Medical professionals are some of the most trusted experts out there. However, nobody’s perfect. Even the most skilled, sharp, and knowledgeable experts make mistakes from time to time. It’s only human. However, some mistakes can have extremely far-reaching and terrifying consequences for your health.
Some of the members of the r/AskReddit community spilled the tea about the worst medical misdiagnoses they have either experienced or heard about. We’ve collected their most powerful stories for you to read. Check them out below. Meanwhile, it’s a good reminder to always get a second (and maybe even a third or fourth…) professional’s opinion!
Some of the members of the r/AskReddit community spilled the tea about the worst medical misdiagnoses they have either experienced or heard about. We’ve collected their most powerful stories for you to read. Check them out below. Meanwhile, it’s a good reminder to always get a second (and maybe even a third or fourth…) professional’s opinion!
#1
My 17 year old son had bloody stools for a few weeks. The doctor ran some tests and told him he was fine, to go home and eat Raisin Bran.
Turns out he had cancer in his colon (lymphoma), and it was very aggressive. He had to have emergency surgery that night. After the biopsy, the hospital called and said Good news! It's benign!
Three hours later, the doctor called and said Oops, sorry, actually it is cancer, and we have to do a colon resection, followed by a very aggressive chemotherapy regimen.
Freakin' roller coaster.
Edit to add: That was 15 years ago, and he's doing great! Complete remission :).
Turns out he had cancer in his colon (lymphoma), and it was very aggressive. He had to have emergency surgery that night. After the biopsy, the hospital called and said Good news! It's benign!
Three hours later, the doctor called and said Oops, sorry, actually it is cancer, and we have to do a colon resection, followed by a very aggressive chemotherapy regimen.
Freakin' roller coaster.
Edit to add: That was 15 years ago, and he's doing great! Complete remission :).
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183points
#2
I started gaining 20 pounds a month and multiple doctors told me I was eating too much. By the end I could barely walk to the kitchen to get food or even stand up. I was down to less than a thousand calories a day and still gaining weight. I was finally hospitalized and it was end stage liver disease.
The first night I was in the hospital they stuck a huge needle in my abdomen and sucked out 10 liters of fluid. Over the next six months I lost 150 pounds of fluid 14 liters at a time once a week. I eventually had a liver transplant. I was not a drinker and there never was a diagnosis for why my liver failed.
The first night I was in the hospital they stuck a huge needle in my abdomen and sucked out 10 liters of fluid. Over the next six months I lost 150 pounds of fluid 14 liters at a time once a week. I eventually had a liver transplant. I was not a drinker and there never was a diagnosis for why my liver failed.
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178points
#3
My sister is epileptic. Since her seizures also look like someone high on d***s our primary care doctor *and 7 separate neurologists* told my mom to send my sister to a d**g rehab to clean up, this is despite my mom videotaping the seizures. Neurologist #8 went “yep that’s a seizure let’s get you some meds” after 30 seconds of footage.
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153points
Medical misdiagnosis is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s when a medical professional incorrectly diagnoses a condition or illness. It’s also considered a misdiagnosis when a doctor says that you’re fine when, in fact, you’re ill. And it happens far more frequently than you might think.
Misdiagnoses lead to inaccurate treatment. In turn, this has massively negative effects. The patient’s proper treatment can get delayed, and their actual condition can worsen. Aside from the physical and financial repercussions, there’s the emotional and mental toll to account for when an individual’s life gets turned upside down by false information.
Imagine, just for a moment, if your doctor missed a cancerous tumor early on. Or if they told you that you have cancer when it was some other illness wreaking havoc on your body. Not only could this potentially mean that you might lose your life, but if you survive, it would be incredibly hard to trust medical professionals in the future.
#4
My aunt was told she had dementia. Turns out she was on 4 different (prescribed by real doctors) opioids and just whacked out of her mind all day for years.
Weened off opioids, no pain, no memory issues.
It’s seriously f****d up.
Weened off opioids, no pain, no memory issues.
It’s seriously f****d up.
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153points
#5
Apparently my asthma was anxiety despite having been diagnosed asthmatic as a child. I "outgrew it" when we moved and I was "just out of shape and needed to try harder". Finally in my late 20s I told everyone (including the GP) to f**k off and saw an asthma specialist who humored me. She did an allergy skin test and a challenge to test for asthma. I'm allergic to 40-50 of the things they skin tested me for, 10+ of them really significantly and failed the breathing challenge.
