Medical Charts

This list apparently comes from a healthcare professional who has come across the following quotes from actual medical records dictated by physicians.

  • By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.

  • Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

  • On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it had completely disappeared.

  • The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1983.

  • The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

  • Discharge status: Alive but without permission. The patient will need disposition, and therefore we will get Dr. Blank to dispose of him.

  • Healthy appearing decrepit 69 year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful.

  • The patient has no past history of suicides.

  • The patient expired on the floor uneventfully.

  • Patient has left his white blood cells at another hospital.

  • Patient was becoming more demented with urinary frequency.

  • The patient’s past medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.

  • She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.

  • The patient left the hospital feeling much better except for her original complaints.

  • The patient refused an autopsy.

My Footsteps?

An acquaintance of mine who is a physician told this story about her then four-year-old daughter. On the way to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. Be still, my heart, thought my friend, my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps! Then the child spoke into the instrument:

“Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”

The History of Medication

2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1985 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 A.D. – That antibiotic is unhealthy. Here, eat this root.