Clear and effective communication makes work and life so much simpler when it’s present. When there’s more or less total transparency and everyone’s on the same page, it’s far easier to do whatever it is you aim to do. In some areas, however, communication is far more important than in others. Sometimes, a white lie, a misspoken ‘fact,’ or an inability to mention a single detail can be the difference between life and death, health and illness.
For instance, medical professionals need a lot of information about their patients and their medical histories in order to treat them appropriately. Whether a patient is seriously ill, has been injured, or has come for a run-of-the-mill health checkup, failing to mention something that seems unimportant can have dire consequences.
The doctors of Reddit shared their stories about their very worst ‘I don’t think this is important, but-’ patients. Scroll down and have a read about how failing to disclose something a patient thought was meaningless actually turned out to be very meaningful. If we have any Doctor Pandas in the house today, you can share your own tales about miscommunicating patients in the comments, as a warning.
Bored Panda got in touch with Dr. Andrew Carroll, the CEO/Medical Director of Atembis LLC and Family Physician, for some insights about trust between doctors and their patients, what patients should prioritize communicating to medical professionals, and how experiencing pain differs between individuals.
“When you have a long-term relationship with a physician, it’s easier for there to be a two-way trust relationship. Our patients trust us to be knowledgeable, thorough, non-judgmental, and wise. We trust our patients to be honest, forthright, and open to a conversation. That’s more difficult when you’re seeing someone at an urgent care or emergency room because these are people you don’t typically know. That’s the value of having a Family Physician/Generalist,” he explained to us.
“Also, just know that sometimes there’s a detail you may think of that you believe may not be important, but might be crucial to making a diagnosis. Just be honest and tell us.”
#1
Had a male come in with pancreatitis. Asking him some basic history..
“How much do you drink alcohol?”
“I don’t use alcohol.”
Ok, well not my first time so..
“Do you drink beer?”
“Yeah well after sauna I have some beer.” (we are in Finland where sauna and beer go very well and frequently together)
“Ok, how many beers you have after sauna?”
“A case” (24 cans/case)
“And how many times per week you got to sauna?”
“3 to 4 times per week”
So he doesn’t drink any alcohol, but 70-100 cans of beer per week.
Image source: tijujo
#2
Everyone at my company knows the story of the patient who came in for genetic counseling, went through their whole family history with the counselor, and then concluded with “Oh yeah, I was adopted as a baby and don’t know who my birth parents are, does that matter?”
Image source: ThadisJones, cottonbro
#3
Intercepted a young woman who was just hit by a car. Her boyfriend was standing with her freaking out. I do a basic physical exam and get a history, and make her comfortable as we wait for the ambulance to arrive.
Once the ambulance arrives they ask for the same information, except this time the boyfriend mentions he was the one who was actually hit by the car and was shielding his girlfriend’s body. The entire car’s windshield was cracked by the impact of his back. He was just freaking out and worried about her, and was in shock and hadn’t begun to feel any pain yet.
Image source: milksteaknjellybean, Pavel Danilyuk
#4
As a patient, but this is too fresh not to share. I’m 32 and at work Friday morning (as in 2 days ago) I started having pain in my lower molars around 10:40am. It eventually got so bad I left work and went to urgent care (noon). I thought it was a gum infection and I’d get some antibiotics and ibuprofen and be told to see a dentist or something. I had to keep apologizing to the intake person because I was stumbling over my words, unfocused because of pain.
When the urgent care Doc came in (1pm) she talked to me for about 30 seconds before peeping in my mouth and saying my gums were fine, then checking my eyes with a flashlight and calling an ambulance. By the time I got to the hospital (2ish?) I was basically nonverbal and my attempts at texting had become disjointed. My spouse met me in the ER after a CT scan and helped me consent to an IV clot buster (TPA) at about 3pm. I’d had a stroke.
For those doing the timeline math at home, YIKES.
Good news: the TPA worked very fast and I’m hopefully getting discharged tonight. I owe that urgent care doc a thank you note.
Image source: PagingDrLecter
#5
As a patient I had a doctor tell me “I don’t think this is important”.
My physio had identified a mole on my back that had changed colours. Being fair skinned, and Australian, I was obviously concerned about melanoma so I went to my doctor for a checkup. He looked at it and said “it’s nothing don’t worry”. I insisted that since I’d made the effort to come in he might as well take a biopsy and get it tested. He was reluctant but I insisted and he eventually removed the mole for testing.
A few days later the doctor rang and informed me that I had a very nasty malignant melanoma and needed surgery immediately if not before. Two days later I was in hospital and they removed a lump from my shoulder three inches across and two inches deep. Cancer free now for 8 years but if I had taken the doctor at his word of “it’s nothing” I’d most likely be dead now.
