Re:Things I Wish I’d Known Before My Chronic Illness
by scarmig on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @12:15PM
(#19200637)
Thanks for sharing that story.
It's scary that sheer happenstance saved your aunt's life. I wonder how medical record keeping could be improved to help with that scenario.
Re:Things I Wish I’d Known Before My Chronic Illness
by rkangel on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @12:32PM
(#19200849)
What's scary to me is that after 10 attempts at the landline over a period of time, I would have (correctly but unhelpfully) concluded that he was away for Christmas and abandoned that approach. My Uncle was more persistent.
In this case I think it was less knowledge of the particular case, and more the expertise in that specialised situation. Skillset rather than records.
My aunt had a condition that causes fluid build up in her brain. She has a slightly unusual shunt arrangement, and over Christmas (we now know) it got blocked up. She started developing neurological symptoms, and the only person who knew enough about her treatment to be able to sort it out was her doctor.
The actually had his home landline number, but he was away, and it was only due to luck of a call coinciding with the neighbour feeding the cat that they were able to get the number of where he was for Christmas. By that point, my aunt with unconscious in hospital, and might well have died if treatment had been delayed any more.