The Weirdest Things Medical Professionals Have Casually Said To A Patient
Reddit user CR24752 asked: 'What’s the weirdest thing a medical professional has casually said to you?'
Though it may not occur to us, the longer we work in a field, the more we distance ourselves from the public perception of it.
Doctors are a great example of this, as they may forget what it's like to be a patient without deep medical knowledge when they're going through something troubling.
Because of this, sometimes doctors make out-of-touch comments that feel totally mundane to them, but the patient listening may find the comment to be incredibly inconsiderate or even alarming.
Curious about others' experiences, Redditor CR24752 asked:
"What's the weirdest thing a medical professional has casually said to you?"
Thanks for the Complex
"When I was like 20, my endocrinologist took a good look at me and asked, 'Are you okay with your face being so asymmetrical?'"
"I had never really noticed it before, but boy have I noticed it since!"
- Fragrant-Opinion2021
A Dental Prodigy
"When I was 12, I had a dentist say, 'Hold on, I think I might be counting wrong, you shouldn't have those yet... Okay, never mind, those are definitely your wisdom teeth. Your mouth is just huge, I guess.'"
"They then said I was the youngest they'd ever seen anyone get their wisdom teeth. So much so, they called in every dentist in the building to come to look at my mouth."
- kodlab115
Not That Funny
"Following a checkup... They said, 'We're going to have to remove your testicles... Just kidding, you should've seen your face.'"
- realpren
Highly Memorable
"After destroying my knee riding BMX at 17, the emergency surgeon said, 'Wow, really f**ked that up.'"
"10 years later and after another serious knee injury from riding, I saw the same surgeon (he did a great job on the first one)."
"The first words out of his mouth were, 'I remember you. F**ked up the other one, huh?'"
- brianbmx94
"I like this guy. He waited 10 years for that moment."
- forestNargacuga
"D**n, I don’t know how I’d feel knowing I f**ked up enough to be remembered by an emergency surgeon."
- Reins22
"Not great, lol (laughing out loud). I literally 'broke' my knee 90 degrees sideways. It had to be forced straight (by him), and then we immediately went into surgery to repair basically every ligament and piece of soft tissue in there. Lucky I didn’t get a fake knee at 17 from that one."
- brianbmx94
"Since I'm not sure which knee this was, I just griped both of mine in horror, just to be safe. Hope that's cool."
- boobookenny
Not in Favor of Being Tall
"Back pain, I’m not young. The doctor just said basically, 'Well, that’s just life for you. You’re tall.'"
"'So I’m just going to end up being a hunched over 90-year-old?'"
"'Lol (laughing out loud), you’re not going to see 90.'"
"'Um… pardon?'"
"'How many tall old people have you ever seen?'"
"'Oh… yeah… okay.'"
- The_Town_of_Canada
"Oof. Unfortunately, he has a point. For a while, I knew a guy who was over six foot, five inches, and worked as a genetic counselor."
"One time we were chatting and he just casually mentioned that he wasn’t expecting to get terribly old. He knew the statistics because of his job, and the odds are not good for people over six feet."
"On the other hand, that’s just averages, not an individual outcome. Plenty of short people die in car accidents in their twenties, and plenty of tall people live well into old age."
- Should_be_less
Textbook Anomaly Examples
"The doctor said, 'If you don’t mind, I’d like to show everyone pictures of your tonsils.'"
"According to her, I had the most disgusting tonsils she had ever seen in her years in the business, and gosh darn, she wanted to show them off."
- Old_Army90
"I had a similar experience at a dentist. I apparently had a very rare problem and even the oldest doctor only had seen this two times in his life. For the next few sessions, all other doctors were called in and he showed them it."
"I was fine with it, but it was an odd situation sitting on the dentist's chair while four doctors and a few nurses were around you and looked very interested in what would happen next."
"So I was the real-life example for a textbook lecture."
- memesforbismarck
Not Answering the Same Question
"A nurse of some kind took my blood pressure. He said what the numbers were."
