Extreme misdiagnosis…

There are many shocking stories floating around that immediately grab the audiences’ attention. A segment on This Morning earlier today showed this. They had a young woman on who somehow survived 95% burns and woke up from a drug-induced coma three months after the initial accident. She was wearing a facemask after having to undergo a skin graft. Thankfully, I’ve not experienced the horror and neither has anyone I know so I am a tad distanced from stories like that. Until you read an article with the headline 'I was told my son had depression - in fact he had LIVER FAILURE' and realise you know the mum, the story becomes even more real.

I say that I know Janet Acott but in reality, I’ve never met her. However, we do speak a lot on Twitter and we will probably bump into each other at an Arsenal game in the future (perhaps at Norwich on Sunday). Also, she reads this blog regularly so I thought I’d share her story as a way of saying thanks for reading. She wanted publicity for the Childhood Liver Disease Foundation (@tweetCLDF) and the Ronald McDonald House Charities (@RMHCUK) so I thought as ‘The Adventures of Wheelchair Boy’ is about raising awareness, sharing a link is the least I can do: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2618856/I-told-son-depression-fact-LIVER-FAILURE-Teenager-emergency-transplant-turning-YELLOW.html

As I was reading the article, it reminded me of the problems I had getting my diagnosis. OK, it’s less extreme as Liver Disease is more life threatening than Friedreich’s Ataxia but the doctors getting it wrong at first is similar. The professionals wrongly thought my clumsy behaviour as a child was down to Dyspraxia. In the same way that doctors mistook a poisonous level of Copper (Wilson’s disease) for David being a little bit depressed. I know that humans make mistakes but in my opinion, it’s unforgivable nowadays what with the tests that can be done. It’s just sloppy if you make a guess and it’s wrong.

Anyway, the good thing is that the correct diagnosis was made before it was too late and David has made a positive recovery. Unfortunately, I reckon his story is in the minority.

Bye for now!