Could this medical mishap cause hairloss????

[whoknows1919]

Hey guys,

Appreciate anyone who puts their time into reading and responding to this question. About three years ago I was playing football and had pretty painful knee injury. Went to my doctor who sent me in for an MRI, but the waiting list ended up being 6 months. Had the MRI, and the results came back negative. So I did some strengthening and kept on blowing my knee out every 4-5 months. Doctor couldn't figure out why this kept on happening. Well about 2 months ago (2.5 years after first incident) I tweaked it again at work. This time my doctor told me to go see a specialist. Went and saw one, and what he told me was what I suspected all along. It turned out the results from my MRI 3 years said I had a completely torn ACL, and both my lateral and medial Meniscus were torn. Something happened when the report was faxed over three years ago. Had immediate surgery following the news, and had ACL completely reconstructed. Lateral meniscus was stitchable, but medial meniscus was so chewed up they had to remove it!!!!

My question to you guys is, could three years of having a Torn ACL/Meniscus damage and blowing it out 2-3 times a year, be a contributing factor to hairloss??

Thanks

 

[s.a.f]

I dont see how the two could possibly be related. :?

 

[hairwegoagain]

Negative.

 

[JayB]

is this a f'n joke

 

[BornBaldDieBald]

Hey guys,

Appreciate anyone who puts their time into reading and responding to this question. About three years ago I was playing football and had pretty painful knee injury. Went to my doctor who sent me in for an MRI, but the waiting list ended up being 6 months. Had the MRI, and the results came back negative. So I did some strengthening and kept on blowing my knee out every 4-5 months. Doctor couldn't figure out why this kept on happening. Well about 2 months ago (2.5 years after first incident) I tweaked it again at work. This time my doctor told me to go see a specialist. Went and saw one, and what he told me was what I suspected all along. It turned out the results from my MRI 3 years said I had a completely torn ACL, and both my lateral and medial Meniscus were torn. Something happened when the report was faxed over three years ago. Had immediate surgery following the news, and had ACL completely reconstructed. Lateral meniscus was stitchable, but medial meniscus was so chewed up they had to remove it!!!!

My question to you guys is, could three years of having a Torn ACL/Meniscus damage and blowing it out 2-3 times a year, be a contributing factor to hairloss??

Thanks

I do not think the torn ACL is a direct link to hair loss, but the surgery however may be. In that case the condition would be Telogen Effluvium (telogen effluvium), and that is a result of shock. For example, a particular anesthetic or other agent used during the surgery may have initiated some shock to your system in which normal hair are switched into a resting state.

You need to have your hairloss examined to determine what type it is, e.g. diffuse, spotty, or pattern. Telogen Effluvium can occur a few months after the initial shock, and many of those hair will be shed. These hairs will be replaced, unless these are the same hairs that are affected by male pattern baldness. You can be suffering from male pattern baldness and Telogen Effluvium at the same time.

See a dermatologist or a hair loss specialist. Don't jump on any drugs before you get a proper diagnosis.

 

[s.a.f]

This is pretty dumb, but I know where he is coming from. Hairloss can drive you nuts and you start thinking wacky because you want answers.

Evidently

 

[global]

Hey guys,

Appreciate anyone who puts their time into reading and responding to this question. About three years ago I was playing football and had pretty painful knee injury. Went to my doctor who sent me in for an MRI, but the waiting list ended up being 6 months. Had the MRI, and the results came back negative. So I did some strengthening and kept on blowing my knee out every 4-5 months. Doctor couldn't figure out why this kept on happening. Well about 2 months ago (2.5 years after first incident) I tweaked it again at work. This time my doctor told me to go see a specialist. Went and saw one, and what he told me was what I suspected all along. It turned out the results from my MRI 3 years said I had a completely torn ACL, and both my lateral and medial Meniscus were torn. Something happened when the report was faxed over three years ago. Had immediate surgery following the news, and had ACL completely reconstructed. Lateral meniscus was stitchable, but medial meniscus was so chewed up they had to remove it!!!!

My question to you guys is, could three years of having a Torn ACL/Meniscus damage and blowing it out 2-3 times a year, be a contributing factor to hairloss??

