My Stupid Mistakes

A reader asks me, not about others' medical mistakes, but about my own.

Here's one - my full responsibility - that almost cost a life.

It was warm and muggy in Washington, D.C., where I (traveling with my wife and son) attended a board meeting of the National Health Lawyers Association. One evening, the three of us strolled through the mist to the Lincoln Memorial. Walking back, I felt an unfamiliar uncomfortable pressure in my chest. As a physician I was well-equipped to go down the differential diagnosis list. High on the list - acute coronary artery insufficiency. Not as high on the list, esophageal spasm. I did what a lot of doctors do when they are making decisions about their own health: I chose to ignore the most serious diagnosis. Without sharing information about my quickly resolving discomfort, I used a beginning Washington drizzle as an excuse to take a cab back to the nearby hotel.

Two weeks later, back in California, Sunday shopping at a crowded Costco, the discomfort returned, worse but shorter in duration. If a patient had called me with that complaint, I would have demanded that he or someone with him call 911 for an ambulance and emergency hospital evaluation. I didn't call 911 and when the discomfort passed, I finished shopping and went home.

I didn't consider my complaint a "flashing red light and sound the sirens emergency," but, realizing that my denial was stupid, did see my physician the next day. I had my treadmill (my cardiologist partner's face told me everything I needed to know within two minutes of beginning the test), and went on to have successful surgery nineteen years ago.

Yes, it's true: the doctor who diagnoses and treats himself has a fool for a patient.

For my readers: If you develop the symptoms I described, tell someone with you what is happening, immediately call 911 (or have someone call for you), demand emergency transportation to a hospital, and let a competent physician and team evaluate you. I was lucky: you might not be.