What's great about this story is that she didn't use some quack pseudo science like chiropractic or reflexology as her diagnostic tool. She actually did the hard work the doctors should have done! - Edward Zwart from Bookmarklet

Here's how I would have written this headline: Licensed physicians less competent than teenager. Seriously. I know exactly how she feels. - Lo the Baker

Well, doctors do make mistakes! They're just not superseded by woo is all... :) Part of getting rid of the doctor god complex is being okay with their being human beings! - Edward Zwart

No doubt, I don't think doctors should be held to a standard of perfection. I do think that if a patient arrives with a complaint, you diagnose the problem and provide treatment, but the complaint is not resolved... then it's time for YOU to go back to the drawing board and try something else. Not just insist that you are correct, and that the patient's insistence that the problem has not been resolved must mean that the patient is incorrect and being whiny. This is exactly what has happened to me on a number of occasions, and it sounds to me like it's exactly what happened to this girl. - Lo the Baker

Did you solve it with a microscope too? - Edward Zwart

But you have to trust them. They're doctors! ;) - AJ Batac \(o_o)/

I'm still kind of wondering about the details of the missed diagnosis. If they were able to get intestinal lining to look at under the microscope, that means they must have done endoscopy and biopsied her. And while it's possible not to see visible lesions while looking at the intestine with endoscopy, I wonder what made them biopsy that particular area that ended up containing the granuloma. It makes me think that at least someone had some clinical suspicion. - Victor Ganata

Victor, the fact remains that someone prepared those slides and, theoretically, looked at them. And found nothing. Then a teenager looked at them, and clearly saw a problem. The article is not very clear about the details, but it does state that her doctors had examined the slides and told her nothing was wrong. - Lo the Baker

I kind of wonder about whether anyone else really looked at the slides. Not many primary care physicians are in the habit of actually looking at the slides themselves. They end up relying on specialist reports, which is unfortunate, but probably inevitable given the way the system works. - Victor Ganata

Did anyone else wonder what kind of school she's at that a "local pathologist" came to visit? - Heather Rantypants

The article says "Eastside Catholic School" ... that explains the pathologist visit. ;) bwahahaha I kill me! I really do! - Edward Zwart

Oh good, they diagnosed her without even looking at the evidence because they're Catholics. Now I fee... no, wait, that doesn't make me feel better. She lives in my area! No wonder I can't seem to find a competent & compassionate physician... - Lo the Baker

Macbeth, now there was some good pathos... - Edward Zwart