Reminds me of something that happened to me and my
husband a couple of years ago.
We had both seen and examined a 15 year old girl,
4 times over the course of 4 days.
She had a bad bout of D&V and some abdo pain, but
careful examination on each occasion did not reveal
any signs of appendicitis. There was a lot of family
stress, parents recently separated etc.
Mother eventually took her to casualty one evening.
She was admitted, and her appendix removed during
the night. Mother then phoned my partner (my husband)
at 2 in the morning - was quite abusive, and said we had
missed the diagnosis. Needless to say, neither of us
got much sleep for the rest of the night.
Histology came back as "normal appendix".
Never got an apology from mother. Still our patient.
--
Ruth
http://www.stamford.co.uk/littlesurgery
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From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of Toby Lipman 7, Collingwood
Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne. Tel 0191-2811060 (home), 0191-2869178
(surgery)
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 1998 06:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Appendix-NEJM
>I recently had a falling out with a patient (or rather patient's mother)
over appendicitis. I saw a ten year old as an extra. He'd been seen the
day before by my partner and had had recurrent abdominal/RIF pain for
months - been admitted and discharged twice.
<rest of interesting post snipped>
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