‘‘Lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.’’

January 12, 2011

My grandson Aaron loves asking mischievous riddles and puzzles which are occasionally brain-teasing. And as always, I was answerless when he asked me to point out the major difference between a doctor and a lawyer, and was slightly embarrassed when he declared it.

‘‘Lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.’’

No Comment!!

But this incident reminded me something I read a while ago about the wrong diagnoses made by doctors all over the world.

About 15 percent of all patients receive the wrong diagnosis reports Arthur Einstein in Clinical Reasoning in Health Professions.

Missed diagnosis accounts for about 50,000 deaths in US and Canada each year reports Jerome Groopman, MD in How Doctors Think (2007).

Pretty annoying scenario! And it’s truly shocking for the reason that if the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment will be wrong. And this occurs in this century where the medical technology is at its pinnacle with sophisticated equipments to aid in diagnosing.

The problem is far and wide. People wearing neck collars for Cervical Spondylosis are very common in the streets, whereas I have found that 80% of these cases are misdiagnosed and are originally caused by a chronic inflammatory condition. The cases of chest-infection often get misinterpreted as Tuberculosis. Nasal polyps have also become very universal right now and some unfortunate folks even endure surgeries to remove the growth. How many of you have undergone treatment for Migraine for ages without knowing that the problem is related to Sinus inflammation?

Ajay, a software engineer by profession was another ill-fated person with complaints of recurrent shoulder and neck pain. The doctors he consulted were quick enough to relate it with his job which demands long hours of sitting in front of the computer and could not find a remedy other than quitting the job. Some Neurologists frightened him by saying that it was due to Cervical Rib while others laid the blame on Deviation of Nasal Septum. At one moment Ajay truly feared that there was going to be a disease which will be named after him.

He was on cloud nine when I explained that his problems were simply due to the inflammation in the light of his allergic background. His cure was as fast as greased lightening since we could provide the right treatment according to the right diagnosis.

And how does this become possible? I am well aware that I could have made the right diagnoses in my medical practice if I did not discover the correlation between Inflammation, Infection and Toxaemia (IIT). Racking up all the miles, I have learnt that around eighty percent of humanity’s chronic diseases are caused by this. And this understanding boils the task of solving the Diagnosis puzzles down. At least here, I do have an answer!