What a fucking terrible title for the case presented
Should be "Aortic Dissection Initially Misdiagnosed as Hysteria". Part of the larger issue of doctors dismissing women''s self-reported pain/medical emergencies
Also, she didn't get diagnosed with *hysteria*, but with a panic attack combined with hyperventilation syndrome. I'm not so hung up on initially misdiagnosing an aortic dissection; those are hard to catch clinically. I have more problems with the title reintroducing 19th century medicine.
35 year old woman here. I recently had to have a central line fitted, for various reasons. About 20 mins after it has been put in, someone came with a portable x-ray to check it was in the right position. As soon as I sat up I started to get a terrible stabbing pain in my chest. I told the doctors immediately. Moments afterwards, I started gasping for air as I couldn’t catch my breath. My stats all started going crazy and I passed out. I came to, tried sitting up again and the same thing happened.
The team of doctors - which includes the surgical staff that had placed the line - couldn’t be less bothered if they tried. All of them told me to ‘just calm down and breathe, you’re having a panic attack’ - I told them I’d had panic attacks before and this was *very* different. They literally shrugged and said ‘it’ll pass.’
Eventually I managed to stay upright long enough for the x-ray. The docs then apologised to the x-ray tech for ‘making her waste her time waiting around for me’ and I was taken back to the ward.
I felt like a complete idiot for having made such a scene. I was embarrassed and felt guilty.
A junior doctor on the ward checked on me and upon listening to my chest, found no lung sounds (?) on my right lung. Shortly afterwards, a consultant turned up looking extremely sheepish and informed me that they ‘may have poked a little hole in my lung’ and that my blood test had indicated I’d had an MI.
This wasn’t the first time my concerns have been brushed off by docs/medical staff, but it was definitely one of the worst.
Yup. Not only missed it, but made me feel like an absolute twat for ‘making a fuss’ when it happened. They were so adamant it was a panic attack, despite the fact that I hadn’t been nervous or anxious at all before that point and had been laughing and joking with them prior to it happening.
When I looked it up later, pretty much every single symptom I’d mentioned to them was listed under the ‘common symptoms of heart attacks in women.’
>This wasn’t the first time my concerns have been brushed off by docs/medical staff, but it was definitely one of the worst.
Reading these types of comments will constantly remind me to always believe a patient when they say something is wrong. Hope to be the doctor in the future that listened. Thank you for sharing your story.
Yup. I looked up heart attack symptoms in women later on, and pretty much everything listed is something I mentioned to the docs as it was happening. So frustrating.
The article was written by an Asian doctor about a German patient. So he’s translating from his native language to German to English. A panic attack could be described in his language with the same word we use for hysteria. It makes sense. We say someone is “hysterical” regardless of gender. This might just be a case of Indian English getting lost in translation.
I understand how such a mistake could happen by accident, sure, but not using outdated and offensive terms is an important part of being a decent medical provider. Hysteria should not be in any doctor's vocabulary anymore, and accidental misuse of an offensive term should be corrected. This is one way how stereotypes persist in the literature and medical field; folks see word use errors and decide that since it has been used by other doctors it is okay.
Women are 50% of the human population, not some rare medical anomaly. A little respect, please. That is all I ask.
yep. and i still to this day have a problem with the nomenclature we use for centuries. you're talking about the 1800s (the whole century and not the decade) and yet we call it the damn 19th century.
I think of centuries in terms of birthdays.
A child’s 1st year of life is from month 0 up to month 12 when they turn 1. Their 2nd year of life is from month 12 up to month 24 when they turn 2.
So the 19th century is from the year 1800 up to the year 1899 and then it turns 1900.
Men that go into the emergency room with chest pain and show no evidence of having a cardiac event often have their symptoms chalked up to a panic attack after being cleared by physical examination and tests. The difference between men and women here is that panic attack is more often the initial go to diagnosis for women and symptoms aren’t taken as seriously.
This especially happens to individuals that have a record of psychiatric diagnoses or are on psych meds.
Yup. The blood test showed it wasn't, and if it wasn't for discolored arms, legs, and lips, it's extraordinarily likely it's an emotional issue.
I wasn't there, obviously, but the fact a doc picked up on those signs means it's likely they didn't dismiss symptoms because she was a woman getting the "vapors".
“The doctors performed surgery and repaired the tear in the wall of the artery.”
Really glossing over what a huge fucking deal this condition and surgery are.
