Critical patients

Recently, we have had numerous critical patients, but one that stands out to me the most is a younger man that was in the hospital with a known aortic dissection and chest pain. He had a follow up CT Chest/Abdomen/Pelvis scan that showed his aortic dissection went from the ascending, down through the descending aorta, all the way down to his pelvis. To make matters worse, he had pleural effusion around his heart. He was rushed to surgery to fix the dissection, but unfortunately he did not make it.

Another case that stands out to me, was a patient that came to MRI for a brain scan. She was having severe headaches. We scanned her head and as soon as the localizers showed up, we saw a huge brain tumor. The brain scan was ordered without contrast, so we had to call the radiologist to order it with and without contrast. We had to explain to the patient that we had to give her contrast and, of course, she asked why. We had to "lie" and say that it is required for most brain scans. She almost denied it because she was worried insurance would not pay for it, but we quickly told her that more than likely insurance would cover this particular scan. She also was worried that something was majorly wrong with her scan. Needless to say, there was something incredibly wrong with her. She was diagnosed with brain cancer. After she was given her diagnosis, she was emitted to the hospital.

It gets hard to explain to patients that we are unable to discuss any abnormalities. Sometimes I wonder if they can see the look on my face and know something is wrong. I am so thankful I do not have to give the bad news to patients, but is still awful seeing nice people be diagnosed with horrible diseases and disorders.