Beware of your diagnosis

In a nutshell, my family was destroyed by misdiagnosis, at an acclaimed hospital- not just once, but THREE times.

My mother visited the ER in August, September, and October of 2002, complaining of chest pains. 43 years old, a former smoker, she had a very physical job for years as a shirt presser at a dry cleaner.
As one of three people who worked there, and with a good many customers for a township, she managed the place as well as ran the old, manual machines, working twelve hours a day, six days a week.

So, having chest pains, she went to the hospital. all three times, she was pronounced fine; the doctors attributed her pains- upon llimited hmo tests- that she'd pulled a muscle in her chest near her heart. They gave her muscle relaxers, assured her she was fine and to take it easy.

October 18th, two weeks before her birthday, she suffered a massive heart attack one night while visiting friends, and died almost instantly.

Sadly, I took care of my younger brothers, thankfully both then in high school. But the eldest, with bright prospects of college in less than a year was hit with grief hard, struggled to finish school and, due to the struggle, lost his scholarship. He's now in the army.

The ripples still affect us as a family.

On another note, my grandma had a triple bypass four years ago- and afterwards found out they forgot to sterilize the tools. Such mistake cost her a dozen more shots, and having anitbiotics pumped i.v. for th next 72 hours. Thank you U of M ( and was a different hospital than my mother).

A couple articles a newbie might not know, most have probably heard, read or already know. But still good info.

momgrind.com...

webs.lanset.com...

All I hope is to inform others not to take their health lightly, AND get a second opinion- even a different hospital!- even when the news sounds good.
We as a race need to listen to our instincts.

I hear you,
I had the unthinkable happen to me too. My girlfriend made me go to the hospital after catching me in the bathroom one night shaking from chills.

When I got there, they did some tests and saw that my white blood cell count was elevated. They decided right then and there that they needed to go in and take a "little look". If you ever hear that phrase, run like hell. They told me I had between 20 minutes, and 3 hours to live!.

When I woke up, I was missing 18" of my intestine, and had a complimentary colostomy which I had to deal with for nine months. They told me that they thought I had cancer. I was in my 30's. This was back in 1995.

Two years later I finally had the last of the first round of surgeries. For the next eight years, I would get blockages three days a week and can honestly tell you that I know what it feels like to give birth, and I'm a man.

Again in 2005, I ended up nearly dying because of adhesion from the first surgeries. My intestines had become so twisted that it was cutting off its own blood supply. Again, another surgery.

Hopefully I'm through it now and go about my day like it never even happened. I have a contractors license and live a totally normal life, but it set me back ten years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I was advised to sue them, but didn't think it was cool to go after someone who's just trying to save your life.

I'm not saying avoid them at all costs, but be absolutely sure you have all the facts before getting any major procedure performed.

Even though my case is almost opposite to what happened to the OP's mom, It's the same in one very important way, instinct. I knew I wasn't dying, even though they told me I was, and was told later that antibiotics would have cleared up my symptoms.

I'm sorry for your loss, and when things like this happen, they come out of the blue. Nobody ever expects them to, and when they do, it's just as surprising when things also go horribly wrong.


Peace

Lern, so sorry to hear how much pain you endured. And antibiotics! All that, near death to unnecessary surgeries, and all you needed was antibiotics?!
Makes me wonder if all those surgery-happy specialists are much different than they're portrayed on Grey's Anatomy.

For my mother, yes, she had gone against instinct and put her faith in the medical est. I know this due to - four days prior to her death, my mother had had lunch with her sister and expressed her fears. She'd even scheduled an appointment with her doc a week prior.
Needless to say, my aunt has suffered severe grief for six years. Halloween was once my favorite holiday, now it's clouded by her absence, as it was her birthday.

Another note- recall another hospital mishap. A friend of mine delivered her youngest eight years ago, the birth went well, everything seemed fine. One night while her husband was at work, intense cramps overtook her.
short time later, she began hemorhaging.

An ambulance ride later, she found out the delivery doctor had *oops*, forgotten to remove the afterbirth. Last I heard, different doctors were still trying to figuring out how she managed.

we can't forget- no matter how brilliant we believe our human, fallible doctors are, we know our bodies better than anyone.