How common is it for ER doctors to "mis"diagnose patients?

Question

For a few weeks, I've been having uncontrollable head & body shaking & jerking @ night, when I try to go to sleep. Last night & this morning, it was the WORST, & I was wondering if I was having acute seizures. The second that my body relaxes , & I drift off to sleep, my body jerks, but my head jerks the hardest. The 1st few weeks, I thought it was a new tic from my Tourette's. But I guess not.

I went to the ER this morning, & the doctor asked me about my psych medications. I HATE when they turn my physical problems into psychological problems & want to believe I'm a hypochondriac! I'm NOT. He even came in the room & caught me off guard, jerking as I was drifting off to sleep, & he said, "Is this the kind of jerking you experience when you sleep?" I said "yes". & he asked me what meds I take. I told him I take Luvox, Clonidine, & Wellbutrin.

& he said that he was going to prescribe an antihistamine because (in his opinion) the psychiatrist put me on the wrong meds. He prescribed me 50 mg of HYDROXYZINE. He put the diagnosis as "Muscle spasms", & he gave me a paper on muscle CRAMPS. He insisted that my psychiatrist put me on the wrong meds, in which she didn't. I was like, "No, because I've been on these meds for months & months, & this head jerking didn't start until a few weeks ago." He was like, "Yeah, whatever!"

I was only there for an hour & a half. I was like, "Wow! This was the QUICKEST ER visit I've ever had in my LIFE!" My friend & 1 of her coworkers were with me, & my friend was VERY pissed because she KNEW he didn't handle my situation correctly! She said he was 1 of those lazy ER doctors who only care about making $$ & not helping patients.

But anyway, she said that if I was complaining of uncontrollable jerking, the Dr. shouldn't have ordered simply a blood test to check my salts & potassium levels. He said they were fine, after the test. So since nothing from the blood test showed up wrong, he felt it was all in my head, & I was being a hypochondriac, based on my psychiatric diagnoses, such as OCD, Tourette's (neurological), anxiety, & depression. My friend said he was supposed to do a CT scan, an MRI, or something. & he just gave me a "diagnosis" based on the complaint I had. I was thinking, "Wow! I never knew we have muscles in our head."

That visit really was a waste. I started not to go, but my friend URGED me to go because you never know what could happen.

So when I got back home, she told me to google "uncontrollable head jerking during sleep". & I found out about this condition, called myoclonus. & that described EXACTLY what I was going through! The second that my body relaxes, I fell that head & body jerk that feels like an electrical brain impulse or something. That's what made my friend think I might've been having acute seizures.

& when I told the Dr. & 1 of the nurses @ the hospital, they said, "No. They weren't seizures because you would've bit your tongue, & it would've bled."

My friend's sister has seizures, & she said that her sister doesn't bite her tongue with EVERY seizure. My arm & leg joints would feel weak, as soon as I drift off to sleep, & then I feel that electrical jerk in my head. & my arms & legs flail & flap all over the place.

I also read that with myoclonus, your body is tricked into believing it's dying, so you have that electrical brain impulse to alert you that your body is not dying. & I also read that I can be having myoclonic seizures &/or acute seizures. & that's what my friend told me BEFORE I even went to the ER. So my friend was right.

***Sorry so long, but I had to tell EVERY detail in order for you to understand what happened.

Answer 1

I went to the doctor once because I was having chest pain and they did all these tests. And they said that my heart may be racing because I take Adderall XR. So I am prescribed 20mg Adderall XR regularly and they sent me home with Ambian to help me sleep and Amphetamine salts 15mg, which is basically the generic for Adderall, not Adderall XR. So they gave me 15mg, which is not extended release and so that was putting more drugs in my system at once, versus the 20mg of XR which puts 10 in your system at one point and 10 later. So basically they increased the amount of adderall I was taking which screwed me up more and I went to my psychiatrist and he was freaking out saying how those doctors SHOULD NOT be prescribing drugs like this an they don't know anything about these things.

Then a year later I was hospitalized again, ran all the same tests and more and found nothing. And finally my roommate said that she has mitral valve prolapse and that maybe I should see a cardiologist. So my mom talked to my aunt and it turns out my aunt has it also, (oddly enough my roommates moms sister, her aunt has it also) and after going to a cardiologist they find out that I have mitral valve prolapse and that I shouldnt be taking any sort of a stimulant and so they put me on a beta blocker.

Long story short, the doctors at hospitals do not know you long enough and know enough about your history to know if you are a  hypochondriac or schizophrenic for pete's sake. They can mis-diagnose things and perhaps not catch things and let you go home and then have something worse happen. Nobody is perfect, and I like to believe that they are all just trying their best, and thats all you can hope for.  Hope all is well, take care.

Answer 2

Do not forget that a ER doctor is an Emergency Room physician. Which means patch and stabilize. They are the best doctors at quick fixes (some of the hardest and intense medicine). However, they do not have the extra time to do in depth research (and not really the training for it as well) that is probably needed for your case.

Get an appointment with your regular doctor for a second opinion / follow-up. This is standard practice for almost all cases coming out of the ER.

Answer 3

Everyone has myoclonic jerks, it's that sensation you get when you're falling asleep, and you feel like you're falling and "jump". It's normal.

ER doctors are overworked and dealing with probably 20 cases at one time, on top of any emergencies that come in, I know that it's frustrating.

As an aside, if you had a seizure, you wouldn't be aware of it happening. You wouldn't feel it happening.

Answer 4

It's definitely possible that he just wanted to move you along like cattle and decided on an "easy" diagnosis. A lot of doctors will do it also because many don't want to deal with it and brush it off as psych problems. I don't think the majority of doctors are like this, but you know what they say about one bad apple spoiling the bunch. You should make an appt. with your primary care physician and talk to them about it since they'll know more about your history and your conditions than someone who reads a tiny synapsis of it would. Good luck, and yeah it could easily be seizures.

Answer 5

They are idiots in my opinion. I went to the same ER doctor 12 times before he told me I had a seizure. You don't always have to bite your tongue. They are idiots, and they are always in a rush and they can misdiagnose you over and over. So next time you go there, take control and demand the name of a neurologist or else you wont get anywhere.