Vent: Medical Mis Diagnoses

[china mom]

I am beyond frustrated (and worried) right now. I went down to the Food and Wine festival for the day n November 9th and walked about 8-9 miles. I flew back home and, of course my feet hurt on the plane. My right foot hurt a little extra but foot pain is my baseline so I didn't think much abut it.

I woke up Saturday morning and my right foot was huge. I went to the ER where they diagnosed cellulitis (infection). They had me on an IV antibiotic for a couple of hours and sent me home but told me I had to come back the next morning. The next morning I had another round of IV antibiotics and they left the IV in and told me to come back that evening. 7 rounds of IV antibiotics over the course of 4 days and then a course of 7 day oral antibiotics, then another ten days of oral, I still had no improvement for the "infection".

My podiatrist has been out of town but I finally got in to see him yesterday evening after walking on my foot for a month. Turns out no infection - never was. I have been walking around on a broken foot for a month! And he made his diagnoses from the x-rays that they took at the ER the first day.

I may need surgery, I may even lose my foot. He freaked the heck out and told me that I need to wear a walking boot and keep walking to an absolute minimum and put absolutely no weight on it when I am not in the boot (middle of the night potty runs will be challenging). The type of break I have is very serious.

I am so incredibly angry right now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[candy0730]

I am so sorry this is happening to you.

 

[lifesavacation]

That’s terrible. I’m sorry you’re going through this.

 

[SG131]

I am beyond frustrated (and worried) right now. I went down to the Food and Wine festival for the day n November 9th and walked about 8-9 miles. I flew back home and, of course my feet hurt on the plane. My right foot hurt a little extra but foot pain is my baseline so I didn't think much abut it.

I woke up Saturday morning and my right foot was huge. I went to the ER where they diagnosed cellulitis (infection). They had me on an IV antibiotic for a couple of hours and sent me home but told me I had to come back the next morning. The next morning I had another round of IV antibiotics and they left the IV in and told me to come back that evening. 7 rounds of IV antibiotics over the course of 4 days and then a course of 7 day oral antibiotics, then another ten days of oral, I still had no improvement for the "infection".

My podiatrist has been out of town but I finally got in to see him yesterday evening after walking on my foot for a month. Turns out no infection - never was. I have been walking around on a broken foot for a month! And he made his diagnoses from the x-rays that they took at the ER the first day.

I may need surgery, I may even lose my foot. He freaked the heck out and told me that I need to wear a walking boot and keep walking to an absolute minimum and put absolutely no weight on it when I am not in the boot (middle of the night potty runs will be challenging). The type of break I have is very serious.

I am so incredibly angry right now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Wow, so sorry that happened to you. That's awful!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Ohhhh my. I am so sorry!!!
I have had a small fracture that was also hard to get the right treatment. Ended up having surgery for a neuroma. Foot injuries are excruciating!!!
They can also be very serious.
If you need to stay off that foot then maybe request/demand a rollater.

I don’t know why the Dr. didn’t automatically do that if your foot is at risk?

If they won’t request this and get insurance approval, then I don’t know how much it would cost you to buy or rent one.

BTDT. They even sent me home from that major surgery without the rollator. ( like a raised scooter skateboard thing that your one leg/knee rides on.

I do wish you had seen a good podiatrist right away. You have to be your own advocate!

 

[PollyannaMom]

It's awful when stuff isn't found like that!

Fingers crossed it all turns out OK now that they know how to treat it.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Praying for you

 

[Disneylover99]

I am beyond frustrated (and worried) right now. I went down to the Food and Wine festival for the day n November 9th and walked about 8-9 miles. I flew back home and, of course my feet hurt on the plane. My right foot hurt a little extra but foot pain is my baseline so I didn't think much abut it.

I woke up Saturday morning and my right foot was huge. I went to the ER where they diagnosed cellulitis (infection). They had me on an IV antibiotic for a couple of hours and sent me home but told me I had to come back the next morning. The next morning I had another round of IV antibiotics and they left the IV in and told me to come back that evening. 7 rounds of IV antibiotics over the course of 4 days and then a course of 7 day oral antibiotics, then another ten days of oral, I still had no improvement for the "infection".