"I asked, 'Is that good?'"
"He said, 'I’m not qualified to give you a professional opinion on the matter. You should ask your doctor.'"
"I asked, 'But like, unprofessionally, is that good?'"
"He said, 'Unprofessionally? Well, in my purely personal opinion that I am sharing with you as an individual and not in any medical or official capacity whatsoever, you should buy stronger deodorant.'"
"For clarity, I was definitely stinky, I was homeless at the time. I was well aware of this fact. If you’re worried you’re a little funky, don’t. You would almost assuredly notice if you smelled really bad."
- InABoxOfEmptyShells
Already an Awkward Enough Situation
"'You just hang on right there; we will get you a wheelchair and admitted to the hospital. We have to do a colonoscopy, but don’t worry, I will knock you out before sticking a camera up your a**.'"
- MacDugin
"My GI (Gastroenterologist) doctor was named (no lie) Dr. Stiff. After my last colonoscopy, he told me in the recovery room: 'Well, that’s the last time you’re getting Stiffed. I’m retiring at the end of the year.'"
- mum2girls
"I appreciate people who turn their names into verbs."
- Nike-6
Pregnancy Talk
"I told an OB-GYN during an exam that my husband and I had just started trying to get pregnant, and she said, 'Are you tracking your cycle or just f**king all time?'"
"Hearing that come out of a small elderly woman was freaking hilarious! She was close to retirement and had zero filter, and now I miss her!"
- WiscoCheeses
"My OB-GYN told me that I had a wonderful uterus, just after he commented how cute my socks were."
- sarcastic_whatever
Awkward...
"'My son is about your age and single, do you want his number?'"
"This was said by my Gynecologist..."
- My_dal
Oh No, Not Like That
"My previous OB-GYN came through my line at my old job. For some reason, I blanked on who he was. Like, I knew I knew him, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember how."
"He saw I was struggling and said, 'Don't remember me? I'll give you a hint: last time I saw you, you were in my office with your ankles in the air!'"
"He said this loudly, in front of a line of little old ladies fresh from church, wanting to buy flowers from the garden center."
"He was an amazing doctor and figured out what was wrong with me when no other doctor could, but in that moment, the embarrassment could have killed me lol (laughing out loud)."
- Marauder424
"Being a knowledgeable, and even brilliant, doctor and being completely socially inept often go hand in hand."
- OpalRose1993
The Silver Lining
"I had a doctor tell me that my metabolism is so slow that I would do very well in an apocalypse."
- Rosemary324
"My doctor told me this when he noticed my chronic low body temperature and asked me other questions about weight gain and pooping frequency."
"He said, 'Some people are just built to hibernate. You're just, like, hibernating all the time.'"
"This was in the same conversation where he diagnosed me with a sleep disorder too. I can't even hibernate properly."
- wheatgrass_feetgrass
Such a Cool Moment
"I was getting my blood drawn for a mono test back around 2006. The older lady nurse asked me what sort of music I liked."
"I figured she was making small talk to get my mind off the needles, so I rattled off a few bands I’d been listening to."
"One of them happens to be Postal Service. She said, 'Oh, I know that one!'"
"I replied, 'Yeah, it’s the same lead singer as Death Cab for Cutie.'"
"She said, 'I know. He’s my son.'"
- piconese
"'Such Great Heights' is one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time. How cool."
- subieluvr22
"Yeah, I still love Postal Service. She was very nice, and I said something along the lines of, 'You must be so proud!'"
"I just really hope I meet Ben Gibbard someday so I can tell him that his mom took my blood, lol (laughing out loud)."
- piconese
Only in Ireland
"I live in Ireland, the surgeon who replaced my hip is also a farmer."
"The day before I was due to be discharged, he came in on his rounds, and he said, 'I may or may not see you tomorrow, it depends on the dog.'"
"So I said, 'Okay, what’s up with the dog?'"