Thanks

No it doesn't have anything to do with your hairloss, but sounds like you've got a pretty good negligence claim against your doctor.

Given your history I'd say he should've sent you to see a specialist much sooner if not straight away. And why didn't a specialist interpret your MRI in the first place? Or did they but the results got mixed up when they faxed them over. Administrative errors are a common cause of medical negligence claims and pretty much indefensible.

Or are you saying the GP interpreted it himself? If so that's ridiculous.

Do yourself a favour and get some money out of this.

 

[docj077]

Hey guys,

Appreciate anyone who puts their time into reading and responding to this question. About three years ago I was playing football and had pretty painful knee injury. Went to my doctor who sent me in for an MRI, but the waiting list ended up being 6 months. Had the MRI, and the results came back negative. So I did some strengthening and kept on blowing my knee out every 4-5 months. Doctor couldn't figure out why this kept on happening. Well about 2 months ago (2.5 years after first incident) I tweaked it again at work. This time my doctor told me to go see a specialist. Went and saw one, and what he told me was what I suspected all along. It turned out the results from my MRI 3 years said I had a completely torn ACL, and both my lateral and medial Meniscus were torn. Something happened when the report was faxed over three years ago. Had immediate surgery following the news, and had ACL completely reconstructed. Lateral meniscus was stitchable, but medial meniscus was so chewed up they had to remove it!!!!

My question to you guys is, could three years of having a Torn ACL/Meniscus damage and blowing it out 2-3 times a year, be a contributing factor to hairloss??

Thanks

No it doesn't have anything to do with your hairloss, but sounds like you've got a pretty good negligence claim against your doctor.

Given your history I'd say he should've sent you to see a specialist much sooner if not straight away. And why didn't a specialist interpret your MRI in the first place? Or did they but the results got mixed up when they faxed them over. Administrative errors are a common cause of medical negligence claims and pretty much indefensible.

Or are you saying the GP interpreted it himself? If so that's ridiculous.

Do yourself a favour and get some money out of this.

Original poster,

Do yourself a favor and do nothing about this. People make mistakes and often times it is very difficult to interpret MRI results. It's very likely that a radiologist didn't see anything either, which means that it would be the fault of the on-duty tech. that originally did the test. A radiologist is only as good as the tech that takes the pictures. If your radiologist saw nothing, then your GP definitely wouldn't have seen anything. This would be especially true if the MRI was done before the swelling completely went away.

People that sue their doctors, because of past mistakes are the same people that are screwing over the majority of the population as that forces doctors to pay ridiculous amount of money for malpractice insurance. Suddenly, doctors are either unwilling or unable to take patients like yourself, so people like you are left without doctors.

The end result of all of this will be of course that you'll single-handedly bankrupt a doctor and put a thousand patients into limbo as they seek out a new healthcare professional. Most of those patients will be geriatric patients seeking care for their diabetes, hypertension, and high lipids. I hope that you can live with yourself.

Don't be an a**h**. If your doctor didn't see it the first time, then there are quite a few different reasons for that to happen and you are not guaranteed to win anything. Especially, if the results were confirmed by a radiologist. Then, you ARE guaranteed to get nothing.

 

[BornBaldDieBald]

Hair loss advice has morphed into legal debate about malpractice. L. O. L.

 

[global]

But surely the point is that it should have been a specialist looking at this MRI not the radiologist or GP, if not in the first instance then soon after he continued having problems, but not 2.5 years later.

Yes mistakes happen but as he confirms the specialist saw straight away from the MRI what the problem was.

In any case it sounds from what he said that the diagnosis was made in the first instance from the MRI but this got lost or mixed up in an administrative error.

Doctors should have adequate procedures in place for the handling of test results (and in fact are required by their regulatory bodies to do so) What if this had been a cancer diagnosis that got lost?

I am not in favour of frivolous lawsuits against doctors and the public need to be aware that medicine is an inexact science and doctors cannot always arrive at the answer. However these sorts of mistakes (if this is what actually happened) should not occur and as a result the patient has suffered 2.5 years of unnecessary suffering.

