my boyfriend has a serve kidney infection and may be fatal. should i tell the doctors the truth?

Question

my boyfriend was hopitalized with an infected cut on his forehead, they carried out tests thinking it was bactirima with sepsis the results came back and found out that it was sevre kidney infection, which could be fatal if left untreated. hes on treatment now but its getting worse, hes being vomiting and having fevers, hyperventalating and really low blood pressure and rapid heart rate. last night he unconsious but came back round 10 minutes later. They think its so serious hes kidneys could start to fail if not taken seriously. my boyfriend is keeping something from them with could effect his treatment. hes promised me not to tell them even if its life threatening. What shall i do?

my boyfriend was hopitalized with an infected cut on his forehead, they carried out tests thinking it was bactirima with sepsis the results came back and found out that it was sevre kidney infection, which could be fatal if left untreated. hes on treatment now but its getting worse, hes being vomiting and having fevers, hyperventalating and really low blood pressure and rapid heart rate. last night he unconsious but came back round 10 minutes later. They think its so serious hes kidneys could start to fail if not taken seriously. my boyfriend is keeping something from them with could effect his treatment. hes promised me not to tell them even if its life threatening because it's illegal. i tried telling the doctor but my boyfriend denied it. what shall i do?

Answer 1

Get your boyfriend to tell the doctor the truth. The doctor doesn't really care what is illegal, and he cannot, by law, tell anybody because it would be a serious breach of Patient/Doctor confidentiality. The man is a doctor, not a cop. If YOU tell the doctor, I don't know if that is covered under confidentaility laws or not.
I think that the real problem is that your boyfriend doesn't want to officially admit that he has a problem. you can email me and I'll ask my Dad (an MD) or my sister (an attorney) and see what they say.

Answer 2

how f-ing stupid are you guys????? Tell the doctor now!!! Unless you want the dude to die, then go ahead and don't tell them. And what the hell could you possibly know that would save his life that the doctors couldn't already figure out??? And if you both knew it, WHY IN THE HELL wouldn't you tell the doctors???? There's something called the patient-doctor confedentiality agreement. They can't say anything to anybody about this "something" that you guys don't want to tell the doctors. And they won't anyways. Be smart here, sweetie, tell the doctors EVERYTHING.

Answer 3

I would tell the doctor. If you love him and want to save his life. If some how you could talk to the doctor privately and tell him, maybe if it is something they can check his blood for they can say they found it in his blood rather than you looking like the bad guy. I would for sure.

Answer 4

I couldn't just sit around and do nothing like my doctors suggested.

They didn't want me to do anything or to take herbs or herbal remedies, but I had to try something - they just wanted me to do dialysis!

This program allowed me to take control of my health. I went from Stage 4 to Stage 3 kidney disease.

It was easy to do and my BUN, creatinine and anemia are all in better ranges.

Reversing Your Kidney Disease?

Answer 5

This is a hard question to answer and I'm not sure I have the right answer. I think I would talk confidentially with the doctor and ask the doctor to do the test that would detect his hidden condition. You could talk with the ethics staff at the hospital and tell them of your concerns and see what they say. If his hidden condition leads to infections of this sort, you could simply ask the doctor what population group tends to get these sort of infections and ask him if he has tested for any of these conditions.

Two questions to ask yourself are how would you feel if he dies but he could have lived if you told and how would you feel if he lives because you told and he dumps you because he is upset that you decided to do something he didn't want you to do.

Answer 6

Your boyfriend is an adult, I assume. So the decision to talk to the doctors is his. If he doesn't want to tell them than he has a right. However, he needs to understand that a doctor has the right to expect a patient to be honest with them. Does he not think that his life is worth living?

Answer 7

It depends on how much you love your boyfriend. If you tell he may dump you if he lives. If you don't tell he may die. This is a very tough delimia to handle. My opinion is if you love him enough tell the docs everything. He may dump you but you will know he is still alive. If you love him and choose not to tell and he dies you will never forgive yourself and that will hurt more than him dumping you. I hope i have helped. Meditate on this and then decide--or better yet talk to a clergy or preist. they will steer you right and they are not allowed to tell the dr themself.

peace&hope

Answer 8

That is really to bad for him I had kidney failure and I was on dialysis for some time but it saved my life,I think without a doubt that you should inform the DR.S of what is going on with him,please tell if you want him to be around,.

Answer 9

I would definatly tell the Doctor's the truth in this matter. It can save his life. If he gets angry at you-at least you know you saved the life of someone you love. If he were to die because you didn't say anything-could you live with that?

Answer 10

Even if it was illegal, doctors are bound by the code of medical ethics not to tell, unless it affects someone else's life or health. It is better to tell the doctors.