30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice
Interview With Expert
For the most part, being friends with a professional like a doctor or lawyer is pretty beneficial. You get access to a trained and educated brain to help you with whatever questions you might have. But there are some folks out there who think that, ultimately, they know best.
Someone asked “Medical professionals, what was a time where a patient ignored you and almost died because of it?” and people shared their most harrowing stories. We also got in touch with Dr. Joe, M.D to learn more. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and if you have a similar tale, write it in the comments section below.
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Had a repeat patient (not quite frequent flyer status) as a medic that would always call for a severe allergic reaction to shellfish every other month or so. She had always had the allergy and knew her reactions were getting worse. After a year (6 or 7 calls) of this silliness, my crew and I stayed in the hospital ER with her and talked at length about the situation since she'd always stay mum about how it kept happening.
She told us she comes from a patriarchal culture and her father made this amazing seafood soup. If she didn't eat it and "force her body not to reject his gift to the family" she would lose her car, phone, or whatever punishment her father deemed necessary. We pleaded with her to do whatever it took to show him it was deadly and carry her Epi-Pens with her.
Fast forward a few years when I altered course into nursing and joined that ER. Saw a familiar bloated face. Turns out she had gone off to college in another state and hadn't been home for awhile, but had visited her folks for a holiday. Of course she had the soup and despite hitting herself with the Epi-Pen when her throat started tightening, the reaction continued. Her mom, who I had never seen before, told me she tried to eat it fast and rushed to the bathroom where she was found on the floor.
Medics couldn't tube her in the field so tried medical management until they could drive her to our ER. Doc performed a tracheotomy at the bedside and she went to the ICU. Took a week for her to recover and I was told by the ICU nurses that her father "finally got it" that her allergy was a real medical condition.
Not necessarily the patient, but the caretakers at the facility where the patient was living. I used to visit different board and lodge facilities for adults with mental illnesses and meet with clients to discuss their mental health, help them set up job interviews, therapy sessions, and help them set up their medications for the week if they were unable to do it themselves. Most of these facilities were places for people who had left the hospital and were deemed independent and stable enough to have the freedom to come and go as they pleased in a shared living situation, much like a dorm. Despite having a place to stay and food provided, they were usually pretty poorly supervised by the mental health staff workers there. I often hated these places because, while they were ideal for some people who were truly getting back on their feet and thrived off being able to live a semi normal independent life, they were way too lax for many of the sicker more isolating patients who were not at all well and slipping under the radar. Some of this included them not taking their medication as directed, which was one of the requirements for keeping their housing, but unfortunately it was not strictly enforced.
There was one man who had paranoid schizophrenia who was extremely quiet and kept to himself. I had met with him a few times and he seemed to be going downhill in his appearance and general mood. I spoke with his doctor and urged the facility staff to closely monitor him and his medication intake, as I saw in his logs that he often skipped coming in to get his medication at all. I was told that they were going to be sitting down with him to remind him of his living agreement and that he had 30 days before losing his housing if he wasn’t med compliant. I was also told that his psychiatrist was aware and they may be sending him back to the hospital that week.
Apparently this never happened and he went out into the community and acquired a knife and used it to slice up his roommate while his roommate slept. He carved him from mouth to ear and stabbed him in the stomach several times. The man survived the attack but the man who had gone off his medication claimed he was being poisoned by his roommate through the window AC unit. For anyone with a violent incident like that on their medical report, it is incredibly unlikely he will ever be able to find a better rehabilitation house ever again that will accept him. The system basically screwed over two people that day, as the man who was hurt was already there for PTSD, and as you can imagine, it not only scarred him physically for life but exacerbated his illness with more trauma.
This should have been near or at the top of this post. Awful!!! Those with this diagnosis need serious help and need to be closely monitored! They act on what is being told to them in their head. When those who have this condition take their medication, they can live a normal life, but you can't take your eye off the ball! Constant monitoring is vital!!!
When I was in medical school had a gentleman in his late 60’s come in for chest pain, found to have a large heart attack (very impressive STEMI in LAD by ekg). Refused emergent cardiac catheterization (go through the arteries and put a stent to open up the vessel of the heart) so he could bring his car home and planned on taking an ambulance back to the hospital. He was in the parking ramp and it cost $20/day to park.