 

[docj077]

But surely the point is that it should have been a specialist looking at this MRI not the radiologist or GP, if not in the first instance then soon after he continued having problems, but not 2.5 years later.

Yes mistakes happen but as he confirms the specialist saw straight away from the MRI what the problem was.

In any case it sounds from what he said that the diagnosis was made in the first instance from the MRI but this got lost or mixed up in an administrative error.

Doctors should have adequate procedures in place for the handling of test results (and in fact are required by their regulatory bodies to do so) What if this had been a cancer diagnosis that got lost?

I am not in favour of frivolous lawsuits against doctors and the public need to be aware that medicine is an inexact science and doctors cannot always arrive at the answer. However these sorts of mistakes (if this is what actually happened) should not occur and as a result the patient has suffered 2.5 years of unnecessary suffering.

The radiologist is the specialist when it comes to imaging studies. If there was nothing found initially, then it is not the G.P.'s problem. Nor, is it the problem of the radiologist. If neither saw anything on the MRI, then neither could have justified a referral to a specialist.

The patient visiting a specialist without a referral would have likely resulted in a bill of tens of thousands of dollars that his insurance would not have covered as most insurance companies require an initial visit to a G.P. and then a referral from that G.P. Especially, if this happened so long ago.

The specialist would have likely come to the same conclusion at that point.

Do not forget how much our technology has changed and how much better our imaging resolutions have become. Even a speicalist can't see anything with a crappy study. If a radiologist couldn't see it, then there is no way that a specialist would have saw it first.

Also, what I underlined is not the fault of doctors. It's the fault of the administrative guidelines and various patient protection laws that prevents error checking.

 

[Jm0311]

Hey guys,

Appreciate anyone who puts their time into reading and responding to this question. About three years ago I was playing football and had pretty painful knee injury. Went to my doctor who sent me in for an MRI, but the waiting list ended up being 6 months. Had the MRI, and the results came back negative. So I did some strengthening and kept on blowing my knee out every 4-5 months. Doctor couldn't figure out why this kept on happening. Well about 2 months ago (2.5 years after first incident) I tweaked it again at work. This time my doctor told me to go see a specialist. Went and saw one, and what he told me was what I suspected all along. It turned out the results from my MRI 3 years said I had a completely torn ACL, and both my lateral and medial Meniscus were torn. Something happened when the report was faxed over three years ago. Had immediate surgery following the news, and had ACL completely reconstructed. Lateral meniscus was stitchable, but medial meniscus was so chewed up they had to remove it!!!!

My question to you guys is, could three years of having a Torn ACL/Meniscus damage and blowing it out 2-3 times a year, be a contributing factor to hairloss??

Thanks

What the f***?

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

Seek legal advice and take it from there. If the lawyer thinks you have a credible chance of success then make sure you get whats owed to you.

 

[global]

But surely the point is that it should have been a specialist looking at this MRI not the radiologist or GP, if not in the first instance then soon after he continued having problems, but not 2.5 years later.

Yes mistakes happen but as he confirms the specialist saw straight away from the MRI what the problem was.

In any case it sounds from what he said that the diagnosis was made in the first instance from the MRI but this got lost or mixed up in an administrative error.

Doctors should have adequate procedures in place for the handling of test results (and in fact are required by their regulatory bodies to do so) What if this had been a cancer diagnosis that got lost?

I am not in favour of frivolous lawsuits against doctors and the public need to be aware that medicine is an inexact science and doctors cannot always arrive at the answer. However these sorts of mistakes (if this is what actually happened) should not occur and as a result the patient has suffered 2.5 years of unnecessary suffering.

The radiologist is the specialist when it comes to imaging studies. If there was nothing found initially, then it is not the G.P.'s problem. Nor, is it the problem of the radiologist. If neither saw anything on the MRI, then neither could have justified a referral to a specialist.

The patient visiting a specialist without a referral would have likely resulted in a bill of tens of thousands of dollars that his insurance would not have covered as most insurance companies require an initial visit to a G.P. and then a referral from that G.P. Especially, if this happened so long ago.