Image source: Detrius67
#6
Had a male in his 50s WALKS into trauma to have his left thigh stitched up. Not an uncommon wound in an agricultural area. Speaking to him while stitching him up he tells me he fell off a ladder while cutting a branch and the machete sliced him on the way down. Told him I was going to write him up for an xray of the entire leg just in case. He kept on saying he was fine, his knee hurt a bit but logically that was from the fall, I agreed, but asked him to go to the xray department just in case.
He reluctantly walk there and back. X-rays showed a helical fracture almost the entire length of his femur! Besides being a dangerous fracture the femur is supposed to be the most painful bone to break and he was walking around.
In the end had to show him the break to get him to sit down on a wheelchair and into the hands of orthopedics. That man’s pain tolerance still impresses me.
Image source: F0ssil, pratik patel
#7
I was an internal medicine resident who had a patient come to my clinic for “persistent flu”.
I had never seen her before, and she was a healthy appearing woman in her 60s. About a month before seeing me, she was seen by her PCP with persistent coughing, and otherwise had no shortness of breath or other infectious symptoms. Just a dry cough. She got tested for flu and was negative, but got tamiflu just incase it was a false negative. She had a chest X-ray which was normal. She came to me a month later because her cough persisted despite completing her therapy.
Everything sounded great. Heart, lungs, everything. To be honest I don’t usually do this, but something in my gut told me to feel for lymph nodes. I felt around and found something above her left clavicle. It was hard, round, and she was completely unaware of it. I told her it was probably a reactive lymph node, but just incase, I wanted to get an ultrasound. This cascaded into her getting a biopsy, which showed squamous cell lung cancer. A CT scan showed stage IV lung cancer, not seen on her chest X-ray. All diagnosed because of a lymph node that almost by chance I was lucky enough to find by being thorough.
I checked her chart about a year ago, and she was doing well. She got therapy and was in remission after a very long road and many obstacles. I’ll never forget her or her case.
Image source: STEMI90
#8
Had a patient come into the ER with some sort of spider/bug bite on her hand that had progressed to a red line running up her arm. She stated she put Benadryl cream on and it was very itchy.
We continued talking and I asked if she had any allergies…”yes, Benadryl.” I thought good lord wtf and I’m sure it was reflected on my face.
We washed the Benadryl cream off her arm and miraculously it stopped itching.
Image source: sweetlyserious, NIAID
#9
Me “do you have any medical history? Including things like heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure?”
Patient “no, nothing ever”
Me “so why do you take [list of heart meds]”
Patient “oh I’ve had multiple cardiac arrests”
Image source: saltieeee, ANTONI SHKRABA
#10
I had to take out the remainder of this guy’s teeth. He was in his 60’s and told us verbally and on his health history that he didn’t take any meds. So I took out his last 8 teeth, all easy extractions due to infections and periodontal disease. But I couldn’t get him to stop bleeding. I asked him again if he was taking anything. I finally got the clots stabilized, but it took almost an hour and I had to consult our oral surgeon. When he saw the oral surgeon a few months later about placing implants, he told the oral surgeon he was on BP medication and blood thinners. I refused to see him anymore after that.
Image source: DrRam121, Herry Lawford
#11
Me: “do you have any chronic diseases like Diabetes or high blood pressure?”
Patients: “no :)))))”
Me: “but you do inject Insulin daily?’
Patients: “yeah :)))”
“What’s that for then?”
“oh, for my sugar, ya know”
Image source: sadworldscaredgirl, David Moruzzi
#12
Had to perform an extraction, took a detailed medical history. Patient said they were a diabetic and a hypertensive. Both a big contraindication in extractions due to uncontrollable bleeding. Unless they’re meticulous about their taking their medicines and you stop the blood thinners five days prior to surgery, it’s usually a blood bath.
I asked the well educated, 50 year old woman a number of times if she took her diabetes medicines on time and if she does at home rapid tests to check her blood sugar. She said she takes them everyday without fail and hasn’t missed a day in over two years. She said she’s super disciplined about her health and would tell me if she hadn’t taken them.
I sent her in for a Rapid blood sugar test anyway, as a precaution, and lo and behold her values come back as 282mg. Almost twice as much as the normal value so it wasn’t even like she was JUST off the mark.
I ask her to explain and she gives a shocked expression and insisted that she took them. I ask her to physically show me her medicines instead of listing them out and she finally says oh I don’t have it right now, I make it when I need it. ‘make’.
She drinks bitter gourd juice on time everyday instead of her diabetic pills because they are too big.
And she 100% believed bitter gourd juice was the only medication she needs.
She’s a high school teacher.
Image source: throatanator
#13
5 year old girl, at a pediatrician visit her mother said she was “acting loopy.” A day later a scan confirmed a massive brain tumor in inoperable real estate. Three weeks later I did her autopsy.