Came back by ambulance in full arrest (no pulse) and died. Doc had to call his son and explain what happened, he was like “yah that sounds like dad, he’s always been cheap”.
Bored Panda got in touch with board certified emergency physician Joe Whittington, MD and he was kind enough to share some thoughts on this question. Firstly, we were curious to hear his thoughts on why some folks insist on ignoring medical professionals.
“There are several reasons why some people feel they know better than a doctor. The rise of the internet and easy access to medical information can lead people to believe they have enough knowledge to make informed decisions without professional input. This phenomenon, sometimes called "Dr. Google," can give a false sense of understanding.”
We had a college student come into the ER and had a wonderful case of appendicitis. He needed to get surgery ASAP as surgery is way easier and safer if done before it ruptures. He called his parents to let them know and they told him to refuse because he had a test upcoming in the week and they didn't want him to miss it. He left the ER Against Medical Advice while we were all telling him that if your appendicitis gets worse and ruptures it can definitely lead to death. The kid luckily comes back about 10 hours later after it ruptured, he gets the emergency surgery and the amount of time he got to spend in the hospital probably doubled.
Not a professional but a patient who got scared by their doctor. I had my 2nd c-section, my surgeon had to leave before I could be discharged so the other surgeon have me my discharge orders. He'd just come back from having to re-sew a woman's abdomine back together because she decided to stand up and pick up her 5 year old the day she left the hospital. Well he let me know under no uncertain terms that I had better not pick up anything over 8lbs or stand up while holding anything or we'd have words. Man he was scary but he'd also had to push this women's guts back in and see her terrified child covered in his mom's blood. So anyway I did not pick up anything heavier then my child for two weeks until they said I could. He also told me husband all about not having sex and he shouldn't even talk to me about it for 3 months.
It's probably better for doctors to be extremely blunt in cases like this. It might seem rude but it gets the point across.
I am a nurse and I had a very polite and lovely patient trying to remove all manner of chest tubes and IVs after a motorcycle accident. He was obviously delirious from the pain meds and the head injury but very nice still. I left him in the care of my coworker for my lunch, ten mins into my lunch break I see him stagger past the break room door like something out of the Walking Dead, trailing blood everywhere, only to collapse out cold a couple of seconds later. Said he needed the bathroom!! Idk how the f**k he pulled his own chest tubes out. Removing them always makes me cringe let alone doing it to himself!!! He was put back to bed, this time in the ICU, and got some more sedation and even tho him ripping it all out set him back a couple of weeks he still discharged and came to say hi and thanks on the way out. The happiest delirious patient I ever had. What a bloody trooper. Haha.
I would never (knowingly) pull out chest tubes or IV tubes, but after my hysterectomy, I pulled out the breathing tube the second I regained consciousness. I have a horrendous choke reflex, and there was no way I could tolerate it awake.
“Additionally, personal experiences, anecdotes from friends or family, and a general mistrust of the medical profession can contribute to this mindset. Some individuals might also have had negative experiences with healthcare providers in the past, leading to skepticism about medical advice.”
Animal hospital professional, at least once a week we have to re suture up a spay because the owners don’t want to keep the cone on their dog/cat and let them tear up their surgical site. Their organs are right there!!! Keep the damn cone on!!! I don’t care how “sad” Luna is with it on. Then they yell at me because it costs money to sedate and re suture an animal.
We got a body suit for our dog when she was spayed. That worked well. I can't imagine she'd have kept a cone on very long.
We had a mom in the NICU who would constantly kiss her premature baby on the mouth. Several nurses educated her around why that’s not safe for the baby, and thankfully documented their teachings. This was during cold and flu season, and became even more concerning when the mother was coming in with cold-like symptoms (coughing, sneezing and obvious congestion). She still continued to kiss the baby right on the mouth. The baby was almost ready to go home by this time, but got extremely sick. The baby ended up on a ventilator and had quite the extended stay with many, many close calls.
