Crazy Hospital Stories

Life Health & Fitness
1

Taiwan’s medical system is not too bad. Cheap, accessible to practically all, and no waiting lists. In many respects, it is better than a lot of places.

However, I have found the diagnosis skills at many public hospitals to be second rate. If shit ever hit the fan, I would probably go to a private boutique hospital or go to Singapore( I love 10 tier health care), Malaysia, or Thailand.

My story. It was August 2003. I had lived one year in Taiwan and had not taken good care of myself. I drank every weekend, my diet was poor, and I worked too hard. Started to feel run down. Caught the flu and was slow to recover. Went to TVH in Shihlin. The doctor took a bloodtest and was adamant that I had leukemia. I was shocked to say the least. They did a bone marrow biopsy. That is the test where they take bone from your spine. Came back negative…doc still wasn’t convinced…Went for an MRI scan…negative too…

I went to a private hosptial…told me I had a bad flu that had caused my wbc count to be elevated.

For three weeks, I thought I had cancer while I waited for the test results at TVH. Needless to say, I haven’t been back there since.

Anyone else have any crazy diagnosis stories?

2

A Swedish friend of mine was once told he was pregnant.

3

Hmmmm…knowing Taiwan, I’m actually inclined to believe you.

4

I went to the doctor for severe constipation and luckily my friend showed up in time to save me from getting an abortion… and there was NO WAY I was knocked up. I still think the doctor was smoking crack.

5

[quote=“Chewycorns”]
Anyone else have any crazy diagnosis stories?[/quote]

My experience in an emergency ward: The diagnosis itself wasn’t really crazy, but I did find it odd they had to xray my chest and ultra sound my abdomin several times to determine there were no broken ribs.

The crazy thing was they put me in a bed as far away from the Taiwanese patients as possible.

Oooh, an even crazier thing: The nurses tried to give me an IV, but couldn’t find a vein. This goes in the WTF category as several large veins can be seen on the top of my hand. Anyway, after my hand looked like it had been used as a pin cushion they just gave up. :loco:

6

Yeah, I really hate having to listen to the nurses discuss in Chinese how strange foreigners are for wanting to have sterile needles. If they don’t know why it’s a good idea, I guess that helps explain why so many people here seem to be clueless about HIV.

7

Yow, Chewy, What a nightmare that must have been!

A couple of years back a friend of mine was suffering from severe abdominal pains. I rushed him from a small hospital–where they were insisting he was constipated and was giving him enemas–to Chang Kung Hospital in Linkou. Turns out he had acute appendicitis–what I had thought.

At 4:30 in the morning–about 8 hours later–a doctor came out to the waiting room where I was sitting exhausted and motioned me over to where he was standing holding a stainless-steel tray.

When I got to where he was, he started to explain in medical terms how distended my friend’s appendix was and proceeded to illustrate by poking with forceps at the purplish and blood-covered appendix lying in the bottom of the tray. Didn’t gross me out, actually, I thought it was kind of cool.

8

Back around 1988…a buddy of mine had just returned to Taiwan after a 2-3 month trip to Central America with his Taiwanese girlfriend. About 2-3 weeks after they got back she gave me a frantic phone call. He was in RenAi Hospital and the doctors said he had AIDS. I was living only a block away on FuXing N. Rd so I ran over to see WTF was going on. They had cleared an entire ward and left him there by himself in a bed. Nurses and doctors refused to go in. I went in and walked across this huge empty room to his lonely bed…and looked into his very, very [color=yellow]yellow[/color] eyes.

Yes. Hepatitis. Not AIDS. :unamused:

Morons.

9

Forgive me for reposting a story that I’m sure was so crazy I have posted it somewhere else on this website…

I had twisted an already aggravated ankle (did 3 months of physical therapy on it the year before as a university student for another sprain). I went to Wanfang Hospital because the swelling wasn’t going down despite RICEing it. The doctor went to put an IV needle in to inject medicine… :ponder: …and blood started to spurt out. The ER nurses took one look at it, and ran off squealing, “Ai-yoo!”. E-fucking-R nurses frightened by the sight of blood.

