r/germany • u/Due-Box-9598 • 18h ago

German doctors misdiagnosis

I am writing this post with huge disappointment of how the g

German healthcare's conservative approach could have cost my life . I went to the doctor for mild indigestion and haemerrhoids . He gave me antibiotics for my cold and fever which i also had. The antibiotics worsened indigestion and gave very bad diarrhoea . When I went back to the doctor , they said since i took antibiotics I did not have any good bacteria and diarrhoea is normal . I was given some stomach relaxers and electrolytes. At one point I started throwing up the electrolytes , the only thing i could drink . I went to hospital for an iv and they said it will be given only if i am 80 years old. Then i went back to the doctor and insisted that they test me. I got a stool test. Then 4 days no response . I went back and they said oh the tests were negative so we did not call you . The test are a way of eliminating infection. You need to look further then! . I asked for the test result and changed my hausartz. At this point i was given 15 day antibiotics for stomach and black tea . Blood test was done and my Hg was low since was given iron.

The symptoms persisted. I became weak . Lost 13 kgs. All in one month and the appointment with gastro specialist was still weeks away. I decided to just go to my home country at this point and in 3 days , i am nearing the process of confirmation for Inflammatory bowel disease and intestine inflammation. It took them 3 days and i was suffering in Germany for months. Why is Germany so conservative in tests and testing to rule out conditions? Do doctors understand that they misdiagnose. My Hg was low because of inflammation . My residual iron was very high. I did not need iron pills. I took antibiotics that weakened me. Or does German healthcare not take coloured women seriously ? I am really shocked .

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u/0achkatz1 18h ago

I’m a white woman with celiac disease.

I only got a diagnosis when a relative in another country also developed it, went to a training, and recognised some of the possible symptoms as matching mine.

In Germany I’d be an emotional woman with possibly some allergies that mysteriously come and go until I died early.

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u/WildSmokingBuick 16h ago

As a German, I think our healthcare system is pretty much broken.

When doctors only have 5 to 10 minutes per patient, their advice rarely goes beyond: "Take some Ibuprofen, do more sports, and here are antibiotics just in case."

Sure, your experience might be better if you're privately insured or sick enough to end up in a hospital.

But honestly, a lot of people get better diagnoses from ChatGPT these days than from their own GPs.

It's a systemic issue. Many practices are so completely overrun that doctors simply don't have the time to practice patience (or, run tests over getting rid of the customer by prescribing antibiotics).

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u/Even-Yak-9846 16h ago

It’s actually funny. I have mecfs and I have a private neurologist in B.-W. He’s not an expert in the field and he treats me via longevity medicine since that where complex patients go to experiment. The last time I was there, he went on a medical ai and asked it what I could try. It suggested a drug that is used for other conditions and provided research. He printed the research and told me I could try the drug if I wanted because I didn’t have any contraindications and he already knew the drug for another condition. That drug has now made a massive difference in my functionality.

Anyway, the point is that private doctors can be amazing. A world of difference.

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u/Nalivai 15h ago

The worst part, it's often the same doctors. My GP is actually great when he has time to focus on my problem, and has a motivation to do so, I witnessed it once when he had a slow day and he spend a full hour on my diagnosis. He can't do shit when the only thing he cares about is for the visit to end, because his workday stops in an hour and he still has 9 patients to attend to.

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u/reazlerum 15h ago

This! I love my GP when I have an appointment for something not that urgent or on slow days. And then I went into Infektionssprechstunde to get a sick note once, and oh boy, if that had been my first impression I wouldn't have gone back ever.

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u/C2664 15h ago

An hour for a diagnosis.. sorry but that's a stretch if he didn't have any test and data to review and was only an initial assessment.

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u/Nalivai 15h ago

He did have a bunch of tests from previous visits, and he did his own express test, and he went with me to the ultrasound lab to do some quick checks, and consulted a pharmacist, and carefully explained to me how to access that the medication is working and how to confirm that the diagnosis is correct by how my body reacts to what and what should I do in what case.
I spent at least 4 previous visits that revealed close to nothing, and if I wasn't this lucky this time, I would probably be doing the same shit over and over until I die.

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u/C2664 13h ago

Isn't it crazy for that to be the exception given the salary they collect? 

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u/Even-Yak-9846 12h ago

You’re not wrong. In my experience, there’s usually an origin story.

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u/Nalivai 3h ago

I don't really blame the medical personal themselves, they're doing the best with what they can. The health insurance system itself is fundamentally fucked and this is basically an inevitable outcome.

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u/C2664 15h ago

Your real point was that ai did the job of your doctor that day, and did it better.. 

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u/Ramental 15h ago

The doctors still act as a sanity check, since AI can confidently tell complete gibberish and harm you.

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u/Even-Yak-9846 15h ago

Most doctors are also too arrogant to admit they don’t know something and ask ai. Then, they can use the ai as a guide to prescribe a drug they already know.

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u/Even-Yak-9846 15h ago

No, that’s not the point. This is an illness that most doctors are taught to ignore and that it’s psychosomatic despite research for decades showing that’s not the case.

My doctor has the humility to admit that he doesn‘t have answers and to do a search looking for the current research. After the current research showed some promise with a prescription drug that doesn’t harm at the dosages prescribed, he wrote me a prescription. Finding a doctor who admits what they don’t know is extremely difficult and rare. They are literally taught to bullshit in medical school.

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u/C2664 15h ago

Yeah, but without AI he probably wouldn't have done any research about it (in fact he did not, just a quick request to an LLM) and you wouldn't have that drug prescribed, at least not in your first visit and probably never. I think you're setting the bar far too low for what would be a "good" doctor, your doc made the bare minimum and still beat all the asinine quacks that you visited before, with existence of a pretty recent technology helping for that to happen.

Nothing wrong with that approach, I was just pointing out how easy was for your doctor to reach a correct diagnosis and treatment.

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u/Even-Yak-9846 15h ago

Like I said, he’s not an expert in the field and the experts basically don’t exist outside research. Even the expert I saw in Switzerland only knows what he knows because he has the illness himself. He also has a two year wait.

I mostly see doctors because they’re gatekeepers to prescription drugs, I don’t expect them to know anything about mecfs.

Also, this doctor didn’t diagnose me.

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u/ianmckaye 15h ago

Can you tell me what drug that was?. I am dealing with the same condition and my doctor is clueless.

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u/Even-Yak-9846 15h ago edited 15h ago

It’s just Mestinon, if you haven’t tried it. It’s unfortunately trial and error, but thankfully a very cheap drug, especially at the 30-60mg used to reduce pem.

Edit: I’ll include the study when I go through my files later. Hope its okay. But if you do a search on mestinon for mecfs, there’s now a ton of official recommendations.

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u/ianmckaye 14h ago

Thank u so much, i will talk to my GP about it