Patients Reveal The Most Unprofessional Thing A Doctor Has Said To Them

Patients Reveal The Most Unprofessional Thing

Doctors hold our lives in their hands, so we like to think that they’re infallible. Unfortunately, even doctors make mistakes, and sometimes they make huge ones.

A recent Reddit thread asked people about the times that doctors had said or done things that were unprofessional.

Here are twenty-five stories that prove medical school doesn’t always teach plain common sense.

“I had just turned 15 and was getting a throat swab. The male doctor noticed that I had lost my gag reflex, and told me not to worry because it would come in handy in the future for “certain adult activities”. I looked confused so he repeated himself with more of an emphasis on “adult”. No, I wasn’t confused about what you were implying, you idiot, I was confused about what made you think it was a good idea to say that.” (Ana_Kinra)

“20 years ago (yes, I’m old), I woke up one morning and was completely deaf in my left ear. I tried to get out of bed and had vertigo so bad that I fell and couldn’t get back up. I had to be almost carried to the hospital by my then-girlfriend. I go through a barrage of tests and I’m hit with the news that they don’t have a reason for my sudden deafness and chances are it will never come back (it hasn’t). The doctor tells me that there’s no guarantee that the other ear won’t follow suit and I could end up completely deaf at some point in my life. I’m sitting on the exam table, distraught, taking all this in and he says after a long pause….. “well, at least you’re not blind!” and walks out.” (ShastaMcLurky)

“My doctor straight up lied to me. I told him my antidepressant wasn’t working very well, and he told me that there were no other options. I was a psychology student. I knew how many different antidepressants there were, but I didn’t know how to call him out on the lie. Two years later, after a complete emotional breakdown, I’m on better drugs. Still don’t know why he told me that.” (Samwise_Vimes)

“My dentist, while performing a root canal: “Oh, wow, that’s quite a lot of blood” And in response to my muffled sounds of concern about that statement: “Oh, don’t worry, you have very nice blood, its a wonderful shade of red.” It did not make me feel any better about the situation.” (loco830)

“When my brother was 10 or so my dad brought him in to get allergy tested and I went along. One of the things that came back was an allergy to cats. My dad told the doctor we had a cat and asked if there was anything we could do to lessen the symptoms. The doctor pulled out his prescription pad, scribbled something down and handed the prescription to my dad. He drew a picture of a double-barrel shotgun.” (turducken69420)

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“Not me, but overheard by my Mom, who is now ninety. She had pneumonia when she was twelve and was in the hospital at the Mayo clinic since she lived near there. One morning she hears Dr. Mayo outside her room ask the nurse, “Oh, is she still alive?” (toastie2313)

“When I was about 14 my doctor thought that I was a little too snarky, and before she walked out of the room, while I was lying face down on the sheet, she playfully smacked my butt with her clipboard and said, “too tempting” I don’t personally care at all that she did this. It doesn’t bother me, and I’m not putting any thought into it, but even though I don’t care, I’m aware of how other people would feel about that sort of thing, so I still see it as a really bad idea to do that.” (ABJZ)

“My audiologist very somberly and sadly told me I was deaf. Yep, she TOLD ME I was deaf. I told her, “I’m pretty sure that I’m not.” It turns out that she never plugged in the headphones for the audio test she had just given me. (Langenhagen)

“Roughly a year ago I was put into the hospital for severe chest pains. I am 22, so this was a little concerning. After two weeks of being in the hospital, I was diagnosed with Myocarditis, which is basically an infection within my inner heart wall. I was told to do a follow-up with my primary care doctor. I kid you not, the FIRST THING this woman says to me after looking at my chart was. “Hm, Myocarditis…I had a friend that died from that!” Suffice to say I was speechless.” (lewisisgud)

Patients Reveal The Most Unprofessional Thing Matt Groening

“I had a leading allergy specialist say to me “Well I’ll be f—– if I know” after a lengthy investigation over several weeks into my post nasal drip issues. He had tried everything and was all out of ideas. I didn’t mind at all, in fact, I rather appreciated his honesty.” (water began)

“Went to the doctor to get my eye looked at because it’d been hurting more each day for about a week. He had me do a vision test and an eye pressure test. He gets the results and says “the pressure in your right eye is a bit high so I want you to get a cat scan and then get your eye removed.” All I could do was ask if there was a less permanent thing we could try first and he reluctantly prescribed me eye drops. Eye drops cured it.” (series)

“Went in for a routine doctor’s appointment, and the doctor asked about my sexual history. I told her that I’d had sex with women (I’m a woman) and the poor girl panicked. She started telling me that it’s okay to be gay, because it’s 2017, and she’s not going to judge me for it. I know it’s okay to be gay, I had a lesbian threesome like three months ago, I just want to get my blood pressure taken.” (Avocado_Toast)

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“Look I shouldn’t do this but I’m going to call you later this evening and we’ll discuss options for the book, it’s my personal number so I would appreciate you keeping it to yourself.” Highly unprofessional, hugely helpful. Best doctor I’ve ever met for sure.” (megaross)

