Alice Tapper, daughter of CNN's Jake, tells her appendicitis misdiagnosis story

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This almost sounds like her doctors were trying to kill her! I realize that appendicitis can present in many different ways, but that she had no imaging for this long boggles my mind, and this was with educated parents. I also understand how it can be misdiagnosed in small children, because they can’t verbalize what’s going on.

I’ve never had appendicitis, but I’ve known lots of people who did, and been involved in their care, and it really is true that people who have obvious symptoms, miserable as they are, do much better than those who don’t.

2

My son found himself in the exact same situation due to an atypical presentation and an unwillingness to complain. It was only when he collapsed at the top of the stairs that we took him to A&E.
Our story differs in that he was immediately fast-tracked, scanned, diagnosed, admitted and operated on in the space of a couple of hours so full marks to the NHS doctors.
It was a close thing though. It must have been rumbling on for some time as the appendix was now perforated and gangrenous. It was, as the surgeon said “a mess down there” but thanks to quick action, skilled medics and enough antibiotics to fell a horse he recovered well.

3

Glad young Master Bobble got through it.
That cannot have been easy.

4

A friend of mine had classic signs of appendicitis. I drove her to the ER. Her biggest worry was her complete lack of insurance.

At the hospital she was told she had a virus and was sent home with a prescription to take.

Later that night she called another friend. She thought she was going to die. Friend drove her back to same ER, where she was rushed into surgery to have her appendix removed, which had ruptured.

A lawyer representing the hospital came to discuss her situation. The lawyer said if she signed a release there’d be no bill. She signed.

When she was discharged, I picked her up. When we went through the discharge process she was told she owed a small sum for her television. She handed the woman the lawyer’s card and asked that she call him. A few minutes later she was given back the card and was told she owed nothing.

5

Thank you, it wasn’t in the least bit scary until it was too late to do anything about it but the doctors said we weren’t that far from leaving it too late. The aftermath, when he was recovering, was not nice. There was a big risk of sepsis and other secondary infections and for several weeks he had to swallow down huge amounts, of massive, foul-tasting antibiotic tablets that made him retch. His little ashen face when he knew it was time to take them was heartbreaking.

What did make my wife and I tear-up was when his big sister suggested she start taking him out for some fresh air by the river to see the birds and we saw him shuffling off down our road, slowly, slowly, with her holding him gently round the waist and supporting him.

My wife and I were furious with ourselves for letting it get so far but part of the reason was that, thankfully, my son has been so rarely ill in his life that he probably was unable to articulate that his illness from appendicitis was anything other than a normal stomach bug. He just didn’t have any reference point to compare it to and he put on a brave face.

That doesn’t excuse us of course, we were probably far too complacent when really the fact that he was very noticeably ill at all should have made us take it more seriously.

Anyhow, long story short. We were fortunate, for such a common compliant with potentially serious outcomes it is can be a tricky beast to spot early

6

This pretty much happened to me when I was 7 (in the late 1960’s). Wound up with peritonitis and a massive case of blood poisoning. Doctor in ER had the nerve to yell at my mother for “waiting” so long to take in. Even after the surgery I was given last rites because the staff thought the procedure was “too late”. It took 3 weeks in the hospital before I was “well” enough to go home. I lived on pure I.V. nutrition that whole time, along with massive amounts of antibiotics. Two blood tests a day. Still have a nasty scar where the drainage port was.

7

I had an uncle who had appendicitis as a kid. It was misdiagnosed and the doctor prescribed laxatives – the worst thing you can do. The appendix ruptures and he died (this was before antibiotics). My grandmother never got over it and spent several months in a sanitarium (Also before they understood clinical depression).

8

I didn’t suspect appendicitis when I had it. The center of my lower abdomen felt bloated, and my wife said “it sounds like you got your period.” Fortunately they got to it before it burst.

9

I read the story this morning and that poor girl. I had the opposite experience in my 20s. I had excruciating pain on my right side and it was not appendicitis and it felt like no one believed me that something was going on when tests came back negative. They were very intent on looking for the horse with the hoofbeats. Alas, I had a zebra (non malignant tumor that showed up eventually on a CT scan)

10

I’m with you. I’d be absolutely livid over they’re inability to understand that she was truly in pain. What, she’s a teenager so she must be faking it?

I’ve been misdiagnosed and been treated like a hypochondriac so many damn times that I don’t trust doctors to get it right any more. And I’m willing to raise a ruckus unlike in my youth when I swallowed my pain and gave up. We didn’t discover my endometriosis and PCOS (and then I learned about all the associated issues) until I was in peri-menopause and hemorrhaging. Yet all along I talked about the pains, and all the associated problems but no doctor was ever able to put 2 + 2 together.

I’ve now got an Internist that I trust but she has to prove all my problems to the insurance company before I get allowed PT or expensive medication.

It’s a very broken system and it was broken by humans and corporations.

