My Terrible Experience... As A Patient

I have been struggling with a series of injuries over the last several months. I decided to take this treatment into my own hands. I visited a highly-rated acupuncturist in the city who used a new needle technique I've never experienced. This made a huge improvement on the pain I was suffering in my elbow, but I quickly realized a new problem had emerged. There was horrible nerve pain now in my arm. This was very scary as it prevented me from doing several things, and as someone aggressively pursuing a boxing career, I was scared my future was jeopardized. I waited several weeks for the pain to subside, but it never did. So, I looked up a specialist in NYC who could help me. I went online and found a doctor with amazing reviews, a great website, and clips online that gave me a lot of confidence he could help me. So, I booked a quick appointment and went in to get help. This turned out to be the weirdest doctor/patient encounter I've ever experienced. Have you ever had an uncomfortable encounter with your doctor? Let me know down below!

00:00 My Injury
01:33 Acupuncture Accident
03:26 Nerve Damage
04:29 Best Doctor in NYC
05:23 Catfished
05:56 Worst Encounter Ever
08:54 How I Got Treatment
09:35 Key Lesson

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-Doctor Mike Varshavski

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Executive Producer: Doctor Mike
Production Director and Editor: Dan Owens
Managing Editor and Producer: Sam Bowers
Editor and Designer: Caroline Weigum

* Select photos/videos provided by Getty Images *

** The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional **

[stafana]

As a physical therapist, the amount of times I've had patients tell me that they don't know what surgery they had or what was injected in them is pretty scary...

[sarahwesley]

I was about 13-14 when I had a pretty intense case of appendicitis. My mom took me to the hospital and the ER doctor 1. didn't do any kind of testing other than pushing on my stomach 2. kept dismissing me and my mom when we brought up concern about my appendix. The doctor insisted it was just period cramps and a hot bath + OTC pain meds would help. Being a young teen, I didn't argue with him, I just said "oh...it doesn't feel like cramps but if you insist" and I went home. That same night I collapsed and was rushed back to the hospital, only to discover my appendix had ruptured. I was in the OR within like 10 minutes of showing up. I don't think I've ever seen my mom as angry as she was because she literally could have lost her child to the negligence of a lazy doctor 🙃

[wildpants]

I was 2 years old and wouldn't stop crying. My parents took me to an emergency in a well known reputed hospital. When we reached there, within 10-20 minutes the doctor decided I needed an emergency surgery asap for some problem with my stomach which was life threatening. He also added I was crying because of the pain from my stomach. So they made my parents sign the required documents for surgery and prepared everything for putting me into surgery. There were 4 students as well along with him. My parents felt suspicious of the whole thing and decided to not go with the surgery after consulting with another doctor over the phone. The doctors at the hospital were furious, called the cops and the cops made my parents sign papers that put the whole responsibility on my parents if something happened to me. Later I was diagnosed with an ear infection. Imagine getting surgery on the stomach for an ear infection. So remember what Dr Mike said, You have the right to accept or deny treatment. Not all doctors are good/capable.

[brittaniemerrick]

When I was 16 or 17 I kept blacking out in class. Like I was coherent and could hear everything that was happening around me but I couldn't respond. Despite my mom thinking I was faking it, she took me to an immediate care that was affiliated wit the local hospital. They had the ability to do a CT scan at this location. The doctor told my mom I was indeed faking it and sent me home. It was a few days later that I had a Grand Mal seizure that I coded from and landed me in a coma for a week. By the grace of everything good I am here today to tell the tale.

[theCidisIn]

I had a surgeon either caused or miss a big tear in my duodenum during a gal bladder removal that made me throw up blood. I went back the next day and they sent me home because they said I was "drug seeking". Then they fixed it after I started throwing up blood. When I went to my check up for the first surgery I found out they never even told the original surgeon!

[steve_the_first]

I feel like this story sheds light on how vulnerable patients can be in situations like this, and unfortunately even if it is within our rights to accept or refuse a specific treatment, I feel like I’m not exactly qualified to do so? Also my anxiety is usually through the roof when I visit a doctor, which makes it even more difficult to say no to something, because my main instinct is to avoid confrontation.

[jurassicaaaX_X]

Everything you described is exactly what it’s like to be a patient with chronic illness.

