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Doctors Share Their 23 Craziest ‘Thank God They Came In For A Second Opinion’ Stories
Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė
Misdiagnoses can have serious consequences on a person’s health. They can delay recovery and sometimes call for treatment that is harmful.
Yet, an estimated 12 million Americans a year are misdiagnosed with a condition they don’t have. Moreover, for approximately 40,500 people who enter an intensive care unit in one year, a misdiagnosis will cost them their lives. The numbers are self-evident.
For many of these cases, things would have taken a very different turn if the patients had sought a second opinion from a professional. So this Reddit thread sheds a light on the importance of a second opinion, as shared by the doctors themselves as well as the patients who have been there.
“Doctors of Reddit, what's your ’Thank god they came in for a second opinion’ moment?” someone asked and the responses came rolling in. Below we wrapped up some of the most interesting responses.
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#1
Bit of a weird one, because the request for a second opinion came from an intensivist and I was a contributor to their treatment plan.
I work in poisons control. Had a call from a green, but very astute young doctor with a middle-aged female patient presenting with a vague 36-48hr history of malaise, confusion, hypoxia from hyperventilation, and hallucinations. On workup was noted to have pulmonary edema (lung fluid buildup), metabolic acidosis, acute kidney injury, sinus tachy and raised CRP & WCC, suggestive of infection but no temperature. The initial diagnosis was sepsis.
This keen-eyed doctor, pretty fresh out of med school, decided to do a salicylate level on this lady because the hyperventilation paired with metabolic acidosis and AKI was enough to prompt her suspicions of aspirin poisoning, even though they could just as easily be explained by sepsis as well.
The level came back high. Not huge, but high, which prompted her to phone me for a second opinion on how relevant the finding was in terms of the patient's clinical picture. Simultaneously, the patient's family investigated the property and located numerous aspirin blister packs suggesting she had been dosing herself for chronic pain, which was present in the medical history.
Chronic salicylate poisoning is insidious and has been referred to as a "pseudosepsis" in the medical literature as it often causes similar features. Comparing a high level in chronic poisoning to the same level in acute poisoning, features are much more severe in chronic poisoning (i.e. pulmonary edema, hypoxia, AKI etc) - there is a disparity. We recommended certain treatments (all hail sodium bicarbonate) and the patient made a full recovery after a 2 week hospital stay.
Whilst there was no question an infective cause was present and contributory, I was impressed with the green doctor's intuition and willingness to consider other causes - I feel like it greatly improved the patient's treatment.
Edit: Some words.
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#2
I am a (semi) retired physician and I don’t believe in second opinions. I much prefer two first opinions.
#3
Not a doctor, but I heard my son's doctor say this. I took him to the ER late one night because of coughing and a high fever. They took an X ray, gave him IBUPROFEN, and told us he was fine. Doctor showed me the X rays to prove it and gave me a dirty look when I asked what the dark spots were. I told her she was and idiot and took him to urgent care 4 hours later. The doctor that saw him immediately diagnosed him with pneumonia and confirmed with xrays. I flat out refused to pay for the ER visit and told them that if the persisted with collections I would push their incompetence. They never called me again. Edit: This really blew up! I would like to thank all the fine medical professionals out there for explaining dark spots on X rays. These are the exact answers that I was expecting for my question to that doctor. The fact that I did not receive any explanation of any type and received backlash at the mere questioning of a diagnosis would indicate some type of insecurity or complex that makes that doctor put their time and feelings ahead of my child's health. The fact that all of you spent a few minutes explaining and typing this on reddit really makes that doctor look really bad considering she couldn't spend 30 seconds giving an explanation.
#4
Eye Doctor here. I had a patient I saw several months before they came in for their visit but well less than a year, which often means something could be wrong. In this case, as it turns out, nothing was wrong with her by way of complaints, she just wanted to get updated before getting some new glasses. We decided to just run the regular gamut of tests anyway just because we might as well while she was there. She was a 50YO woman, fairly normal exam, perfect vision, retinas showed healthy, but something about her pupils really bothered me before I dilated. We chatted about it and I asked her if she banged her head or anything weird and she said no, but suddenly reveals this crazy history of an old Meningioma (a type of tumorous brain growth) she had removed a few years ago. She had decided to omit this from her history with us as she didn't feel it was important, but we went and put it into the charts anyway. Turns out she got a CT done two weeks prior to her exam with me which she says turns up completely normal. I tell her she should tell her doctor about this anyway just to cover our bases.
