In december 2008, i started experiencing lots of abdominal pains and various stomach discomfort symptoms.Gastro-enterologist in january 2009 did colonoscopy and it was normal.He then diagnosed me with Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The ibs medications never worked for 5 months and i continued suffering.Then last week, I started experiencing extremely sharp stomach pains and i rushed to ER at 3 am.A cat scan was done on my stomach and it was revealed i had hernias.
The hernia was twisting the small intestine, choking its blood supply and obstructing bowel movements.The surgeons immediately performed a hernia surgey on me and i was hospitalized for a week.The surgeon said that had this hernia gone untreated, the entire small intestine would have failed.
Yet the gastroenterologist kept saying IBS only.So is this medical malpractice on gastroentrologist part?He put my entire small intestine at risk for organ failure.And it ended up with a rough ER visit.
Per the surgeon, the hernia was caused by scars of the appendix surgery i had in 1989.
The surgeon also said that to diagnose with IBS, the gastro-enterologist conducts all kinds of tests and if the tests are normal and nothing is found, IBS diagnosis is given.
However the gastro-enterologist clearly did not do all the tests as he failed to get a stomach cat scan.He only did colonoscopy and said IBS.The hernia was not even in the colon, but near the small intestine (which can't be seen in colonoscopy).
I kept paying thousands of dollars to gastroenterologist even when i had no health insurance only because my abdominal pains were so severe. For all this hard earned money i paid, shouldn't it have been at least his obligation to give correct diagnosis?
now i expect huge medical bills from ER for the hernia surgery and i'm unemployed and financially struggling.I will file bankruptcy.
if gastroentrologist said i have hernia, i could have gotten health insurance before the surgery.But the sudden ER visit gave me no time whatsoever, because i trusted the gastroentrologist that I have IBS
jamie: my university offers student health insurance and pre-existing conditions are covered.The only requirement is that student must be enrolled in 6 credits at least. The reason I did not take university health insurance is because i already graduated last year.
But if i knew i had hernia and would need surgery, i would have enrolled in graduate school and taken health insurance.
Also late detection of hernia posed very serious threat to small intestine.The hernia choked blood supply to SI, twisted SI and obstructed bowel movements.The SI was put at big risk for organ failure due to late discovery.I am lucky SI didn't fail.
second gastroenterologist said IBS too.
Jamie M
I agree that the gastroenterologist should have run more tests to rule out anything serious, but you should have pursued the issue when you weren't getting any better.If he blew you off, you could have seen another doctor who would run more thorough tests to find out what was wrong.It's not the gastroenterologist's fault that you did not have health insurance, and keep in mind, you would have had huge medical bills if he did run more tests to diagnose the hernia.If the hernia would have been caught before you ended up in the ER, you still would have had to have surgery to repair it.If you were even thinking about getting insurance, you should have done it before something happened.If you would have waited for the hernia diagnosis, insurance companies may have looked at it as a pre-existing condition and may not have covered it anyway.
Orignal From: Isn't it the gastroenterologist's job to detect hernia instead of me visiting the ER and getting surgery?
Turning the Corner