Didn't die, but did lose an eye as a result. Young kid (20) with bad diabetic retinopathy from uncontrolled DM type 1, had eye surgery to remove blood and scar tissue from inside the eye. We told him to take it easy for a few weeks. He went to six flags. Rollercoasters are bad. Retina completely detached, eye got soft and painful, had to be removed.
Naturally, we wanted to hear if he had any similar experiences. “Absolutely. In my years of practice, I've seen many instances where patients disregarded medical advice with serious consequences. One example involved a patient with diabetes who chose to follow an alternative diet he found online instead of the recommended medical regimen. Despite repeated warnings, he ignored his prescribed insulin doses, leading to severe hyperglycemia and subsequent hospitalization with complications like diabetic ketoacidosis. Another case involved a young woman who ignored advice about the importance of regular Pap smears and later presented with advanced cervical cancer, which could have been caught earlier with routine screening.”
Overheard in the ER I volunteer at:
*heated argument*
Dr: Sir, I'm telling you do not touch the knife. You could risk cutting an artery.
*patient shouts and apparently pulls out the knife.*
Dr: Damn it! Angie, get more gauze!
*Some incoherent shouting. I saw security walk by too. Patient shouts.*
Dr: Why did you put it back in?!
That's right. He removed the knife, bled, and in the shouting match, re-stabbed himself with the knife in the same spot it came out of.
My granda is the patient.
"Come straight back if you have any chest pain."
He didn't go back and this is what followed:
Blood clot travelled to his brain.
Three strokes.
Bleeding on the brain.
Two more minor strokes.
Paralysed left arm and right foot.
Broca's Aphasia.
He went from being a man nearing his 80's who was Old Skool. He worked as a school crossing guard, grew all of his own vegetables, fed the birds, built tables, biked six miles on the weekends, walked everywhere, and was still able to play darts despite his eyesight being that of a visually impaired gnat because he knew the board so well.
He went from that to living in a care home and unable to talk. Has he lost his stubborness? Nope. He won't do his rehabilitation and so even though he could get his speech back to a decent degree, he doesn't want to do the therapy and using communication cards humiliates him, so we're left trying to decipher random eyebrow movements so we can guess what he's trying to say.
One of these days, I swear on my own bloody eyelashes, that I'm going to shake him until his teeth rattle. Him and his brothers. They're all the bloody same. My uncle, granda's younger brother, didn't go to hospital at all and was found on his bedroom floor, whimpering.
He had flipping sepsis.
I've noted with a number of older friends and relatives, that stubbornness can get you very far in life, but after a certain age, that same stubbornness can kill you.
Had a throat cancer patient, we offered him surgery to remove the tumor (it was a fairly conservative surgery) he left because he didn't want a mutilating surgery and his daughter in law had been studying magnet therapy and "she was quite good with it" (his words) he came back a year later, and was out of reach from any treatment, his cancer was so advanced that there was nothing we could do for him.
We also wanted to know what most people get wrong about being a doctor. “Several misconceptions about the medical profession are prevalent. One common belief is that doctors are infallible and should have all the answers, which is unrealistic given the complexity and evolving nature of medicine. Another misconception is that doctors are solely motivated by profit, which undermines the dedication and care most healthcare professionals have for their patients. Additionally, there is a belief that medical interventions are always necessary, leading some to seek unnecessary treatments or tests. Lastly, some people think that medical advice can be one-size-fits-all, not recognizing that individual patient circumstances often require tailored approaches.”
I was assistant manager of a group home. We had a resident who had epilepsy and was also very reclusive. He would get agitated if we came in his room or even knocked on the door. However, policy said he had to be checked on every 30 minutes because of his seizure risk. That wasn't being done so I brought this up to the manager.
She said she was aware but it was okay to bend the rules because he would get really upset when we checked in on him. I really wasn't comfortable with her answer but I was young and assumed she knew better than me. When I was on duty I checked on him every 30 minutes and he would yell at me, but I didn't let it bother me.
About six months later, after I had been reassigned to another group home, he had a seizure alone in his room and was found dead. A day later.
