Medical Professionals Are Sharing 20 Patients Who Turned Out To Be Correct About Wild Self-Diagnoses

December 23, 2025 by ucef

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“I told her cancer wasn’t contagious like that, but she was so insistent that I ordered a CT scan in order to reassure her. Lo and behold, she had a huge colon mass. Very bizarre case.”

—u/harrycrewe

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“We went to the hospital, and she started getting really sweaty, but there were no other symptoms/exam changes/vital sign changes. We dropped her off, gave our report, and went back into service…

A couple hours later, we went back to the same hospital. I asked if they ever found anything with the previous patient, and I found out she passed away.

CT showed a ruptured aortic aneurysm, and they didn’t have enough time to transfer her or the resources to operate at that facility. The bizarre thing is, ruptured aortas usually (as in, every other case I’ve seen/heard about/read about) have other symptoms such as high heart rate, low blood pressure (or both), dizziness/lightheadedness, pain…this woman had none of those.”

—u/Striking_Earth_786

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Please note: some comments may have been edited for length and/or clarity.

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6. “I had a patient who came into the emergency department with vague mild abdominal pain whose friend had recently died of colon cancer. She was convinced she must have it too.”

7. “I’m a phone triage RN for a family practice. We had a woman in her early 60s, who we talked to often, call one time in a near panic attack, convinced she had terminal cancer.”

➡️ Do YOU have a story about correctly diagnosing yourself? Let us know in the comments 👀

8. “‘I’m going to die’ — a spot-on diagnosis from a woman right before she went into cardiac arrest. That was eerie.”

“Before my second surgery, my specialist refused to believe they drained that much from me, and I had to show photos as proof. He said and I quote, ‘If there had been that much you’d be in the Guinness Book of World Records.'”

10. “Not the patient himself, but his mom. This child was 18 months old and was admitted due to constipation. We were giving him medicines for that and it was getting better but the mom started to insist we get an MRI of his brain.”

11. “Rural paramedic here. Several years ago had a woman call with feelings of impending doom. No pain, no symptoms, just ‘I feel like I’m about to die.’ Vital signs were all normal, on scene exams all normal. But she wanted to go get checked out, so into the ambulance and away we go.”

12. “A woman came into maternity triage and said, ‘My baby is playing with my bowel.’ Your bowel doesn’t have somatic nerves, so… not really a thing.”

15. “Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist here. I essentially self-diagnosed Lymphoma after realizing the association between consuming alcohol and having specific pain in my neck, shoulder, and arm.”

16. “When I was in med school, there was a guy in his early 60s, fairly healthy, who kept coming into the hospital with vague symptoms of feeling like ‘he’s dying.’ Tons of blood tests, imaging studies, etc. didn’t show any problems.”

17. “I had a brittle diabetic who felt like she was reinfected after an amputation which had already healed months before. Just said her bones hurt deep. Clinically, it was very benign looking.”

18. “I had a patient come in when he lost the strength in his right leg. He took baby aspirin for the heart. The first thing he said to me was, ‘I think I need more blood thinners.’ On his ECG, he had artial fibrilation, which usualy requires… more blood thinners.”

19. “This isn’t weird so much as impressive. I had a 15-year-old girl diagnose herself with Turner Syndrome. She was learning about it in science class and thought it described her pretty well, so she brought it up to her pediatrician, and sure enough, [she had it].”

20. And finally: “Working in toxicology I once had a patient who treated her anaphylaxis unknowingly (and sucessfully) with a line of cocaine.”

So, what do you think? If you’re a medical professional or a patient, I’d love to hear your stories about self-diagnoses that turned out to be real. Leave your comments down below!

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6.
“I had a patient who came into the emergency department with vague mild abdominal pain whose friend had recently died of colon cancer. She was convinced she must have it too.”

7.
“I’m a phone triage RN for a family practice. We had a woman in her early 60s, who we talked to often, call one time in a near panic attack, convinced she had terminal cancer.”

8.
“‘I’m going to die’ — a spot-on diagnosis from a woman right before she went into cardiac arrest. That was eerie.”

10.
“Not the patient himself, but his mom. This child was 18 months old and was admitted due to constipation. We were giving him medicines for that and it was getting better but the mom started to insist we get an MRI of his brain.”

11.
“Rural paramedic here. Several years ago had a woman call with feelings of impending doom. No pain, no symptoms, just ‘I feel like I’m about to die.’ Vital signs were all normal, on scene exams all normal. But she wanted to go get checked out, so into the ambulance and away we go.”

12.
“A woman came into maternity triage and said, ‘My baby is playing with my bowel.’ Your bowel doesn’t have somatic nerves, so… not really a thing.”

15.
“Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist here. I essentially self-diagnosed Lymphoma after realizing the association between consuming alcohol and having specific pain in my neck, shoulder, and arm.”

16.
“When I was in med school, there was a guy in his early 60s, fairly healthy, who kept coming into the hospital with vague symptoms of feeling like ‘he’s dying.’ Tons of blood tests, imaging studies, etc. didn’t show any problems.”

17.
“I had a brittle diabetic who felt like she was reinfected after an amputation which had already healed months before. Just said her bones hurt deep. Clinically, it was very benign looking.”

18.
“I had a patient come in when he lost the strength in his right leg. He took baby aspirin for the heart. The first thing he said to me was, ‘I think I need more blood thinners.’ On his ECG, he had artial fibrilation, which usualy requires… more blood thinners.”

19.
“This isn’t weird so much as impressive. I had a 15-year-old girl diagnose herself with Turner Syndrome. She was learning about it in science class and thought it described her pretty well, so she brought it up to her pediatrician, and sure enough, [she had it].”

20.
And finally: “Working in toxicology I once had a patient who treated her anaphylaxis unknowingly (and sucessfully) with a line of cocaine.”