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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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#1

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

MonsterHunterRelias , Elle Hughes / Pexels Report

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Enuya
Enuya
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Poor child... I'm glad that at least she was able to move out, so she doesn't have to contact this man daily.

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#2

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

ehh_soso , Su Casa Panamá / Pexels Report

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Dainty72
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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!!!

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#3

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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”.

SivverGreenMan , Go to Ian Taylor's profile Ian Taylor / Unsplash Report

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Deborah B
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If this was America, wouldn't the ambulance ride cost more than the parking?

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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.”

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#4

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

The_Turtle_Moves_13 , Anna Shvets / Pexels Report

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Con O Cuinn
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's probably better for doctors to be extremely blunt in cases like this. It might seem rude but it gets the point across.

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#5

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

I_AM_A_BOOK , Vidal Balielo Jr. / Pexels Report

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#6

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their 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.

chandeliercat , Priscilla Du Preez / Unsplash Report

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Fat Harry (Oi / You)
Fat Harry (Oi / You)
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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“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.”
#7

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

whoorderedsquirrel , Cedric Fauntleroy / Pexels Report

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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#8

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

pmbratt , Jonathan Borba / Pexels Report

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Enuya
Enuya
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In today's episode of: "There should be some tests before you're allowed to be a parent". (Yeah, yeah, I know... but it still baffles me that everyone is allowed to have a child, even when it is obvious that the poor kid is going to suffer.)

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#9

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

hbrumage , Perry Merrity II / Unsplash Report

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Gwyn
Gwyn
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well he didn't manage his diabetes in the first place so you can't say his disregard for safe recovery was a surprise.

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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.”
#10

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

Arlessa , engin akyurt / Unsplash Report

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Connie Hirsch
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#11

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

daemare , Mikhail Nilov / pexels Report

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Deborah B
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If he died, that's a clear case of Too Stupid Too Live.

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Zedrapazia
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd also like to know why the guy in the picture here has a Swiss flag on him instead of a Red Cross.

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Sweetie Dahling
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought the Red Cross symbol was protected, which is why they often use the Swiss flag version in movies and tv as well

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Jaya
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Oh s**t, it should indeed have stayed in, let's put it back!" lol. I could see myself doing something like that in a panic, lol. Not the 'not listening to the doctor in the first place' though.

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DiscoMamaNea
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well at least through the probably well and hopefully medicated person they kinda listened 🤷🏼‍♀️ But yea knife or object that’ somehow ended up stuck in you or someone else DO NOT REMOVE. It is what’s keeeping you from bleeding to death till a Dr can remove it with extra blood to replace yours then and there so serious not everyone knows that and I’m assuming they were probably not in a good mind state at that point so again at least they tried to follow the docs orders lolbvs

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Anxious&Bored Bear
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I probably should not have laughed so hard at this one. But I read the comments, too.

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Fellfromthemoon
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is a novel by P. Howard (Jenő Rejtő, paraphrased). Sir, please, don't pull the knife out of my back, otherwise I'll bleed to death. (In short, 'Sir' needs his knife back, but agrees to put in a larger one, if I remember the story correctly.)

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Al Padilla
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Every doc can, on short notice, recound several Darwin-Award-worthy episodes.

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Danish Susanne
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have luckily never been stabbed with a knife, but I imagine that it may hurt so much, that you are unable to think clearly, and if you think the knife is causing that pain and not the wound, it seems logical to draw it out.

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#12

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

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Angela B
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This. This pi!@es me off no end! Now I can understand some conjunction therapies, cultural medicines, alternative therapies. HOWEVER, people die due to sh^@ like this.

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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.”
#13

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

notreallylucy , Mulyadi / Unsplash Report

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Deborah B
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

30 min check-ins would annoy the heck out of most people. Why didn't they use text messages or a button system? (eg alarm goes every 30min, resident pushes a button to cancel, or it rings at the nurse's station)

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#14

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

VolatileAgent81 , Andy Wang / Unsplash Report

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Annabelle
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least the patient put herself in that position. The same thing happened to a five year old, because his parents fed him and lied about it to us. “He asked me if he could have a sandwich “.

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#15

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.

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Connie Hirsch
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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“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.”
#16

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.

