Few places leave you feeling as vulnerable as in a doctor’s office. You are frequently underdressed and sitting on a paper-covered table like a piece of deli meat waiting to be assessed. The least the person holding the clipboard can do is be professional about it. And yet…
Doctors spend years in medical school learning how the body works and apparently very little time learning how to talk to the person it belongs to. Netizens asked patients to share the worst things a doctor has ever said to them, and the responses are truly horrific, varying from dismissive to downright offensive. Some are so bizarre they suggest the doctor in question had a very interesting morning before arriving at work.
#21
A peripartum mental health provider once tried to tell me that certain medications would “scramble up” my baby’s “neurons and brain cells”. At the time I had just earned my PhD in neurocognitive development and immediately filed a complaint against her.
Report
23points
The practical advice for anyone who has experienced a genuinely harmful or dismissive medical interaction is to know that the complaint mechanism exists even if it is underused. State medical boards handle physician conduct. Hospital patient advocacy offices handle in-facility complaints.
A second opinion is always a legal right, and asking for one is not confrontational. It is self-preservation. If you stay quiet, that doctor is free to traumatise more people, people who will most likely also not raise the alarm. It is a toxic cycle fuelled by the fear of looking like a whining sissy.
#22
I was having a CT scan to check the nature of a weird lump in my abdomen. Provider thought lipoma, so sent me to radiology to get more data. I was *still in the scanner cradle* when the radiologist came out, and snarled at me, "who told you you have a lipoma? Because that's a liposarcoma and those things f*****g k**l you." and then he turned around and walked out of the room.
So that's how I found out I had cancer.
So that's how I found out I had cancer.
Report
22points
#23
“Have you ever rear ended a car? Or gotten a ticket for distracted driving?”
“…no?”
“Well, IF you had ADHD, it would affect your entire life. So.”
Switched providers shortly afterwards.
“…no?”
“Well, IF you had ADHD, it would affect your entire life. So.”
Switched providers shortly afterwards.
Report
22points
#24
Speaking to a neurologist, and out my husbands declining health. Begging him to do another MRI. I told him, “my husband is dying” and he laughed and said, “Mrs. Wilson your husband is 30 years old! He’s not dying.” We got a second opinion and he was in fact….dying from a brain tumor. He was dead 7 months later. That man called me apologizing.
Report
20points
The Hippocratic Oath has been the moral backbone of medicine for over two thousand years. Dating back to ancient Greece, it established the foundational principle that a doctor's primary obligation is to the patient in front of them, not to their own assumptions, biases, or impatience. The phrase most people associate with it, "first, do no harm," does not actually appear in the original text, but the principle is embedded throughout.
What it asks of doctors is not perfection. It asks for care, for honesty, and for the basic commitment to treat a patient as a person whose suffering is real until proven otherwise. These posts all suggest that commitment is being broken, consistently, in consulting rooms across the world, every single day.
#25
Pharmacist here: I was told to “leave medicine to those who are trained for it.”
Confused me a bit because medicine is literally my entire training.
Confused me a bit because medicine is literally my entire training.
Report
19points
#26
When I said I thought my husband's red, tight, warm, and hugely swollen leg could be a blood clot/DVT, I was told I "watched too much House " and it was clearly a bug bite. Spoiler alert: it was a huge blood clot caused by an abdominal tumor pressing on the vein. That tumor was metastatic from lung cancer. He lived another ten months.
Report
19points
#27
A nurse yelled at me on the OR table during a c-section that if I didn’t stop shaking she was going to have to strap me down. Turns out that is how my body responds to anesthesia and a KIND nurse realized and starting laying warmed blankets on me. I immediately relaxed and asked that the other nurse be removed.
19points
#28
Went to see a GI after my mom died from colorectal cancer to beg for a colonoscopy. He dismissively told me “She had to d*e from something.” That is horrible even if she’d died years ago, but it was only months prior, which he KNEW.
17points
#29
While having my cervix checked during labor, I swore. The nurse scolded me and when I said it hurt, she replied that 'a lot of people here are in pain and dont swear'
My momma then proceeded to track her down in the hall and advocate on my behalf very sternly to this nurse.
My momma then proceeded to track her down in the hall and advocate on my behalf very sternly to this nurse.
17points
#30
I had a miscarriage at 18 weeks on superbowl Sunday. Went the ER. They called my OB and he came in the angry and hostile. I just lost my baby, I’m hemorrhaging and distraught. He looks at me and angrily and yells at me we can’t be meeting like this. Before he could continue my husband jumped up in my defense and said don’t you ever disrespect my wife again-we just lost our baby.
Report
17points
#31
A provider accused my daughter of faking seizures - I had to cause a total scene in the doctor’s office for a referral to pediatric neurology. She was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Report
14points
#32
I was pregnant and having abdominal pain, and come find out I having internal bleeding in a ectopic pregnancy. But at the time, I didn’t know that. A white male doctor kept me in the ER for eight hours, never gave me IV, and said I was med seeking. At midnight, a black doctor came on, gave me a ultrasound, and it was realized that I had had severe internal bleeding for over eight hours and needed to be rushed into emergency surgery.
Report
14points
#33
“You’re too young to have cancer, it’s probably just chron’s or maybe an intolerance but I guess we can have a look since you came this far.”
Thriends, it was an 8cm tumour and it was cancerous.
Thriends, it was an 8cm tumour and it was cancerous.
Report
13points
#35
I was extremely anxious my junior year of college, like couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, panic attacks every day. Especially surrounding driving. I told my mom who said she’ll schedule an appointment with her doctor while I was home on a break.
Show up to the appt, doc comes in, I explain what’s happening. She goes “… you’re afraid to drive a car? That’s pathetic. You need serious help, I can’t help you. What do you want, pills?”
I sat there and cried then passed out when they drew blood.
Show up to the appt, doc comes in, I explain what’s happening. She goes “… you’re afraid to drive a car? That’s pathetic. You need serious help, I can’t help you. What do you want, pills?”
I sat there and cried then passed out when they drew blood.
Report
13points
#36
I’ve had a OBGYN start my appointment off (regular check up) telling me the person before me had 5 abortions and she doesn’t understand why, her husbands rich. I asked the doctor “have you screened for DV?” She stood there shocked. I never saw her again.
Report
12points
#37
I had a miscarriage and the doctor told me “to toughen up because most women will experience a miscarriage in their life.” He then told me to go home and try again.
Report
12points
#38
My dad was in end stage Alzheimer's. The internist in the ER looked me straight in the eyes and told me Alzheimer's isn't fatal but chronic and manageable. They moved moved him without my permission to a SNF in the middle of the night and he was d**d by breakfast. I'll never f*****g forgive her or the hospital.
Report
11points
#39
Male OBGYN: “For your age, you’re unbelievably tight! Like a teenager. Your husband is a lucky man.”
Report
10points
#40
He, a doctor in his 30’s, decided to call me, a woman in my 50’s “girl”. Believe me, he regretted it.
Report
10points
