25 Times Doctors’ Negligence Almost Cost A Patient Their Life

“Medical gaslighting” is when a medical professional dismisses your valid health concerns even when you are dealing with a life-threatening issue.  The issue gained traction online when a post by a not-for-profit organisation called The Young Lung Cancer Initiative went viral on Facebook. The organisation, which aims to empower young adults in the fight against cancer, recently sparked hype around the topic by sharing a post asking patients to share the real issue they were diagnosed with after their initial concerns were dismissed as “anxiety” by their doctor.

Image credits: Young Lung Cancer Initiative

#1

Image source: Jillian Caitlin, DC Studio / freepik

Our pediatrician said my baby sister was making herself sick for attention… she had cancer.

#2

Image source: Lexy Yohey, user15145147 / freepik

Bleeding every other week for 8 months: “that just happens sometimes.” Eventually switched docs. One investigative ultrasound later and it turned out I have 2 uteruses. Tada.

#3

Image source: Lynsey Mooney, KamranAydinov / freepik

Multiple sclerosis. Told I had health anxiety and I replied ‘I’ve anxiety because no one is f*****g listening to me!’

#4

Image source: Justin Hart, EyeEm / freepik

Leukemia, I was “too young to be that sick ” so I must be dr shopping.

#5

Image source: Bee Joy, wavebreakmedia_micro / freepik

Almost died. I was in middle of having anaphylactic shock from a chemical in middle of iron infusion that I was allergic to. A nurse said it was just me having panic attack until I was throwing up all over and pooping and rash on body until they gave me allergy medicine. Scariest thing I ever went through. I was near death.

#6

Image source: Brandy Anne, photoroyalty / freepik

Hashimoto’s. It took me 4 doctors in large hospitals until I found this doctor in a rural town that took one look at me and was like, “you have a severe thyroid issue. Let’s get you some help”. He has been a god send. The man is brilliant and he went toe to toe with my insurance for me to be treated properly. I know when his Cuban Spanish starts flowing, he has had enough.

#7

Image source: Brie Morrison, zinkevych / freepik

Welp I just got told it’s a brain tumor yesterday 😅 turns out they were kinda right when they said it was “all in my head.”

#8

Image source: Sarah Peacock, jcomp / freepik

I was heading into heart failure by the time they listened to me and my PCP who helped sent the first rheumatologist (a male) an envelope of glitter with my diagnosis and lab reports because he had told her I was an overweight female with mental health issues.

#9

Image source: Cristina Balcan, ashvets / freepik

When I was 14, my doctor diagnosed me with “child who has a parent abroad” syndrome. I had kidney failure lol.

#10

Image source: Jennifer Jaske, freepik

The 4 times I was dismissed by doctors in one month in extreme pain they were all male. Wasn’t until I saw the first female doctor I finally taken seriously and it was stage 4 cancer!

#11

Image source: Megan Corwin, user25451090 / freepik

“Just a headache” and ” hahahahahah you can’t have a hole in your head, it’s a solid bone”…. come to find out, I had a 6 inch rotting draining tube in my skull (the bone had started to grow over it) that was left in there from when I was a baby and had surgery.

#12

Image source: Bridget VeVerka, kues1 / freepik

Told me I couldn’t catch my breath and was having chest pains because I was having an anxiety attack (never had an anxiety attack in my life). Had a heart attack in the ER.

#13

Image source: Rin Jones-Dawson, EyeEm / freepik

I gotta lose weight to fix…. extra spinal fluid on my brain. Im sure that’ll work.

#14

Image source: Carrie Gossage-Stearns, DC Studio / freepik

The wildest time they told me I had anxiety was when I went to the ER because I couldn’t breathe and my hands were going numb and it was moving up my arms and legs. They literally treated me like an idiot and like they felt sorry for me because I was so ignorant…. It was Aniphilaxis… I have Alpha Gal (allergy to mammal products and by products) it’s a miracle I’m still alive at this point. Also, the Dr tried to get me to lay down and go to sleep. He said “it will go away if you just go to sleep” I said, yeah cause I’ll be dead… I laugh now but it wasn’t so funny at the time.

#15

Image source: Sophie Rose, freepik

Graves disease. Oh yeah..and 7 weeks solid of heavy bleeding and pain to the point of passing out was also brushed off 4 times as just “normal perimenopausal changes” until they removed a massive pendiculated fibroid from my uterus.

And when I kept trying to get help for my (then) infant daughter they told me my daughter didn’t have any problems and it was just me being an “over anxious first time mother” and actually wrote in hospital records that they thought I was potentially suffering from “paranoid delusions subsequent to post natal depression” because I told them I was sure she had a genetic disorder.. and gee..turned out it wasn’t just anxiety or delusions.

..she has a rare genetic syndrome.. Kabuki syndrome.

Also was told I had reflux when. I had gallstones and inflamed pancreas..shall I go on? So many horror stories.

#16

Image source: JacobandLydia Jones, HectorEmilio / freepik

Pulmonary Hypertension & COPD at 23 (yay me!!) Turns out I wasn’t just fat & lazy.

#17

Image source: Laura Baker, garetsvisual / freepik

Aplastic Anaemia (complete bone marrow failure) told I was probably stressed and running too much and to take a month off. Chemo, radio, and one bone marrow transplant later and the ‘anxiety’ has gone.

#18

Image source: Angel Strine, user10669693 / freepik

A 400lbs+ provider in the ED on Christmas day told me my abdominal pain and vomiting was because “you need to lay off the greesy food” I was 130lbs at most! 3 days later I had a positive pregnancy test… I now have an amazing almost 9yo son. I was unaware greesy food caused pregnancy. Who knew.

#19

Image source: Courtney Amanda, freepik

Multiple Sclerosis-my original presentation was “just an anxiety attack.”

#20

Image source: Ingrid Elin Jakobsen, myoceanstudio / freepik

Not anxiety, but gas… My apendix burst the next day…

#21

Image source: Nikki Tinsley, fentonroma143 / freepik

My friend had anaphylactic shock episode and the paramedics tried to tell her it was a panic attack – she nearly died

#22

Image source: Ruth Mortimer, lifestock / freepik

You’re pregnant….after just telling him I’m a lesbian, turned out to be a tumour.

#23

Image source: Karah Stevenson, zinkevych / freepik

Ulcerative colitis. Turns out, anxiety doesn’t make you s**t blood.

#24

Image source: Christina Guddi Gudtmann, namii9 / freepik

The rarest form of Lung Fibrosis…
Doctors in the ICU scolded me, called me a lot of bad things and said it was anxiety, I was faking it and so on.

And last Monday morning paramedics didn’t believe that I fell unconscious and had bad convulsions on my kitchen floor even though I bit my tongue and everything… Went to the hospital later and it turned out I DID have convulsions AND I actually also broke my back, sprained my tailbone and pressed at least 8 ribs from the fall.

So yeah.

#25

Image source: Sara Schwartz, bokodi / freepik

My daughter: Dr said “POTS, Anxiety, Food allergies, In your head” Actually “Type 1 Diabetic”.