Mum says 'medical gaslighting' saw her sent home from hospital emergency room
By Jo Abi|
A? mum in the US says she experienced 'medical gaslighting' after being sent home from her local hospital emergency room in extreme pain.
Amanda Buschelman has shared her story on TikTok. She begins her video by saying: "In today's episode of doctors should believe women, I went to the doctor three weeks ago with severe right-side abdominal pain and my doctor sent me to the emergency room with suspected appendicitis."
Buschelman says she did as instructed only to be told she wasn't suffering from appendicitis, despite undergoing a CT scan. Instead she was told she had a "cyst on her ovary," the only problem being that she'd undergone a full hysterectomy years earlier and no longer had ovaries.
When she viewed her chart online she saw the emergency room doctor had labelled her "anxious presenting."
Suffice to say the pain continued, causing Buschelman to call her doctor who advised her to return to hospital.
READ MORE: Desperate call to end anti-Semitism as 100,000 Australians face hate every single day?
This time she was attended by a different emergency room doctor who also advised her she had a cyst on her ovary.? She informed the doctor she'd had both ovaries removed and her medical record was checked to confirm this "because he didn't believe me that I didn't have any ovaries."
The doctor then told her she must have a tumour, and sent her to OBGYN who scheduled surgery. While performing the surgery it was discovered that Buschelman was indeed suffering from appendicitis.
?Buschelman's video sharing her experience has been viewed an extraordinary 1.9 million times with over 14,000 TikTokers sharing similar stories of 'medical gaslighting.'
In a subsequent video she shares her shock at this staggering number.
"Why's it happening?" she asked. "It's so sad, scary and frankly gross.? Also shout out to the people who told me what a patient advocate was."
She also shared that she'd been sent a US$4,000 ($5,475) bill for her experiences.
"I told my Dr I had a sinus infection. She argued with me and got mad. She looked me over, told me I had a sinus infection. I said duhhhh," another shared.?
"This is why I'm even hesitant to go get an adult ADHD diagnosis. Doctors don't take women seriously; yes, even female docs," one TikToker added.
"I was sent home 23 weeks pregnant when my appendix burst with "food poisoning" according to the ER doctor," another alleged.
"Yes to patient advocate. I would also report to the medical board. They do not tolerate this. Period," one shared.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here
?