Specsavers' optician spots brain condition after doctor misses signs – Telegraph.
The UK Telegraph story linked above illustrates a couple of points: One is that the physicians are not able to spend enough time with patients to give thorough evaluations, and have lost physical examination skills. The other is that the media reporters and editors use the terms optometrist and optician, (the person who dispenses lenses for vision correction), interchangeably and apparently don’t understand the difference.
Katie Burns diagnosis was missed by her general practitioner, to the extent that she was given the generic “it must be a virus” diagnosis, and did not get a referral to a specialist. She had frequent and worsening headaches. A friend suggested that she visit an opTOMOtrist, (the guy who examines and diagnoses eye problems, and prescribes vision correction). Dr. Faheem Hassan spotted an abnormally bulging head of her optic nerve, and directed her to a hospital, where she received a lumbar puncture to relieve pressure on her brain.
Ms. Burns is said to have been suffering intracranial hypertension, and has since had procedures to install a stent to assist with “brain drainage” to relieve pressure.