Now I'm older and a little smarter. When I find a problem like this I stick with it a don't let people talk me out of it. Not again. Rest in peace, D. Gone but not forgotten.
Obligatory not a doctor but: I had a bite but I didn’t see what bit me. Thought it was a hornet sting, but it kept spreading and it itched and hurt and was really hot to the touch. I was in college and on my mom’s insurance and I called her to say I thought I needed to go to a doctor. She told me “suck it up, it’s a bee sting”. I finally went anyway aaaaaaaand it was infected, it was spreading to my lymphatic system, and it was almost certainly a black widow.
Black widow bites are notable in that they have a unique symptom -- the skin around the bite will sweat profusely, since the venom triggers the sweat glands as it spreads. So that's one way to tell it from a bee sting.
I'm a dietitian so no one follows my advice. It just takes longer for them to die from it.
“I would add that trust and communication are crucial in the doctor-patient relationship. Building a foundation of trust allows patients to feel more comfortable sharing their concerns and following medical advice. Doctors should also strive to communicate clearly and empathetically, helping patients understand their conditions and the reasoning behind their treatment plans. Additionally, it's important for patients to feel empowered to ask questions and engage in their healthcare decisions actively. Educating the public about these aspects can help bridge gaps and improve health outcomes.”
Patient was supposed to have starved for eight hours for her morning scheduled breast surgery. During the procedure she regurgitated what can only be described as as a full partially digested English breakfast, with identifiable sausages, egg, beans and possibly black pudding, up into her unprotected airway and attempted to inhale the lot.
Managed to prevent the majority of it going down, but she needed HDU care for a day or so for her lungs to recover from the stomach acid.
Nurse/paramedic here. Frequently went to a patient's home for a shortness of breath call. She was always smoking while receiving supplemental oxygen, which is quite dangerous. I told her to stop doing it. A few weeks later, she burned her house down and nearly died of third degree facial burns after continuing to smoke while on oxygen.
At least it was only herself she hurt- my little brother was on oxygen most of the time and so many times he went for appointments at the hospital and there were people smoking outside (even when the exclusion zone was increased) most times, some of them were also on oxygen.
I had the snip and my doctor told me to take a week off, wear tight fitting underpants and not lift anything heavier than a cup of tea. I did exactly that and had no problems.
My best mate thought that was all nonsense and went back to fitting kitchens the day after his vasectomy.
And the day after that he was in hospital with a testicle the size of a coconut.
Not a med professional, but my aunt is and I'd like to share her horrifying story. She once had a patient, young guy in his early 20's, who had very poor hygiene. Didn't shower regularly, didn't brush his teeth, wore the same clothes for days on end...etc. IIRC he one day came in with a nasty rash on his lower abdomen/pubic area that was starting to show signs of infection.
She provided antibiotics and instruction and ***extensively stressed*** to him to improve hygiene and keep the area clean otherwise it'll just keep coming back or get worse. Well, as the story goes, he didn't pick up the prescription and apparently choose to just keep putting A&D Gold ointment on the area. She later found out he ended up in the ER after going into shock at work, turns out he ended up getting gangrene in the area and it had spread to his p**is and s*****m which had to be removed.
Spending so much energy deciphering these redacted words that the words themselves get etched into my subconscious. I'll probably say s-c-r-o-t-u-m randomly in conversations for days
I'm not a medical professional, but I used to get allergy injections to build up my immune system because of the crazy amount of allergies I had. I would get these injections every week and I was instructed by my family doctor and the allergist to wait in the waiting room 30 minutes after the injection in case I received a reaction.
Well, one day I decided I didn't want to wait anymore (also because it had been a few months without a reaction) and left immediately after my appointment. I went into anaphylactic shock not even 10 minutes later. It was crazy because I didn't even know what was happening at first and didn't even know how to use an EpiPen.
I've read that the most common reason for a surgery to be re-performed is the patient not following doctor's orders during recovery.
Doctor says: "Don't ride your bicycle for six weeks."
Patient hears: "Don't ride your bicycle until you feel you can.".
