Of Plagues and Vampires: Believable Myths and Unbelievable Facts from Medical Practice by Michael Hefferon

Author:Michael Hefferon [Hefferon, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Woodpecker Lane Press
Published: 2017-07-27T06:00:00+00:00

17 “FRIDAY LEUKEMIA”

IT MUST BE THE WORST day of our life when we or a loved one receive a devastating diagnosis such as leukemia. These days, outcomes are more favourable for people with acute leukemia, particularly children, but this disease is still a life-threatening event and a life-altering experience.

I have always remarked on how frequently these dramatic encounters with patients and their loved ones occur on a Friday. Maybe it’s just life. For instance, we always hit the supermarket when the lines are busiest, or I always visit the library on the day when they close early.

You can surmise that the admission and diagnoses on a Friday are due to only skeleton services being available at weekends and the need to wrap decisions on a Friday. However, after decades of care and consoling of these families, it’s no coincidence that my weekends have been filled with these family conferences after diagnoses on a Friday.

In 2010, a group of German oncologists published an article called “Friday Leukemia” in a journal of research in blood disorders. This group of cancer specialists reviewed 197 cases of leukemia over three and a half years. They looked back at these cases, and found that 23 percent were admitted and diagnosed on a Friday. The next closest day of admission was Monday, at 16.8 percent.

The German oncologists further analyzed their cohort of the Friday folks as to their outcomes. The conclusions they drew were that this group did not have any significant difference in disease type and their outcomes did not differ from people diagnosed on other days of the week.

Were there differences in the outcomes, there might have been an argument for assigning a sub-classification to the Friday Leukemia group!

Robinson Crusoe, after all, named his desert island companion Man Friday because this was the day the man saved his life. Could there be more to this Friday “myth”?

REFERENCE

Wilop, S., O. Galm, L. Thompson, R. Osieka, T.H. Brummendorf, E. Jost. Friday leukemia. Blood, vol. 115, no. 4, January 2010.

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