In the middle of a difficult second semester at NYU Abu Dhabi, Beatrice Thompson, Class of 2025, started to experience severe chest pain for the first time. Worried, she went to the Health Center, hoping to receive comprehensive, high-quality and student-centered care. Instead, a doctor at the Health Center told her to take a walk and drink water; concluding that the pain was likely a result of anxiety and stress. A few weeks later, she returned with severe pain in her leg. Again, she was told that it was most probably inconsequential.

Over the next two months, Thompson’s chest pain increased exponentially, eventually culminating in a night where she could not breathe and was rushed to the emergency room at Cleveland Clinic by a friend. She was diagnosed with a large tumor in between her liver and pancreas, for which she will require surgery in the summer.

Thompson’s story is perhaps the most severe example of mistreatment by the Health Center, but it is reflective of a broader trend. The Gazelle spoke to six different NYUAD students, all of whom described the treatment they received at the Health Center, with poor experiences ranging from the misdiagnosis of serious ailments to insensitive communication.

There were multiple incidents of misdiagnosis that were brought up, and a general trend where the doctors in the Health Center diagnosed more serious illnesses as something less consequential.

David Smith, Class of 2022, initially went to the Health Center with severe symptoms of bacterial bronchitis. He was told, despite his disagreement, that it was most likely a cold and that he should stay in bed. Two days later, he was coughing blood in bed with a 39 degree fever and was taken, almost unconscious, by his girlfriend to Cleveland Clinic at 2 a.m. He received antibiotics and initially felt better, before symptoms again exacerbated in his fifth week after he had finished one course of antibiotics.

Deciding to give the Health Center another chance, he visited their offices with the same symptoms. He was told to repeat the antibiotic course. Within a day, his symptoms exacerbated further and he visited the Cleveland emergency room, where he learnt that it was poor practice, in his particular case, to take two rounds of antibiotics in such a short period of time. He was prescribed an inhaler and recovered almost immediately. “In short, I naively went twice to the HC and regretted [it] both times. They kept assuring me that my assessment of my symptoms is not correct and gave me very bad advice twice,” Smith shared in an interview with The Gazelle.

Similarly, Thompson’s experience outlines another example of misdiagnosis. She was told her chest pain was a result of stress, when it was in fact a more serious tumor that required surgery. Thompson’s final visit to the Health Center was met with dismissal again, as the doctors called her tumor report “normal” and “nothing complicated.”

In an interview, Ayaz Virji, Executive Director of the Health Center, suggested that the issues were a result of miscommunication. He also emphasized the commitment and expertise of the medical team. “Just last month we have run into rare cases of cerebral cavernoma, stroke and severe systemic lupus where our doctors have helped save student lives,” Virji added. “Our doctors also routinely visit our students in the hospital … I don’t know any local primary care doctors in the community who are routinely doing that.”

Both Thompson and Smith emphasized that not only did the incidents deter them from seeking treatment at a Health Center meant to provide support, but that the misdiagnosis also gravely jeopardized their health. While both Smith and Thompson were able to identify the exact causes of their symptoms from doctors off-campus, in time-sensitive cases, there is often no room for error.

Several students who have visited the Health Center suggested that doctors there minimized or even dismissed their concerns entirely.

When Aiman Stefanet, Class of 2024, experienced excruciating pain after taking a pill on an empty stomach, she went to the Center for treatment. Yet the physician on duty refused to even meet her and staff there simply gave her some cookies and water before sending her off, telling her she would be fine if she ate something.

In a separate visit to the Health Center, Stefanet was advised to apply Nivea cream from the convenience store after mildly burning her face.

“The attitude of the doctor was kind of dismissive and it felt like I was a burden even though I was very worried,” she lamented.

Unfortunately, hers was not an isolated case. Yadira Renata, Class of 2021 visited the Health Center after suffering from hypersomnia, or excessive sleepiness, for an extended period of time.

“I explained to them that, despite my history of depression, I had never experienced anything like that, and that I was sure it wasn't stress or depression because I was feeling quite good and underloading,” Renata said.

Yet, physicians at the Center suggested that it was due to stress from finals and refused to perform any blood tests unless she could prove that her hypersomnia would continue for a long time, despite it having gone on for months already. To this day, her condition remains untreated.

“The experience made me less likely to seek medical help on campus … I will be going to outside places from now on,” she admitted.

Katri Cornelia, Class of 2022, was suffering from extreme levels of fatigue and was advised by her psychiatrist to seek a blood test. “Before I could get a word out of my mouth, the [doctor] said that the blood test is for people who are actually showing symptoms.” Cornelia added. “[I asked] is fatigue not a symptom. And he said that you actually have to be sick.” She also shared her hurt at the implication that her severe fatigue issues were not considered to be an illness.