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#17

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).

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Diana Wilcox
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#18

I'm a dietitian so no one follows my advice. It just takes longer for them to die from it.

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Gwyn
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think people underestimate how much a good diet can help. I sure did. Saw a huge difference when I started getting enough protein. Wish I'd done it years earlier.

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#19

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

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Huddo's sister
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#20

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.".

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PFD
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I bet that in a majority of such cases it's the need to return to work, school etc. that drives the non-compliance.

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#21

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.

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Raffe Raffen
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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

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#22

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.

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Deborah B
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I doubt any lifestyle or diet changes were going to have sufficient effect in one week to save her life.

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#23

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

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#24

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.

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#25

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.

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Tamra
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Were the parents charged with negligence?? Because they should have been.

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#26

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.

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Annabelle
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can’t imagine why you even want to touch it before it is properly healed.

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#27

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.

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#28

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.

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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not sure why they think the holiday details are relevant.

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#29

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

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Enuya
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#30

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice 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.

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Zoe Vokes
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really hope I don’t need eye drops for medical reasons because I am terrible at doing them. I have the worst blink reflex. It takes me about twenty attempts to get an eye drop in.

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#31

Patient had vague abdominal symptoms, and I recommended a CT scan. He refused cause he was afraid of radiation. He also refused colonoscopy so all we could do was an ultrasound, which found nothing cause he was fat and abdominal ultrasound is a s****y examination anyway. A year later he was admitted again, and this time he couldn't refuse a CT - where we found a massive colon cancer. He's probably dead now.

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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My reason for declining, if this happened to me, would be cost. I am one of the morons that fall in the Medicaid gap in the US. So, no insurance.

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#32

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice Please don't get up on your own!
Then he gets up on own and pulls out line going into jugular that leads directly to the heart and proceeds to bleed all over everything until he pass out and almost dies. again.

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#33

I worked in ER admissions throughout college. A teenager and his parents came in because he went over the handlebars on his bike. The staff wanted to keep him in observation overnight, but his parents refused, even after they offered to put him in a recovery room that was near the ER and normally only used during the day for outpatient surgeries.



They came back the next day, and he was white as a ghost. It turned out he had punctured some part of his digestive system and, I think, had some internal bleeding. It's the only true emergency surgery I saw in the four years I worked there when the staff actually ran to the OR with a patient.

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#34

Eye doctor here. I had a patient who came in and on evaluation I determined that her diabetes was out of control by the look of her retinas which required immediate intervention. I sent her straight to the retina specialist who then scheduled her for an OR. She decided that day not to go in because she had work and couldn’t afford to take off. She was cleaning houses and the sprays made her sneeze, causing massive hemorrhaging In her eyes due to the weakened vascular state from the diabetes. She went immediately blind and got into emergency surgery that day. It took months of recovery and injections to reverse some damage and she now (years later) has functional vision again. Her kidneys were also failing her and she had no idea. This kicked off a massive lifestyle change and a chain of doctors appointments that saved her life. All starting from an eye exam.

EDIT: Lots of comments about economic reasons to have no-showed for her surgery. I don’t disagree that it’s an awful situation, but the reality is that she had a choice of: Go Blind, or Go to Work. The specialist was even willing to curb the cost of her emergency surgery due to her extenuating circumstance. She chose to go blind. Modern medicine thankfully saved her, but her decision she made was objectively the wrong one. You can’t make much money blind either. Hindsight, however, is 20/20.

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Kristal
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How can one not tell their kidneys are failing? Serious question.

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#35

Not a doctor, have worked in addictions field. Too many clients have died or will die because despite the repeated warnings from their doctor that they have almost no liver function or that what they’re drinking is giving them all sorts of brain damage they continue to drink hard. But a lot of these guys feel like they have nothing to live for but the bottle. It’s really heartbreaking.

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ScarletRos
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I knew a guy like that. Very smart, had been a university lecturer but the booze took over and he could barely manage a pizza delivery job. Died at only 44.

