When it comes to self-treating your illnesses, the internet can be both a blessing and a curse.
Googling your symptoms can give you a vague idea of the possible ailments you could be suffering from, and sometimes it even provides you with a few home remedies for the problem.
However, most of the time, you type something like "runny nose and cough" into the search bar and get a prognosis from WebMD that says you either have some deadly, incurable form of cancer... or the common cold.
This is particularly problematic if you happen to be a hypochondriac like myself because no matter how minor your symptoms may be, the internet always has a way of convincing you that you're going to die from a rare, painful disease you never knew existed.
Yep, consulting a search engine is in no way the same thing as going to see your doctor.
However, once in a while, algorithms do match some of your symptoms to the right cause.
We recently came across a woman named Hannah, who received a wrong text that was meant for a doctor.
The text message, written by a man named Matt who worked at a vascular lab, read,
Hey Dr. Park, this is Matt from the vascular lab, I have an outpatient here with an external iliac occlusion with cold foot pain and numbness that started three days ago. What should I do with her?
Instead of telling the man to take a hike, Hannah decided to lend this guy a helping hand by giving the lab technician her very own prognosis.
After conducting a quick Google search of the symptoms described by the man, she responded to the message,
Hi, this is Hannah. I think you have the wrong number, but i Googled it and I'm pretty sure you need to put a stent in her left radial artery, best of luck Matt!
The crazy part is that Hannah was actually right!
A few hours later, Hannah received another text message from the man that read,
Sorry wrong number Hannah. She ended up actually getting a stent. Took about three hours longer for trained medical professionals to figure out what took you about five minutes, great job.
Hannah did what any smart person in her situation would do, and responded by asking the man if they were currently hiring.
While there's no word yet on whether Hannah landed a job at the lab, it looks like this girl is going to have a bright future in medicine.
Citations: Wrong Number (Imgur)
