Crow mouth....

 

 

After years of practice, most of the physician would have some instinct/experience guessing diagnosis with only a small piece of history of findings. Most of the time you would be happy that you have gotten the correct diagnosis….

K was sitting with me at the desk and a 10 years old girl had sent to his side by the local rescue service. The complaint was right thigh deformity after fall during a basket ball game.

While the patient being sent for imaging, I had chatted with K and told him that most probably it would be cancer(osteosarcoma most probably) as the impact during a basket ball game is not strong enough to break a 10 years child’s femur.
Well, I regretted what I had said instantly and loaded the film once it showed up at the imaging list… Crow mouth I had…

K notified the orthopedic surgeon and after reviewing the image, the surgeon had told K to refer the patient as she would need to be managed by a multidiscipline team in a tertiary medical facility.

No one wanted to break the bad news, K had to tell the mother that the fracture is complicated and need to be managed by orthopedic surgeon who is specialized in that field.

I had regretted sharing my spot diagnosis….10 years old girl with a total hip amputation and a long course of chemotherapy waiting for her; even with such aggressive treatment she is still facing a 30% 5 years survival rate….

The incident had haunted me and I had paid my price during the level 3 IDPA competition 2 days later....