My wife is a labor and delivery nurse. When a baby is born they give it some vitamin that the baby can't produce itself for the first 6 months of its life (or something like that), i think its Vitamin K to help with blood clotting. its potentially lethal if the baby doesn't get this obviously as they can bleed out internally.
Welp, one mother didn't want their kid getting vitamin K cuz anti-vaxxer. Baby ended up dying in the NICU. No way to know if the lack of vitamin K contributed to the death or not but...i think most medical professionals would point to it being part of the reason the baby died.
EDIT: To clarify, the cause of death *was* related to a bleeding issue. I don't recall the cause of the bleeding or what the specifics of the issue were but ultimately the baby doesn't get the clotting aid, baby bleeds to death, lacking the clotting aid likely played a role in the death.
Patient came to see me having a stroke due to a blocked brain artery. I’d activated the Code Stroke team - everyone was ready in the theatre to get the clot out of her artery: nurses, anaesthetist, technician - but she (42) insisted on updating her Facebook status and “checking in” before allowing me to treat her. Wasted 3-5 minutes and 6-10 million brain cells (if she had that many to start with).
This is giving me MLM vibes. The things those poor brainwashed reps prioritize "promoting their ✨️business✨️" over is truly defies all logic. Just a hunch in this case, but I have heard so many stories.
Once I was the only doctor on duty in a rural village with diminished medical supplies. The village is called Shinafiyah and lies in the desert southern Iraq. A 4 years old child came to what was supposed to be an ER with diarrhea and some dehydration. They didn't have tab water and they drink from a near-by river (directly that is). From what I gathered it seemed that the child had cholera. Cholera has some unique reputation in medicine that I will skip here for the sake of your appetite. I strongly urged his father to keep him longer for observation but he refused.
A few hours later he came back and the child was very ill and severely dehydrated. He was -as we describe such case medically- drowsy. He looked like a rotten wooden doll with the sunken eyes of an old man. I couldn't get an IV access (an accessible vein for fluids) and didn't have a central line set. I had to cannulate one of the large veins of his neck and he barely made it. Cholera wasn't endemic (not usually seen) there, so I had to make some calls and provide some samples to be tested about 200 miles away and send the child with an ambulance after he was stable.
The father and his son came back a couple of weeks later to visit. I gave him some chlorine tablets and cookies for the kids.
My dad tells a story of a morbidly obese woman who came into his clinic and after an exam told her simply: "If you don't make drastic changes to your lifestyle and diet and start losing weight you are going to die." She was dead within the week. Her family tried to sue because my dad was clearly "a witch doctor" and cursed her to death. It was sad all around.
One time at the VA after adult circumcision. "Do not have sex or masturbate for 6 weeks"
Decided to masturbate the next day. All stitches tore.
Had a patient who was NPO (not allowed to eat) because he had a bowel obstruction. He didn’t like that we weren’t feeding him, so, unbeknownst to the nurses, he called up Papa John’s and ordered some garlic knots. He ate the entire box. Then, predictably, he vomited them up, aspirated his vomit, went into respiratory arrest, and coded. We did CPR and got him back. He had some underlying lung issues so we never could get him weaned off the ventilator. He spent a month in the icu and was eventually discharged to a long-term care facility with a tracheostomy on the vent.
It happened so often it was almost a non-issue. We would basically just shrug our shoulders and and say welp.
- I had a patient who kept adjusting her insulin dosage against my advice because she was terrified of having her feet amputated like her mom. So she had several occasions of dangerously low blood sugar...one of which put her in the ICU
- had a lady who had the opposite problem: raging diabetes but in deep denial...so she would never take her insulin...so she was in the ICU multiple times for the diabetic ketoacidosis
- had a ton of patients on dialysis who skipped dialysis for whatever f*****g reason...didn't feel like going, had a fight with boyfriend who was her ride, took a vacation to a city without a dialysis unit, etc etc...so they would come in with their electrolytes all f****d and had to get emergency dialysis inpatient
- had a billion old fat men with chest pain for weeks refuse to come into the hospital to be evaluated for cardiovascular issues and either die at home or come back a week later with extensive MIs.
