Hospitalized for the holidays.
That’s the situation one student says he found himself in after a misdiagnosis by the UCF Health Center.
After being diagnosed with strep throat by the UCF Health Services≤ the student, who wished to keep his identity concealed, said he wasn’t getting better.
“I decided to get checked out again two days after visiting the UCF Health Center because the antibiotics I was given just weren’t working, I was getting worse,” he said.
The student finally had a blood test and discovered that he actually had Mononucleosis, commonly known as Mono.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” the student told Knight News. “At first I believed them. Then as I got worse after taking the antibiotics… I knew something wasn’t right.”
After discovering the student’s ailments, he was then transferred to another hospital for care via ambulance.
Emails of similar stories flooded in after Knight News took to twitter asking students if they had similar experiences. Within hours, several students shared their horrific experiences, some that even could have been potentially dangerous had students not gotten a second opinion.
“Last spring I went to the Health Center and they told me I was getting over the flu,” UCF student Lindsey said. “I ended up in a New York hospital for 34 days, six of which were spent in a medically induced coma. I was diagnosed with Lemierre’s syndrome.”
“I was misdiagnosed by the UCF health services center,” a UCF student named Josh said. “I went there because of back pain… and was quickly dismissed and made to feel as if I was trying to over exaggerate and there was nothing wrong at all. I quickly got a second opinion and found out that I actually had a torn and herniated disk.”
One student said he went into the Health Center with a knee issue and UCF doctors told him to “walk it off”. The student found out weeks later he had a torn ACL.
Many students expressed outrage and said they were concerned by both mistakes made by the Health Center– and how they were treated after.
One student said that even after they informed the Health Clinic of their misdiagnosis, “I still had to pay my whole bill or I wouldn’t be able to sign up for my next semester’s classes.”
Knight News reached out to UCF for comment shortly before noon, but the University was unable to produce a response before it closed for Thanksgiving break.
Stay tuned to Knight News for continued updates.