"He told me the dog broke his leg and was having it set tomorrow, but he wasn’t sure what time, so I said, 'Sure, bring in the old dog, and I’ll mind him' (this is rural Ireland bear in mind and I was in the convalescent area of the hospital by then)."
"Shortly after breakfast the next day, he arrived in with the dog, a lovely border collie with his leg in plaster. He stayed with me watching TV until he doctor was finished replacing another person's hip and was ready to discharge me and we could all go home."
"It could only happen in Ireland."
- Rosieapples
From funny to wildly awkward, most of these comments were at least funny enough that someone could share them at a gathering for a good laugh from the crowd.
A few were alarming, however, and definite reasons for people to want to switch doctors.
Doctors can both be the bearer of bad news by either confirming patients' suspicions about an ailment, or good news by assuring patients that their worst fears were just all in their heads.
In either scenario, one would hope medical professionals are empathetic when revealing a prognosis or providing insight into a patient's well-being.
But that isn't always the case.
Curious to hear about some of the negative experiences of those who've been in a vulnerable situation, Redditor slinkslowdown asked:
"What is the most hurtful thing a medical professional has ever said to you?"
The following comments hit below the belt.
Emasculated
"My female doctor, now retired, once told me I had great birthing hips. I’m a male."
– Prytoo
Drastic Measures
"I went to get a lump on my groin checked out, and had to remove my underpants. The doctor started a whole speech about 'size isn't everything,' which isn't what I went there for."
– stooble
These doctors could've given a professional assessment and left their personal opinion out of it.
But they didn't.
Salt In The Wound
"When I was in middle school until 10th grade, I would get violent nausea anytime I got hungry. It felt like my stomach was on fire, and I would miss a lot of school from feeling like sh*t (although I was a good student and wasn’t falling behind in any way). After a lot of fighting with my mother who accused me of exaggerating, she agrees to take me to a gastroenterologist to be checked out. Before agreeing to do an endoscopy, the gastro accused me of exaggerating because I was a teen girl and that’s just apparently what young women do, he suggested I was just making up these symptoms for attention, and then asked me point blank if I was lying about my pain level to skip school and suggested I had a mental health issue I was trying to cover for. I had GERD and severe acid reflux, as confirmed by the endoscopy he reluctantly agreed to perform on me. Instead of letting it go, the gastro made a point of angrily telling me that I had 'the stomach of an 80-year-old man' and must have been intentionally eating in a way to f'k up my stomach."
"I have a family history of stomach problems and GERD. I don’t understand why it was so implausible that my brother could have acid reflux at a young age, but I must be a hysterical liar when I claim to have the same symptoms in my teens."
– LIFOMakesJesusCry
Blaming The Parent
"When I was about 4 I got diagnosed with child asthma, doctor told my mum it was her fault because she decided to have a child despite having asthma herself..."
– anon
Weight Just A Minute
"He said I should be happy carrying around a bit of weight.. Because in drought the fattest cows die last.... Seriously wtf."
– jezabelsoni
Dismissive Doc
"'It's all between your ears' after missing at least one, but probably two crippling vitamin deficiencies by not ordering the right test. It took me two and a half years of thinking I was lazy and pathetic before I went to another doctor and got diagnosed."
– Zoefschildpad
And Another Thing...
"I went to get an earache checked and the first thing the doctor said was 'Yeah so I’m gonna put you on some medicine for the ear but we’ve gotta do something about your face, your acne is absolutely terrible.”'
Thanks doc."
– CasenW
Some doctors are completely lacking in their humanity.
Heartless Diagnosis
"In the ER, about six months pregnant, with heavy spotting and no noticeable fetal movement. Idiot doctor is unable to find the baby’s heartbeat. Just looks up at me and says, 'Yep, probably dead in there.' He couldn’t possibly have said it in a more casual, offhand manner."
"Note: I delivered my son three months later, perfectly healthy."
– IdleOsprey
Lonely, Not Lonely
"He asked me if I felt lonely."
"I said I don’t think of myself as lonely."
