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A Navy SEAL was convinced exposure to blasts damaged his brain, so he donated it to science to prove it (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/health@lemmy.world
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“We’re really at an infant stage in terms of our clinical ability to assess traumatic brain injury,” a medical expert said.

Before he ended his life, Ryan Larkin made his family promise to donate his brain to science.

The 29-year-old Navy SEAL was convinced years of exposure to blasts had badly damaged his brain, despite doctors telling him otherwise. He had downloaded dozens of research papers on traumatic brain injury out of frustration that no one was taking him seriously, his father said.

“He knew,” Frank Larkin said. “I’ve grown to understand that he was out to prove that he was hurt, and he wasn’t crazy.”

In 2017, a postmortem study found that Ryan Larkin, a combat medic and instructor who taught SEALs how to breach buildings with explosives, had a pattern of brain scarring unique to service members who’ve endured repeated explosions.

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[–] 2 points 2 years ago (17 children)

They disregard certain symptoms because they went to med school, had a residency and are a practicing doctor for 10 years. They see so many hypochondriacs, that if they did that, they could only see half the people, or even less.

The rule of medicine is "if you hear hooves, think horsey, not zebra". People googling their symptoms won't find their disease 99.999% of the time. You won't beat their experience by googling, that's not how it works.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (13 children)

    Sure. And yet it would benefit us all to have a better understanding of how our bodies work and where online models work or don’t work. Do people really just want an answer with no reason? I want to hear hat Zebra are not native to this region, and the symptoms don’t include stripes. Otherwise, how will I learn not to expect zebras next time?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Because most of the time without expensive diagnostic testing the only thing you have to go off is the sound of hoofbeats. It'd be a collosal waste of resources to order every diagnostic test that is associated with the differential diagnoses for every patient. If the symptoms begin to worsen or become more frequent, then you have a patient history of recurring symptoms that can justify further tests.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    You learn that simply by never expecting zebras and letting doctors do their job. Do you go to the used car lot and expect the dealer to explain to you the innerworkings of the internal combustion engine, what the little ticking sound is in the car and how blinkers know to disable themselves, or do you expect him to sell you a car?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I expect him to answer questions with some technical detail and minimal bs about the pros and cons of that vehicle, potential causes of common problems and how to avoid them and how best to take care of it. If he doesn’t, I find a different salesperson, or dealership .

    I also hold my doctor to higher ethical standards than a car salesman

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Okay, so you expect him to not do his actual job and humor you. While you come in and basically insult him by trying to do his job for him by using google, and being wrong all the time.

    A doctors job is to cure people, not explain everything in minute detail to everyone that comes in.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago*

    Nope, I hire a doctor as an expert in my health and show respect by making an effort to understand better and to learn from his advice. A doctor is not some mystic who simply utters an incantation in a vacuum of knowledge but an expert I can use to achieve my health goals. I can help get better results from my doctor by having a bit of a discussion where I can surface potentially relevant facts and the doctor can place them in a medical context and share knowledge for me to learn about my health . That is a doctors job

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (7 children)

    If I ask the mechanic if it's the flasher unit or a bad ground, I want a straight answer, not up front maybe but after.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    And if you come in and keep asking if it's the blinker fluid, and expect the mechanic to explain in a very detailed fashion that it is not and that you are an idiot?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    Yeah. That's pretty far from relevant though. You're argument seems to be a doctor can't figure out the difference between a rational human who can comprehend, understand, think and correlate what they've read, compared to physical symptoms they know intimately, and the blinker fluid tards

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Except for the fact that everybody thinks they are a "rational human" when indeed they are the "blinker fluid tard".

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    These doctors really are too dumb to tell the difference huh?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They don't care. They have to contend with hundreds of people who think they are the shit because they googled their symptoms. They are there to diagnose, not you.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Although you may beat their knowledge by reading the research, which is what this guy seemingly did. That's why you go to school, to learn knowledge and also learn how to analyze the new research as it comes. If they're ignoring the research that this guy explicitly points out correlates to his experience, and has done all the digging for them and checked the legitimacy and methods (which I'm not claiming he did), then the doctors should have at least double checked.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Eh. No. You don't have knowledge by "researching" online because you can't even diagnose yourself because you lack the knowledge and research. This isn't someone looking for a service manual and changing out something simple in their car. This is medicine.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Medicine isn't magic. You can gain better specific knowledge through research. That's literally how you get it, whether through school or otherwise. There are people around the world who have self trained and become very competent at things other people go to university to learn. Assuming someone needs to be a doctor in order to gain knowledge is so stupid.

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