The specialist would have likely come to the same conclusion at that point.

Do not forget how much our technology has changed and how much better our imaging resolutions have become. Even a speicalist can't see anything with a crappy study. If a radiologist couldn't see it, then there is no way that a specialist would have saw it first.

Also, what I underlined is not the fault of doctors. It's the fault of the administrative guidelines and various patient protection laws that prevents error checking.

But don't you think that when he had continued problems after that point the GP should have referred him sooner than waiting 2.5 years? I ask because you seem to know more about this.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the administrative guidelines. In the UK a GP's practice is responsible for implementing adequate procedures for dealing with test results, but maybe the system is different in the US.

 

[docj077]

But don't you think that when he had continued problems after that point the GP should have referred him sooner than waiting 2.5 years? I ask because you seem to know more about this.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the administrative guidelines. In the UK a GP's practice is responsible for implementing adequate procedures for dealing with test results, but maybe the system is different in the US.

Depends. I don't remember how often he went to his general practitioner after that and I'm not sure how often his knee was brought up as a concern during those visits.

If the MRI came back negative, then the G.P. probably just thought that it a permanent injury that the guy would have to live with. Again, it still wouldn't be his fault. No one is at fault except for the thread creator. If he wanted more answers, then it was his responsibility to question the results and have another MRI done. People have to learn to take care of themselves sometimes.

 

[hairwegoagain]

This is why I don't go the HMO route. The referral stuff is for the birds. If I want to go to a specialist, I go. If I'm not satisfied with the result or his competence, I go to another. If I grow unsatisfied with anyone, I find someone else.

 

[whoknows1919]

When I had the MRI done, whatever was sent to my GP said nothing about any strains or tears.My doctor let me look at the first report on my followup for the MRI resutls, it said nothing. He also let me look at the one the specialist got recently. It had paragraphs of typed writing on the extent of my injury. It looked nothing like the report I saw recently. No Specialist or Radiologist took a second look and rexamined the MRI, it was simply a completely different report. period!!!

My doctor is not to blame. I saw what he had. So the only lawsuit thats going to be happening is against anyone but my doctor. Whose to blame, who knows. Any suggestions???

 

[docj077]

When I had the MRI done, whatever was sent to my GP said nothing about any strains or tears.My doctor let me look at the first report on my followup for the MRI resutls, it said nothing. He also let me look at the one the specialist got recently. It had paragraphs of typed writing on the extent of my injury. It looked nothing like the report I saw recently. No Specialist or Radiologist took a second look and rexamined the MRI, it was simply a completely different report. period!!!

My doctor is not to blame. I saw what he had. So the only lawsuit thats going to be happening is against anyone but my doctor. Whose to blame, who knows. Any suggestions???

No one. Sometimes, these things just aren't meant to be met with punishment.

If you want to blame someone, blame the company that distributed the machine that did your first MRI. Obviously, it didn't find what it was supposed to find. If you had an observable injury, the radiologist would have seen it. It's that simple.

 

[s.a.f]

Seek legal advice and take it from there. If the lawyer thinks you have a credible chance of success then make sure you get whats owed to you.

Yeah like a lawyer is going to turn him down when there's even the rempte possibility of getting some $$.

In the end its up to you, Dr's can only do their best and cant get it everything right with every patient they see. How bad was your suffering over that 2.5 yrs, its not like you ended up crippled because of it. If you feel that you truly deserve compensation then by all means make a claim.

 

[whoknows1919]

Well the damage was pretty severe, but not severe in regards to say a whole knee reconstruction. Since the injury was misdiagnosed, the medial meniscus continued to be injured. The surgeon told me postsurgery that since it was so chewed up he had to remove it!! Also, when I injured it a month ago, the the medial meniscus caused what they call a buckethandle. The cartilage flipped up into my knee joint, not allowing me to straighten my knee out. This was one of the reasons for immediate surgery!! Its funny, I now hold the record for the fastest person to get in for surgery with this surgeon.

I think something is being confused here though with my report. The Sports Medicine Specialist didn't get a rexamined MRI report. He just got a report with the diagnosis filled in where my GPs report was blank.