"He wrote down Lonely and underlined it."
– CurryMuncher_
Extreme Pivot
"First hospital visit: 'there's nothing wrong with your foot, now get your shoe back on and get back to work you f'king malingerer" after a solely visual inspection."
"2 days of getting smoked all day long."
"Second Hospital visit: 'Why are you walking on that foot, it's obviously broken! Someone get that soldier some crutches!'"
– snowlovesnow
Grave Mistake
"Was having digestive issues I eventually learned were a result of my undiagnosed cancer."
"Doctor suggested I should wipe better."
– chessshark
I'd like to think that those in the medical profession have dedicated years of their academic, premed lives by hitting the books on weekends and sacrificing going out with friends.
With the eventual transitioning into internships and them practically living in hospitals, it's no wonder some doctors lack social graces–which is fine, unless they are completely lacking in empathy.
After all, it takes people to heal people.
Thankfully, the majority of physicians I've visited have all been either straightforward or had affable personalities that helped take the edge off of my doctors visits.
When you work in healthcare, you witness the best and the worst life has to offer.
One of the worst parts of the job has to be delivering horrible news.
I always wondered if doctors think about holding back on bad news delivery in hopes of a better result in the end.
You have to tell the truth, but there are shades of truth.
Or maybe you deliver in stages as long as it's medically safe and ethical.
Does anyone agree?
Redditor common_currency asked the medical community:
"When did you have to tell a patient 'I've seen it all before' to comfort them, but really you had never seen something so bad, or of that nature?"
Just for any future docs reading, I like my bad news in stages.
The Rebuild
"I had to have my leg rebuilt after a car accident and was eventually sent to Duke university for my surgery. My surgeon was supposed to be like the best orthopedic surgeon in the country, I think he used to work for the Baltimore ravens. Anyway all the doctors from my hospital at home were very unsure if I would even have a functioning leg let alone walk normal again."
"The first appointment at Duke that dude told me it was really not a big deal and he would have me fixed almost good as new. I honestly thought he was just trying to be nice and optimistic but he was very serious. 5 months later I was walking and learning how to run again. He said I was one of the most complicated surgeries he has had to do and a group of surgeons flew in to observe him do it."
burtrenolds
Get your teeth cleaned...
"In dental school, I had an emergency patient come in, complaining of sore gums. Upon examination, I found a massive calculus bridge (google it for pictures) behind her lower front teeth. She only had about 3 remaining lower teeth, but they were all connected with a whitish brown mineral deposit that was about the size of a golf ball. She had never had her teeth cleaned and she was probably 55 or so."
"I basically performed an emergency cleaning. She could speak so much better afterwords. Of course I had to play it off like it was normal, but in my years of practice I still haven’t seen a case that bad again. Get your teeth cleaned people. Even if you can’t afford every 6 months, once a year, or every other year is a hell of a lot better than never."
Odors
"I'm a nurse and I work in a pediatric ER. A young woman brought her baby in to be seen for vomiting. I ask her to put the baby on the scale. While on the scale I notice a strong odor of bug spray so I asked about it.
"Mom: 'A roach crawled into her mouth so I sprayed a little Raid in there.' She said it matter of factually like it was no big deal."
"Que up calls to the police, CPS and a 1:1 sitter for the child and the mom. When all was said and done the baby was fine and turned over to her grandmother so no worries there. I have no idea what happened to the mother. I don't believe she was intending to hurt the child. I think she was just butt-a** ignorant."
TomTheNurse
15F
"I worked as a mental health tech to get through undergrad."
"15F in the adolescent ward claims to have swallowed a staple. Eh, but whatever, as I’m taking her down to x-ray I tell her about the dime I swallowed when I was a kid. It happens."
"Well, turns out she underestimated the number of staples by around a hundred. Every printout given by the therapists had been a swallowed staple."
"She had gotten staples from the other kids. The x-ray of her abdomen looked as if it were a weird staple-y snow globe."
