We often talk about people being 'lucky' . When we watched the super ball or NBA play offs , we see that some games are won not by dominance of one team over other team, but sometimes it's shear luck . Otherwise why would at buzzer someone throws a ball and it is nothing but the net . No one , not even the player who threw the ball in desperation, thought that it would go . But it did . So that is the luck ,In medicine also the luck plays the roll , Sometimes the patients are lucky and sometimes the doctors are lucky .But most of the physicians will not say so , and will take the credit for diagnosing something unusual or diagnosing something which was not indicated by the symptoms . But I know better . I don't think I can take any credits or discredits when things go unexpectedly right or wrong respectively. There is a saying by a physician who invented the antiseptic technique or the hand washing before the delivery, to reduce infection '.I dressed the wound and God healed it .'So true! I n the Hindu scripture it says , 'You have right to the action , but not to the fruits of the actions ,' This does not mean murderer is not responsible for his or her actions.This brings me to the today's story.
I saw this patient in my office few months ago . He was a young man who had cough for several months . He had tried over the counter medicines and antibiotics and some other stuff. It had not worked . So he was referred to me . He was not a smoker and had really no past medical problems . He did appear to me to be anxious. I did chest x-ray and breathing test and allergy test . The x-ray was normal and the breathing test was almost normal . I could make a case for mildest form pf asthma , but it was OK . The allergy test did show allergies to molds. I did put him on some medicines and then he missed follow up . I thought that he may have gotten better or gotten tired of going to doctor as nothing was positive . But then one day he showed up. His mother had passed away and he was out of town when she got sick. He was so upset that he spent 6 hours with her when she had already died!He simply could not stand loosing her . I can relate to it easily as I have lost my mother last year.I told him the concept of life after death and the Astral world and told him some books to read . I restarted him on inhaler and send him to an allergist . The allergist did the allergy tests and gave him some medicines . I had not seen him for may be 7-8 weeks . The one day when I was going to my office from hospital. ,I got a call from the emergency room physician , He was in ER with shortness of breath. The physician wanted to know if I wanted to see him in office sooner or wanted to know if I had any suggestions. He had done the chest X-ray, cardiogram , blood test to rule out heart attach and congestive heart failure and regular blood count.All the tests were normal . His oxygen was normal but he had shown in ER with cough and shortness of the breath . I was in the car . I was not too sure as to his problem . He certainly was worked up by me and nothing was found out granted it was 6 months ago.I don't know what happened , but I told the ER physician that since this was 40 years old patient , who had shown to ER with the complaints of shortness of breath,we should at least do CT scan to rule out clots . Mind you I did not think that the CT scan was highly indicated or was going to be informative . So the CT scan was done . I was in office when the ER physician called me . He said , 'You just saved this young man's life . He has significant clots in lungs , both lungs 'I gave some more orders and went to see him after the office . He was treated and was discharged . But I had DONE NOTHING. I happen to throw the ball at the buzzer and scored the 3 points to win .But I was really lucky , or may be the patient was really lucky.
I saw this patient in my office few months ago . He was a young man who had cough for several months . He had tried over the counter medicines and antibiotics and some other stuff. It had not worked . So he was referred to me . He was not a smoker and had really no past medical problems . He did appear to me to be anxious. I did chest x-ray and breathing test and allergy test . The x-ray was normal and the breathing test was almost normal . I could make a case for mildest form pf asthma , but it was OK . The allergy test did show allergies to molds. I did put him on some medicines and then he missed follow up . I thought that he may have gotten better or gotten tired of going to doctor as nothing was positive . But then one day he showed up. His mother had passed away and he was out of town when she got sick. He was so upset that he spent 6 hours with her when she had already died!He simply could not stand loosing her . I can relate to it easily as I have lost my mother last year.I told him the concept of life after death and the Astral world and told him some books to read . I restarted him on inhaler and send him to an allergist . The allergist did the allergy tests and gave him some medicines . I had not seen him for may be 7-8 weeks . The one day when I was going to my office from hospital. ,I got a call from the emergency room physician , He was in ER with shortness of breath. The physician wanted to know if I wanted to see him in office sooner or wanted to know if I had any suggestions. He had done the chest X-ray, cardiogram , blood test to rule out heart attach and congestive heart failure and regular blood count.All the tests were normal . His oxygen was normal but he had shown in ER with cough and shortness of the breath . I was in the car . I was not too sure as to his problem . He certainly was worked up by me and nothing was found out granted it was 6 months ago.I don't know what happened , but I told the ER physician that since this was 40 years old patient , who had shown to ER with the complaints of shortness of breath,we should at least do CT scan to rule out clots . Mind you I did not think that the CT scan was highly indicated or was going to be informative . So the CT scan was done . I was in office when the ER physician called me . He said , 'You just saved this young man's life . He has significant clots in lungs , both lungs 'I gave some more orders and went to see him after the office . He was treated and was discharged . But I had DONE NOTHING. I happen to throw the ball at the buzzer and scored the 3 points to win .But I was really lucky , or may be the patient was really lucky.
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