#medical errors

[unhonestlymirror]

Holy sh**.

A patient, female, 25 years old, needed canal refilling in a premolar. The canal was slightly curved naturally, which the doctor was notified about in advance. During treatment, the patient felt (even with anaesthesia) that a wards carver (my guess) was going too straight - the doctor told her not to worry and PRESSED the instrument instead of slightly turning it. And made an additional canal in the mandible. The patient learned about it postfactum.

5 years later, the patient went to another dentist. She needed a canal filling in a tooth adjacent to that tooth with the new hole. The doctor was notified IN ADVANCE that there was an artificial canal made by the first doctor and that it would be good not to accidentally fill it. "Sure," said the doctor, "although it sounds like you're exaggerating." Maybe the doctor thought that it was impossible to be that stupid and crooked-handed. The patient got a sectional matrix placed and then asked to do a 3D photo just to make sure everything was placed correctly.

The point is that the sectional matrix, or some metal part of it, hid in the photo the very place where that unnecessary channel was made. The second doctor decided not to remove the matrix for another photo, she thought everything was okay.

After the filling, the second photo was made - and it showed a perfectly filled canal in the problematic tooth... and a giant cube of filling in the mandible.

The moral: Listen to your patient. Even if they're exaggerating. You are welcomed as a doctor to pretend that everything is okay, but you must check it trice.

[heardatmedschool]

“Have you ever heard of the Catrasca* Syndrome? It’s Miami Syndrome in English, ‘mistake after mistake’**, sounds more elegant”.

*Catrasca = cagada tras cagada. (Fuck up after fuck up)

**Imagine this being said in cursive.

[surprising-world-we-live-in]

Peter C. Gotsche Master of Science in biology and chemistry Specialist in internal medicine Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis -cofounded The Cochrane Collaboration -established The Nordic Cochrane Centre -campaigner for clinical data transparency

All rewards to Peter Gotsche and the original poster.

[13thpythagoras]

Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. Their figure, published May 3 in The BMJ , surpasses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) third leading cause of death — respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.

62.1% of bankruptcies in the U.S. are due to medical bills, the most common reason for going belly-up financially in the “land of the free” 

These two are intimately connected- we have a system that tries it’s damndest to avoid covering people, so they avoid care and get much worse, and then hit the ER where medical attention is too late, and in the desperation errors are prone to happen. 

America’s third-leading cause of death is due to medical error because America’s medical system is evaporating into an emergency room. And even those will be closing soon due to the pandemic. 

[arcticdementor]

He said something was stuck in his throat after surgery. The doctors didn’t believe him.

He returned to the hospital six days later complaining of blood in his mouth and difficulties breathing and swallowing.

The 72-year-old man’s initial surgery was to remove a harmless lump in his abdominal wall. He returned to the hospital six days later complaining of blood in his mouth and difficulties breathing and swallowing, which had prevented him from eating solid food.

Doctors in the emergency room were unable to diagnose the problem and the unnamed man was sent home with a prescription for mouthwash, antibiotics and steroids.

He returned two days later with worsening symptoms and was admitted to the hospital with suspected aspiration pneumonia — a severe chest infection.

Eventually a diagnostic procedure identified a semicircular object lying across his vocal cords, which had caused internal blistering and swelling.

The man was subsequently rushed into surgery to remove the false teeth. He remained in the hospital for another six days. He returned suffering complications on multiple occasions over the following month, before eventually healing.

The man said he knew his dentures had gone missing during his initial hospital stay, but he didn’t realize they had slid down his throat during surgery.

[inner-sunshine]

When I was a young girl, I would ask my mother to hold me close

And tell me the story of my birth

I imagined the joy and magic of bringing me to earth.

She must have been strong and brave

My father must have been at her side

Reveling in the power of his wife

As her body slowly unfolded, opening until my glory emerged

Rejoiced in the birth of their first daughter.

Instead the story she spoke

Was planets away from my imagination

Or rather my imagination was planets from reality

She frightened me,

Spoke of excruciating pain

her own body overtook with fear

As she begged for the strongest drugs they could give her

My father, blissfully unaware and unfound,

Eating fast food somewhere almost completely missing my arrival

There, I was born.

High on morphine

A dummy shoved into my screaming mouth

Taken home to be left in a cot to cry

For my "independence"

Fed was best on pre measured lab-made sustenance

And I was held down as metal studs were shoved into my bleeding ears,

An accessorized extension of my parent's expectations

When I was a young girl

I cursed my gender

How could the burden of childbirth be in my future?

I swore off the pain and promised never to ruin my body

The way my mother says I ruined hers

If that meant I was never to be a mother, myself

Then so be it.

Yet it happened, still

The birth of you

was nothing like

The birth of me.

In calm, early morning hours

I woke to an incredible, undeniable force

It propelled me out of our bed

I thought this must be the day I will give you life

I soaked myself in the loving care of your father

Laid within a bathtub in which we once cleansed our growing Body

He tended to our needs without a word ever leaving my lips

Like he knew already what we required

Surges washed over me

Intensity crashed into my insides

I gasped, then breathed

But I did not cower in fear--

Your time was near.

I could feel it.

Somewhere between here and there

We crawled into our bed, a soft, safe place

I learned to loosen my physical self

Steadied the air in my lungs

While propelling my soul outward, upward--

Toward the skies, unclenched--

Opening my eyes, our bed, disappears

And I saw galaxies flash before me

With arms outstretched

Insides tightening, twisting,

I reach for you--

Made of Light

And pulled you out of the heavens

Swiftly plummeting to Earth

We took our first breath together--

And I too, was finally born

In the way I had always imagined

What was once One; became Two

As I held you bare to my chest

High on endorphins, nourished at my breast

Your cries were never unheard, never left my side, in fact

Autonomy upheld-- you remained completely intact

A physical extension of my love

For all of you now and the man you would become

I hope one day,

When you are a young boy

To take you in my arms, hold you close

And tell you the story of your birth--

"...The birth of you was nothing like the birth of me,"

[youremymiracleelliot]

Personal post: update on my life

I’ve been very ill and was mistreated in hospital (in truth, I almost didn’t make it) and now that I’m finally recovering I don’t know how much of my strength will return.

Truth is, I’ve always had that muscular disease which causes my muscles to be weak and which is why I’m in a wheelchair. But after the recent hospitalization and since I was unconscious for days because my lungs didn’t supply my body properly and the doctors just doing NOTHING instead of calling a specialist in time, my muscles are so weak that simple tasks like sitting straight are a strain and moving my arms and hands barely works.

Every day is a fight but I’m glad and grateful that at least my lungs recovered properly and I hope and train for everything else to get stronger. I just can’t tell how far my body can go and this makes me anxious though I try my hardest to remain strong and positive.

I don’t know what will happen to my art — I’ve always loved drawing so much, actually — I just had to write down what mountain I’m currently climbing.

[cranquis]

End Turd the Dragon III: C’est chis

What my colleague dictated in the visit note: “Consulted Dr. Smith about the case and he is recommending evaluation at the ER.”

What Dragon (the voice-recognition software) heard: “Consulted Dr. Smith about the quesadillas recommending evaluation at the ER.”