Fast Forward: Patient shows up in my office ecstatic to tell me that my examination revealed that her tumor had returned with an incredible vengeance. She had no idea, was totally asymptomatic and the CT she had prior to me showed what was very literally the size of a spec of dust which the radiologist dismissed as "artifact". On her return to her doctor, they decided to re-run the CT to cover THEIR Bases, and they found a QUARTER SIZED TUMOR. Within Two Weeks the tumor went from the size of a dust particle to a QUARTER. She was rushed into emergency surgery as the tumor was growing SUPER fast and was close to a blood vessel which could cause a massive stroke. She had it removed that day and returned to me after recovery to tell me of what got discovered as a result of my testing. She is now a long time regular patient I have been seeing for about 10 years.
Edit: For those asking about the pupils, they were asymmetric, and the larger one reacted less robustly compared to the fellow eye. This was a marked change from her previous examinations where no pupillary defects were noted.
#5
ER nurse here. Had a lady in for simple pneumonia. Her 13 year old son was getting bored, so I showed him some equipment. I connected a simple heart monitor to him and discovered he was in a complete heart block. I printed a strip and showed it to the doc. Hmmm.... We suddenly and unexpectedly got a cardiac patient.
#6
I had a guy come in for a second opinion after the first place didn’t bother asking any medical history.
Of course I took his history and asked more questions as we went. I remember telling him something felt off and we needed to run a test. So I ordered a peripheral vision test.
When I got the test back I was shocked by the most classic tumor pattern I’d ever seen. Two weeks later he was in surgery to get it removed. A month after this guy was back In my clinic thanking me. Totally different guy. Personality was a complete 180, energetic and happy.
Edit: Here’s another one I thought of though a bit more sad. But also good at the same time. Here’s a cautionary tale why urgent cares should NEVER treat eye issues.
Lady was referred to me after 2 weeks of treated for a red painful eye. The PA and MDs that saw her tried allergy meds and anti biotic is thinking it was allergic or bacterial conjunctivitis, or hoping it was mild viral that would resolve on its own.
So I took one look at her and knew it was a herpes simplex infection in her cornea. She was in pain and had been mistreated for 2 weeks. Got her on anti virals, but after discussing how it was odd she didn’t have any active herpetic sores, but had a really bad cough that the ER said was just pneumonia and would go away with antibiotics.
I told her to get it checked with a pulmonologist because it didn’t sound like pneumonia and it wasn’t getting better. I saw her 3 months later to monitor her corneal appearance and she came in using a wheelchair.
Turns out the pulmonologist was blown away that the ER had dismissed her. She had a really rare small cell lung cancer. The reason the herpes infection manifested in the first place was her immune system was compromised. She told me the pulmonologist said I’d saved her life because they caught it early. It’s been a bit over a year. She’s still undergoing treatment but her spirits are strong and she’s optimistic as is the pulmonologist.
#7
Had a patient come in for therapy after his PCM yelled at him for being a hypochondriac and saying his symptoms were all in his head and that he was just trying to fish for disability. His symptoms were pretty obviously neurological so I referred him for an MRI (to my shock he had only ever had x-rays). Sadly, I had to tell the 19 year old man that he had Multiple Sclerosis. With great satisfaction I got to tell that PCM he dun goofed and that I would be talking to our mutual Chief of Clinical services about the incident.
#8
In 2002 I started vomiting everything I ingested. About that time my hands and feet became darker in color. I had no insurance, but my Mom paid for me to see my family doctor. For two years he would give me nausea medicine and cautioned me to stay out of the sun. The darkened color of my feet and hands travelled toward my torso and I began to lose weight at an alarming rate. On January 3, 2004 my friends picked me off my bathroom floor and took me to a the emergency room. I was 5’6” and weighed 100 pounds. I was severely anemic and suffering from malnutrition. The hospital admitted me and the next day a gastroenterologist visited me. After talking about all my stomach issues, I asked him why I was so dark. I showed him a picture taken several years before where my skin was Irish pale. He went home that night and did research. The next morning he ordered blood work and told me I have Addison’s disease. AD is an adrenal insufficiency, if it is not treated, AD is fatal. The doctor also told me I was within hours of dying. My friends saved my life that day. Now, 16 years later I am getting along pretty well. I take steroids and a lot of other medications. My skin stopped bouncing back to its original color so I look extremely tanned. I am so thankful for that doctor who diagnosed a disease that nearly killed me. It will one day, but not today.
