Nineteen-year-old Sudiksha Thirumalesh became the focus of a legal dispute regarding her capacity to make decisions.
  • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    Thank god?

    I’ve been misdiagnosed more times than I’ve been correctly diagnosed, if I believed some of those overconfident docs I might not be here right now.

  • Elextra@literature.cafeEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    IMO weird this is news and that the hospital that treated her considered her to lack capacity to make her own decisions. She seemed what we call “AOx4”, still cognitive, etc… Mitochondrial disease doesn’t necessarily affect cognition?!? As a healthcare worker in America I see this all the time actually where patients do not believe the healthcare system.

    I.e. Patient going home without oxygen when its indicated. I call APS but have to let them make decision to go home without it.

    Patient declining all wound care (very common unfortunately). We have to respect that too.

    Healthcare professionals are right most of the time ive seen but it doesn’t matter. We always respect patient autonomy. Theres alot of rules and laws about decision making, surrogate decision makers, etc. Trust me, hospitals do not want lawsuits lol

  • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    This is a thorny subject that I’m not sure I’m qualified to weigh in on - but when has that ever stopped anyone on the internet?

    I’d like to live in a world where I can trust the doctor. After all, their whole shtick is supposed to be helping people. Sadly, we’ve been shown time and time again that’s not always the case.

    Then again, a doctor is a medical expert, and if you’re underinformed then it would behoove you to listen to the experts. With the rise of medical misinformation it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need reliable experts. In particular, vaccine denialism isn’t even just a matter of personal choice - it can cause great damage to the public health.

    This leads to a paradox where you need to be able to lean on a doctor’s expertise, but you also have to place your trust in a human - and at the end of the day we know that not all humans are trustworthy. And you can’t even just “do your own research” because if you’re not a good researcher you can fall into junk science and outright lies. I guess therein lies the value of the second opinion.

    It sounds to me like Sudiksha didn’t want to accept her doctor’s prognosis that she was dying. Sadly, she was mistaken. But I’m sure if I was in the same position, I’d choose life too.