47-Year-Old Nurse Was Told Her ‘Crushing’ Chest Pain Was Indigestion. She Died 3 Days Later
https://www.aol.com/47-old-nurse-told-her-130710976.html
Posted by Forward-Answer-4407
47-Year-Old Nurse Was Told Her ‘Crushing’ Chest Pain Was Indigestion. She Died 3 Days Later
https://www.aol.com/47-old-nurse-told-her-130710976.html
Posted by Forward-Answer-4407
19 Comments
Woman in pain dismissed by the doctor. I‘m shocked.
Had my unbelievably intense abdominal pain basically ignored on 5 hospital visits across 3 different A+Es because it subsided after about 4 hours of absolute agony.
None of them thought to ultrasound me for gallstones, one of the most common abdo pain causes, which it of course turned out to be when my bile duct eventually got totally blocked and I was crippled for 12 hours and turned into a Simpson.
Not surprised this happened to the poor woman.
I do find it shocking when this happens. And especially in this case where it is a nurse who is ignored. They have seen people in true pain!
I had a colleague at work, a nurse (male), who went to A+E (different hospital) with some horrible headaches and was sent away with painkillers. No investigations or anything. The next day he died of a brain haemorrhage and was found by colleagues who went to check why he didn’t come in to work. Just horrible.
“Take paracetamol and drink lots of fluids” seems to be the most popular prescription for pretty much everything.
Years ago I went to a and e with severe abdo and shoulder pain just to be told by a male doctor that it was ‘probably just period pain’. Thankfully a female doctor stepped in and admitted me as she was very concerned.
Turns out I had a ruptured ovarian cyst and a pelvic area full of blood. I needed an emergency hysteroscopy. If that male doctor had been allowed to send me home, I could’ve developed sepsis
Was told the parapharangeal abscess I had was just dental pain and to gargle aspirin – went back 3 hours later, my mum was told I needed emergency surgery within 2 hours or I’d be dead, and I passed out unable to breathe on my way to surgery. Was so bad I had sepsis.
Woke up 3 days later in ICU, was in hospital for 26 days. Had PTSD for almost two years.
Tldr. They ruled out heart attack, and went with indigestion, missing the AAA.
I had a car accident and went to A&E as I’d hit my head and the walk in centre said I had concussion. A&E said it was just me not having had breakfast and sent me home – yes, I had concussion.
I think if you’re hit by a bus the NHS will perform miracles but for anything else it’s risky, I’m coming to the conclusion that AI may actually improve outcomes as the bar is so low now.
Not enough GPs, they closed walk in centres and now a lot of doctors are not actually doctors. Anyone would think that successive governments didn’t like the people they’re elected to serve.
One of my friends refused to take her 20-something daughter away from the A&E (for the second time that day) without a scan.
Ultimately, she had her appendix removed, and they estimated that she was perhaps 20 minutes from it rupturing.
I went into a Walk In after vomiting followed by a few days of increasing breathlessness, insane fatigue, tightness around my chest and my left arm feeling like molten lead. They said I probably had a viral infection and to go to my GP if it didn’t start clear in a few days. My instinct said they were wrong so I got my SO to take me to A&E when he finished work. I was grey faced and sweating by the time he got there.
At A&E they treated me for a potential asthma attack triggered by a chest infection but took bloods as a precaution. They were so confident that I was low risk that I was actually sat in the discharge waiting area, feeling embarrassed about making a fuss about nothing, when a doctor came and snatched me back to be admitted. It turns out the bloods had come back showing the markers for a heart attack.
Compare this to a male friend who had similar but less severe symptoms. He was rushed through as a potential heart attack immediately.
This isn’t the only time that I’ve felt dismissed as a woman seeking medical help but it was definitely the biggest and probably not the last.
A non medical friend told me a truth years ago:
Women are better at pain management, they have the same bad tolerance as men, they just know when to do something (quickly) about it.
When I did vascular surgery, women lost the odd toe to infection because they got straight down to doctors, men lost whole legs because they ignored it.
It’s the Aliens movie rule: when the woman says something is wrong BELIEVE HER.
This is a diagnosis that is infamously difficult to pick up and easy to miss. Saying it’s definitely just doctors dismissing a woman because they don’t care is rather missing that the pathology is challenging and because of exactly what it was, many of the diagnostic tests for chest pain would be normal.
She was failed and we need to look into the case to see whether there were things that could have been done differently (especially in helping her get seen quickly when things failed to improve), but I don’t know this should be seen as just medical callousness.
From what I’ve read on the dr sub, aortic dissection is notoriously hard to diagnose and CT’s are already so over utilised (you need a CT to confirm, as aortic dissection can’t be diagnosed without a CT due to mimicking other disorders). And that a study showed that once out of 1000 CTs, not a single aortic dissection was detected. This makes doctors wary about using CTs due to risk of radiation. However, I also read that the uk actually underuses CTs compared to other foreign countries.
Of course, it begs the question, even if statistically it’s unlikely, one case of using a CT, would have saved this woman’s life. Lots of doctors complain that other doctors will eye roll and tut if a CT is requested.
I also don’t necessarily think it’s misogyny as the uk sub believes (I mean their sub over exaggerates everything as it is). I’ve read anecdotal comments of people’s brothers being missed when it comes to aortic dissection.
Almost died from sepsis. Went to 3 different doctors. The first one told me to drink some paracetamol and go home. The second one prescribed some mild medication and told me to go home. The third one called an ambulance and told them that I need A&E asap
I was told what turned out to be a hernia was just stress.
I genuinely wonder why some people go into medicine. It’s not the money in the UK, so is it just for the power? Certainly isn’t because they want to care for people.
My mum went to the GP with chest pain, they told her it was indigestion/heartburn and prescribed Omeprazole. She died 3 days later from a heart attack at home. We are now suing the LAS for medical negligence as they categorised her incorrectly and didn’t believe she was dying and couldn’t breathe on the 999 call. Believe women.
It is difficult to know if it’s heartburn or angina at the earlier stages.
Doctor should always recommend an ECG even if they think it is only heartburn.
I had the same misdiagnosis which nearly cost me my life.
My stepdad was told his new onset throat issues combined with issues eating and drinking and rapid weight loss were ‘just what happens when you get older.’ I saw him on Sunday and was alarmed by how ill he was. I don’t see as many 60 year olds as his GP does, but I know they don’t usually look and sound like that.
We paid for him to see a private GP yesterday – £140 for 30 minutes. And during that 30 minutes, the doctor sent him to hospital, where he is now.
The irony is…you know what didn’t get the urgency of his case wrong? ChatGPT. And I’d like to say that’s the only tale I could tell about this kind of thing, but I actually have two more just among my immediate family. Chalk it up to underfunding or overwork, but it’s increasingly becoming the gaslight and gatekeeping service.