A 24-year-old woman suffered a stroke, and the doctors providing help diagnosed her with psychosis and referred her to further psychiatric treatment. Why did a woman have to wait so long for the correct diagnosis of the disease?
Night drama
Marzena Mojecka is 24 years old. Has two kids. During the night, a young woman felt unwell.
– It started at night, I couldn’t get out of bed and I was vomiting – the woman recalls the event.
Rapid vomiting and loss of speech are some of the symptoms of a stroke. However, the paramedics who arrived at the hospital registered acute psychosis as a diagnosis and ordered a psychiatric consultation.
– When the ambulance came, I told them that my daughter was vomiting and she didn’t talk. They began examining her. They found that everything is good neurologically, recalls Marzena’s mother.
It was possible to help faster
An ambulance took the patient to the hospital where there was a stroke unit. However, the doctor on duty called a psychiatrist, not a neurologist. Journalist Notes! she asked the head physician why the doctor did not order a CT scan in this case.
– I asked the doctor why he hadn’t ordered a CT scan. He stated that the reason for this was the excessive agitation of the patient, and for this examination she should be pacified, that is, medications should be administered, says Dr. Jerzy Pieniążek, Director General of the Provincial Specialist Hospital No. 4 in Bytom.
We consulted this practice with a psychiatrist from another facility.
– I would definitely order a computer tomography, suspect a stroke, his left ventricle, which suggests speech loss. I certainly wouldn’t start any psychiatric examination. Psychosis is eliminated because there is no way that it can start overnight. There is nothing in this description that could indicate it, I am commenting on the case of Dr. Marzena Pelc Dymon, clinical psychiatrist from the Provincial Hospital No. 2 in Rzeszów.
Correct diagnosis after 12 days
Mrs. Marzena was discharged from the hospital after a few hours. After leaving the hospital, the woman took medications prescribed by a psychiatrist for 12 days. The symptoms persisted, so the concerned family decided to act on their own. In another hospital, she paid for an MRI, which clearly indicated a stroke. The patient was sent to the stroke unit as a matter of urgency.
– If a stroke had been diagnosed in the first XNUMX hours, she would definitely have survived it. However, proper treatment only started several days later and that is why the effects are so, says Beata Buczkowicz, a relative of Mrs. Marzena.
New life
Mrs. Marzena learns life anew after a stroke. Practices speech and writing. She is very determined to get back to normal functioning. Mainly for your two little things.
– The worst thing is that I can’t talk to children. I would like it very much, ends the desperate Marzena.
The Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights confirms the information that in case of doubts about the wrong diagnosis, the patient may request a consultation with another doctor, including an additional examination. The doctor may refuse to do so, but at the patient’s request must record such refusal in the patient’s record.