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Kelly Kovacs

Professor Ferrera

English 1010

07 November 2023

What Happens When You Have a Disease Doctors Can’t Diagnose

The healthcare system has been a discussion of debate for years from many different

perspectives, between unfair working conditions, costs of treatments, a patient’s perspective, and

many more. Every person wants to be happy and healthy, but what happens when you struggle to

find resources to feel that way? In this TED Talk, Brea discusses her medical journey and what

goes on when you struggle with receiving a proper medical diagnosis, her own journey to finding

some sort of treatment for her disease, and how important it is to understand your body to

educate those who might also be struggling with a similar situation and to further educate how

crucial it is that doctors know what they are talking about.

Jennifer Brea started her talk by discussing her life before her symptoms and her

experience leading up to seeing a medical professional. She talks about the horrible symptoms

she dealt with and the agonizing pain she felt. She walks us through the worst parts of her

experience, capturing all of the details to get her audience to possibly imagine how she felt in

those moments and what she was going through in that span of time. She describes the pain she

felt walking home from her doctor’s office and how she was confused by her diagnosis and

wondered if possibly it was incorrect. This shows how she incorporates pathos into her talk while

also telling the audience about herself, who she is, and her story.
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Brea talks a lot about the history of the lack of diagnoses and those outcomes. She

researches her own disease to the history of how it used to be diagnosed, trying to understand it

better. She discusses a study conducted in the 1950’s that led to almost half the people deceased

because they were not properly diagnosed, and they ended up having the same disease as her.

(Brea 08:09) A lot of these ways of thinking are still practiced in today’s medicine, possibly a

reason as to why medical professional may end up misdiagnosing or not even finding a diagnosis

or any type of treatment.

Unfortunately, this happens more often than it should be. Brea uses logos in examples of

stating that 15 to 30 million people in the world, about 1 million in the U.S. have the same

disease as her, and there is not a lot of scientific information or treatment that doctors are taught

and know how to provide. She furthers her point in how this can be acceptable when it is such a

common disease, where many people end up bed ridden or unable to work due to this disease

(Brea 05:38). This is not an easy topic to discuss, as many people suffer from some sort of

medical issue and the healthcare professionals, and the healthcare system lack resources and

knowledge to properly help the patient. Brea talks about what she has done and continues to do

to help herself as she has come a long way, firstly by educating others.

Brea finds support in her community and in sharing her story. As mentioned before, she

talks about her extensive research of the history of her disease, and she reaches out to others

suffering with diseases and gives each other support. Mental health is also a huge factor when

dealing with a disease that is not known about, but she has found people who can relate to her

and share their stories, and now she travels the world sharing her story so that other people may

become educated and even feel less alone.

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After listening to and reading Jennifer Brea’s Ted Talk, I personally have felt much less

alone in my own medical journey. I think if you are someone who struggles with receiving a

diagnosis and that was her intended audience then she reached the right audience. A lot of

doctors and scientists still look into the history of the disease rather than furthering the research

in modern days and base their answers off of textbook studies, which can sometimes be more

harmful than helpful. This was a logical and emotional talk and I think it grabbed the audience’s

attention hearing it from someone who has experiences it all rather than from a person who has

no medical issues or have never been through the struggle of trying and trying to find a diagnosis

and treatment when the doctors fail to and what you can do for yourself.
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Works Cited

Brea, Jennifer. What Happens When You Have a Disease Doctors Can’t Diagnose.

1484669356.

www.ted.com,

https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_brea_what_happens_when_you_have_a_disease_doct

ors_can_t_diagnose/transcript.