The Most Unprofessional Thing A Doctor Has Ever Said To A Patient

Reproductive Health

"I was being treated on week 2 with medication for an ectopic pregnancy—fetus in the fallopian tube, 0% chance for baby, very small chance for myself to live if not taken care of. I was told to go to the ER if I developed severe pain."

"I developed severe pain and went to the ER."

"The doctor on call sat there and tried to casually discuss what kind of pain meds I might like WITH MY HUSBAND as I was writhing in pain on the bed. Husband insists doc should just make a decision and give me the meds now."

"Finally gave me a pain pill and told me no need for an ultrasound, just did some bloodwork for my file. I go home and wait it out with a script for pain meds."

"I told him the pain was severe and could be the tube bursting and he told me that miscarriages just hurt."

"I went into the gyno treating me 2 days later and he took one look at me and booked me for emergency surgery. The tube had burst and I had so much internal bleeding that they had to have a general surgeon assist in the cleanup in my abdomen."

"My bowels were adhering to the broken tube and had to be carefully separated. Later, my doc told me I was very lucky and the moron at the ER should have sent me in to an ultrasound based on the pain alone."

"The blood work was apparently alarming."

"Went back for an IV to the same sh*tty ER a few months after. That same sh*t ER doc checked my abdomen and saw the surgery scars."

"He commented I must have recently had an operation!"

"I told him 'yeah, you misdiagnosed my burst ectopic pregnancy and I had to get emergency surgery at a different hospital'. He didn't say sh*t after that."

"If I had the money, I would sue the a**hole."

~ poppykayak

"I also had an ectopic several years ago. I had missed my period and suspected being pregnant."

"A week later had severe pain where I couldn’t stand up and walk and wasn’t sure if it was my period coming on. Went to an urgent care and they confirmed I was pregnant but probably having a miscarriage."

"The pain was bad in my side, and I even suspected ectopic—but the male doctor there said miscarriages are painful and he knows what ectopic pain should look like, and that’s definitely not what I have."

"He told me to go home and just basically rest."

"So I believed him, and headed out—a nurse, female, stopped me in the front lobby and strongly insisted I go to the ER. My husband also wouldn’t let me just brush it off and took me in."

"At the ER they did an ultrasound and my entire abdomen was filled with fluid. I had emergency surgery and got really lucky with a rare ectopic that exploded backwards into my peritoneal cavity (called a tubal abortion) and got away without a ruptured ovary."

"The female surgeon said that in her 20 year career she had never seen a case like mine."

"Still sucked, and f'k that first doctor."

~ pheonixrising23

"Doctor said that either I cheated or my husband did because that kind of cervical pain was always chlamydia."

"It was an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured and resulted in emergency life-saving surgery. But thanks for listening doctor!"

"My personal OB happened to be at the hospital that night and came to tell me the news herself, giving him the angriest look I’ve ever seen in a professional setting."

~ grannywanda9

"I’d been sent by ambulance from our local urgent care to a hospital due to kidney pain and a funny shadow on my xray. Emergency room doctor was insistent 'it must be a STI' despite me having no genital symptoms, and he demanded to do a pelvic exam."

"This doctor aggressively tried to mimic my pain from the inside by jamming his hand up my vag. The nurse chaperone looked embarrassed when I said to the doctor, 'if you’re not careful, you’ll lose your watch up there'."

"He then discharged me from the hospital at 3 am saying he couldn’t find anything wrong with me."

"At 9 am the original urgent care doc called back since she saw I was discharged but my blood tests were back and I was septic."

~ Omissionsoftheomen

Digestive Health

"My older sister had unbearable GI issues for years growing up."

"Pediatrician told our parents that 'children get tummy aches' and to try peppermint Altoids.

"She ended up having emergency surgery where they had to remove her entire large intestine because it was necrotic and had tumors.

"Permanent colostomy by the time she was 14."

~ Currentlyunsureatm

"Both my parents are doctors, a Pediatrician and a Pulmonologist/ICU doc."

"Since 4TH GRADE I’d had very frequent upset stomachs and pain. I was always told 'it can just happen' or 'it’s too hard to figure out'."

"It got to the point where when I had BLEEDING from my intestines I didn’t want to say anything cause I thought I’d be brushed off. This was until I was going into my senior year of high school."

"It flared to the point I couldn’t move and lost 15 pounds in 2 weeks."

"Lo and behold, I had Ulcerative Colitis that was diagnosed within a day of tests it was so bad."

~ GamingBeluga

"I had been bleeding for 8 months when my GP told me I 'didn't meet the criteria' for a colonoscopy."

"Finally did get diagnosed with mild ulcerative colitis later on, but that conversation with the GP was the most frustrating part of the whole saga."

~ calvesofdespair

"'It can't be colon cancer because you're too young'."

"My brother got cancer at that exact age, as she knew."

~ Liraeyn

"The really f'ked up thing about this one is that it's standard procedure to monitor for colon cancer based on family history."

"Generally guidelines recommend if a first degree family member (mom, dad, brother, sister) had colon cancer before they were elderly, they should start getting screened at an age 10 years younger than when they were diagnosed."

"So that doctor straight up ignored national treatment guidelines."

~ thatrandomdude12

"My younger sister was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer at 26 (not a typo, that's twenty six.) And it took her a couple of years to convince her doc to order any tests, despite passing blood in her stool."

"I get that she was especially young to have such an advanced case, but I will never not be angry when I read a comment about docs telling folks that they are too young to be checked for colon cancer."

~ Coldricepudding

Children's Health

"I took my then 4-year-old daughter to a pediatric gastroenterologist. First he said 'she's just being dramatic'."

"Then he said, 'well, she'll get married some day and be someone else's problem'."

"That was 25 years ago, and it still shocks me!"

"Turned out she had a partial bowel obstruction."

~ kellygrrrl328

"When I took my then 4-year-old to a pediatric gastroenterologist because she still couldn't control her bowels and clearly had no feeling down there, the specialist told me she was doing it for attention and just didn't 'want to' use the toilet."

"She went on and on about how she'd been in the business for 20 years. When my daughter told her she really wanted to fix the problem so she could go to day camp, the doctor told her she was lying."

"That human turd was in the room when I finally got my daughter tested for bowel insensitivity (I don't remember the official name) and they found out that she did not, in fact, have any feeling in her bowels."

"I looked that b*tch in the face and said, 'Now do you believe us?' She just looked away."

~ paingry

Mental Health

"'You're 27. I don't know what you have to be anxious about'."

"This was in the 1990s."

~ PrincessSummerTop

"When I described my anxiety and depression the doctor said, 'but you aren’t overweight and over thirty!'."

~ seventh-street

"I was told the same just a few months ago at age 25."

"I replied 'well my mom just died' to which he said 'that’s too bad' and continued on with the exam."

~ Familiar_Honey_98

"'That's normal in your line of work. Just ignore it, the pain will go away'."

"I went in for shoulder pain, as my left shoulder would be killing me after a day loading trucks all day. This was an ongoing thing for weeks before I went to get it checked."

"Didn't examine my shoulder. Didn't have any x-rays done, catscans done, MRIs done, nothing. Hell, didn't even have me take my shirt off."

"Turns out that I had a torn rotator cuff."

"Had another doc tell me that the stomach pain that had me pissing myself, throwing up, and passing out was from 'gas'."

"Again, without any type of examination, just listening to the symptoms. Two days later I was dying on the OR table from a necrotic appendix."

~ Redditor

A common theme in all these stories are doctors not listening to their patients or their parents.

While a doctor may be a medical expert, they should remember the patient is the expert for their own body.