- half of my patients with COPD were still active smokers despite my exhortations...one had burn scars over a third of his body from the LAST time he smoked around his O2 tank
- had patients take extra doses of benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, etc.) and end up in the hospital with overdoses.
The last one may be a potential suicide attempt. That's why suicide stats (no matter global or country-scaled ones) aren't fully believable - many attempts with d***s and other similar methods where patient survives are later labelled as "accidental overdose" because the patient/their family doesn't want to admit what really happened. Given how messed up psychiatric and psychological care is in many countries - sad, but not surprising.
Me. Didn’t almost die but I was very very sick. I went for a mini vacation in Batam, Indonesia where our villa had a private pool. Throughout our 48 hour stay, I spent more time in the water than out. The time I wasn’t in the water, I was in our air conditioned villa room with just a t shirt (now damp) over my swimsuit. In the day it was blazing hot, and at night it was super windy because it was near the sea.
I am also asthmatic. While its mostly under control, I usually get a tight chest feeling when I am ill and haven’t had a full attack in years.
I fell sick after the trip, high fever runny nose, cough. I am also a healthcare professional, I studied life sciences and diagnotic testing, I am hardly bothered and can take care of myself when I get sick. Eventually the fever went away and I was left with a cough.
The week after the vacation, I was still having a “cough”, and we went to play paintball. Completely overexerted myself running, ducking, crawling, what have you. After the game, we went to a friend’s place to have lunch and chill. I fell asleep but woke up coughing with the feeling of something being stuck in my respiratory tract, i thought it was phlegm. Went to the bathroom to cough it out but nothing was happening. I lost track of time and apparently I was in the bathroom coughing away for about 30 minutes. Friends asked if I was alright and I just kept saying “yeah its just a cough, I think there’s some phlegm stuck and I’m trying to get it out”.
Finally went to see the the doctor (my regular GP) the next day. Turns out I was having a very serious asthma attack. I just couldn’t recognise it because I haven’t had one in many years. Worst thing is this was the same doctor who told me to always carry my inhaler around JUST IN CASE but I just wasn’t diligent about it.
Until now, my friends would yell “ITS JUST A COUGH I’M FINE” whenever I make even the smallest cough or sneeze.
Now that I think about it, I actually could have died.
Hahah, I didn't almost die, but I got scarring on my eyes after surgery because I didn't follow the instructions for my eye drops.
The eye drops had a thick translucent quality, and it felt disgusting to have this white gooey substance in my eyes, so I kept postponing putting them in.
I can still see well, but I could have avoided getting unclear stripes in my field of vision. Beat myself up for it for about two years, but was at last able to forgive myself.
Note: this post originally had 50 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Not Dr's advice but... My dad was terrified of Drs. He had a cough and we kept telling him to seek help. He was a heavy smoker and we though it was COPD. Months went by and he kept getting worse. Then, he went to the hospital after a colleague threatened to drag him there. It was a Tuesday and he died on Sunday. Liver cancer. The liver was so large that it pushed his lungs and heart to the top of the chest and that's why he coughed. We think he hid it for at least two years. Not a word to anyone. He chose death over us, and we're not even surprised.
This is all terrifying. And also why I follow the doctors' instructions to the letter when sick.
Ok, all these stories are terrifying. But to me, a person from a country with free, public healthcare, the most horrible aspect is the one where people have to choose between being Lucky and not die, or being broke AF... USA, that's soooooo messed up....
Not Dr's advice but... My dad was terrified of Drs. He had a cough and we kept telling him to seek help. He was a heavy smoker and we though it was COPD. Months went by and he kept getting worse. Then, he went to the hospital after a colleague threatened to drag him there. It was a Tuesday and he died on Sunday. Liver cancer. The liver was so large that it pushed his lungs and heart to the top of the chest and that's why he coughed. We think he hid it for at least two years. Not a word to anyone. He chose death over us, and we're not even surprised.
This is all terrifying. And also why I follow the doctors' instructions to the letter when sick.
Ok, all these stories are terrifying. But to me, a person from a country with free, public healthcare, the most horrible aspect is the one where people have to choose between being Lucky and not die, or being broke AF... USA, that's soooooo messed up....
