The doctor who exposed his own error

Rather than hiding in shame from his mistakes, Bryan Bledsoe went public to tell the world about his error. Here, he tells me about the reasons behind that decision, and the consequences it has had for his career. Not only did he survive the terrifying experience of ‘going public’, he actually believes that the publicity benefitted him and others. Now he is a successful Emergency Physician, and author, in the USA, but back when he was a junior doctor he sent a patient home with tragic consequences. Dr Bledsoe described the details of his clinical encounter to me – the lady came in with a soft cervical collar on and was complaining of neck pain and headache. Bledsoe was feeling rushed and was in a busy ED. He performed a quick neuro exam that was ‘too brief’. The cervical spine x-ray was negative – he took the collar off and discharged her with codeine. The next day Bledsoe was on a shift when a cardiac arrest was called through and ‘two minutes into the resus I recognised her two children and realised it was the same lady I had sent home’. The resus was futile. As expected, Bledsoe was stunned, ‘it took me about 30 minutes to get the nerve to go out to the family room and face her children’. Fortunately for him the children held no grudge, but he still remembers it clearly today. ‘I can remember her name, her face, her kids, and exactly how the resus room was set out’. Bledsoe even attended her funeral, which he has only done for a few of his patie...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Emergency Medicine Featured Bryan Bledsoe medical error MJA Source Type: blogs