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#36

I've seen a lot of heart failure patients as a student. These people have problems with swelling, and are often told to follow low sodium, low fluid diets, and need to be taking diuretics (people often call them water pills). There's always a handful that never follow these instructions and don't take their medications, and they need to be admitted every few weeks/months. They have liters, yes multiple liters, of fluid diuresed (peeing out) out of them. This one super obese woman (BMI >50) had like 40 liters taken off of her in a couple weeks. I don't know how she could breathe. Imagine having so much fluid stuck in your legs you could probably fill up a kiddie pool.

As mentioned a lot in this thread, a lot of this is facilitated by their own lifestyle and noncompliance. It's incredibly frustrating.

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#37

Had a patient signed out by another ER doc at shift change pending chest X-ray. CXR showed aortic dissection. This guy should’ve been dead already. Being a small hospital (level 3 trauma center) in the middle of nowhere, we call the closest level 1 for a transfer. Ambulance shows up for transfer and the guy decides he’s not going. He’s got enemies in that city and they’ll k**l him. After a standoff in the ER hallway involving security, police, EMTs, multiple docs, nurses, and a very scared scribe (me) the guy (a very large man) gets on board with the plan and decides not to leave AMA. Later, we find out from EMTs he tried to jump out of the ambulance en route to the other hospital. Once he arrived, he left AMA. No clue what happened to him after but damn the dissection was INSANE.

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#38

Not a medical professional but my dad had a really serious cough that i told him he had to get checked out he ignored me for weeks and coughed and coughed. Eventually, he coughed up blood and i essentially forced him to go to the doctor. He was diagnosed with TB (I am vaccinated luckily) and if he had left it any longer he would have died.

Edit: okay this blew up way more than I expected it to jeez this happened a little while ago now but for most of the duration of his cough he was overseas (he works for trinity and gets paid to work in places like India, China, Korea etc, and we FaceTime call regularly) so luckily I wasn't around him very much for most of the duration of his cough (or presumably when he first caught it) and it was maybe a day after he came home after being abroad that he coughed up blood. I did get tested at the hospital and no i don't have TB but i didn't know the vaccine was so ineffective and i guess I'm really lucky I wasn't around him alot.

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T'Mar of Vulcan
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My friend had HIV and got a type of TB that goes to your brain. She was doing all sorts of crazy things like waking up at 5 am, coming to my house and cleaning the outside of the house and garden for goodness knows what reason. We got her admitted to hospital via a private psychiatric company (they'll come for free but take you to a public hospital once you're stabilized). She got better and then we lost touch for a while. Her brother called me a couple of years later to tell me she'd died. :(

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#39

I’m a resident. It Happens almost every day. 2 examples in the last week:

-Pt comes in with R sided weakness (almost 24 hours after it started, you can see where this is going). BP 190’s/110. Gets a stroke workup, and of course, has a left sided stroke. He needs to be admitted for BP control, further stroke workup(Echo, other lab work). Pt refuses admission, says he is fine, and leaves AMA (against medical advice). We discharge him on 4 new meds (BP Med, statin, Aspirin, another anti-platelet). Never picks them up. Next day he is back with left sided weakness, you guessed it, another stroke. Dude can barely move now.

-Pt comes in with N/V, tremors, is in alcohol withdrawal. We load him up with benzos, and then barbiturates. He needs admission to ICU bc of both alcohol withdrawal and bc we loaded him with respiratory-depressing and sedating d***s. He says he feels better (no s**t, we just took you out of withdrawal), refuses admission, and leaves AMA. He comes back later that day barely breathing/AMS because he went out and pounded 750ml of vodka.

Edit: N/V= Nausea/Vomiting AMS=altered mental status.

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Dainty72
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People just need to just write what those initials mean, because they end up having to explain anyway. Sorry OP!

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#40

I wasn't there that day, but we had a patient who had been noncompliant with his leg pumps---these inflatable Velcro things that force blood to continue circulating so that clots don't form in the legs. He didn't want to wear them, and he had the right to refuse, so we couldn't force him. Lo and behold, when therapy finally got him up to walk the halls, he immediately keeled over from a massive heart attack. They coded him right there on the floor, and got him back, but he passed later that night.

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Gwyn
Gwyn
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is where people with no logic will say, well you shouldn't have made him get up, that's what made him die! When it was probably really due to years of neglecting his health in the first place

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#41

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice Friend of mine had a broken leg, got infected, his mum wouldn't force him to take the correct medication. How he kept his leg I have no idea, he had so many complications.