"And yet, somehow, she was back to trying to steal psych ward staples a week later. Never did figure out how they removed them all."
UnfairCanary
Oh Auntie...
"My aunt started her nursing career in a county hospital, which means you get all the homeless folks. A guy came in with the whole of the back of his leg and butt utterly and very deeply infested with maggots. He just 'hadn't gotten around to' coming in earlier, he said."
"The depressing thing is that while it was a first for my aunt, it was by no means the last. Apparently it's more common than you'd think."
rowrza
I've fainted three times already.
Like the Exorcist
"A little late to the party—"
"Not the worst, but I had a patient once with a stomach bleed and a small bowel obstruction. We had to put in an NG tube (tube that goes in your nose and down to your stomach) to drain/decompress his stomach, which was pretty distended and hard."
"I’m inserting the tube and has soon as it hits this guy’s gag reflex he projectile vomits and SPRAYS very dark, half digested blood all over himself, the bed, the wall, and the floor. It’s basically a scene from the exorcist. I had to dive out of the way and somehow was unscathed. He couldn’t stop for almost ten minutes as we’re trying to get this thing down to where it needs to go."
"Finally finish placement and it immediately suctions out ~3 liters of this black sludge that is old, digested blood. Pt was mortified and we had to play it off like 'oh no no it’s fine, it’s really common to vomit during the procedure. We’ll just go get some towels and clean you up!' My coworker and I left the room and just stared at each other in silent shock."
oh_haay
the left side is gone...
"Not medical professionals, but we were the patients. My daughter, who was 3 at the time, had to have a cavity filled. As we were leaving, the dentist told me just to watch my daughter because sometimes kids chew their gums because it's numb and feels weird."
"So the drive home took 30 minutes and I had been talking to my daughter the entire time to keep her busy. I park my car in my drive way, opened the passenger seat to get my daughter out, and her entire lower lip on the left side is gone. She had chewed it off down to her chin."
"She ended up in emergency surgery, but the surgeon kept telling us it would be fine and he sees this stuff all the time. She ended up having multiple surgeries, and when she was finally healed, the surgeon told us that it was the worst injury like that he had ever seen. He wasn't sure how she would heal, but you can hardly tell it happened now."
imcloudnine
A gentle push...
"Not a medical professional, but a story about my father."
"After years of a blood disease, his spleen had to be removed as it had swollen to a size that made breathing difficult. Apparently the surgeon had a photo taken, post extraction, where he is cradling my dad's ~22.0 lb spleen."
"To top it off, one day into recovery, when doing on of those 'gentle push on the abdomen' type exams on him, my dad's sutures catastrophically failed and he let loose a spray that coated the doctor, his nurse, and a good portion of the ceiling. Luckily for dad, the hospital staff was on point that day and kept him alive despite his body's best effort."
"I heard all of this from the doctor while he was removing the line of staples (that went from crotch to sternum) some weeks later."
"Dad didn't like to share, apparently."
CallousJack
Exposed
Elaine Benes Fainting GIF by HULUGiphy"A patient with rectal cancer with an exposed colon and rectum. I could see her tailbone and and the head of the femur. And whenever she would poop, it could collect inside this open cavity and had to be flushed out."
Festigoer
Too Late
"I’m a pediatric nurse, and triaged a young girl with a rash, mom had been to several doctors and they didn’t know what it was. I recognized it right away called Stevens-Johnson syndrome, I remained calm, patient was flown to a burn center, but died. I had only seen it once before and it was fatal for that patient too."
AdmiralMeeko
I don't know medical personnel do it. Bless...
Medical Professionals Describe What It's Like When They Go In For A Doctor's Appointment
A doctor is never a person you really want to see.
Attending doctor's appointments can be an anxiety-inducing experience for many of us.
Even if it's just a run-of-the-mill check-up, no one really wants to be there.
So why should people in the medical field feel any different than the rest of us?
After all, doctors make the worst patients.
Redditor Still-Tangerine2782 wanted to hear from all the healthcare workers out there.