Anxiety. Yah- I was anxious I couldn't catch my breath and no one would believe me lol.
Anxiety. Yah- I was anxious I couldn't catch my breath and no one would believe me lol.
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145points
#6
I had the starting symptoms of tonsillitis. I knew it was this and I knew I was about to get so sick, I wouldn't be able to stay awake longer than 20 mins, let alone see the dr, so I went and asked for antibiotics. It's important to note that when I get tonsillitis, my entire body shuts down, all my glands come up, and I just sleep.
So I go to the dr, and he does an examination. Says my throat is only a little red atm, and feels my abdomen and feels a lump and asks if it hurts when he pushes it. I say it hurts a little but more like it's sort of more uncomfortable. He sends me straight to the ER with a note.
I'm in there for hours. My temp skyrockets to 42 degrees Celsius, I'm delirious, they are doing all these tests and I tell them it's tonsillitis. They don't believe me. They eventually think since the test came back inconclusive that I have appendicitis. The surgeon tells me he's the specialist, not me and this can't possibly be tonsillitis. They take my appendix. The surgeon then yells at me for having to come in at 9:30pm on a Tuesday night to take out a perfectly fine appendix. They then discover I do have tonsillitis
TL;DR: my appendix was removed bc I had tonsillitis and no one listened to me.
So I go to the dr, and he does an examination. Says my throat is only a little red atm, and feels my abdomen and feels a lump and asks if it hurts when he pushes it. I say it hurts a little but more like it's sort of more uncomfortable. He sends me straight to the ER with a note.
I'm in there for hours. My temp skyrockets to 42 degrees Celsius, I'm delirious, they are doing all these tests and I tell them it's tonsillitis. They don't believe me. They eventually think since the test came back inconclusive that I have appendicitis. The surgeon tells me he's the specialist, not me and this can't possibly be tonsillitis. They take my appendix. The surgeon then yells at me for having to come in at 9:30pm on a Tuesday night to take out a perfectly fine appendix. They then discover I do have tonsillitis
TL;DR: my appendix was removed bc I had tonsillitis and no one listened to me.
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140points
The AARP reports that according to the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, there are over 12 million diagnostic errors every day in the United States. A whopping third of them cause serious patient harm. It’s estimated by StatNews.com that the potential cost to the American healthcare system due to medical misdiagnoses can be as high as $100 billion per year.
Meanwhile, a BMJ Quality and Safety study found something eerily similar about the frequency of these situations as well. “Extrapolating to all diseases (including non-‘Big Three’ dangerous disease categories), we estimated total serious harms annually in the USA to be 795,000 (plausible range 598,000–1,023,000). Sensitivity analyses using more conservative assumptions estimated 549,000 serious harms,” the report states.
In other words, because of medical misdiagnoses, around 795,000 Americans become disabled or die. Every. Single. Year.
#7
I was diagnosed with BPD and severe anxiety, along with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (basically seizures caused by anxiety and stress). I was having multiple seizures every day and had one so bad I wound up in the hospital after I couldn’t stop seizing for 15 minutes. The doctors thought I was faking everything because of the BPD diagnosis until they did an EEG.
Turns out I just have chronic high blood pressure, so high that it was giving me seizures. It’s been two years I’ve been on beta blockers and I haven’t had any attacks, and my BPD diagnosis was removed.
Turns out I just have chronic high blood pressure, so high that it was giving me seizures. It’s been two years I’ve been on beta blockers and I haven’t had any attacks, and my BPD diagnosis was removed.
