BMJ  2006;333:430-431 (26 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.38937.455949.55

Practice

A patient's journey: our special girl

¹ Bergkoppelweg 2, D-22335 Hamburg, Institute for General Practice, University Hospital Hamburg

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

When my daughter, Mathilda, was 5 weeks old our lives changed. It began with a seizure, probably caused by a late form of newborn hypocalcaemia. The seizure brought us to hospital for 10 days, to injections, infusions, hard, ugly knots in the head caused by calcium deposits, even to lumbar puncture. It brought pain to Mathilda and fear to her parents. There she stopped growing. There we got to know that, for unknown reasons, she had a slightly raised liver enzyme activity and anaemia. There I encountered the medical system from the other side.

When Mathilda was nearly 2 years old, she was still able to sit in her doll's bed

 

I am a general practitioner. For many years I have worked mainly as a researcher at the university department of general practice. I already knew a lot about problems in the German healthcare system (and others) and shortcomings in . . . [Full text of this article]

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