Sunday, 26 March 2023

A medical mishap

I don´t believe it! - as Victor Meldrew would say. I have heart arrhythmia for which I take medication and every six months I do a Holter test when I have to wear a piece of equipment for 24 hours which measures palpitations etc.

Last August my cardiologist said my test results were so good that he was going to reduce my medication by half...fine...although over recent months I felt my palpitations had increased. I have recently had my next test and out of curiosity I checked the results which are online, although I don´t really understand them, and compared them to my previous test.

Imagine my feelings when I realized that I was looking at someone else's test results, which had been put in my file by mistake! My cardiologist obviously hadn´t noticed the error and altered my treatment according to the wrong results - which were of a 55 year-old man, a smoker, who weighs 30k more than I do. 

My doctor, when I saw him, was rather dismissive about the incident and I am now debating whether it is time for a change of cardiologist.

Photo by Etactics Inc, at Unsplash
 

4 comments:

  1. Your curiosity paid. Medical mistakes shouldn't happen, but they unfortunately, do.
    Feel well and happy!

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  2. You´re right Duta, medical mistakes do happen. As a former nurse I know that only too well!

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  3. Wow, if you hadn't noticed the records were for another person, this mistake could have continued for years. In the USA medical mistakes are a leading cause of death! I am glad you caught this quickly.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Terra, I didn´t believe my eyes at first!

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