Real Case: Why GPs mustn’t let age fool us
You think your parents will be around forever. My dad especially seemed indestructible. As kids he was the one when we went to the beach…
Tag: Real case
How I survived childhood diphtheria, but many others didn’t
It was July 1955. I was 10-years old and had just returned from a fantastic beach holiday with my grandparents in the north of Sri…
Real Case: Did some old-fashioned blood letting save my patient’s life?
The fashionable practice of bloodletting in yesteryear for most conditions is now discredited. So you can imagine my amazement when I realised that one of…
Real Case: How I drove a patient away
In my defence, if ignorance can ever be claimed as a defence, I had never even heard of the disease at that time, early in…
Real Case: The day I caught a ticking time bomb
Carol never saw it coming. She and Bob had been out shopping together — they did everything that way. It was a hot day and…
My puzzled patient saw ‘children’ as his vision deteriorated
Richard Westman was a fine-boned, softly spoken 80-year-old retired accountant, who prided himself of his sharp intellect and excellent memory. I had known him for a…
Real Case: My patient’s sore knees were the barometer of something more sinister
Some consults stick with you forever. This was one of them. A new patient came to see me. She said she had a regular GP…
Real Case: Was this patient really naturally pregnant at 52?
I just seem to attract refugee patients. I don’t seek them out. They find me — usually on recommendation from others. First it was the South…
Real case: Bizarre symptoms in a smoker who didn’t ‘need nicotine’ anymore
Ian, aged 60, was a hardworking, uncomplaining man, partial to a cigarette, who had seen me on only a few occasions over the past few years.…
Real case: The day my patient collapsed in the practice toilet
Last week, a medical student of mine asked me to reflect upon my most memorable patient. I didn’t have to consider for long. The following…
