When I Made That Big Mistake at Work...

So there I was last week, just another Wednesday at the hospital. It's been a really busy season and everyone is super stressed out. I had this patient who came in complaining of chest pain. He looked worried but not like he was about to drop dead anytime soon. Anyway, the doctor on call thought it could be indigestion or something benign, so they ordered some tests... which ended up taking way longer than expected. The guy was getting more and more anxious while waiting for results. I tried my best to reassure him but you know how those patients can get when they're scared and unsure about what's going on inside their body... Then, I did something I really shouldn't have. I pulled up his medical records... and accidentally opened someone else’s file instead of his. My heart sank as soon as I saw the name at the top wasn’t even close to my patient’s! It was all wrong, and now I had read about this other person's health issues... I quickly closed it but I'm not sure if he noticed anything weird happening on the screen or if he just thought maybe there was a computer glitch... Then I realized that his actual file was still sitting right next to me, unopened. Oh no! Needless to say, after that I couldn't look at him in the eye anymore and pretty much ran out of the room to find someone else who could help with his case from then on... I just hope they didn’t catch me doing something so silly and damaging like that. Now every time I have to check a patient's file, my hands start shaking and I get this knot in my stomach. I feel terrible about it... but maybe one day he'll remember it differently? I keep hoping...