Sad Story Illustrates Seriousness of Crohn's

This just infuriates me.

Wow, there are no words. It is so scary to deal with this disease and hope that you have the right medical staff.


I was also not taken seriously for years. I was sick all the time in high school and missed a lot of time or was late because I didn't feel well in the morning. Had the school nurse yell at my mother that people my age don't get sick "where was all my youthful energy" and basically accuse us of making it up despite my grades showing I deeply cared about my work. Doctors tell me I had stomach bugs that would last for weeks and on and on. And the "oh it's just stress" nonsense. I had an open infected fistula once and was told by an ER doctor at a research hospital that they tried contacting the GI doctor who was in charge but GI was too busy and they would not be able to see me so basically good luck. My nurse was in shock and told me I should go to a different hospital.

This story is just maddening!!!! So hard to believe in this day and age, that she wouldn't have received a thorough diagnosis and treatment. It's not like she acquired the disease 50 plus years ago when they had no idea what to do.

So so sad :( it's all too common to be treated like we are faking or overreacting. Before I was dx in the hospital over 10 years ago and the docs couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, I was in so much pain! the hospital surgeon wanted me to have a psych evaluation! I checked myself out of the hospital AMA and he personally called my house and talked me into checking back in.. I think he got worried I would report him.

It's awful how horrible some doctors treat you! I hate going to the ER because you never know if you are going to get a doctor that actually cares or a doctor that doesn't believe you or see it as an "ER problem".

I was super sick all through high school, my mom took me to the ER one time after she found me bawling on my bed in a ball unable to move, and the ER doctor told us that it was a family doctor problem and discharged me. My mom then did research and discovered Crohn's disease fit a lot of my symptoms and asked my family doctor who told her there was "no way I could have Crohn's!" She sent me to a urologist, and neurologist, but not once did she refer me to a GI for my constant stomach pain! It still makes me mad to this day, not so much how I was treated because I was in high school, but how these
Doctors treated my mom who just wanted some help for her kid.

Thanks for the replies, and thanks pb4 for the live link - I can never remember how to do it here. I'm appalled that the coroner basically stated that better treatment would not have changed the outcome. Really?!?!

Something really is broken.

That is so sad and tragic. It's hard to imagine the agony she must have been in, and yet it was ignored by hospital staff. Wow.

That's something I've experienced with my IBD condition, with doctors and nearly everyone else, a lack of understanding of the pain involved. I can understand why friends and family wouldn't really understand. The disease is internal, it isn't possible to see what is going on. It isn't like a broken leg were a cast is in full view, per se. I've often joked that someone needs to create a machine where I can pass off my stomach illness to others for a short time. Let them experience and deal with it. And most importantly, that way I could take a vacation! It is much overdue. I've been on the job tortured for nearly 30 years without time off.

Both depressing and enraging. Not sure what is more depressing; the woman dying from medical negligence or the weasel words used by the coroner in her ruling. The hospital will get away with this, and that enrages me.

As a 20 year Paramedic before being disabled by this DD and the medication side effects, I saw this treatment of not only CD patients but other "invisible" and visible diseases. I could tell you horror stories that I have seen with my own eyes which is why I am so jaded when it comes to the topic of medical care in this country. There is more burn out in Emergency rooms than there is in a campfire, sorry to say...

It's really heart-breaking :(((((

Unfortunately, i was told by the doctors and friends for a long time that i am imagining the pain, it was all in my head as they say