It's amazing how easy it is for tiny mistakes to result in serious consequences.
I have a medical condition that took over two years to officially diagnose. During one of my hospital stays toward the beginning of that ordeal, a doctor had decided that my issue required major surgery involving the removal of an organ. Less than one day before the scheduled surgery, the doctor decided to do "one more test" for an easily treatable condition. As it turned out, he had misread a previous doctor's note suggesting a possible diagnosis, as a dismissal of the diagnosis.
I'll never know whether the confusion was due to poor handwriting or poor attention to detail, but I feel lucky that the error was caught in time. I met multiple people during my numerous, lengthy visits whom I suspect were not as lucky.
I have a medical condition that took over two years to officially diagnose. During one of my hospital stays toward the beginning of that ordeal, a doctor had decided that my issue required major surgery involving the removal of an organ. Less than one day before the scheduled surgery, the doctor decided to do "one more test" for an easily treatable condition. As it turned out, he had misread a previous doctor's note suggesting a possible diagnosis, as a dismissal of the diagnosis.
I'll never know whether the confusion was due to poor handwriting or poor attention to detail, but I feel lucky that the error was caught in time. I met multiple people during my numerous, lengthy visits whom I suspect were not as lucky.