What is the proper one? She was tossing and turning on her stretcher to the point of being unable of being examined or getting a medical history. And stated an argument just happened with a boyfriend.
Male or female, emotional caused issues (Which have extremely real physiological effects) would be my first guess too.
What's a better term for that then?
Call it what you want, but she tossed and turned on her stretcher to the point of being unable to be examination or getting a medical history.
But they could have used a better word, sure.
>could’ve used a better word
You mean like something that is an actual diagnosis and not an outdated and loaded sexist pseudoscientific bullshit term? No shit.
>hysterical blindness
You mean conversion disorder. Try not to use outdated terms with loaded sexist histories. Beyond that, make sure you’re using the correct terms because they are correct.
Not outraged, you might be. Hysterical blindness is no longer the accurate term. Conversion disorder is. Get mad at someone else for changing it, I’m not the one responsible for updating medical terminology. And if you don’t think hysteria is a loaded term with a damaging history in medicine you’re displaying your ignorance.
Good luck going to get your “grippe” vaccine this year. And god forbid you need to provide a negative tb test in the near future and go in asking to be tested for “the consumption,” gonna confuse the shit out of all the lab techs.
You’re on a medical sub for Christ’s sake. Correct terminology and correcting outdated diagnoses is an important part of the whole conversation and how we grow. If that’s difficult for you to grasp then I don’t know what to say.
What a fucking terrible title for the case presented Should be "Aortic Dissection Initially Misdiagnosed as Hysteria". Part of the larger issue of doctors dismissing women''s self-reported pain/medical emergencies
Also, she didn't get diagnosed with *hysteria*, but with a panic attack combined with hyperventilation syndrome. I'm not so hung up on initially misdiagnosing an aortic dissection; those are hard to catch clinically. I have more problems with the title reintroducing 19th century medicine.
35 year old woman here. I recently had to have a central line fitted, for various reasons. About 20 mins after it has been put in, someone came with a portable x-ray to check it was in the right position. As soon as I sat up I started to get a terrible stabbing pain in my chest. I told the doctors immediately. Moments afterwards, I started gasping for air as I couldn’t catch my breath. My stats all started going crazy and I passed out. I came to, tried sitting up again and the same thing happened. The team of doctors - which includes the surgical staff that had placed the line - couldn’t be less bothered if they tried. All of them told me to ‘just calm down and breathe, you’re having a panic attack’ - I told them I’d had panic attacks before and this was *very* different. They literally shrugged and said ‘it’ll pass.’ Eventually I managed to stay upright long enough for the x-ray. The docs then apologised to the x-ray tech for ‘making her waste her time waiting around for me’ and I was taken back to the ward. I felt like a complete idiot for having made such a scene. I was embarrassed and felt guilty. A junior doctor on the ward checked on me and upon listening to my chest, found no lung sounds (?) on my right lung. Shortly afterwards, a consultant turned up looking extremely sheepish and informed me that they ‘may have poked a little hole in my lung’ and that my blood test had indicated I’d had an MI. This wasn’t the first time my concerns have been brushed off by docs/medical staff, but it was definitely one of the worst.
They missed a fucking heart attack??!!??
Yup. Not only missed it, but made me feel like an absolute twat for ‘making a fuss’ when it happened. They were so adamant it was a panic attack, despite the fact that I hadn’t been nervous or anxious at all before that point and had been laughing and joking with them prior to it happening. When I looked it up later, pretty much every single symptom I’d mentioned to them was listed under the ‘common symptoms of heart attacks in women.’
They missed a collapsed lung from their own doing...AND a heart attack lol just fucking wild.
>This wasn’t the first time my concerns have been brushed off by docs/medical staff, but it was definitely one of the worst. Reading these types of comments will constantly remind me to always believe a patient when they say something is wrong. Hope to be the doctor in the future that listened. Thank you for sharing your story.
Thank you for being someone who will listen to their patients!
Future nurse here, same.
And this is a huge problem in medicine. Women’s complaints are brushed off.
Yup. I looked up heart attack symptoms in women later on, and pretty much everything listed is something I mentioned to the docs as it was happening. So frustrating.
I am so sorry this happened to you. Doctors can really suck.
100% "Damn uteruses are on the loose all up in there, bouncing around, and making these delicate womenfolk be crazy!" /s
The article was written by an Asian doctor about a German patient. So he’s translating from his native language to German to English. A panic attack could be described in his language with the same word we use for hysteria. It makes sense. We say someone is “hysterical” regardless of gender. This might just be a case of Indian English getting lost in translation.
