by Gillian Connellan

Created on: May 14, 2008

I am not sure they can be trusted!
Maybe if you had a group of consultants altogether, where they were diagnosing a patient with a certain condition that all the doctors had practiced in, then maybe they would be right and you could believe what all are saying.

However, with your local General Practictioner, i do not think they can always be the best judge. Doctors make mistakes, they are human after all.

A number of years ago now, my brother had gone with my mother to our local family doctor of 15 years, as he had a mole growing on his shoulder. The doctor said it was fine and not to worry about it. 3 Months later the mole had grown more and was bleeding at times. She took my brother to the doctors again, and this time he referred him immediately to the hospital. Shortly after that my brother was diagnosed with Malignant Melinoma (not sure of the correct spelling here). Our lives changed forever from this point onwards. He was only 16 years old and was now suffering from cancer. He had to undergo a few operations aswell as chemotherapy for 2 years. Sadly we lost him from a secondary brain tumor when he was just a mere 19 years old.

Obviously we cannot say whether those 3 months were crucial. Could he be alive today if the GP had sent him to the hospital earlier? We will never know the answer to that one. I try not to think about it as it could make you feel bitter and twisted. All i do know is, the GP gave up practice shortly after he was diagnosed.

The doctor had made a serious error and he has had to live with this on his conscience.

I also know, through a conversation with a consultant just the other week, that some GP's were misdiagnosing certain skin cancers. I had to go to hospital to have a wart removed from my face. When i enquired as to why the GP's could not freeze them any more at the surgery, he said it was because some doctors were freezing cancerous moles, warts etc, by mistake.

I would much rather get a second opinion by a consultant at a hospital than just rely on a General Practioner. I cannot sit here and accuse all GP's of misdiagnosing, because we all know that is not the case. Mistakes happen throughout life and we have to live with this.

Through my own personal experience, errors/mistakes have been made and at such a loss. And because of this i find i am more cautious and tend to not be too sure a doctor knows best. We trust our doctor's 99% of the time, but i suppose there is just the 1% where you cannot be totally sure.

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