127points
#8
I stepped in a hole in my yard and felt a "pop" and sharp pain in my foot. It went away after about 20 minutes. 3 days later, the pain came back, and progressively got worse over the next week until I could barely stand to walk. I went to see my doctor, he did the standard xrays and didn't see anything. Then he proceeded to tell me about a patient he'd seen 2 months earlier who had a similar pain in her foot. Upon examination, he determined that she had stepped on a sewing needle, punctured her foot, and developed an infection. Then he looked at me and said, "I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to you. You probably stepped on a needle and didn't know it. Here's a script for Keflex," and walked out. Before I go any further, let me make something clear. About 20 years prior to this, I had an anaphylactic reaction to Keflex and nearly died. It's in my chart in big bold red letters that I am not to be prescribed Keflex. So, I had to track him down, get him to change the script. Fast forward 2 weeks, after the round of antibiotics for this mysterious needle that attacks people's feet with no warning, I am in far worse pain than ever. I go back to see the doc, he says, "Well, the antibiotic just wasn't strong enough. Let me write you a script for Keflex,", and I just about lost my s**t with him. So, after a very terse conversation, I was off to the pharmacy for another 10 days of antibiotics. Fast forward another 2 weeks, pain is excruciating. Call the doc, he schedules me for an MRI to find the infection, as well as a bone scan to rule out a tumor (?). Bone scan comes back positive for a fractured bone in my foot. When compared to the first xray, it is obvious in both. So I went through 3 months of hell (first injury through recovery, boot, crutches, whole 9 yards) just because he had another patient at some point in his medical career who stepped on a needle and got an infection. The kicker is that if he had listened to what I told him during the first visit, that I had stepped in a hole and felt a pop and instant pain, this could have all been avoided.
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125points
#9
Flu symptoms for months on end after being a very healthy, very active child until this point.
Thank god the nurse at the urgent care took one look at me and said "hey, what if we did a blood sugar test on this anemic, fruit scented, child-corpse?"
My flu was actually type one diabetes and I was going into keto acidosis and was so far along my blood content now contained acetate. My blood was literally nail polish remover. I went into a 4 day mini coma, had my first NDE, and then woke up to a whole new universe where pixi Stix and grape juice were illegal.
Thank god the nurse at the urgent care took one look at me and said "hey, what if we did a blood sugar test on this anemic, fruit scented, child-corpse?"
My flu was actually type one diabetes and I was going into keto acidosis and was so far along my blood content now contained acetate. My blood was literally nail polish remover. I went into a 4 day mini coma, had my first NDE, and then woke up to a whole new universe where pixi Stix and grape juice were illegal.
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119points
According to Professor David Newman-Toker, the director of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the most common misdiagnosed issues are ‘vascular events’ (e.g., stroke and heart attacks), as well as infections and cancer. He stated that around 30% of women are more likely to be misdiagnosed when presenting with stroke symptoms. Moreover, most misdiagnoses happen at the patient’s bedside.
It can also be very dangerous if you’re prescribed the wrong medication or the wrong dose for your condition.
Have you or a loved one ever been misdiagnosed by your doctor? If you’re a medical professional, how do you ensure that misdiagnoses happen as rarely as possible? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
#10
My best friend was misdiagnosed with IBS when she was 35. She had vague digestive symptoms that had started about a year before. She had a colonoscopy, an endoscopy, then another colonoscopy, all clear. Then she began to lose weight without trying, while her belly stayed bloated. She went to see an OBGYN, who said my friend was fine, just a little "fat" on her abdomen. The very next day her new GP sent her immediately to a gynocological oncologist. She had stage III ovarian cancer. It took about 18 months of GI complaints to get a correct diagnosis. By the grace of the gods and the flying spaghetti monster, she is a 20 + year cancer survivor. Turns out, she has Lynch Syndrome, a familial cancer disorder
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116points
#11
Was told I likely had leukemia by an OBGYN. In the gap between my hematology appointment, I went to an urgent care and had them redo my bloodwork. Turns out I was just dehydrated. 6 years later, still looking good.
This was the same OBGYN that told me the cure to premature menopause was to get pregnant "as quickly as possible" instead of getting hormone therapy. I was 23 and (am still) a lesbian who isn't super interested in having biological children.
This was the same OBGYN that told me the cure to premature menopause was to get pregnant "as quickly as possible" instead of getting hormone therapy. I was 23 and (am still) a lesbian who isn't super interested in having biological children.
115points
#12
Definitely not the craziest, but this happened to me. When I was 12, I would get horrible stomach aches every morning, and would spend a lot of time in between getting dropped off for school and first period hiding the bathroom or just sitting in a hallway waiting for it to subside. I was late to class so often that it was seen as behavioral, and my adhd/depression meds, both of which I was already on, just got upped. Those are both legit diagnosis for me, so I guess no one thought to look into it further.
Turns out I have celiac disease and my body was just fighting for its life daily after my morning toaster strudel.
Turns out I have celiac disease and my body was just fighting for its life daily after my morning toaster strudel.
