Why doctors are wrong?
Why are patients’ diagnoses sometimes so far away from the truth?
Professor Jerome Groopman from Harvard University believes that many mistakes happen not because of lack of equipment and not because of technical issues, but because of mistakes that doctors make when thinking.
Jerome Groopman is the author of a book called “How Doctors Think” and reveals that reluctance to listen to patients’ complaints is the main reason why misdiagnosis occurs. According to the author, 15% of all diagnoses are misdiagnosed.
In his book, Professor Groopman analyzed the reasons for misdiagnosis and states that he interviewed many colleagues, including clinical doctors, GPs, and many other doctors who work both in reserves of small villages and big hospitals in cities.
Time to Confess: No One is Perfect
When asked how he persuaded his colleagues to talk about their own mistakes, the professor states that he asked at first whether they know what conclusions they are making. Surprisingly, just a few doctors were able to answer this question. He then gave a real example of misdiagnosis from his own experience.
Misdiagnosis can cost a life
The biggest misdiagnosis ever made by professor Groopman cost a life. When he was a young doctor in Massachusetts, he was visited by a middle-aged woman. She had pains in her chest and her voice was similar to the sound produced when moving a nail across a chalkboard.
Mr Groopman thought that she was just a nagging person who wants to be sick. A few weeks later he was called into an ambulance: there was a tear in the patient’s artery where the blood travelled from the heart. The woman had died. If the diagnosis was determined on time, she would probably still be alive.
After the confession, other doctors interviewed by professor Groopman realized that no one is perfect and that they had misdiagnosed patients as well.
Truthfully, there is a high risk that the symptoms of one illness could be assigned to another illness. For example, a 55-year-old woman was visiting various doctors because she was shaking and her face was burning as if she had a fever. Three different doctors diagnosed her with Menopause. Only the fourth doctor questioned whether these symptoms were a sign of a more serious illness than a climacteric disorder. After a blood test and a computer tomogram, a rare tumour had been found in the left kidney of this woman which stimulates the production of adrenaline and catecholamines. Due to these hormones, the woman felt nervousness, tension, and heat.
Science Or Intuition?
Some doctors believe that the very first diagnosis often turns out to be correct. Many radiologists claim that it is enough to take a look at the X-Ray photo and the diagnosis is clear. However, scientific evidence suggests that a doctor can make major mistakes if X-rays do not go through a thorough evaluation. Professor Groopman agrees on the importance of intuition but stresses that doctors cannot blindly rely on it.
“It’s not worth worrying about”
Professor Grooman thinks that these words are being said way too often. Anyone who heard this should not be satisfied, because this fake phrase does not say anything. As an example, the author gives another case from his experience. A ten-year-old boy was brought to a children’s doctor because he had pains after his friend jumped on his back while playing. “It’s nothing bad, the pain will go away with time,” said the doctor. “Every day thousands of children are jumping on each other and nothing bad happens”.
However, according to another doctor, the spine x-ray showed four fractures. It turned out that the boy was suffering from leukaemia, which caused the spine’s vertebrae to be so weak that after the kids jumped on his back, it broke.
What to do if you have a different diagnosis from different doctors?
It happens that after visiting several doctors patient has a different diagnosis. What do you do then? The book’s author advises to keep visiting different doctors – there is nothing else left to do. The professor points out that instead of fully focusing on the conclusions of colleagues, a good doctor needs to listen to the patient first. The patient has to tell the doctor all of the details and symptoms of the illness to allow for an objective diagnosis. A well-known physician William O’Leary has once said: a medical doctor must listen to the patient and the patient will disclose the diagnosis. Therefore the professor recommends finding a doctor who will listen carefully instead of diagnosing immediately. Patients know their bodies better than any doctors do, so to understand what is wrong for the patients, the doctor has to listen to them.
What to do if you were misdiagnosed?
If you were misdiagnosed, you deserved to receive compensation and rehabilitation. To make a misdiagnosis claim you need to have evidence that it was a case of medical negligence. Medical negligence occurs when a medical professional is wrong and it can be proven that another doctor of the same specialization and under similar circumstances would not have made the same mistake. Therefore it is necessary to prove that:
- The health professional was responsible for your well-being and had to take care of you rather than injure you
- The responsibility to protect you was failed
- Due to this damage, you have been injured
- You have suffered financial and other losses due to injuries
While you can try to hire a lawyer, it is costly and does not guarantee you a successful claim. Meanwhile, Claims 24 performs on a no win no fee basis, which means you do not need to pay any upfront fees until the case is won – then the price of legal services will be automatically deducted from your compensation. Contact us today or read more about our service.
