TikTok can make us feel all kinds of emotions, and we usually like to watch lighthearted videos that help us break up the monotony of our daily routines. However, TikTok user @imtheproblem shared a story of the absolutely horrible medical experience her friend went through, and it’s definitely no laughing matter. We’re going to need to sit down for this one.
She said her friend Chloe experienced gaslighting so terrible “it nearly cost her her relationship, her job, and her sanity.” After Chloe decided to get breast enlargement surgery, the day of her appointment was a nightmare. Her 2pm appointment came and went until she was eventually seen five hours later at 7pm.
That would be frustrating enough as it was because that shows a lack of compassion for patients who are sitting around wondering when they’re going to be seen, but it gets much more upsetting. Chloe was already worried about the procedure, but the surgeon, who was in a bad mood and much harsher than he was when Chloe saw him previously, said she would have to pay 1,500 pounds (that’s roughly 1,900 US dollars) whether she got the surgery done or not. As TikTok user @imtheproblem pointed out, that basically paying “for the privilege of sitting starving in a hospital,” since Chloe was instructed not to eat beforehand.
The rest of the story is horrific: Chloe felt more relaxed as the surgeon put something in her drip, but then woke up from the surgery and realized she was in absolutely awful pain. She stayed overnight and at 5am, she started to feel more pain in her neck, shoulder, and back, but — and get this — the doctor wouldn’t come by to see how she was doing because he had a packed day ahead. Yes, really. The doctor claimed she was feeling “referred pain” and that other parts of her body couldn’t really be hurting.
As two and a half weeks went by, Chloe contacted the doctor by email and in person, only to be told he wouldn’t allow her to get more pain meds because she was “addicted,” which wasn’t true at all. After undergoing emergency surgery at a hospital, Chloe is now healing from yet another procedure, which means time off from her job — and she’s a mom, too.
When Chloe discovered she likely had breast implant illness, which according to The Cleveland Clinic can cause terrible symptoms like muscle pain, joint pain, weakness, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and a host of other ailments, the surgeon continued to gaslight her. He said he didn’t think her pain was legitimate and refused to take out her implants. Unfortunately, this is incredibly common, as doctors have a history of ignoring their patients when they say they’re in pain. According to NPR, if a woman tells her doctor she’s dealing with a medical problem, they’ll shrug her off more often than if they were talking to a man.
Now comes the most shocking part, which we hate hearing about. Chloe has a fractured shoulder and broken back, and, believe it or not, she was gaslit even more. She was told that, according to her hospital records, she fell out of her hospital bed while trying to use the bathroom, but that never happened. The friend said she believes “Chloe was dropped at some point when she entered the surgeon’s operating room.”
Sadly, Chloe was gaslit so badly she wasn’t able to heal properly from her injuries, and other doctors let her know she should have been told the truth about what happened so she could’ve given her body the proper time it needed to heal. Chloe now has chronic pain and nerve damage that won’t go away. Several people commented on the TikTok video, horrified to hear what happened and also sharing their own terrible stories of being injured during surgery.
As Chloe’s sweet friend said, this surgeon is “the devil” and cautioned viewers to “pick your surgeons carefully.”