My podiatrist has been out of town but I finally got in to see him yesterday evening after walking on my foot for a month. Turns out no infection - never was. I have been walking around on a broken foot for a month! And he made his diagnoses from the x-rays that they took at the ER the first day.

I may need surgery, I may even lose my foot. He freaked the heck out and told me that I need to wear a walking boot and keep walking to an absolute minimum and put absolutely no weight on it when I am not in the boot (middle of the night potty runs will be challenging). The type of break I have is very serious.

I am so incredibly angry right now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry!
Best wishes for a full foot recovery.

 

[J'aime Paris]

How terrible!
I wish you much healing!!

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I would be calling a lawyer and medical board. At minimum, the doctors/techs involved should get a formal reprimand and you shouldn't be held accountable for any of the bills involved during the wrong treatment.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

You must have a hospital like we have. They screw up everything. They basically killed my elderly mother a couple years ago when they administered her medication wrong. It burned her esophagus so bad she couldn’t eat anymore and her health spiraled downhill after that. That was the fourth time they had screwed up with her too. We even talked to an attorney because we wanted them held accountable for what happened but the lawyer basically told us it would just be a waste of time and money. You would think that with as much as we pay for healthcare in this country we could have more capable doctors and hospital personnel. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through and I hope everything works out.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

That is awful!! Sorry it’s happening and hopefully it can get resolved without losing your foot!

 

[sam_gordon]

I am beyond frustrated (and worried) right now. I went down to the Food and Wine festival for the day n November 9th and walked about 8-9 miles. I flew back home and, of course my feet hurt on the plane. My right foot hurt a little extra but foot pain is my baseline so I didn't think much abut it.

I woke up Saturday morning and my right foot was huge. I went to the ER where they diagnosed cellulitis (infection). They had me on an IV antibiotic for a couple of hours and sent me home but told me I had to come back the next morning. The next morning I had another round of IV antibiotics and they left the IV in and told me to come back that evening. 7 rounds of IV antibiotics over the course of 4 days and then a course of 7 day oral antibiotics, then another ten days of oral, I still had no improvement for the "infection".

My podiatrist has been out of town but I finally got in to see him yesterday evening after walking on my foot for a month. Turns out no infection - never was. I have been walking around on a broken foot for a month! And he made his diagnoses from the x-rays that they took at the ER the first day.

I may need surgery, I may even lose my foot. He freaked the heck out and told me that I need to wear a walking boot and keep walking to an absolute minimum and put absolutely no weight on it when I am not in the boot (middle of the night potty runs will be challenging). The type of break I have is very serious.

I am so incredibly angry right now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I do not blame you for being upset. There will be SOMEONE at the hospital that you can reach out to and explain they took X-rays but apparently didn't see the break. I would copy most of what you posted above (maybe take out "Food and Wine" and say "Disney World", and change the wording in the 4th graph from "He freaked the heck out" to "He was surprised and disappointed the ER didn't see the break."

My story... about 5-6 years ago, DS had walked through some broken glass (I don't remember the exact circumstances). We get out what we could and go to Urgent treatment for them to look for other pieces. Nothing found. After 2-3 days, his foot still hurt. We go back to urgent treatment and they find a 1" piece of glass. I emailed the Urgent Treatment office after we got home and got a VERY apologetic letter from the administrator and they refunded our payment.

 

[RangerPooh]

Oh my! I would definitely be ready to send in a letter of concern. I'm surprised that they didn't send you home with a boot or wrap with instructions to stay off it from the beginning. I agree with previous posters, foot injuries are serious. DH broke a few bones in his foot 13 years ago stepping off a curb. Rebroke it over a year later. 12 years later he still has issues.

 

[RUDisney]

Similar misdiagnosis for my sister last month. She went into the ER with extreme pain in her extremities and she felt like someone was hugging her tightly around her ribs. The ER took an MRI and told her she had MS because she had lesions on her brain, though none on her spine.

She was admitted and treated with high dose IV steroids for several days. The hospital called in an MS specialist from a hospital about an hour from us who confirmed the diagnosis. No further tests were done. She went to Philadelphia when she was released. The MS Specialist at Penn told her that he didn't think she had MS, but they'd do further testing.