#9
My grandmother had her hip replaced, but the hip always hurt to her. She waited a year, hoping it would go away but it never did, she asked multiple doctors and did multiple x-rays but doctors said the replaced hip was fine. We finally made her go to a private clinic in my hometown, and the doctor saw that the replaced hip was fine and dandy, but the bone around it looked like it was a tad bit eaten by bacteria.
So the new doc did an operation, and there was so much pus in the leg it was insane. If my grandmother waited any longer, her blood would become infected and she would have died.
Thank goodness she went to the clinic.
#10
Former ER volunteer here.
An elderly gentleman was brought in by his concerned adult children for chest pain. He wanted to believe his primary doctor that it was just some gas or heart burn, but his son "just had a gut feeling" and made him go to the ER with everyone so he could get checked out. Heart attack was imminent, like, we weren't sure if treatment would take effect in time to prevent it. Declared code blue, all hands on deck, place went from a quiet, empty ER to sheer chaos in a few minutes.
There is no doubt in my mind that that "gut feeling" saved his life.
#11
A bulk of my career lately seems to be maligned patients with legitimate medical issues who've been labeled as hypochondriacs and sent through for a psych work up and meds / counseling. People with histories of all kinds of endocrine issues, like thyroid cancer / thyroidectomy patients who see someone once every two years about their thyroid and never have labs checked or med dosages fixed. Or diabetics with poorly controlled sugars, people who've had bowels surgeries and take time release meds, and then wonder why they aren't working. The piece meal system of health care in the US is really doing such a disservice to actual humans. So many specialists and no one piecing together the big picture.
#12
My Dad ( a pediatrician specializing in Neuro issues) was seeing one if his patients at the hospital got dragged into the NICU unexpectedly by a nurse who insisted a baby wasn't well. The attending doc insisted the kid was fine and just tired from a difficult vacuum assist delivery. My Dad could tell the baby wasn't okay and managed to talk the parents into a brain scan. The NICU doc insisted my dad was nuts to the parents. Dad was right and the kid had a brain bleed and was rushed to surgery. The baby would have died without the nurse bringing my dad in and the parents listening to him. As is, that extra time almost certainly cost brain function.
#13
I've had a couple of gems, but the one that really sticks out in my mind actually happened about a month or so ago.
A young mother brought in a 6 year old to emerg, she was super nice, and apologetic because she thought that she was wasting my time, because she said that her son had started to develop different spots all over his body and she has no idea why. My initial first thought was chicken pox, so I had some swords and shields up ready to go for the anti-vax debate, but she claimed that she had her son vaccinated at all stages up to that point, and upon closer inspection they were mass of clusters of warts.
Not uncommon, but because of how rapidly that they were growing, I ordered some blood work to make sure there wasn't an underlying cause as kids immune systems are pretty well equipped to handle that sort of thing. And I'm really glad that she brought him in, because he had a severely low white blood cell count which revealed a primary immune deficiency disease.
#14
Can I go ahead and speak on behalf of my doctor? 19m at the time (33 now), I felt sick for about a week, flu-like symptoms, didn't want to eat, just felt bad all over. One day at work I feel a very uncomfortable cramp/tear in my abdomen, so I go to one of those 24 hour clinics. At this point I'm slumped over, can't stand up straight without insane amount of pain, just generally uncomfortable and hating life. After a few hours at this clinic, they say "You probably have kidney stones, go home, drink fluids, sleep it off". This seemed fine to me, I was ready to go home and listen to the doc, all was good. BUT my girlfriend at the time (didn't last much longer than that) wasn't a fan of this diagnosis and drove me to the E.R., against my wishes of course. After a few minutes at the E.R., they determine my appendix has ruptured and I'm going septic. Apparently I was pretty lucky to not have died, though I did pick up bacterial pneumonia while in the hospital, so the recovery kinda sucked. Now I just have a crazy 6-7 inch scar on my belly to remind me to not avoid hospitals when I'm sick.
Edits, more info, medical terms, etc etc.
