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Woman dies from IBD while doctors say pain is in her head

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Posted 5/2/2016 1:41 AM (GMT 0)
Reposted from Crohns board

www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/why-did-michelle-suffer-like-33138

"I found this story in my Google News feed this morning. It's so sad.

I experienced similar treatment over the years, especially before my diagnosis. I was literally told it was all in my head by more than one physician before I got sick enough for someone to listen. I was once cursed out in the ER by a doctor. I've been chewed out by a nurse for crying from pain while in my hospital bed. Empathy? Apparently, in this woman's case, being sick enough to die wasn't even enough for her to be taken seriously."
_________________________

Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 5/1/2016 8:19:41 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/2/2016 1:47 AM (GMT 0)
When I first became ill, I was sent home from the hospital on multiple occasions saying the pain is in my head. The Kitchener Hospital even had a psychiatrist come in....

I'm afraid this type of thing happens more than ever reported - hopefully without death.

For me it was a call to my GI to explain the severity of the pain and she suggested I go down again as she would be on duty this time and I could get an emergency colonoscopy. The inflammation was severe enough that she stopped the colonoscopy. The pain was not in my head.

Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 5/1/2016 7:50:27 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 5/2/2016 4:13 AM (GMT 0)
I am not surprised at all. People always thought I was exaggerating, even my own family.
Posted 5/2/2016 9:34 AM (GMT 0)
My son should have been admitted two weeks prior to his admission when he first saw a gi.
Perhaps there is some sort of pressure by insurance companies on doc's not to admit.
Old Mike
Posted 5/2/2016 3:40 PM (GMT 0)
any death is tragic.

I only know what was in the story linked, ... but nowhere in that text did it say doctors thought pain was in her head.

it seems she had a diagnosis of CD. She was being treated for CD, but seems to have been refractory.

Something inflammed her liver, but it is not clear at what point or how quickly the liver went critical - and the liver does not appear to be the cause of death anyway. It does seem like some odd liver result was not followed up, but it is not clear if that is GI, primary, or patient.

A perforation is reported, which can happen with CD. Possibly it was missed, but the scans to detect it seem to have been done. Scans and tests are not perfect. A perforation should have caused sepsis, but she died of pneumonia. This is confusing.

she was getting a lot of admissions, but also got a lot of tests. it is not clear why the perforation did not show on the tests.

.... by where did it say doctors said the pain was in her head. It looks to me like they said the pain was due to CD, and we cannot find anything more acute on scans.
Posted 5/2/2016 5:15 PM (GMT 0)
Ditto DB...i read it 4 times trying to find it...nadda. Mark, maybe change your title since it's an assumption rather than truth.

Sad story....scary, however, when our bodies end up in a chaotic crisis. This leaves me with many questions.

q
Posted 5/3/2016 1:04 AM (GMT 0)
Are the last two posts for real?

The woman died from Crohn's-related complications that were caused by the hospital in question not taking her pain seriously for 3 years and not operating on her nearly early enough.

Plain and simple. The woman had a known Crohn's diagnosis and this wasn't 50 years ago, when knowledge/treatments/tests were far more limited than they are now.

Different link here: www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3565467/Mother-three-died-agony-Crohn-s-disease-doctors-said-imagining-pain.html
Posted 5/3/2016 1:42 AM (GMT 0)
last 2 posts as in mine and DB? and what's the problem exactly?

Definitely the hospital is at fault for not being able to sort the issues and not see the perforation. Although it doesn't say where it was and how it was caused..obviously she was in a health crisis spiral with many issues at the same time.


In YOUR link it states imagining pain....thanks for that.

q
Posted 5/3/2016 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
The problem is a woman died of medical negligence. I was in a fairly similar position to her 4-5 years ago and my colon could have gone septic or perforated, but luckily I wasn't at an entirely incompetent hospital. It baffles me that anyone - least of all anyone on this board - could think that this woman's death was anything other than completely preventable, given all that we know about the treatment of IBD nowadays.

That's my problem.

PS: The spiralling health problems and agony for 3 years could have been prevented by the woman having surgery for her Crohn's at an earlier stage, rather than leaving the Crohn's to become so severe it actually became too dangerous for the woman to be operated on. That's not good medical management, to put it extremely mildly.
Posted 5/3/2016 7:24 AM (GMT 0)
I am from the same part of the country as this lady, and was told for 11 years that I had 'ladies problems', that I was imagining it, and that it was a dairy or wheat allergy (yet I was never tested for either). I moved away to Oxfordshire, quit smoking and my symptoms flared massively, and I was diagnosed within a month.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to this lady and her family - unfortunately, IBD in Kent seems to be treated as ME used to be - very much an "it's in your mind" or "you're making it out to be worse than it is" disease. Getting a diagnosis is hard enough, but getting taken seriously by the medical 'professionals' in several of the Kent NHS trusts is almost impossible. I truly believe had I not moved away I would have been in a lot of trouble.

RIP cry
Posted 5/3/2016 8:36 AM (GMT 0)
Makes me appreciate the U.S. "antiquated" fee-for-service healthcare system. If I think my doctor is incompetent (or even if we just can't agree on treatment approach) I can find a new doctor any time I want to.
Posted 5/4/2016 12:21 AM (GMT 0)

jujub said...
Makes me appreciate the U.S. "antiquated" fee-for-service healthcare system. If I think my doctor is incompetent (or even if we just can't agree on treatment approach) I can find a new doctor any time I want to.

I could find a new doctor if I really wanted to. I'm more limited in who I can choose as my new GP, because GP practices are doing everything they can to avoid taking on new patients, including making the catchment areas ridiculously small. But hospitals are different. Provided you can get a referral, you can go to any hospital in the country. I've switched hospitals a few times over 16 years and have never had any trouble with changing so far.

However, it's not exactly something which is broadcast to patients and there are probably many who are unaware of this. I travel further now to go to a hospital that I know is good, rather than my crappy local hospital which is only 2 miles away from where I live. If for whatever reason I decide to leave that hospital (I've been there for 5 years now), I have my next hospital lined up that I want to join and it isn't my local hospital. My local hospital was my previous hospital, so I know it's crap from personal experience.
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