My Doctor’s “Oops” Moment

What is the one word you don’t want to hear when visiting a medical professional?

A few weeks ago, I visited my cardiologist.  He walked into the examination room reading a sheaf of medical records supplied by my internist.

“Your blood tests from Monday were fine,” he began as Daveen and I smiled, “but your blood tests from last week are alarming.”

I looked at him.

“I didn’t have any blood tests last week,” I said.

“Oh.”  He rustled through the papers.

“Oops.  Those were for another patient.”

I have read that many medical patients, especially in a hospital, suffer unnecessarily due to human error. As terrible as that is, it makes sense. We humans are not designed to be perfect, and mistakes – our own and others – are always possible. This is why, when my children began to drive, I told them that if they failed to pay attention, even for 5 seconds, they could be killed in an auto accident – and that it might not even be their fault.  My friend’s son was driving home from work when he was tragically killed by a drunk driver speeding through a red light at 2:30 in the morning.

I am not a doctor, but I have the greatest respect for those who are.  When my parents tried to convince me to study medicine, my answer – repeatedly – was an emphatic “No,” because I faint at the sight of blood.  I hope that I eventually satisfied them by  becoming both a CPA and an attorney.  And, my eldest son became a doctor, and he has been extremely helpful to our entire family.  He also married a doctor, who has been equally helpful.

What I learned from my recent cardiologist visit is that it’s important to not only check my own work for mistakes, but also the work of others.  This won’t eliminate every mistake, but it does catch many and that is certainly a plus, especially when my life might depend on it.

I’m sure that if I looked over my blogs of the past ten years, I would find a typo or two, even after extensive proofreading by me and others.

To err is human, to forgive . . . well, that could be the subject of another blog.

Alan