Image source: jaded_trollop, Philip Dean
#14
Emergency radiologist here.
I see plenty of people presenting with understated symptoms that turn out to be mind blowing advanced disease.
The saddest one was probably the 4 year old boy who presented with a rigid abdomen for a few months. Was told by their pediatrician it was constipation months ago but his parents never followed up when it didn’t resolve. When I imaged his abdomen I found his entire liver was replaced with a mass consistent with hepatoblastoma. I asked the parents why they waited so long to work it up. They said they were satisfied with the diagnosis of constipation. That one left a mark on my soul.
Image source: abandnedsquirrel, Jonathan Borba
#15
When I was in my final years of med school (English division of a European University in a country where I speak the native language fluently) we were to do patient interviews and physical examinations on our own and then circle back to our supervisor.
I was translating back and forth between the patient (infectious diseases department) and a fellow classmate whom I was doing the interview with. The patient said “so you guys are coming in on a Saturday to do patient work? Good for you for going the extra mile” (it was a Friday, which I initially brushed off as a mistake)
My classmate asked me to ask the patient if he could tell us the date. I was like “are you sure? He’s here for an infection not head trauma, he might think it’s a bit degrading”. I thought it wasn’t important but she insisted so I translated the question.
Patient replies “ah well its 2002, of course!” (it was 2018).
After more questioning we realised all of his replies were all as if it were 2002 (eg. “The last trip I went on was to Africa in the 80’s, so about 15 years ago”)
As it turns out he had neurosyphilis that went unchecked for many many years.
Image source: TAmedschoolnobody, Andrew Neel
#16
Me: I know my vision is a bit funny at the moment – I will go and get an eye test soon.
Wife, after 4 weeks of me pulling my glasses to the end of my nose: Enough! I’m booking you a test.
Optician: Yeah, something isn’t right – something is pushing in to your eyes from in your brain. You need to go to hospital. I’ll call them now.
Phone call from hospital, while I’m in the opticians…
Me: Yeah, I can come in – but I’m taking my car in for a service on Weds – will Thursday be okay?
Them: Err.. okay?
Turns out I had a brain tumour in my Pineal Gland that was blocking the normal exit of brain fluid. Three surgeries and a round of radiotherapy later and it’s 90% gone.
My wife, the optician and the brain surgeon saved my life, because I was too casual to save it myself.
Image source: Spraggle
#17
Had twins in the NICU with a rare genetic defect that was causing serious pulmonary distress….extraordinarily, one of our long time nurses recognized the last name and realized she had taken care of their mom while she was hospitalized on the pediatric unit some years before….the mom never thought to tell us she had the same rare genetic pulmonary insufficiency. Could have saved us about of week of tests.
Image source: Incubus187, RF._.studio
#18
One of my first patients as a medical student, we were asking her about prior medical history bc she was in a waitlist for an intestinal transplant, and we asked her in every possible way if she had any history and she was like “no, I was very healthy before this.”
Finally we ask her “do you take any medications at home?” and she goes “oh, just the meds I take for the lupus”
Image source: absencefollows
#19
I once check in a guy and asked him if he’d had any previous surgery.
“No, never”
When I examined him he had a surgical scar from just above his pubic bone, to just below the sternum.
“What’s that then?” I asked.
He stared down at it and said:
“I’ve never noticed that before”
WTF????
Image source: Underwritingking, RazorMax
#20
While pregnant with me, my mom was wrapping up an OB appointment. The GYN had already left the room, mom was gathering herself to leave and mentioned to the nurse her contacts were messing with her – she had spots in her vision.
The nurse stopped and asked her to sit down. Brought back in the GYN, who had her stay and deliver me via emergency c section. Without anyone knowing it, she had spontaneously developed pre-eclampsia and her blood pressure was rocketing sky high.
She was dangerously close to having a seizure and that would’ve been that if she hadn’t mentioned the spots in her vision and just left as the appointment was over, or the nurse didn’t listen.
Image source: AttorneyDense, Jimmy Conover
#21
Did a bunion & hammertoe surgery on a lady with no allergies. New patient packet, primary care note all had “no known allergies”. I always ask about metal allergy anytime I plan on putting in hardware…
Surgery goes great. I’m on call for the practice and receive a phone call for the group 18 hours post op. Her nerve block had worn off and she was in excruciating pain. Give instructions on what to do.
Next morning she is in my office before I even arrive. 10/10 pain, sweating profusely, blood pressure elevated, foot is massive. Clearly not faking it.
Have to send her to hospital for intractable pain. Blood work indicates elevated eosinophils but everything else normal. No blood clot or infection.