The doctor was not exactly Marcus Wellby either. He was wearing the ubiquitous blue plastic sandals and had yellow crusty toenails, ashy yellowish-gray heels, and purplish skin with small sores on his feet. Hardly the feet of a person by whom I would want my own feet taken care of. At the end of it as I was paying my bills, my foot drained of its blood and less swollen, “Dr. Wellby” came over (from the examination area to the front of the ER, mind you) and started talking to me about how long I’ve been in Taiwan, what do I do, do I like Taiwan…then he started asking if I had friends here and if I had a boyfriend. You see where this is going… He gave me his number and told me that if I ever felt lonely, to give him a call.

That’s fucked up Taiwan hospital story number one and it’s one I’m sure my grandkids will all know…about how close they could have come to having a sleazy, disgusting slob of a doctor as their ancestor. Which wouldn’t be all that close, mind you.

Number two isn’t that bad, except that it shows the ineptitude of some of the doctors here. I went in after having a classic migraine. I was freaked out by the symptoms because it was the first one where I had blurred vision for several minutes, literally not being able to even see my hand in front of me, so before I went I looked up the symptoms online to make sure I didn’t have sudden glaucoma or a brain tumor. I typed in the symptoms and it pointed to a classic migraine: blurred vision, halos, severe throbbing on one side, weakness in the limbs on that side, light and noise sensitivity. Equipped with this knowledge, I walked into the ER just wanting to get some meds to make it stop. The doctor asked me what was wrong. I told him I was having a classic migraine. “How would I know?” he asked me sardonically after I had said I looked up the symptoms online.

After thorough examination, eye tests, an x-ray of my head, and many minutes of my head pounding painfully, he informed me that I had a classic migraine. No shit, Dr. Sherlock. :unamused:

I have many more stories like the gastrointestinal doctor who couldn’t bring himself to actually ask for a stool sample without having to resort to childish language (like “poo”) and the gynecologist’s nurse who was intent on seeing if black women had the same, er, inner workings as other women and then couldn’t take her eyes off, even when the doctor asked her to get things for her. But that’s a bit too TMI for this thread.

10

Are you serious? Which hospital?

I’ve just had this discussion with an expat and was assured they only use disposable needles now.

11

Are you serious? Which hospital?
I’ve just had this discussion with an expat and was assured they only use disposable needles now.[/quote]
I will have to echo Ironman on this one.
Each of the times where I have had to get a blood pull here I have been extra cautious in making sure that Sterile One Time Use needles were used, they were, and I was assured that this was the norm. It has proven to be SOP so far as my experience has shown here on the island.

Of course there are still 10,000 + children under 12 yrs of age dying each year here from hepatitus so there is plenty of room for improvement.

12

After years of dodging the bullet, karma finally got even.

The Day I Officially Lost My Mind – February 2004 – I was rushed to Cathay hospital with a severe hand injury caused in part by a 2 foot blade. I would go into detail but naaah…

So after spraying blood all over the surrounding area, into the taxi, all over the driver, the girl who accompanied me and another dude who shall remain nameless (Thanks), I finally made it to the Emergency Entrance. My hand was, for the most part, in two pieces. I was split down the centre of my palm which led down into my wrist. The only thing that stopped the blade from taking off my hand was the wrist joint (where the hand meets the forearm). Everything was severed. I also had other minor injuries which included slashes across my head and a 3 inch stab wound on my right side.

Anyway, I’m sitting in the wheelchair in the middle of the ER and I’m between agony and anger. As the adreneline wore off, the agony began. I was sitting in the ER for 4 hours. They put a tourniquet (sp?) on my forearm and stuck my shoulder full of pain killers. I couldn’t believe the amount of blood I was losing and it didn’t help that I was in and out of the drugs and agony, just to scream profanities at everyone around me. There was a pool of blood extending about 4 feet in circumference around the chair I was sitting in. To tell ya the truth, details from this point are foggy with the drugs taking effect. This was the shittiest part of the whole ordeal.

So, I finally get into surgery and the doctor told me I would be ‘ok’ as I begged him to save my hand. To this day I think that doctor did an amazing job. I have 80% of my movement and about 50% feeling. That doctor was amazing.