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111points
#13
All through high school and college, I had constant nose problems. They were diagnosed as sinus infections and allergies, so I was on every common allergy prescription out there. None of them ever seemed to make much of a difference, but that’s what the family doctor said.
I moved to a new city and went to a new doctor for something unrelated. I mentioned the long history of allergies and he asked if I’d ever had a CT scan. First time that had ever been suggested to me. I had it done and it showed that I had a severely deviated septum. One side of my nose had basically closed in on itself, creating a great environment for infections and making it harder to breathe. From the way it had healed, the doctor thought it was likely due to a broken nose when I was a kid.
I’d never knowingly broken my nose, but I’d had a bike accident when I was eight where I went over the handlebars and somehow got a cut on my nose in the process. I never quite figured out exactly how it got there or what it impacted, but was the only thing I could remember that involved my nose. There was no pain afterward or change in the exterior at all.
One quick laparoscopic surgery and a couple days with a very sensitive nose and it was like night and day. Over a decade of sinus pain, headaches, struggling to breathe during school runs and getting heckled about being out of shape or just trying to get out of it, and turns out I was working with half a functioning nose the entire time.
Second opinions are your friend.
I moved to a new city and went to a new doctor for something unrelated. I mentioned the long history of allergies and he asked if I’d ever had a CT scan. First time that had ever been suggested to me. I had it done and it showed that I had a severely deviated septum. One side of my nose had basically closed in on itself, creating a great environment for infections and making it harder to breathe. From the way it had healed, the doctor thought it was likely due to a broken nose when I was a kid.
I’d never knowingly broken my nose, but I’d had a bike accident when I was eight where I went over the handlebars and somehow got a cut on my nose in the process. I never quite figured out exactly how it got there or what it impacted, but was the only thing I could remember that involved my nose. There was no pain afterward or change in the exterior at all.
One quick laparoscopic surgery and a couple days with a very sensitive nose and it was like night and day. Over a decade of sinus pain, headaches, struggling to breathe during school runs and getting heckled about being out of shape or just trying to get out of it, and turns out I was working with half a functioning nose the entire time.
Second opinions are your friend.
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108points
#14
My GP said I was probably just tired and diagnosed me with fatigue, during the next two year I lost the ability to walk and started shaking before I got diagnosed with Parkinson's.
He thought it impossible to be my age and get it so it never crossed his mind.
Edit: I had symptoms at 29 but diagnosed with Parkinson's at 33.
He thought it impossible to be my age and get it so it never crossed his mind.
Edit: I had symptoms at 29 but diagnosed with Parkinson's at 33.
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99points
#15
Every single thing that I have ever complained to doctors about have been because I was fat or faking it.
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98points
#16
Back in 2008 my dad was just “not feeling right” and hadn’t been for a long time. After two weeks of tests they told us he had aggressive Lymphoma and needed chemo urgently…and he’d be lucky to have another year.
One of the doctors who had run some of these tests disagreed with his colleagues and refused to sign off on the chemo, this was on a Friday and they wanted my dad to start chemo the next Monday.
Well the doctor who wouldn’t sign off was right, he ran some more tests and proved my Dad was just coeliac.
16 years later he’s still with us living his best gluten free life!
One of the doctors who had run some of these tests disagreed with his colleagues and refused to sign off on the chemo, this was on a Friday and they wanted my dad to start chemo the next Monday.
Well the doctor who wouldn’t sign off was right, he ran some more tests and proved my Dad was just coeliac.
16 years later he’s still with us living his best gluten free life!
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98points
#17
My 96-year-old father fell down outside the house and ended up going to rehab center for physical therapy. My brother came down to stay with my mom. My father was assigned a social worker. Social worker said they would not release my 96-year-old father to my 82-year-old mother. They needed 24x7 live-in care or a nursing home because he was too weak to live on his own.
The social worker says that from what my brother decribed, she has SEVERE dementia. She needs a cognative test and may need to be institutionalized in a locked down facility so she doesn't try to escape. So, my brother schedules a cognative test with her doctor. And we're now assuming my parents will be separated, which will just lead to a massive cognative decline and depression for both of them. I'm thinking they'll be dead within 6 months of this happening.
I drive up to relieve my brother and he heads home. We both have a long conversation about how we're about to ruin our parents' lives over the next 3 weeks.
