doctor, what is the best lie a patient has ever told you

As a doctor, what is the best lie a patient has ever told you

A normal cervix generally looks like this:

That is, for a girl who’s not had any children via vaginal delivery.

Hers looked something like this:

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Of course, without the sutures.

The teenage girl (18 y/o) was brought to OBGY Emergency department by her boyfriend with the chief complaint of postcoital bleeding. Except she was not only bleeding, she was pouring.

The team grouped around this girl, each one carrying out the orders of our resident doctor. IV access, beginning fluids, monitoring vitals, collecting bloods for tests, blood grouping and cross-match etc.

With the speculum in place, our brave resident set out on a task to find the source of bleeding.

He found it: a deep laceration on the anterior lip of the cervix and a small mucosal cut on the anterior vaginal wall.

This sort of trauma often only happens during childbirth.

After the suturing was done, the bleeding stopped, the vagina packed with gauze and the girl resuscitated, we heard the story of how it had happened.

The two had been in the process of having sexual intercourse (penis in vagina only), when she started bleeding. He rushed her to the hospital.

The following day, during our post-call round, the same story was repeated consistently. Her pregnancy test was negative.

Now, I’d say I don’t know for sure what happened. They may have been telling the truth. However, we all agreed that the damage done to the cervix was too severe for it to be done by a penis only. That too, the cut was a bit too clean. Well, unless someone was massively endowed with ‘Iron Man’ unmentionables down there.

Up to this day, when I remember that story, I keep having a gut feeling that some untruth was told.