"Doctors of reddit, what’s it like when you go in for a doctors appointment? Do you and your doctor discuss what’s wrong with you like it’s a group project? Do you not go at all because you’re your own doctor?"
Sounds like it's time for the medics to take their own medicine.
The Community
Doctor GIFGiphy"My mom's a GP and she usually just self diagnoses most of the time but will sometimes get a second opinion. She doesn't really go to another doctor, just calls them to ask about stuff. Her contacts are filled with all kinds of doctors. It's like a secret underground community. For stuff like getting ultrasounds etc, then yes they do discuss stuff like it's a group project."
JustChard
The Internal Monologue...
"I was at a lecture a couple of years ago, performed by two doctors who’d undergone treatment for breast cancer and written a book about it together. I remember her talking about her diagnosis. She was a breast cancer surgeon herself, you couldn’t make it up."
"She walked into the room, saw her own scans with the doctor and her heart dropped, she barely heard a word he said because she couldn’t stop the flood of information she was getting. Looking at the scan she knew if she’d need surgery, chemo, radiotherapy, how long it would be, what her estimated survival was."
"I don’t think they discussed it like a group project, but I suppose she couldn’t stop herself from listening to her own internal monologue since it was her own field. I remember her saying she’d found it, in hindsight, an incredible learning opportunity regarding how to interact with patients, and that she thought about it a lot."
Pain_Free_Politics
Specialties...
"It depends on what I'm going in for. As a background, I'm an oncologist so I've trained in internal medicine before. For most internal medicine type stuff, I don't bother going in unless I need something that I can't easily get for myself (e.g. labs or images). For specialty stuff I wasn't trained in, I go in and try to give them the best history I can, but let them do their own thing."
alkahdia
30 seconds flat...
"I don't get involved in the management. I let the Doctor seeing me lead that, unless they missed something huge and i would just double check. The main difference is i can present the whole history and relevant info in about 30 seconds flat and the doctor with that info can just give me the management plan in about the same time. Fastest consultations ever. Very methodical."
triple_threattt
I Stay Away
"Doctor here. In general, we are not good about going to the doctor."
"For me it’s physicals about half as often as recommended and that time I had strep a year and a half ago that didn’t resolve with 'whatever antibiotics I had in my medicine cabinet.' When we do go in, it is like a group project. We usually hash things out together but ultimately I am going to defer to someone with more expertise than me in that area who can make an objective decision."
nellyann
In general, none of us are good about the doctor. So I feel ya.
New Bits
Chicago Med Episode 6 GIF by NBCGiphy"I was sat in in a consultation between two doctors with one needing an ultrasound. They knew each other through work already so it was very friendly and casual between the both of them. The patient doctor trying to figure out what was going on on the ultrasound screen and the doctor doctor was teaching him the bits he didn't know."
kr4kenz
Language
"Doctor here (neurologist)." I'm not good at going to the doctor. I don't go often but when I do I usually just STFU, especially if it's a field of medicine I have no idea about (like say... derm). That being said, the doctor usually knows I'm a physician as well, and so the language terms to be more technical. I also find that we practice less defensively with each other since we can be more open ('We could do ABC tests but honestly what you probably have is X so take this and if it doesn't get better then we can do ABC')."
Telamir
Participation
"I hope you get some doctors in here to give personal answers. Paul Kalanithi did address this a bit in his book When Breath Becomes Air. At first in his cancer treatment he was very involved in the decision making and the way he described the conversation with his oncologist was more like a collaboration."
"Later, she reminded him that he didn't have to participate in the decision making and that he could just let her be the doctor and focus on himself. He ended up taking her up on this offer. So even between the same patient and doctor, the relationship varied."
aaoch1
generic conditions...