It was brought to my attention that he scolded the personnel for their inability to pick up the phone and call him sooner because I lost so much blood. Not only that, but it was assumed , due to the circumstances, he had paid the bill I owed to the hospital. He did all of the work for free. I did not get a call or a notice to pay the bill even though I attended the same hospital for check ups and therapy. In case some of you are wondering, this was a 4 or 5 hour long surgery that included re-attaching nerves, tendons, muscles and removing bone chips/fragments in my wrist and hand.

When the goin gets tough, those boys (Doctors) know what to do. I trust’em.

13

2001 in Taichung

I had a fever and was pissing blood. I went to the hospital where they did an X-ray of my kidneys and did some blood tests. They told me that I had a kidney stone, gave me some muscle relaxants and told me to wait and I would pass it.

A couple of excruciatingly uncomfortable days passed and no stone was passed. I went back to the hospital and took my X-ray and went to another hospital for a 2nd opinion. I put the x-ray up on the light board and pointed at the “kidney stone” and he said that yes it in fact was a kidney stone and that I would just have to wait.

Another day passed with no stone passing and I was going crazy. Every time I urinated it was terribly painful. I woke up at night crying.

A friend of mine reccommended that I go see her doctor. He graduated from a reputable medical school in the U.S.

I went to see him with x-ray in hand and asked his opinion.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have been pissing blood and have had a fever for a few days. Two doctors told me that this is a kidney stone”.

“That’s not a kidney stone. That’s just an error in the x-ray. You have a severe bladder infection”.

He gave me anti-biotics and by the end of the day the pain and fever had gone away. I coudn’t belive the gross incompetance.

14

This happened a few years ago. I was suffering from extreme diarrhea, weakness, terrible lower intestinal pain, vomiting and a severely high fever. I’ve had this once before so I knew what it was: severe gastroenteritis(sp?).

At 2a.m., I crawled to the emergency room and asked to see a doctor. The nurses told me they don’t understand English and ignored me. The funny thing is… I was speaking Chinese… :loco: Finally, I walked past them (much to their horror) and began speaking to a doctor. The nurses were screaming that I can’t do that and they wanted me to leave. I explained everything to the doctor who promptly scolded the two nurses. I thought to myself, “Good. This guy can help me.”. I told him my symptoms and he could see I was in a lot of pain. He took blood and hooked me up to an IV unit to replace the fluids I had lost.

An hour later, he came back to tell me, “There is nothing wrong with you.”. I argued, but it did no good. I had no choice but to return home.

At 5a.m. I awoke to a rather disturbing realization. I was laying, literally, in a pool of my own feces. :astonished: The next problem was that I was too weak and dizzy to get up. I called my girlfriend (thank god the phone is close to the bed and her number was on speed dial) who immediately rushed to my home. She couldn’t believe the state I was in. The ambulance driver wanted to take me back to the same hospital, but my girlfriend quickly told him it wasn’t an option. The doctor at the next hospital even called the previous emergency room doctor an idiot. He couldn’t believe the obvious incompetence. I could…

Is there a moral to the story? Yep. Going to a hospital in Taiwan is like flipping a coin. You have a 50% chance of getting the medical attention you need.

15

I recall going to a public hospital in Taoyuan for the “foreigner” exam: HIV testing, Chest x-ray, and they tested me for color blindness. The thing is the book of patterns with numbers hidden in them in different color had been photocopied! Thus the only “colors” were shades of gray.

I did have my chin stitched up nicely after going over my bicycle’s handlebars.

Bodo

16

I got a few of these. My birth story is too long to type, but was nutts and my son was injured.

My first experience with Taiwanese medicine was a yeast infection about three months after I got there. I was shocked, first of all, at not being able to buy over the counter med.s for this. But went to a GYN who was a friend of a Taiwanese friend, who discussed, erm…ME with my friend and her husband. He over treated the infection and it kept comming back. He kept treating it the same, though I knew I had the opposite problem now. Had to go back to the States before I got that one fixed.

Then, after my terrible birth experience and eventual c-section, I refused to go back to my dr. to have the metal staples removed. We were looking for another dr. to do this. One place I went didn’t have the correct staple pulling tool and was looking around for something else that might work. Really, picking things up and looking them over with a eye toward my tummy. I just got up and walked right out of there.