“I badly burned my hand in my college cafeteria and went to the campus health office. I showed the skin literally dripping off my hand begging for a cream or bandage or anything to ease the pain. After making sure I wasn’t allergic to anything they asked if I was sexually active. I wasn’t but didn’t see how it was relevant to my burned hand. She then moved on to my current medications. I was on an asthma inhaler, ADD meds and birth control. She looked up at me with a smug grin and said “If you aren’t sexually active, why are you on birth control?” as if she had caught me. I yelled back in her face while clutching my blistered hand “IN CASE THE MOOD STRIKES ME. Now, if my sex life is out of the way can you fix my hand?” (Caliblair)

“My first gyno appointment as a teen and I was embarrassed and reluctant to spread my legs. The doctor slapped my knee and said, “Pretend I’m your boyfriend, spread them as you do for him.” I wasn’t even sexually active, I was having medical issues, that’s why I was there.” (deleted)

“When I was a young teenager I had a lot of problems with ovarian cysts and had several surgeries to remove them. I woke one night with severe pain and was taken to the ER, where an unfamiliar doctor performed an ultrasound to see what was going on. He was gruff and cold toward me. I was already understandably nervous and afraid and feeling vulnerable when he jabbed down on my abdomen with the ultrasound device and remarked loudly “and HERE we see the scars from your ABORTION”, in a very judgmental tone. I had never had an abortion, and I was just in shock, and sort of just laid there silently crying, too afraid to say anything. I wish I would have had the guts to say something at the time. To think that this man was dealing with vulnerable, scared young women, and the mistakes he must have made and things he must have said to other girls. Just sort of breaks my heart.” (sharkcrayons)

“If we had things my way we wouldn’t treat people like you.” I’m transsexual and I’d already encountered prejudice in the NHS at the time, So, instead, I self-medicated with estrogen I’d brought online and transitioned without any medical supervision, I told my GP 9 months later after I’d fully transitioned and was living as a woman, (because doing what I was doing unmonitored was kinda dangerous) and got referred to this endocrinologist to prescribe me a regimen. Anyway, he flat out told me how much he hated transsexuals and was hostile throughout our meeting. He wasn’t even shy about it, he flat said it to my face with a nurse and a junior doctor right next to him… He refused to prescribe anything to me and didn’t sign off on the blood tests my GP requested. (Estrogen and Testosterone levels) which if he’d done they would have noticed a potentially dangerous imbalance in my blood work that didn’t get picked up on for another 2 years.” (Pebbles1726)

“Once I was at a carnival with a girl I had just started dating. It was a pretty casual event, I had also brought along my grandma and some buddies. We had just gotten done playing to see how fast you can pitch a game when I noticed my doctor walking towards me, at a carnival of all places. He comes right up and says, “Your test results just came in, you’ve got the HIV! Big time! Big time!” Pretty hard to play that one off smoothly.” (Frig-Off-Randy)

“I had mentioned how I didn’t like looking at my weight during appointments; I have a history of disordered eating and it’s just easier for me. I work out regularly now and eat healthily, but just seeing the number makes me uncomfortable. He goes, “It’s fine, you shouldn’t be ashamed of your body. Many guys, including me, like fatter women’.” (thatgirlisaproblem)

Patients Reveal The Most Unprofessional Thing hgtv

It wasn’t something he said as much as something he did. I came in for a suspected broken leg and he had a couple of residents with him. After the x-ray and having already found out my leg was indeed broken, he grabs my leg and looks at the residents and says “An old but reliable method for diagnosing a broken leg is to place a hand on the ankle, a hand on the knee, and place your knee in the center then pretend like you’re trying to break a stick. If they yell, their leg is broken.” He actually fucking did it to me, three times, to “teach” these residents. I haven’t been back to him since. (Dinosaur_Gaming)

“I was dating a girl for a while and we both went to the doctor to get tested for STDs. When she is done he grabs me and brings me into the room. We chat for a bit and say…” you know…I probably wouldn’t date that girl if I were you”.’

“Oh, god, it’s such a tossup… Is it the nurse practitioner who, while I was in the stirrups, singsonged, “Okay…I’m saying hello to your cervix…and it’s saying hello back!” (Which I thought was odd, because it had never said anything to me.) Or was it the gynecologist who said, “I’m going to give you a mirror and make you look at what you did to yourself?” (Spoiler alert: I didn’t do it to myself.) Or maybe it was the male doctor who, after giving me my annual physical, started asking unnecessary questions about my sex life, which ended with him telling me I must not be any fun in bed and then leering, “I bet you like it dirty.” (ASheepAtTheWheel)

‘” Well, we could take care of it but I want you to use your cervix first”. I have precancerous cells in my cervix that have been present for a while, but the procedure for nipping them in the bud can sometimes cause a higher risk for miscarriage or premature birth IF I ever got pregnant. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not run the risk of cervical cancer and adopt if I couldn’t breed. (If of course, I wanted children) But you know, as a woman I have to make a baby. This happened yesterday and I’m still furious about it.” (Beppi)

“I went in due to a skin problem on my feet. The doctor asked me if I was on any birth control, I answered no, thinking that maybe a side effect of some BC could cause similar symptoms. He then looked me up and down and said: “well, I hope you’re not sexually active then, because at your weight if you fell pregnant I would have to force you to have an abortion.” I left in shock. I was a little overweight at the time, but not hugely.” (PepperPhoenix)

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