Susannah Cahalan’s battle with a rare autoimmune disorder can be used as a perfect case study for misdiagnosis with patients, biases that doctors may encounter and the sick role. Firstly, for those that have not read Brain on Fire, it is about the journey Susannah, a reporter for the New York Post, underwent with trying to find an answer to her perplexing medical mystery. Early on in her journey Susannah started experiencing subtle symptoms that she dismissed as the flu and the common blues everyone experiences from time to time. Her primary doctor that will play a major role in the story, Dr. Bailey, also thought Susannah had symptoms along the lines of a virus like mono. She continued with her daily life not putting much thought to her symptoms. Her health continued to gradually decline, and her colleagues began noticing something was wrong with her. At one point her supervisor, after noticing a lack in her performance, gave her one last shot to have the chance to interview John Walsh, famous for America’s most wanted. In short, the interview was a disaster and cut short after Susannah began having an array of symptoms that were observable as being intoxicated. A few days after this event, she continued to get more symptoms and started …show more content…
Misdiagnosis is a huge problem that accounts for a large number of deaths in the United States and around the world. Some of the causes of this could be from the amount of time doctors have with their patients and bias the doctors can have. Susannah was an exception in being able to pay for the treatment she received. The average American would have likely not been able to afford this type of care. This highlights the major medical divide that is present in the country. Susannah is a first-hand account of the dangers of misdiagnosing a patient and the call for better policies that address a better plan of action when making a