[helpfulinterdimentionalfor]

Something I loved about my Doctor is that when I was diagnosed with ADHD and sent to get medicine, is that he took the time to educate me.
He took a marker and drew a diagram on the noisy crinkle paper on how my medications would affect me and their different release mechanisms.
It made me feel way more comfortable and confident in using my meds!

[hmariekoehn]

My dad passed away in 2016. I immediately lost so much weight, and became severely depressed. I started to have these uneasy feelings that are so hard to describe, but kind of like vertigo. I didn’t feel like I was moving with my body. I then, began to pass out regularly. I told my doctor and her response was “oh it’s just grief, here’s some antidepressants and anxiety meds.” I continued to lose weight, and dropped to a whopping 79 pounds at 21 years old. I was DYING in front of her eyes and she told me it was grief. Eventually, one cardiologist listened to me and transferred my case to Stanford University. Turns out, I was born with a genetic connective tissues disorder and had developed a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS, had extremely low potassium, had to get a potassium infusion at the ER, and my heart was in irregular rhythms with a high risk of going into cardiac arrest. The doctors told me I would’ve died within 2 weeks from how malnourished I had become despite me eating regularly. Safe to say, my doctor never questioned me again.

[nzgremo]

I love how Dr. Mike, as a doctor, recognized how hard it is to have doubts as a patient but can't voice it out because we don't have the adequate knowledge to REALLY know what's going on. So most of the time we just rely on the "they're doctors, they probably know what they're doing".

It's also the fear of being told or thought of as "Oh so YOU'RE the medical professional now huh?". I see a lot of social media of medical professionals doing a skit of "that annoying, know-it-all patient/guardian", and it makes me fear speaking-up.

[AnimeWolf]

For a period of several years I went to multiple doctors and practices to complain about leg pain. They all told me it was cos of my weight (I'm a little overweight but far from obese) and told me to exercise more, and ignored me when I said I can't cos of the pain. About 10 docs later, I moved houses and tried a new practice which had good reviews. Saw the new doc, and she was the FIRST doctor I saw to actually examine my legs. Turns out, one of my legs is shorter than the other, causing an uneven gait and extra wear on my joints and muscles, and causing the pain. Some special shoes later, I can now enjoy walking my dogs.

[lshanahan]

I got run over by a drunk driver and needed a joint fusion in my foot. Doctor found out I have PTSD and refused to do the surgery and changed the tx plan to a different option with less research and support. When I said I wanted to be able to weigh my options, she said my PTSD made me incompetent and she would be choosing thr tx plan. Needless to say, I found a new doctor

[AccordingtoJexi]

I never realized how truly crappy most of my doctors visits were until I started getting treatment at the Cancer Institute. As a cancer patient, in this particular hospital, everything is easy, explained well, doctors are easily available, etc. It's everything I expect medical care to be and I didn't realize how often that was not my experience prior to this.

[vickywasisht]

"Intelligent men learn from their mistakes, wise men learn from the mistakes of others." Thank you Mike for giving us this perspective.

[johnl]

In my medical training I was taught "first, do no harm" and "treat the disease, but care for the patient". We learn a lot about treatments and procedures, but listening is probably the most important skill of all.

[magentaquicksand]

Really hope he reported him for the HIPPA Violation 😬

[hdb]

I was a hairdresser for 16 years, and trusting anyone to do my hair is a nightmare. I can't imagine being a doctor, trying to trust other doctors and practitioners with my health.

[ReillyWilde]

A report to the doctor’s medical board for his HIPPA violations (sharing a patient’s personal info & identify) as well as his apparent incompetence to practice medicine is a fair & safe response to your bad medical experience. Being a doctor who has also been a patient definitely sheds light on both sides of the medical experience. Hope you’re healing well. 🍁

[hollybrown]

It's so scary to navigate the medical system as a non-medical professional, because as you said, us lay people don't always know when a doctor's explanation doesn't make sense, what treatments are and aren't evidence-based, if the risks are being accurately explained, etc. All we can do is trust that the information we're receiving is complete and correct. I'd love to see a video on what information we should receive before any medical treatment, what questions we should ask, and what independent research we should do before making medical decisions. Just explaining to lay people what red flags look like in a medical visit would be a huge help.

[anayaalcazar]

“I genuinely didn’t know what was happening” and he’s a DOCTOR, how terrible to have this kind of experience but i can’t say I’m not relieved that he has been on that side of the table.