"Dr here - it is a bit dependent on the field of medicine involved. For example I don't know much about neurological issues so if I went to see a neurologist I certainly wouldn't be chipping in. For more generic conditions I have previously offered my thoughts to my doctor about what it could be. Ultimately I still go to the doctor as they can prescribe drugs/order tests for me that would be difficult/questionable for me to do myself."
drbigmac69
Strangers
Sunglasses Hiding GIF by Soul TrainGiphy"I always go to someone who don’t know me, and I wouldn’t say that I’m a doctor as well. On the other hand, my SO is a doctor too, and whenever we feel something we do discuss it like a group project in which he always refuse any treatment until his symptoms got to the very worst."
eatfart420
It can be quite the enlightening experience when the tables are flipping.
Any other medical professionals what to chime in? Let us know in the comments.
Medical Professionals Share Their Craziest 'They Shouldn't Have Survived' Experiences
Doctors and nurses have witnessed many medical marvels, which is unsurprising given the fact that there are plenty of cases enough to inspire various medical dramas.
But while there are too many tragic incidents of patients not making it, there are just as many accounts of those who narrowly escaped death and lived to talk about them.
Those in the medical field shared some of their wildest anecdotes of patients cheating death when Redditor HighlightTime asked:
"Doctors and Nurses of reddit, what’s your he shouldn’t have survived' story?"
Result of violence led these lucky patients to the hospital.
The Patient's Hostile Abdomen
"Doing my internship in a local hospital. There are multiple stories about unlikely survival/outcomes, about people who - in my opinion - are immortal beings that like to spite god. Several cases have burned themselves into my brain, but there's one that takes the cake."
"A 31 y/o man was shot, then dropped at the local ER by the same guys who shot him. In total, he had 10 gunshot wounds across his thorax, abdomen, pelvis and legs. The bullets went through almost every single organ, and also broke a femur and a tibia. Needless to say, he was in hypovolemic shock and needed emergency surgery and blood transfusions."
"Look, I cannot tell you how much care has gone into his case. He spent 3 months in the ICU - and he's now at the Surgery floor of the hospital. So far, he's had 25+ surgical interventions (and counting) from three different teams and over 50 bags of blood."
"At one point, one of the teams realized they couldn't completely close his abdomen after one particular surgery, and decided to leave his abdomen open; and several surgeries later, he developed what we call 'hostile abdomen' (the abdominal wall is scarred and everything inside is topped up with fibrous adherences/tissue, to the point that going in for yet another surgery is a hellish experience)."
"He's also had multiple infections, both nosocomial and from his own digestive tract (one bullet entered through the abdomen, pierced his rectum and exited through one of his buttcheeks, and during the healing process, the wound became a fistula that continuously dripped pus and mucus riddled with bacteria in and out of the abdominal cavity), to the point he fell into septic shock twice. Regular antibiotics weren't doing their job no more, so Infectology had to be called in regularly as he needed - and still needs - one hell of an antibiotic cocktail."
"Although he's still not completely out of the woods, at least the surgeons were able to successfully close his abdomen, his infection is currently under control, and his legs are finally healing properly. If you ask me, he'll probably live (if the local gangs don't invade the hospital and kill him before he's discharged, because it almost happened with him a month into his stay)."
– NY38
Doctors discussed medical cases that truly shocked them.
Dangerously Low Hemoglobin Value
"We had a guy come in to ER because he was feeling 'kind of dizzy and out of breath.' They ordered a standard array of labs, and when we (the lab) drew his blood, we noticed that his blood seemed really thin and watery. That was because he had A F'KING 2.7 HEMOGLOBIN. For those of you who know hemoglobin values, I swear on my mother I am telling the truth that this man was both walking and conscious when he came in."
"He even argued about being admitted overnight. We couldn’t even get his sample to run at first. We had to f'k with the sensors for it to register. For those of you who don’t know hemoglobin values, it’s basically measuring 'how much blood is in your blood,' and therefore how much oxygen is capable of being carried throughout your body. Normal hemoglobin is roughly 12-16 or so, depending on age and gender. Below 10 is where they start considering the possibility of transfusion, and below 8 is considered 'critical.' A 2.7 should be dead."
