RIYADH, 6 November 2006 — It is not an easy thing to come bleeding to a hospital and then for the doctor to shock you by saying, “You have blood cancer.” Similarly, it is painful to go to a doctor in order to complain about abnormally rapid heartbeat and be asked, “Do you smoke hashish?”
It is possible for health experts to make mistakes. It should be kept in mind, however, that these mistakes often cause serious stress to patients. Sometimes the problem is in the way that doctors choose when they have to tell patients about their health problems. Patients suffer as a result of their doctors not bothering to be more accurate and more careful not only when diagnosing cases but also in informing patients of the diagnosis.
Fahd Al-Sahabi told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that he lived the most difficult two days of his life when his doctor told him he had blood cancer. “I consulted a doctor seeking help for general fatigue. The doctor asked me to undergo a blood test and an hour later I was surprised by the aggressive treatment which I received from my doctor,” said Al-Sahabi. “The doctor asked me several questions and then he said that he was going to be clear and straightforward in telling me about my illness,” said Al-Sahabi, adding that after that he was left unable to concentrate and became restless and so decided to go to another hospital.
“I had to wait two days because hospitals were closed on the weekends. On Saturday I went to another hospital where I had another blood test. I was released and told by a doctor that I was anemic,” he said, adding, “When I showed the last doctor my previous report, he said that many labs mix up the increase in white and red blood cells and this results in a wrong diagnosis being given.”
Turki Fahd Al-Bugami said that he once took his mother to a hospital in their local village. “Once the doctor saw her, he said that she must be sent immediately to another hospital some 300 km away,” said Al-Bugami, who then hurried to get an ambulance. “I was told that there was no ambulance available. I then called a cousin who is a doctor; he advised me to redo the blood test. The test showed that my mother was anemic and that she did not need to go to hospital,” he said.
Al-Bugami said that when his mother felt better, he went back to the doctor to lodge a complaint and was shocked to find the doctor giving similar advice to another elderly patient. “I couldn’t believe it. He was convincing an old man and his three sons that the old man’s case was also serious and that he needed an immediate transfer to a larger hospital,” Al-Bugami said.
One man also had a similar experience that he says he will never forget. “My penis developed some pimples and boils from which pus was coming and so I went to a nearby clinic for a check up,” said the man. “The doctor did not ask any questions after seeing the pimples. He began praying which depressed and psychologically destroyed me. After a bit, he shocked me by saying that I had AIDS,” said the man, adding, “However, he advised me to consult another doctor. When I had the tests redone, I was told it wasn’t AIDS but an infection which proper medication soon cleared up.”
Rasam Al-Rasam went to a doctor to complain about abnormally rapid heartbeat. “The doctor asked if I smoked hashish, something which I found very insulting. After I consulted two other doctors I felt better since they both said that my heartbeats were normal,” he said.
Muhammad Al-Zahrani took his six-year-old daughter to a hospital for some routine blood tests. “The lab promised to get the results ready by the next day, but I was surprised to receive a call the same day asking me to come immediately to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital, the doctor began accusing me of not taking good care of my daughter,” said Al-Zahrani. The doctor alleged that Al-Zahrani’s daughter was suffering from a severely contagious disease and needed to be put in quarantine. Al-Zahrani and his family spent two agonizing days worrying about the six-year-old. “Two days later the manager of the hospital called to apologize for having made a mistake,” said Al-Zahrani.
Dr. Jamal Salih Jarallah, a researcher who specializes in medical mistakes and who is also a professor of family medicine at King Saud University in Riyadh, says that these mistakes are not mere misdiagnoses. “These are serious mistakes resulting from a wrong diagnosis. The mistakes may even cause serious problems,” he said.
Dr. Jarallah also added that diagnosing illnesses must be derived from multiple probabilities based on particular scientific and medical principles. He also emphasized the need to have the best medical equipment in Saudi hospitals in order to achieve accurate diagnoses, along with a need for well-trained and highly-qualified medical workers.
“This is the only way to eliminate medical mistakes. Doctors must stick to work ethics which they need to implement; such ethics include not only accuracy but they must remain calm and understanding when giving patients bad news,” he said, adding that doctors must not shock patients but inform them calmly. “Further, doctors must not overload their patients with information about their cases; they must be brief and concise so as not to increase the anxiety of the patients,” explained Dr. Jarallah.
