TRENTON, Ohio — A Tri-State woman is going viral on TikTok after posting a video about her emergency room misdiagnosis.
Trenton mother Amanda Buschelman said emergency room doctors dismissed her appendicitis as an ovarian cyst and now she's making it her mission to make sure women know they need to advocate for themselves when it comes to their health.
Buschelman said she went to the doctor for severe right side abdominal pain. Her doctor instructed her to go to the emergency room, as he suspected appendicitis.
The emergency room ran some tests to try to determine what was wrong.
"The doctor came in while I was writhing in pain and informed me that the diagnosis was an ovarian cyst,” Buschelman said.
She told the doctor that was impossible.
“And he was very upset with me and said, ‘what do you mean that's impossible?’ And I said, ‘well, I don't have any ovaries. I had them surgically removed 10 years ago,’" said Buschelman.
@amandabman #appendix #beleivewomen #notanxious #inpain ♬ original sound - Amanda Buschelman
Despite insisting something was seriously wrong, she was sent home from the emergency room.
After visiting other doctors, she was told she had a tumor. While getting it removed, doctors discovered something else.
"Guess what. I had appendicitis the whole time,” Buschelman said in her TikTok video. “I had my appendix taken out along with that little tumor that wasn't an ovary. I don’t have any of those."
After her TikTok video went viral, she quickly realized she was not alone with what she had experienced.
“What shocked me was the 30,000 comments that I received from women across the nation, and some from the UK that had similar if not almost exactly the same situation,” she said. “A lot of women were talking about their birth control moving inside their body and not being believed by their doctor. Another woman had cancer and was told she had period cramps. The doctor listed in my chart I was anxious. I wasn't anxious. I was in pain."
She hopes her story can inspire other women to speak up and go with their gut when they know something is wrong with their body.
"I have no idea why this is happening, but I do know it needs to stop," she said. "And as women we need to demand better care."
Buschelman said she has been overwhelmed by the response she's gotten on her TikTok. The video currently has over 4 million views.
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