The shock just before the holiday
The doctor sends cancer diagnoses instead of birthday greetings
12/29/2022 at 5:06 PM
First “You have lung cancer,” then “Merry Christmas”: an English doctor’s clinic scares its patients by sending the wrong message. Although all is clear shortly thereafter, the error caused noticeable irritation.
Shortly before Christmas, a medical practice in the north of England reportedly frightened a number of patients unnecessarily with devastating news—because it had been sent by mistake instead of a Christmas greeting. “The diagnosis – aggressive lung cancer with metastases,” she said instead of actually planned wishes for a relaxing vacation and happy holidays.
As the British media constantly report, several patients at a clinic in Askern near Doncaster received an SMS with a diagnosis of cancer just before the holidays. Shortly thereafter, another SMS followed with apologies: the diagnosis was sent “by mistake”. “Our message to you should be: We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” the practice, which has not commented on the case, wrote when asked.
Many of the injured reacted angrily. Carl Chegwin reportedly posted a screenshot of the text on Facebook and wrote, “Another big mistake by bad doctors.” When everything came clear by way of the second message, it is BBC Sea He pondered whether this was a “bad joke”: “I don’t go to the doctor very often,” British Public Radio quoted him as saying, “and then out of nowhere it’s supposed to be cancer.” The practice, according to Cheguin, is to “tell people just before Christmas that they are terminally ill. You can’t do that.”
According to the report, many recipients have flocked to this practice as a result of the message sent in error. A woman, who asked not to be identified, told the BBC she had previously tried and failed to contact: “So I went there and there were at least six people who were very worried because they had the same message.” to me “telegraph” Also Chris Reid who was already waiting for the results of his lung cancer test. After all, he knew right away that his tests had been negative: “Within an hour they went from ‘You have lung cancer’ to ‘Happy Birthday’ — unbelievable.”