Hospitalist convinced its complex regional pain syndrome. I rack my brain and think of WTF could be going on. I am only 5 months out of residency. My butt is puckering so hard.
Since eosinophils elevated, ask if she is allergic to jewelry? 🤔🤔
“Yeah, my tongue swelled up when I had it pierced. I had it removed the next day”
She had a freaking NICKEL allergy. No allergist will see her to confirm so this is all speculation but makes sense with the hardware I used.
Once the hardware is removed and exchanged for titanium, her pain resolved.
There was one case in my residency of hardware allergy (1/3000 cases I was first or second assist on). If I did not scrub into that case, I don’t know if I would have figured this out so quickly.
Crazy case. Now I always ask: “have you ever had any reactions to jewelry?” A lot of patients won’t tell you about problems with jewelry and may not know they have metal allergies!
Image source: cocoakrispiesdonut
#22
Patients not telling HIV status despite knowing they are positive.
When further asked that why didn’t they tell us, they say that they thought its not important.
How can HIV not be important, it changes everything.
Image source: Dr_critical, Karolina Grabowska
#23
As a student in AE asking a patient who came in with head injury after a fight some questions. At the end he mentions that for the last several months he had been having blackout where he would wake on the floor sore all over or having hurt himself. That and he had woke feeling more tired than before. The dude had untreated epilepsy
Image source: Bubblycatty, Andrea Piacquadio
#24
I’m a veterinarian. My favorites are foreign bodies (like a dog eating a whole bone, or a sock, or something similar).
I get when you don’t realize something was eaten, but I have had so many times where the client swears up and down that the dog did not eat anything, could not have eaten anything, and nothing is missing. Then when we remove a whole towel, the owner is like “oh, the kitchen towel? Yes I did see him chewing on that yesterday, and we haven’t been able to find it since.”
Image source: Tre2
#25
My (~4F at the time) mom thought that it was weird how I could describe what I see of one part of the environment and not the other especially because according to her I was a happy child and didn’t report any sight issue.
She brings me to the doctor, afraid that I may have an intellectual disability.
Turns out one of my eyes is totally blind.
Image source: Emptydumbass, Caleb Woods
#26
Had a guy in his 50s who had been seeing an acupuncturist for an area of numbness and weakness travelling down his legs. He’d had 2 months of acupuncture for them with no improvement, so very reluctantly booked a routine GP appointment. At that point he’d stared to have issues with his urination too.
As soon I started speaking to him it became obvious that the symptoms he presented with were consistent with spinal cord compression – an absolute medical emergency. We got him straight into hospital and imaging showed cancer, with a tumour pressing onto his spinal column. Although he started treatment and steroids that day, by then it was too late. He lost the ability to walk and died a few months later from the cancer.
It was enormously sad and frustrating as that constellation of symptoms would have raised an immediate reg flag with anyone with medical training. Had he come in months earlier, maybe his prognosis would’ve been quite different.
Image source: Bustamove2
#27
Saw a man early 70’s who had a knee that was at least 3X its size. He had waited all weekend before going to the ER and went only because his wife insisted. He was kind of pissed. Of course his knee was broken. When they ask what he took for the pain his answer was : *”A couple of Tylenols.”*
Apparently wanting to feel young again :) he tried his son’s motorcycle and it fell on him. He didn’t tell anyone because he was too embarassed.
Image source: sonia72quebec, Gustavo Fring
#28
Oops, I was the patient. I went in for severe pain in my right eye and reduced vision. Asked me for my family history and I mention everything I thought was relevant.
“No immune disorders or anything like that?”
“Oh well, my mom has MS but there’s no possible way I have that.”
“…”
“…”
“You’ve got optic neuritis, and probably MS. Sorry.”
Image source: Additional_Initial_7
#29
This 20s guy came into the hospital, he had a lot of conditions where he wouldn’t make it past 40 and he currently had some infection. We kept giving him antibiotics which helped, but not as much as we would have liked.
After about a week of being in the hospital I walk in and I’m talking to him and he tells me that he got a medically necessary circumcision on his last admission to the hospital. I ask if it’s okay if I take a look to make sure it’s healing okay. It was black with all kinds of infection.
I’m just not sure how a 20s married man (or his wife) never thought to tell anyone about this for the past week.
Image source: Desblade101
#30
When I was a recent grad while working with the army, a soldier came to er, he had just returned from vacation and complained about severe headache, he had been hit with a beer bottle the previous day, I didn’t think much at first because he was conscious and there wasn’t anything more in anamnesis, that was until medical examination where I found that he had high blood pressure and bradycardia.
Sent him to a larger hospital and surprise, surprise, he had quite the subdural hematoma. I still wonder how that man was walking as if nothing was wrong with him.
Image source: g4bkun
Follow Us
