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A Navy SEAL was convinced exposure to blasts damaged his brain, so he donated it to science to prove it (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave to c/health

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“We’re really at an infant stage in terms of our clinical ability to assess traumatic brain injury,” a medical expert said.

Before he ended his life, Ryan Larkin made his family promise to donate his brain to science.

The 29-year-old Navy SEAL was convinced years of exposure to blasts had badly damaged his brain, despite doctors telling him otherwise. He had downloaded dozens of research papers on traumatic brain injury out of frustration that no one was taking him seriously, his father said.

“He knew,” Frank Larkin said. “I’ve grown to understand that he was out to prove that he was hurt, and he wasn’t crazy.”

In 2017, a postmortem study found that Ryan Larkin, a combat medic and instructor who taught SEALs how to breach buildings with explosives, had a pattern of brain scarring unique to service members who’ve endured repeated explosions.

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[–] DaddleDew 94 points 10 months ago (27 children)

I was once almost killed by a doctor who wouldn't believe me when I said I thought I had pulmonary embolism and sent me home without treatment, saying to "not use Google to diagnose myself".

I'd be dead today had I not returned to see another doctor the next day.

I think if you name a suspected medical condition at the admission they are far less likely to believe you.

[–] Sekrayray 41 points 10 months ago (19 children)

I know I’m a minority but as someone who works in emergency medicine I think the opposite.

If you come in thinking you have something there’s probably good reason, and I damn well better be sure you don’t have it if I’m going to send you home. You know your body better than me. It may not mean we test for it, but I need solid clinical decision making tools to support not testing for it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

#notanexpert . my understanding that ER/ED basically only have moderate responsibility to judge that you will not die and sue them in the next ~24h after an event. they tell you to seek further primary care when discharged.

[–] Sekrayray 5 points 10 months ago

The job of EM is stabilization and resuscitation. That takes a wide array of forms depending on your presenting condition. There is no “time limit” on what entails a safely dischargeable condition—if you present with chest pain, we CT you, and don’t find an immediately emergent cause of your chest pain, but in the process we fail to tell you about the lung nodule on your CT that turns out to be a CA that kills you in several years we are still liable. Maybe in certain states we are not medical legally liable at that point, but I would argue that we ethically still are. We are still all physicians (unless you’re getting treated by an APP).

In the context of stabilization and resuscitation I personally have the take that if you present with something I can’t adequately diagnose in the ED (let’s say I can rule out life threats but you still have a condition that is compromising your quality of life) then for the next step I really have to ensure adequate follow up for you (subspecialty referral, etc). That goes for the underinsured as well. It can get tricky, but that’s what case managers and social workers are for. Maybe I’m just biased because I work in academics. In general if you need emergency care I highly recommend that you go out of your way to get to an academic center because you’ll be more likely to get plugged in in this regard.

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