Patients share the most confusing things doctors have told them
There are plenty of horror stories about health problems, from doctors removing the wrong limb to doctors prescribing potentially deadly medications.
While medical errors harm 1.2 million Americans and claim 250,000 lives each year, millions more face poor medical advice and uncomfortable encounters with doctors.
Reddit user u/FragmentedTungsten requested the community for the ‘probably out-of-pocket amount your doctor told you to pay.’
And Redditors didn’t hold back.
Nearly 6,000 people responded, saying they had experienced exams filled with profanity, inappropriate sexual innuendos, crude and insulting questions, and doctors delivering bad news insensitively.
Redditors detail examples of doctors ignoring symptoms and misdiagnosing them (stock image)
A user said she went to see a new doctor when she was suffering from pneumonia. During her checkup, the doctor asked if she was using birth control. When she said no because she and her husband were planning to have a child, the doctor responded, “You should use birth control. No one has children on purpose.”
When the patient replied that she had already planned two previous pregnancies, the doctor replied, “Oh, you have two? So no time for intimacy. You can just read a book and let your husband have his way for 10 minutes.”
Another user was told by his doctor that he probably wouldn’t be able to operate until the patient’s appendix burst – a potentially fatal complication. The man asked, “If your appendix bursts, won’t you die?”
To which the doctor replied, “Oh, that’s a very good possibility.”
User u/straight_blanchin described how her boyfriend accompanied her to a doctor’s appointment to have her breasts reduced.
The doctor ignored the patient and asked the friend if he was ‘okay with me getting a breast reduction’. The doctor then refused her the surgery because she ‘might regret it’ since most people prefer large breasts.
Another Redditor described a time when she visited a gynecologist at age 13 and told the doctor she wasn’t sexually active.
The doctor’s answer was, “I don’t believe you.”
When the patient’s mother began to argue with the doctor, she replied, “Your daughter is a beautiful girl. I doubt you know what she is up to.”
The doctor told the girl and her mother that she had herpes, even though he had not performed any tests.
User u/SkrodLaDa posted: ‘Fingers deep inside me during a routine check, [doctor] says, “Yep! It’s a girl,” referring to me.
Another described a moment when the doctor left the room to “go YouTube” while he was putting a cast on the patient’s arm.
User u/cafeconpanna wrote: ‘When I was 14 I had a yeast infection. An old doctor told me to stop putting things like hairbrushes in it.’
However, there were also users who indicated that they appreciated their doctor’s direct and straightforward way of communicating.
User u/Old-Chapter-7431 said he appreciated the dentist responding with, “Well, I guess you screwed up, huh?”
The poster continued: ‘It made me laugh because he was right and I appreciate his directness.’
Another wrote that he had cursed while his doctor was examining him, to which the doctor asked, “Wait a minute, don’t I have to watch my language around you?”
When the patient said no, the doctor visibly relaxed and shouted loudly, “THANK YOU GOD,” and began to speak frankly about my health, but with so much swearing that it would make a sailor blush.
My favorite [doctor] I always made sure to see him annually until he left the practice.’