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#42

I am a psychotherapist who has worked extensively with addicts. Most of them don’t take the advice to quit their substance of choice, but one particular case comes to mind with this question. Not only did I impress upon him how important it was for his to stop drinking, but so did his psychiatrist, and PCP. His PCP eventually fired him as a patient because he wouldn’t listen. The guy was jaundiced, in liver failure, and looked like walking death. He lived longer than any of us expected him to, but he finally passed last year because of the damage he did from his heavy drinking.


Edit: I should clarify that we worked at an inpatient behavioral health hospital during the time I treated him and we would treat him with a detox, therapy, meds, and provide him with resources once he discharged. We would do this in every admission, which was approximately once per month over the course of the 4 years that I worked there. We tried our best to support and help with with whatever we had. We didn’t just tell him to stop and then go on our way.

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DaisyBee
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At that point, the only hope that’s left is that of a fool

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#43

30 Medical Professionals Share Horror Stories Of Patients Ignoring Their Advice Almost every day - "You MUST NOT get up or you will die from embolus"

Walks to bathroom to take a s**t.

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Becky Samuel
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Then bring us a bedpan in less than an hour. My IBS gives me at most 5 minutes before I foul myself. I've seen patients wait for 2 hours for a commode.

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#44

This doesn't exactly fit the prompt, but I was advising a patient to go to the ER because his blood potassium levels where off, which can cause a lot of problems. He argued and argued with me about it, but In my position you can't force anyone to do anything.Long story short, he didn't go to the ER. He ded now.

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Fat Harry (Oi / You)
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why go to the doctor in the first place if you're going to ignore their advice?

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#45

I’m sure this person didn’t almost die, but I was once in a consult where the outcome was this:

Patient complains that stomach hurts when he drinks too much beer.

Recommendation: drink less beer.

Any guesses about exactly what that guy did NOT do?

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#46

EMT/paramedic student here. So we had a patient who was morbidly obese and couldn’t get out of his house. He decides after about 4 days of uncontrolled chest pain to call it in. Well we get there and find evidence of several MIs but refuses care and wants us to leave. About 45 mins later we get a call from the building he lived in and we got there and it was him in full blown cardiac arrest. This man was so obese that we couldn’t get him through the door and had to knockout a wall and lift him down off the second story with a lift. All the while me and my paramedic lead were bagging him through an ET tube. Lots of firsts on that call first ET tube I put in and first IO is ever seen done in the field.

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CF
CF
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

MI myocardial infarction aka heart attack. ETT endotracheal tube aka tube in the airway. IO is presumably intraosseous, meaning the guy was too fat (or too flat in the way of blood pressure) to be able to find a vein, so a large bore needle is jammed into a bone to deliver fluids and medications. The bone marrow is like a very meaty blood vessel. I've only done a handful of IO catheters, and those were in very young (and very nearly dead) puppies. Adults have thicker bone so harder to get needle through. Dunno how they do it in people.

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#47

Honestly, many of the patients I come across are admitted related to non-compliance with their medication regimen or suggested lifestyle changes. There are many "frequent flyers" that return with the same complaint over and over again. You can only educate them on their disease process, and how to minimize the effects of it. After that, it's up to them. As stated in almost every other comment, many of these people are diabetics or have COPD. The diabetics eat whatever they please, and the COPD patients continue to smoke their pack/day.

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#48

Not a professional, but my aunt got throat cancer from smoking. after chemo, she kept smoking.

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Zoe Vokes
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of these aren’t so much ignoring medical advice but not being able to quit an addiction. You’re an alcoholic? Simply give up alcohol. You’re morbidly obese? Go on a diet. You’ve had throat cancer? Quit smoking. It’s not that easy for most people.

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#49

Had a patient stop taking his heart failure meds in favour of c*****e.

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#50

Not a medical professional but a close buddy of mine was very afraid of his parents when we were teens/ early 20s and everytime he was hungover his mom would take him to the doctor thinking he was sick and put him on antibiotics and he would go along with it and now his immune system is a mess.

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Fat Harry (Oi / You)
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who are these doctors prescribing antibiotics for a hangover? I doubt the veracity of this one.

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