A young teenager was brought in to the casualty - alleged fall and complained of neck pain. On examination, the power of all 4 limbs was only 2 over 5 with reduced sensation up to quite high level at C3/C4. The clinical picture was very suggestive of cervical fracture with spinal injury - and he's planned for an urgent CT scan.
The whole situation in ER was kinda dramatic. The mother was crying, the dad kept on asking the son whether he regret going out to play so often (taking the opportunity to condition the kid); whereas the patient's also crying, telling something like "last words" such as "I think I can't make it..if I d**, you all don't miss me..." "No don't say like that, we'll give you whatever you want, as long as you're fine..." *followed by lots of crying*
But this is not the most dramatic part yet.
Soon the boy was sent for the scan. To the surprise of everyone and even the orthopedic surgeon, the scan was totally normal. No fracture/ dislocation, reported by radiologist.
So the scan finding was explained to the patient. Then miracle happened.
The boy started to move his fingers, then arms and legs. He then was able to sit up! And according to him, the numbness "suddenly" all disappeared.
Parents were relieved, stopped crying, and the next thing they wanted is, an AOR discharge. It was allowed since they insisted, and the boy just walked out the hospital (if running will be even more dramatic). According to the parents, the boy is hungry and they wanna bring him for dinner.
So how to explain the whole scenario? Doesn't sound so realistic. Or was it really a miracle?
To us, probably it's not. The truth seems to be, the 1st half of the story itself, was in fact the drama. Either psychological influence or just plain secondary intention - but it did fool everyone, made use of the resource and made everyone busy for nothing.
Saw a kinda "special" case the other day.
A young teenager was brought in to the casualty - alleged fall and complained of neck pain. On examination, the power of all 4 limbs was only 2 over 5 with reduced sensation up to quite high level at C3/C4. The clinical picture was very suggestive of cervical fracture with spinal injury - and he's planned for an urgent CT scan.
The whole situation in ER was kinda dramatic. The mother was crying, the dad kept on asking the son whether he regret going out to play so often (taking the opportunity to condition the kid); whereas the patient's also crying, telling something like "last words" such as "I think I can't make it..if I d**, you all don't miss me..." "No don't say like that, we'll give you whatever you want, as long as you're fine..." *followed by lots of crying*
But this is not the most dramatic part yet.
Soon the boy was sent for the scan. To the surprise of everyone and even the orthopedic surgeon, the scan was totally normal. No fracture/ dislocation, reported by radiologist.
So the scan finding was explained to the patient.
Then miracle happened.
The boy started to move his fingers, then arms and legs. He then was able to sit up! And according to him, the numbness "suddenly" all disappeared.
Parents were relieved, stopped crying, and the next thing they wanted is, an AOR discharge. It was allowed since they insisted, and the boy just walked out the hospital (if running will be even more dramatic). According to the parents, the boy is hungry and they wanna bring him for dinner.
So how to explain the whole scenario?
Doesn't sound so realistic. Or was it really a miracle?
To us, probably it's not. The truth seems to be, the 1st half of the story itself, was in fact the drama. Either psychological influence or just plain secondary intention - but it did fool everyone, made use of the resource and made everyone busy for nothing.
Not so uncommon to see this kind of patient huh?