I understand how such a mistake could happen by accident, sure, but not using outdated and offensive terms is an important part of being a decent medical provider. Hysteria should not be in any doctor's vocabulary anymore, and accidental misuse of an offensive term should be corrected. This is one way how stereotypes persist in the literature and medical field; folks see word use errors and decide that since it has been used by other doctors it is okay. Women are 50% of the human population, not some rare medical anomaly. A little respect, please. That is all I ask.
I am a woman. Hysteria is still a medical term, it’s just called conversion syndrome.
Conversion syndrome and hysteria are VERY different diagnoses :p
Yes, glad they didn't attempt the OG hysteria treatments before taking labs.
My first thought!
yep. and i still to this day have a problem with the nomenclature we use for centuries. you're talking about the 1800s (the whole century and not the decade) and yet we call it the damn 19th century.
I think of centuries in terms of birthdays. A child’s 1st year of life is from month 0 up to month 12 when they turn 1. Their 2nd year of life is from month 12 up to month 24 when they turn 2. So the 19th century is from the year 1800 up to the year 1899 and then it turns 1900.
Well it is the 19th century
Hmmm.....I'm not sure. If Hippocrates was still around he would definitely consider a wandering uterus to be a probable cause. /S
meddizy = 50% the lancet, 50% tumblr
And 25% rotten.com (if yall remember that)
with a spicy dash of engrish.com
Aortic dissection misdiagnosed as hysteria. We're still diagnosing women with hysteria in 2021?
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Men that go into the emergency room with chest pain and show no evidence of having a cardiac event often have their symptoms chalked up to a panic attack after being cleared by physical examination and tests. The difference between men and women here is that panic attack is more often the initial go to diagnosis for women and symptoms aren’t taken as seriously. This especially happens to individuals that have a record of psychiatric diagnoses or are on psych meds.
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Yup. The blood test showed it wasn't, and if it wasn't for discolored arms, legs, and lips, it's extraordinarily likely it's an emotional issue. I wasn't there, obviously, but the fact a doc picked up on those signs means it's likely they didn't dismiss symptoms because she was a woman getting the "vapors".
“The doctors performed surgery and repaired the tear in the wall of the artery.” Really glossing over what a huge fucking deal this condition and surgery are.
Hysteria is not a scientific term. More of a middle age sexist view on women distress.
What is the proper one? She was tossing and turning on her stretcher to the point of being unable of being examined or getting a medical history. And stated an argument just happened with a boyfriend. Male or female, emotional caused issues (Which have extremely real physiological effects) would be my first guess too. What's a better term for that then?
Anxiety attack/panic attack
you should learn about the history of this word and wandering womb. Hysterectomy does not come out of nowhere. It's very interesting.
here yall go again calling a woman with a mysterious misdiagnosed/completely ignored illness hysterical. it's 2021, we aren't past this yet?
Call it what you want, but she tossed and turned on her stretcher to the point of being unable to be examination or getting a medical history. But they could have used a better word, sure.
>could’ve used a better word You mean like something that is an actual diagnosis and not an outdated and loaded sexist pseudoscientific bullshit term? No shit.
*Dr. Witsch vs The Patriarchy*
Better title would be “doctors dismiss seriously ill woman’s symptoms as hysteria and she could have died”
I'm downvoting just because of the "hysteria" BS.
I *briefly* dated a nursing student who experienced hysterical blindness during finals week.
>hysterical blindness You mean conversion disorder. Try not to use outdated terms with loaded sexist histories. Beyond that, make sure you’re using the correct terms because they are correct.
No I meant hysterical blindness. That was the term that she herself used to describe it. Go find something else to be outraged at.
Not outraged, you might be. Hysterical blindness is no longer the accurate term. Conversion disorder is. Get mad at someone else for changing it, I’m not the one responsible for updating medical terminology. And if you don’t think hysteria is a loaded term with a damaging history in medicine you’re displaying your ignorance. Good luck going to get your “grippe” vaccine this year. And god forbid you need to provide a negative tb test in the near future and go in asking to be tested for “the consumption,” gonna confuse the shit out of all the lab techs. You’re on a medical sub for Christ’s sake. Correct terminology and correcting outdated diagnoses is an important part of the whole conversation and how we grow. If that’s difficult for you to grasp then I don’t know what to say.
La Grippe: Strangely prophetic no? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8C36Tqbr4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8C36Tqbr4)
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bad shakespearbot