She had a spinal tap that confirmed that she doesn't have MS. They tested her for lupus, HIV, lime disease and a number of other things. All came back negative.

She will go back to this doctor next week for further tests because they still don't have a final answer for her. At least she is going to someone who is tenacious in finding the root cause of this and she didn't accept the initial diagnosis. We know better to believe the doctors in Scranton about anything.

I will pray for your complete and EASY recovery, OP. Please keep us posted.

 

[kirstenb1]

So sorry! I hope you heal quickly!

 

[china mom]

I would be calling a lawyer and medical board. At minimum, the doctors/techs involved should get a formal reprimand and you shouldn't be held accountable for any of the bills involved during the wrong treatment.

I am going to wait until I have my surgical consultation. If there was any additional harm caused by the treatment delay, I may have to consider a lawsuit. If there was no damage caused, I will just make it a complaint and refuse the bills.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I know two people who were also discharged from the ER without the medical team having caught fractured bones.

Are you in the US?

This kind of care is why I think it's shameful that we allow for-profit insurance companies to dictate to doctors and other medical professionals what their time allowance per patient is, and pressure them into limiting tests they might otherwise prefer to run.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

A couple of thoughts. I would check your medical record from the ER to see if an orthopedic or surgical consult (MDs) was done at that time. If they did XRays, either one or two radiologists (MDs) had to sign off on them (that there was no fracture, and they deal with these types of things all the time; the ER doc would go by what their readings were. I also imagine there was some evidence of infection - they may have taken pictures which would be in your record, too).

My next step would be to get a third opinion from an orthopedist (MD) who specializes in foot injuries - who is to say the podiatrist is not incorrect or overzealous in the diagnosis? FTR podiatrists are not an MDs, they are DPMs. I would want to have an MD evaluate my case before I did anything else.

It is strange they didn't admit you to the hospital given that you had four days of IV antibiotics. Was this ER at a hospital, or was it a clinic?

And lest you think that I haven't had this type of thing happen, I have. Recently, with a family member. And I believe it did affect the outcome. So I have definitely BTDT, too. But you want to have all your information straight and bases covered before you move forward; you also want to be SURE you have the right care for your foot. I would find the best foot orthopedist in your area and get a consult with him or her asap to compare it to what your podiatrist has said. Good luck.

ETA the notes from your IV antibiotic visits will also describe any changes/improvement to your foot during therapy. Sometimes they take measurements, even, in addition to pictures. These are things that lawyers look at when they study a case. It would be very unusual to not see some improvement over four days of IV antibiotics for cellulitis. Could it be possible you had cellulitis in addition to anything else you had going on with your foot? I was happy to read it wasn't a blood clot!

 

[wenrob]

I’m so very sorry. I hope your doctor is able to reverse the damage and you will be right as rain again.

I firmly believe a misdiagnosis in the ER destroyed what health my dad had left and made the last five years of his life almost unbearable. He was diagnosed with an obscure condition that usually happens to very young children or women in their 50s. What was more frustrating was that his regular doctors just accepted this diagnosis and refused to dig further. By the time we finally got someone to hear us and take notice the damage had already been done.

Then there was the day after Halloween when my DD 13 texted from upstairs saying she couldn’t stand up or walk. My husband literally had to carry her on his back. We decided to go to the ER since we were pretty sure that’s where the pediatrician would send us (and she later confirmed she would have) and they had the means for bloodwork etc. right there. From the intake nurse, everyone in between and the PA they kind of mocked her and treated her like a kid who didn’t want to go to school the day after Halloween or was just sore from Trick or Treating. Finally I looked the PA in the eyes and said, “This is my kid who never stops and she cannot walk.” I’m not sure if it was my tone or that they decided to indulge me but they ordered bloodwork and urine tests. Her CK levels were 4,500, normal is 300. Basically her immune system was attacking her leg muscles. They were pretty shocked there was actually a problem. Her pediatrician was appalled. Apparently there are several conditions that can cause a 13 year old girl not to be able to walk.