Oh, and I was told I had cancer of the throat here, too, because I don’t have tonsills and it freaked the dr. out. He sent me to another hospital to a throat cancer specialist who said that many small practice dr. s send him foreigners!

17

[quote=“ImaniOU”] The doctor was not exactly Marcus Wellby either. He was wearing the ubiquitous blue plastic sandals and had yellow crusty toenails, ashy yellowish-gray heels, and purplish skin with small sores on his feet…

That’s fucked up Taiwan hospital story number one and it’s one I’m sure my grandkids will all know…about how close they could have come to having a sleazy, disgusting slob of a doctor as their ancestor. Which wouldn’t be all that close, mind you. [/quote]

My feet are clean and well manicured…can I have your number?

Now that’s funny! :laughing: :bravo:

Ever hear from one of the locals how only the absoulte smartest of the smart are even allowed to get into medical school here? Maybe the “dumb” ones who can’t get into a Taiwanese Medical school should just go study in the states…and come back with ten times as much knowledge as there Taiwan co-workers.

One thing I noticed here is that quite a few doctors office…they have a sheet with different drugs listed on it. They then check off which ones you need. So they are pre-filled in prescription sheets…that only need a checkmark and a signature. You’d think there are more than just 10 different medicines that people might need to use.

18

Not really. If they’re specialists, then the list would refer to their speciality and what’s available on NHS discount.

The UN keeps an essential list of drug products, it’s quite amazingly brief.

HG

19

Are you serious? Which hospital?

I’ve just had this discussion with an expat and was assured they only use disposable needles now.[/quote]
What they tell foreigners in Taiwan and what they actually do are not necessarily the same.
I’m sure they have been told to use sterile dispoasable needles; it’s the fact that they needed to be told, and that at least some medical personnel think it’s a waste of money, is what worries me.
The discussions I heard were between nurses - one was in a small hospital in Sanchong and the other was at the place where foreigners get their blood taken for the ARC medical exam in Ren’ai Hospital. At Ren’ai they did use the new needles, it’s just that the nurses were talking about the weird foreigners who think it’s necessary.
However - one of my classmates (the Japanese wife of the CEO of some Japanese company here) says that the companies that recycle the needles do not necessarily sterilize them. A small company in Taiwan not following the rules to save a few bucks in the short term - hard to believe, I know. She claims to know this because she knows the owners of one of the company.
Other problem: acupuncture. Many people here (patients) have told me that since acupuncture uses too many needles, it is too much trouble to sterilize them all, and too expensive to use new disposable ones for each patient, and that therefore it is perfectly reasonable for acupuncture clinics to reuse the needles. When I mention HIV and Hepatitus, they act like it’s impossible. I don’t get why they don’t get it.
Actually, I guess it’s because the level of medical knowledge amongst nonprofessionals here is way lower than in the West. An example in ImaniOU’s post - the doctor didn’t think she, a nondoctor, could possibly know she had a migraine. One of the reasons my Chinese teacher claims you must go to the doctor for a cold is because we really don’t have the knowledge necessary to diagnose it.

20

bababa (bobobo - it’s Thai). I’m not sure but by the sounds of it, you somehow managed to take that number 3 bus outta Sanchong to the mainland. Nothing like a little bit of knowledge to make someone dangerous.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with reusable products, as long as they are sterilised, and no, sterilising is no great mystery, or expense. All that’s required is constant heat and pressure. 95% of all instruments used in an operating theatre, for example, are reusable instruments flash sterilised. Cheap indicators are put in with the loads and you can spot immediately if something is not adequately sterilised.

The only concern you should really have about reusable needles is that they become blunt with repeated use. They are also somewhat more prone to breaking.

If the situation was anything like as you described it, then there would be a major Aids problem in Taiwan akin to that in Hunan across the strait.

Taiwan’s healthcare is in fact world class, the only issue I see is doctors in the hospital system are over stretched by the wide-held mentality to exploit the health care system over the most trifling matter. A national hypchondriasis if you will.

HG