my heart was fine but its pumping wasn't normal and I should stop taking some things.
He asked me to stop taking carbonated drinks, coffee, energy drinks and few other things and then wrote a long list of medications to get. After which he fixed an appointment for a month later and then asked me to do some tests before we meet. Funny enough, I expected that we do these tests before and after treatment not after treatment alone but at least I am better and that was important to me than their procedures.
When I checked why doctors misdiagnose, I realize that the hospital and the doctors checked majority of the reasons from fragmentation of care, to inexperienced doctors, to lack of time for appropriate care, and lack of diagnostic testing. There are a lot more but these are the once that were attributed to me. While my case wasn't a fatal one, I can say with a level of certainty that a lot of patients might have lost their lives to misdiagnosis and their method of treatment. In my next post, I will share with you my experience with how hospital staffs treat patients who are fighting for their lives with negligence.
You Can Study More
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/costochondritis/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pericarditis/
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/pericarditis/what-is-pericarditis
https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/4459/pil
https://savagelawyer.com/top-5-causes-of-misdiagnoses-and-diagnostic-errors/