Doctors and functional disorders — how I escaped heartsink
Dr Gillian Deakin explains why she did a deep dive into functional conditions during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
There is a term in medicine that has always made me feel uncomfortable. It gets used less now, but you still hear it: heartsink — specifically those with functional conditions.
But my eyes have been opened, and I want to explain why.
The person who opened my eyes was a 30-year-old patient with heart palpitations, called Kirralee.
She had called an ambulance to take her to ED three nights in a row. She had been woken by chest pains and palpitations and was terrified that she had a heart problem and might die.