"Since a lot of people have asked, the ultimate cause was severe alcoholism. His liver and pancreas were starting to shut down, so long-term alcoholic anemia coupled with poor diet lead to his hgb dropping slowly enough that his body was able to adjust. He survived and was transferred to another facility after transfusing a few units, but probably won’t live another ten years because of the damage already done." -Reddit
"Spam Changes Lives"
"Finally my time to shine. Hematologist here (i deal with leukemias/lymphomas, unexplained anemia, that kind of stuff)."
"My favourite story to tell is of a patient - gonna call him Mr. X."
"Well Mr. X is a 38 year old patient who presented with swollen abdomen, extreme fatigue, peripheral edema and multiple enlarged lymph nodes. To paint a mental image, imagine a huge purple potato with toothpicks for limbs and inflated gloves for hands - wasn't looking human at all. After a lymph node biopsy the diagnosis came: Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL). Now, HL is one of the few curable diseases if treated correctly: 6 to 8 rounds of chemotherapy, however the subtype was rather aggressive and with poor prognosis so his chances were grim to say the least.""One course of chemo is about a month, but seeing his status not improving after 2 weeks (half a round of chemo) he wanted to be discharged to 'die in his bed in his home,' so he calls his friend to pick him up and off they go.""One month later, a healthy looking man (fit, groomed) approaches me and tells me he'd like to continue the chemotherapy because he's feeling great. I had no idea who I was talking to until he introduced himself as Mr. X. My jaw dropped to the floor and I sort of rushed to schedule his next rounds of chemo. I asked him what changed his mind about staying and he tells me that on the way home, after about an hour on the road he's got a weird appetite so he asked his friend to pick up about a dozen cans of spam (the european equivalent at least) and he just devoured them on the way home."
"Seeing that, his friend told him when they got home: 'well, X, if you can cram that sh*t in your stomach I'm pretty sure you can take at least two more rounds of chemo'. So there he was - the living proof that spam changes lives. So at the end of chemo (8 rounds), he had what we call a 'Complete response (CR)' - a CR that lasts to this day (5 years later), pretty much equivalent to 'cured' in his case. No idea why I feel proud about his accomplishment but it's one of my favourite story to tell."
– Qvd1
A Near-Fatal Combo
"EMT-B working for a county 911 system. I was a crew of two, both of us were EMT-Bs. We received a call for a 40-something male having difficulty breathing and some chest pain. Once we arrived on scene and walked into the door to his kitchen, he was sitting in a tripod position at the kitchen table about 15 feet from us. He was audibly wheezing and said it was really hard for him to breathe. Assisted him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance."
"Gave the patient O2 and placed him on a 12-lead, BP cuff, and Pulse Ox; transmitted it to the nearby hospital and radioed dispatch to try and have an paramedic unit meet us en route. Wasn't able to, so we made it to the hospital in about 5 to 10 minutes. When we transferred him from our stretcher to the hospital bed, he went into cardiac arrest. After the first round of CPR and cardiac drugs, they were able to sustain a pulse. After a few hours of running other calls, we were at the same hospital and the doctor said that that patient had a Pulmonary Embolism, Widowmaker STEMI, and Stroke, on top of him coding. As far as I know, he survived."
– Destructoid_MK_II
Accidents happen. Fortunately for them, these patients were the lucky ones.
"The Boy Who Lived"
"Young man (early 20s), electrician, working on the roof of a three level new home build. His boss didn’t supply harnessing & he fell onto a concrete pad below. Broke every bone in his face, both wrists & one forearm. I didn’t meet him until three days later on the orthopaedic ward where the nurses were calling him 'the boy who lived' (one of the HP movies had not long come out). Honestly, he should not have survived but he did by some miracle. His young wife was equal parts terrified & furious."
– OldTiredAnnoyed
Not every patient having a brush with death has been fortunate enough to overcome the odds and live on to share their stories of survival.
But the ones who did are very lucky to have crossed paths with the medical heroes who were able to save them with a little bit of help from fate.