Show 996: Mystery and Lyme Disease Misdiagnosis

People who have had difficulty getting an accurate diagnosis of their ailments may feel that if they had MDs, their doctors would take them seriously and work until they found the correct diagnosis. This is not always the case, however.

Our guest, Neil Spector, MD, is a distinguished researcher and medical oncologist. But when he came down with troubling symptoms, the doctors he consulted told him he was suffering from stress. No one could figure out why his heart was racing and he had so little energy, but the diagnosis of “stress” followed him around. He had to become his own advocate.

Years later, his doctors discovered that his heart was barely functioning. It had been destroyed by heart disease. He learned that unless he got an immediate heart transplant, he could be gone in a heartbeat.

What can we learn from Dr. Neil Spector’s successful fight to overcome Lyme disease?

This Week’s Guest:

Neil Spector, MD, is the Sandra P. Coates chair in breast cancer research and an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He co-directs the developmental therapeutics program for the Duke Cancer Institute, and is a Komen scholar. His book is Gone in a Heartbeat: A Physician’s Search for True Healing.