what, if anything, were you thinking?

Posted on Friday, 2007 April 20 by Anton

I hear some surprising things in this job. I trust I’m not violating confidence if I repeat this doozy from a discharge report:

At this point the etiology of the [symptom] is still unclear to me; it could possibly be idiopathic but, given that his symptoms have resolved and [test results], most likely his [symptom] has unclear etiology.

Idiopathic or unclear? We report, you decide.

This entry was posted in medicine. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to what, if anything, were you thinking?

  1. Anton says:
    Tuesday, 2007 June 05 at 13:57

    Here’s an annoying one: the surgeon who dictated this report (not transcribed by me) makes a correction:

    … and then it should be nasal valvular claps. So nasal valvular – I guess valvular is right, but then claps rather than clefts. So the last word should be c-o-l-l-a-p-s-e. Nasal valvular claps.

    If you were trying to make someone understand a word, wouldn’t you pronounce all its syllables?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *