The clinical histories of patients coming to our outpatient clinics are written by interns. Based on how much attention they paid to their teachers when they were students, and how much knowledge they acquired when they prepared for their exams, the interns wrote clinical histories of varying quality. One of them wrote the chief complaint of a patient as ‘Heavy menorrhagia’.
“Will you kindly explain what is
heavy menorrhagia” I asked him.
“That is very heavy menstrual blood
loss” he said.
“Since there is heavy menorrhagia,
there must be light menorrhagia too” I said.
“….” He had probably not heard of
that one.
“Will you tell me where you learned
the term ‘heavy menorrhagia’?” I asked him.
“I picked it up while working as an
intern” he said.
“From whom?” I wanted a complete
answer.
“From a senior intern or a house
officer. I am not sure which one” he said.
“Will you kindly stick to just
‘menorrhagia’ in future, and describe the patient’s blood loss
in terms of sanitary pads used per day, the duration of blood loss,
and passage of blood clots?” I asked.
“Yes” he said. I suppose he did,
because I have not encountered that complaint again on any patient’s
case paper, thought there have been plenty with ‘menorrhagia’.