#15
I’m not a doctor but I originally went in to the doctors because I was really tired the doctor waved it off but my mom insisted I should get a CBC (complete blood count) they found that my platelets were extremely low which resulted in them running additional tests to find that I actually had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. No idea to this day why my mom made me go back to get a CBC but I’m great full
Edit: I get it it’s grateful
edit #2: a lot of people are saying that the doctor should have run a CBC to start with but in her defense I am a minor and it was a school day so i think that the doc thought that I was tired from sports or something normal and was trying to skip school
#16
Not a doctor, and this isn't about a human. On New Year's Day, 2 years ago, our little hound dog would not get out of bed. Her back half was unresponsive, and she would yelp in pain if anyone touched her. We took her to the emergency vet, the only place open to get care on January 1. We were there for 6 hours. The place was a mad house. Eventually, doc checks out our pupper. They take a bunch of x-rays, and the doctor tells us that there are no breaks, which means there are likely lesions on puppy's spinal cord, and our options are either very pricey surgery and a significant quality of life decrease, or put her down and save her the pain. They give us some pain meds for her, and we take her home to think about the options. The next day, we get in to our regular vet's office. Dog is still limping and heavily favoring a leg. Regular doc inspects poochie and asks what other doc said. After hearing ER doc's prognosis, regular doc advises us never to go back, and informs us that our dog likely banged her knee really hard on the bricks of our porch and was just being a baby about it. Two days later, doggo is 100% fine.
#17
This is my second story to post here but a great story no less. Mid 30's man walks into my office with what looks like a black eye and a broken blood vessel in the front of his left eye. He went to his primary and it was simply assumed that he got punched or hit or something, and he was dismissed. He was noted to have high blood pressure, but a script for medicine was written and a follow up in a few months. Gentleman comes in to see me to get another opinion on the matter and I look at him and immediately start the line of questions: How long has it been there, do you have a headache, and when you plug your ears with your fingers do you hear a "wooshing" sound? He had a cavernous sinus fistula (CCF). I sent him directly to the emergency room with his family of 4 in tow and he was in the OR within an hour of arriving. Saved his eye and possibly his life that day. The best news: He was a kitchen guy at my local diner which I frequent and they still treat me like royalty there when I come to eat. They all remember the time I saved one of theirs.
#18
I was like 10 and my parents took me to the doctor cus i thought i broke my leg skateboarding. He said it was a 3rd degree sprain told me itd be fine. I pointed out lines in the xray and he said they were nothing. I somehow convinced my mom to take me somewhere else and they confirmed i had multiple hairline fractures in my growth plate.
#19
This is a 'I wish I had gotten a second opinion' story. I had a doctor in high school who was unconcerned when I suddenly developed vertical double vision (which was freaking out everyone in emergency, where I had gone initially) and lost 60lbs for no reason.
It was only a year or two later when I told him that my arm would fall asleep much faster than normal when I raised it to ask a question in class that he thought there might be something wrong with me.
MRI ordered. Brain tumour found.
#20
Dermatologist here. I have seen probably 5 instances of “My other doctor told me it was fine.” that were melanomas.
A lot of times people don’t want a full skin exams. There are lots of perfectly sane reasons for this, time, perceived cost, history of personal trauma. However, I routinely find cancers people don’t know they have. Keep this in mind if you see a dermatologist for acne and they recommend you get in a gown.
m6kdjj7269 6 months ago
I was at the dr for routine blood work. I’m a redhead and have tons of freckles. I just happened to notice 1 freckle on my shoulder that was black, not brown like the others. Had really forgotten about it but while talking to the dr, it popped into my head, oh, by the way, I just noticed this one freckle! The dr took a look and said “ hm, why don’t we just take that off? “ . He did a quick punch biopsy, couple of stitches and I as out of there. The following week, I get a call from the Dr, “ that freckle was a melanoma, the margins were clean but with melanoma we always do a wide excision to ensure that there are no stray cells. We have you scheduled for surgery in 3 days!” Yikes! My husband had a coworker whose wife was pregnant and had a similar thing happen around the same time but didn’t find it in time and ended up losing her life while their child was an infant. I m stunned at how incredibly lucky I am.
#22
I can’t count how many “I was told it was a headache but I just wanted to come in and have it looked at in case it was something else”’s I’ve seen. Of course, those are the patients that are the nicest and are profusely apologizing for “wasting our time”, and of course, those are the patients that have a brain tumor show up on their CT scans...
Edit: Well this blew up. Big apologies to everyone but I’m not a doctor. I work in the hospital alongside other doctors and I get the chance to see everyone they see. Apologies if I misled. That was not my intention, and I will make sure to be clearer next time.
#23
I got a moderate traumatic brain injury in October and the week after I got home from the hospital I wasn't acting like myself was refusing to eat and just didn't make much sense. My mom called the doctor a few times they said it was normal but to take me in if anything changed. She took me in on the Saturday a week later becaude I started slurring my speech and was unsteady on my feet. The injury cause my sodium levels to dropfrom 140(normal) to 119. This in turn caused stroke like symptoms which were in reality a series of small seizures
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