11

It happened to a co-worker’s wife. She was a woman in her fifties, not a young girl. But when she went in to the ER complaining of stomach pains all they did for her was give her a shot of pain killers. That made her feel good enough to go home but a few hours later, the shot wore off and she was in extreme pain. It was on the second trip to the ER that a different doctor diagnosed her appendicitis.

12

An elderly woman at my old church went to the ER with lower-right sided abdominal pain and GI distress, and was promptly taken into the OR. Her appendix was normal, but a blood vessel to her right Fallopian tube and ovary, organs she hadn’t used in decades, had clotted and the organs were gangrenous! They did decide to take out her appendix while they were in there, but yeah, that was quite a surprise, and something that honestly could have killed her as quickly as a burst appendix.

In the same town, I worked with a man who would now be about 80 years old. His own experience happened when he was about 13; he’d been vaguely ill for a few days, and his mother took him to the doctor. The doctor told him to strip and put on a gown, and when he came back, he said, “Bend over” and did a rectal exam, which just about sent him through the roof! Apparently, at one time that was considered a diagnostic sign, and the doctor sent them to the hospital and sure enough, my co-worker did indeed have appendicitis.

He came home a few days later, and discovered that his hobby of assembling balsa wood airplanes with his friends had come to an end, because the airplane glue smelled just like that anesthetic gas, which at that time was probably ether.

I’ll never forget the evening at that hospital where appys were coming in right and left, and they had to triage them! It was the.weirdest.thing.

Historical factoid: It’s now believed that the one fatality on the Lewis & Clark expedition was from appendicitis, and that he was probably given calomel, a mercury-based laxative, only sped things up in more ways than one.

13

How did the lawyer find out about this, or do you know?

14

Mods: I hope this doesn’t violate the rules on changing quotes to change the meaning.

15

Wow, what a terrible ordeal for Alice.

It’s incredible Jake Tapper had to call the hospital administrator to override the doctor and get a ultrasound or xray. They are routine diagnostic tools.

There had to be consultants on this case and no one spoke up.

They even ignored the pediatrician. :hushed:

16

The first summer of the pandemic, my kid, who was 7, started getting very high fevers, which would then go away. Over several weeks her symptoms were throwing up two or three times, the intermittent 105+ fever, low appetite, tired, and cranky. That really didn’t sound like COVID.

We talked to the doctor, and were told plenty of fluids and such. Of course the fever would clear up for a few days, then come back. We went to urgent care, and they said plenty of fluids, and the fever would clear up for a few days, before coming back. We went back to the doctor, same thing.

This is back when the intake receptionist would take a forehead temperatures. The final doctor visit the receptionist got 106. COVID protocols wouldn’t let us in, so the doctor told us to go directly to Children’s Hospital urgent care, and don’t leave until they figure it out.

I was lectured by medical staff that they don’t care how high the temperature is, a fever is 100.4, and they’ll act the same whether it’s 100.4 or 107. That was not true. When my kid showed up at urgent care the first time with a 101 fever: fluids and such. Showed up with a 106 and they admitted her to the hospital, did COVID tests, blood tests, an abdominal CT scan, and a bunch of other stuff.

Turned out to be a kidney infection, and maybe sepsis had set in, and her inflammation indicators were way high. Fortunately it responded very well to antibiotics.

The lesson I learned was for the most part the doctors were great once they decided there was a big problem. Next time I need to strongly advocate that something is wrong with this kid, don’t just send us away. One doctor in urgent care kept insisting it was MIS-C, even though the COVID tests came back negative, but fortunately seeing bacteria in urine is a good reason to start antibiotics, even if “it’s probably MIS-C.” None of the hospital docs thought it was MIS-C.

17

heh this sounds like when my former gallbladder almost killed me …although once I thought about it it could have started 2 years earlier with my MD misdiagnosing it as a hernia …

18

I assume it was the talk of the ER. A woman was misdiagnosed, sent home with medication, and came back in critical condition a few hours later. The lawyer worked in the hospital doing his job.

19

Moderating:

Yeah, it does. And your meaning is ambiguous just from reading the post. I initial thought you were correcting the poster’s grammar.

If i understand what you want to say, you should post something like

That is, the difference is NHS doctors

20

Reading between the lines on this thread, I’m starting to wonder if there’s a huge population of giant whiners and hypochondriacs out there who basically make doctors skeptical with non-issues, so that when someone who’s sort of stoic comes in, they’re automatically skeptical.

I mean, I don’t think doctors are naturally prone to disregarding patient reported symptoms- there must be some reason that they seem to automatically discount people’s commentary about pain, discomfort, etc… This sort of story is becoming more and more common anecdotally- having to advocate forcefully for appropriate care seems to be becoming the standard rather than the rule. (I once had to point out to the ER docs twice that I literally had a dent where my patellar tendon normally sticks out, that I couldn’t straighten my leg, and that I didn’t sprain my knee, when I’d completely ruptured my patellar tendon)

Is that the case? Are there a lot of people who are just full of BS and bug doctors for non-issues?