First Do No Harm?

Wells College Students Misdiagnosed at Medical Center


Pleading for a walk-in appointment, being forgotten about in the examination room, prescribing a “cure-all” antibiotic—these aren’t procedures conducive to restoring and preserving the wellness of Wells College students. Wellness implies health, and the Community Health Center in Aurora doesn’t help sick students achieve it.

At Wells, students have limited options for medical care. For every ailment from the flu to STD’s, students should feel inclined to pay a visit to the quaint medical center on campus. Not only does the center serve Wells College’s student population, it is also the only medical care facility in the immediate area. Of course, the town of Auburn and the city of Ithaca are complete with hospitals, but each is about a half-hour drive from Aurora.

Students are required to pay a $500 fee for medical care as part of their annual tuition package, even if they already have insurance through their parents, employer, or live off-campus. Students are transported to one of the near-by hospitals for serious injuries, like broken bones or drinking-induced illness, but at a price. The $500 per year premium doesn’t pay for something as routine and necessary as an STD test, let alone emergency x-rays and ambulance rides. Students without secondary insurance are left to pay those hefty bills out-of-pocket. As for getting STD tests, medical center workers advise students to make the trip to Ithaca or Auburn’s Planned Parenthood for assistance if they can’t afford to pay for them.

Fortunately, ambulance rides on Wells campus are far rarer than the common cold and flu, but often just as harrowing experiences. Several students have warned their peers of the medical center’s diagnostic follies, and concernedly enough, they are well within reason to.

One junior at Wells went to the health center to have her fever, dry cough, and tiredness evaluated shortly after arriving on campus for this fall semester. Though she followed the proper protocol of calling for an appointment—they don’t take walk ins—she was forgotten about in the examination room after being admitted through triage for an hour-and-a-half. The student, though clearly suffering from something worse than tonsillitis, was given antibiotics and sent back to her dorm room to rest by the nurse practitioner. Not feeling better a week later, the student followed the nurse’s advice and came back, this time to be seen by the doctor. The doctor took one look at the student and told her that she had mononucleosis, and ordered a confirmatory blood test to prove it. Not only was the preliminarily student misdiagnosed, but she was unable to go anywhere else for treatment because of her lack of insurance.

That student is only one of several who have gone misdiagnosed with the flu instead of mono this semester, which may account for the high prevalence of the virus on campus year-round. Being misdiagnosed with mono may not be that life-threatening, considering that there’s no pill that will make its symptoms go away, but organ damage, such as an enlarged liver or ruptured spleen, is a possible complication if left untreated.

If the mono epidemic weren’t enough, one student, also a junior, went without knowing she needed surgery because of misdiagnosis. Complaining of soreness at the base of her spine that made such basic functions as sitting and walking uncomfortable, the student went to the medical center and was examined by a doctor who concluded that the student was suffering from a bruised tailbone from her horseback riding lessons. She was told that the bruise may take several months to heal, and that there was nothing to do but take a pain reliever to ease her discomfort. Upon returning home that weekend and seeing her family doctor, she found out that she had a cyst that needed drainage. The student had been living with the cyst since birth, but it had become inflamed because of the horseback riding lessons. Over January break, a specialist will remove the cyst entirely, a procedure that involves anesthetic, stitches, and prescription strength painkillers; even to the medically untrained observer that’s a far cry from “waiting out” a deep bruise.

Though a Health Center Committee exists at Wells as a direct link between the students and the medical center, many students aren’t aware of the Health Center’s hours of operation, or that there’s an emergency line to call for help when it’s closed. However, if the medical center is unable to diagnose students with common illnesses, provide affordable routine testing, or at least be honest enough to suggest that students seek second opinions when necessary, students and community members alike are better off traveling out of their way for medical care that they can trust.