but let’s be honest — these kinds of oversights were happening long before the pandemic, often with devastating consequences. just a quick search of the patient stories on healthing pulls up a myriad of frustrating instances of missed, dismissed, ignored and delayed diagnoses. everything from
colorectal
and
thyroid cancer
to
endometriosis
and
bipolar disorder
— patients and families are left to pick up the pieces of their lives, finding resolution and healing if they are lucky, or prematurely facing their mortality.
medical mistakes account for around 28,000 deaths
each year in canada, according to the canadian patient safety institute (cpsi) and while the most common error involves medications — the wrong dose, or wrong kind — this shocking statistic also includes death from misdiagnoses.
the patient advocate in me wants to urge patients and caregivers — especially in these unprecedented times — to educate themselves on their health, speak loudly about what their bodies are telling them, and never leave an appointment without all the answers. this is your life, after all. but this means shifting the responsibility of care to those who are often vulnerable — unwell, frightened and desperate. and sometimes, the idea of potentially offending the person in charge of making them well again, even potentially saving their lives, is ludicrous and risky. i have worked with cancer patients who refuse to disclose dangerous medication side effects because they were afraid their doctor would take their treatment away. or what they consider to be even worse — get angry and lose interest in their well-being.
certainly, as patients, we don’t really
want
to ask questions and challenge conclusions. we too want the diagnosis that’s the most common, the least worrisome — the one that means we are still okay.