Student diagnoses heart problem thanks to Wikipedia

Mirror.co.uk
A MAN given the brush off by at least 10 doctors over 12 years finally diagnosed himself with a heart condition — using Wikipedia. Student Edward Green, 26, was told his racing pulse and fainting spells were all in his head. …

Wikipedia helps UK student diagnose his rare heart illness

DailyIndia.com
London, April 1. A UK student, who was fobbed off by 10 doctors, has finally diagnosed his rare heart illness himself — thanks to Wikipedia. Edward Green, 26, spent eight years being told his symptoms were harmless even though he was once rushed to …

People diagnose themselves — some of them even successfully — a million times a day on more reliable medical information sites.

Why is it some big news story when it's Wikipedia?

Maybe because they survive?

Jon

Note the dateline is APRIL FIRST.

Some things are just not funny.

Jon

<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />[b]Wikipedia helps UK student diagnose his rare heart illness[/b]
Newstrack India
London, April 1 (ANI): A UK student, who was fobbed off by 10 doctors, has finally diagnosed his rare heart illness himself - thanks to Wikipedia. Edward Green, 26, spent eight years being told his symptoms were harmless even though he was once rushed ...

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<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />[b]Wikipedia helps UK student diagnose his rare heart illness[/b]
TruthDive
London, April 1 (ANI): A UK student, who was fobbed off by 10 doctors, has finally diagnosed his rare heart illness himself – thanks to Wikipedia. Edward Green, 26, spent eight years being told his symptoms were harmless even though he was once rushed ...

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I wonder how much truth there is to this story? Any patient who complains of a rapid heart rate when standing, but not lying down, would be routinely subjected to orthostatic vital sign testing by any doctor. If it proves to be so, and it lasts and does not go away while the patient remains upright, that patient needs referral for work-up. If 10 doctors in the UK really failed to do this, as the paper reports (and who knows if the paper has it right), it's a reflection on the badness of tne National Health Service (NHS), not the goodness of Wikipedia's medical information (though I know there are doctors on Wikipedia laboring to keep the thing from killing anybody).

This is very straightforward "diagnosis" although the treatment is not (since it's exactly the same thing that happens to bed-bound people in artificially studies of "weightlessness" conducted on Earth). Perhaps the man's doctors decided he was a flake who stayed in bed too much, a little like the family in the original Willy Wonka film-- remember what happened when they got up. But even if so, the problem still needs physical therapy and needs to be addressed. If the physical therapy doesn't work, then other therapies need to be applied. You can't just tell somebody whose heart chronically races when they stand, that there's nothing wrong with them. By definition, there is.

Addendum: it's also possible that Mr. Green was initially diagnosed as merely having Jewish Anxiety Syndrome. This is not well described in the New England Journal of Medicine nor The Lancet, but (even if they don't watch Woody Allen films) I'm sure it is not unfamiliar to the NHS.

<img alt="" height="1" width="1" />[b]Wikipedia helps UK student diagnose his rare heart illness[/b]
Sify
A UK student, who was fobbed off by 10 doctors, has finally diagnosed his rare heart illness himself - thanks to Wikipedia. Edward Green, 26, spent eight years being told his symptoms were harmless even though he was once rushed to hospital after ...

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UK Student Diagnoses His Rare Heart Illness Through Wikipedia

MedIndia
A UK student has finally diagnosed his rare heart illness himself thanks to Wikipedia even after 10 docs fobbed him off. Edward Green, 26, spent eight years being told his symptoms were harmless even though …

Dumbass. Doesn't he know there's a medical disclaimer?

Shocking that 1) the doctors are so stupid and 2) they don't go scurrying off to Wikipedia for half their diagnoses.

Boy, was he shocked when he finally looked up “fobbed off” in a real dictionary and discovered it wasn't at all what it said in Wiktionary …

Jon