If you would have come earlier: A cancer misdiagnosis

National patient safety expert Dr. Peter Pronovost describes what got him started on his crusade:

My father died at age 50 of cancer. He had lymphoma. But he was diagnosed with leukemia. When I was a first-year medical student, I took him to one of our experts for a second opinion. The specialist said, "If you would have come earlier, you would have been eligible for a bone marrow transplant, but the cancer is too advanced now." The word "error" was never spoken. But it was crystal clear. I was devastated. I was angry at the clinicians and myself. I kept thinking, "Medicine has to do better than this."

Advice: Get a second opinion promptly upon receiving a crucial diagnosis.

Read a very different story about the need for a second opinion. Thanks to Claudia Dreifus for the source interview in the New York Times of March 9.