3 weeks go by and we get to the point where they're discharging my dad, and the social worker asks my Mom "Can you help him get his shoes on and help him with his pants when he uses the bathroom if he asks?" She looks at the social worker and says, "I've been doing that for the last couple of years." And the social worker says "I have no concerns discharging him to her care." I'm sitting there going WTF?! I haven't slept in 3 weeks thinking I was kicking my parents out of their house and throwing them in a nursing home against their will and permanently separating them.
My brother calls me up and starts flipping out about the social worker and how she gave both of us an ulcer for no good reason.
And my mom passed her cognative test.
Obviously, they can't continue to live long-term like this. And they know that. But now we have time to properly research solutions and go over it with them, rather than look for the first available situation.
Now there's a home health aid coming in 2 days a week to check in on them. My dad is getting home physical therapy. They're together in their house, which is what they want.
I am so f*****g mad at the social worker right now!
The social worker says that from what my brother decribed, she has SEVERE dementia. She needs a cognative test and may need to be institutionalized in a locked down facility so she doesn't try to escape. So, my brother schedules a cognative test with her doctor. And we're now assuming my parents will be separated, which will just lead to a massive cognative decline and depression for both of them. I'm thinking they'll be dead within 6 months of this happening.
I drive up to relieve my brother and he heads home. We both have a long conversation about how we're about to ruin our parents' lives over the next 3 weeks.
3 weeks go by and we get to the point where they're discharging my dad, and the social worker asks my Mom "Can you help him get his shoes on and help him with his pants when he uses the bathroom if he asks?" She looks at the social worker and says, "I've been doing that for the last couple of years." And the social worker says "I have no concerns discharging him to her care." I'm sitting there going WTF?! I haven't slept in 3 weeks thinking I was kicking my parents out of their house and throwing them in a nursing home against their will and permanently separating them.
My brother calls me up and starts flipping out about the social worker and how she gave both of us an ulcer for no good reason.
And my mom passed her cognative test.
Obviously, they can't continue to live long-term like this. And they know that. But now we have time to properly research solutions and go over it with them, rather than look for the first available situation.
Now there's a home health aid coming in 2 days a week to check in on them. My dad is getting home physical therapy. They're together in their house, which is what they want.
I am so f*****g mad at the social worker right now!
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95points
#18
My friend's doctor kept telling him his headaches were just stress. I said try my doc and get a second opinion. worst case your out $30 co-pay.... my doc sends him for MRI or whatever and it turns out my friend had survived a brain aneurysm. apparently it was close to the "surface" of the brain and those are more survivable than those deeper down.
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94points
#19
Not me, but a friend of mine had a seizure at age 16 and had been taking keppra for like 15 years. She stopped seeing neuro since she hadn’t had a seizure in years; her PCP was prescribing the keppra."
"She started having seizures again out of the blue with disorientation and speech so slurred her boss started accusing her of being high at work. She finally got in to see a neurologist, who did an EEG and said she was fine, but increased her meds just in case."
"I urged her to get a 2nd opinion, as I was sure that sounded like a tumor with the sudden onset and breakthrough seizures with the increase in meds. Turns out, it was a tumor behind her ear."
"Second neuro referred to a neurosurgeon and she had to have brain surgery. Since then, she’s had no seizures and hasn’t been on any seizure meds whatsoever.
"She started having seizures again out of the blue with disorientation and speech so slurred her boss started accusing her of being high at work. She finally got in to see a neurologist, who did an EEG and said she was fine, but increased her meds just in case."
"I urged her to get a 2nd opinion, as I was sure that sounded like a tumor with the sudden onset and breakthrough seizures with the increase in meds. Turns out, it was a tumor behind her ear."
"Second neuro referred to a neurosurgeon and she had to have brain surgery. Since then, she’s had no seizures and hasn’t been on any seizure meds whatsoever.
89points
#20
Dr sat my mother and I in a room and told us that my adult mentally challenged brother "will not be leaving the hospital and we won't know what killed him until his brain is on the autopsy table" .
10 + years and he is still using said brain. I told Dr it was the new meds they were trying, he disagreed , I insisted they switch him back, they did, he got better.
10 + years and he is still using said brain. I told Dr it was the new meds they were trying, he disagreed , I insisted they switch him back, they did, he got better.
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88points