‘I was absolutely gobsmacked’: A doctor’s rare case from his first day on a new job
The first patient Professor Andrew Miller saw as a radiation oncology consultant in New Zealand more than 20 years ago was his first and only…
Tag: Real case
What’s your rarest diagnosis? This GP found ciguatera poisoning in a rough and ready fisherman
Dr David Miller used to live on a yacht in the tropics and talk with other fishermen about “things in the sea that sting and…
A man with acute psychosis and a painful penis: My real-life learnings as a young doctor
The field of general practice is wide and varied, and it’s a wise doctor who accepts early that they ‘don’t know what they don’t know’. …
World-first case of python parasite removed from Aussie woman’s brain
What was initially suspected as run-of-the-mill pneumonia became a world first after Australian doctors removed a live and “wriggling” 8cm-long parasitic worm from a 64-year-old…
The metamorphosis of my patient Mark and the wonders of clinical hindsight
Mark, 34, was having a rough trot. Well, 2020 and 2021 was rough for many of us, but Mark was having it tougher than most.…
Is this the world’s oldest misdiagnosis? Doctor says listeriosis, not lamprey, killed King Henry I
For nearly 900 years, the sudden death of King Henry I of England has been attributed to accidental poisoning after dining on a large dish…
Dr Ruth Myers: My wonderful giant, rolling hiatus hernia diagnosis
Medicine. Always challenging, always surprising, but you’d think that 25 years into your career, you might have seen everything. LOL! Of course not! × Welcome…
Real Case: Does this 10-year-old have abdominal migraine?
Today I saw my young adult patient with a distant history of Crohn’s disease and new, chronic abdominal pain. Amitriptyline, 10 mg twice a day,…
Real Case: Wrist pain that sounds like gout and looks like gout, but is it gout?
History: A fit 80-year-old retired teacher woke up with a painful right wrist that prevented him from writing or holding a cup of coffee. He…
Real case: Dr Google, I doff my cap to you for solving this mystery
Sir William Osler, the famous Canadian physician, was right when he advised us to listen to our patients, as they would give us the diagnosis —…