Virji explained that since the Center does not bill insurance for low cost routine labs such as blood tests, those costs come straight out of the HC budget and are thus not unlimited.

“The HC phlebotomy service is done as an enhancement of services to students, not a limitation,” he clarified.

In another case, Yasmeen Sultana, Class of 2022, was told directly that she wouldn’t have ADHD since she performed well academically in high school. When she went to ACPN for an assessment, doctors there determined that she in fact did have ADHD and required medication.

“I have to take a long trip to ACPN which is very very difficult for me, as taxis are expensive and I get motion sickness in buses. I had to delay medication, miss so many classes, it got so [bad] I somehow passed a class, and P/F another class,” she complained.

Several students among those interviewed for the article questioned the professionalism of practitioners at the Center after their visits.

Smith, whose bacterial bronchitis was quickly dismissed by the Health Center as a cold, is hesitant to visit the center for treatment again in the future as he felt that the misdiagnosis and mistreatment of his condition made him question the judgment of doctors there.

“This was my only experience and I am very disappointed. Not because they couldn't help, but because they assured me that they [knew] what they were doing … I would have been much happier if they just rerouted me to Cleveland since a 2-hour visit there was by far more productive than HC,” he noted.

Thompson suggested that the Health Center was uniquely insensitive in its approach to these issues. “[The Health Center is] a department that has to be the most delicate department … they have to treat you in the best possible way. They are treating me the worst … it’s a huge surgery and they're treating me like it's nothing.”

Stefanet, whose facial burn and stomach pain were disregarded by the Center, thought that the disparity in quality was great between doctors. She noted that while one doctor made her feel safe and respected, another made her feel bad and disrespected for being concerned about her own health and questioning the doctor’s judgment.

“Treatment with [the second doctor] kind of made me not want to go to the Health Center for anything. That's like, if there is an opening and only [they’re] available, I'd rather suffer through till another doctor would become available rather than go to [them],” she confessed.

“I would recommend treatment at the center to other students only when [in] relation to the doctors that I have personally been observed with. So the doctors that I trust, I would definitely recommend them,” she added. “And I would definitely recommend to avoid those that I had bad experiences with because those doctors, I had bad experiences, not only with them, but a lot of people and my friends had bad experiences with them. That's why I'm gonna ask my friends to avoid them, I guess, to help protect them from [the] negative attitude of those healthcare professionals.”

In response to these allegations, Virji said he was sorry to hear that and that patients should never feel this way.

“Good bedside manner is taught in medical school and residency. It is an expectation, especially at our center! In addition, our providers have gone through safe zone training,” he said.

Last year, The Gazelle reported on invalidating, traumatic and victim-shaming experiences with mental health counselors in the Health Center. In the reporting for this piece, three students reported similar encounters with mental health services provided by the center. In particular, another student reported being blamed for their own trauma, with a counselor suggesting that their clothing was to blame. The student is still haunted by their experience and suggested in an interview to The Gazelle, that they were less likely to seek mental health help as a result.

Renata suggested that the mental health support that she received was ineffective. “They would ask very serious questions but then not know how to deal with the response. Sometimes it would be so pushy to the point where even if I had been having a good day, it'd outright ruin my day or even week.” She added that it felt like they were unprepared for issues beyond academic stress. She later sought mental health support elsewhere, and received the supportive treatment that she was looking for.

Thompson, who experienced a family emergency at the start of the academic year, initially received solid treatment from mental health professionals at the Health Center. Nonetheless, after a small break, she stopped receiving responses from the counselor in question, despite stressing the severity of her case. She suggested that the experience had made her less likely to seek mental health support as a result. “I'm having very bad anxiety attacks, but I'm not reaching out to the Health Center because I don't expect anything from them,” she added.

Overall, the experiences left these particular students disillusioned with the medical care they receive at the Health Center. In each case, students expressed some reluctance in returning to the Health Center and suggested that they were unlikely to recommend their medical services to their peers.

Smith was particularly vociferous in suggesting that students should travel to the nearby Cleveland Clinic, where all treatment is covered by NYUAD insurance, rather than seeking treatment by the Health Center. “Cleveland has no waiting time with our insurance, the doctors are very knowledgeable, and they have all of the tools and apparatuses they need for assessments … please spend 36 dirhams for a two way taxi and get proper treatment if you feel seriously sick … you won’t regret it.”

“Good medicine is a longitudinal process. Sometimes it takes time to get an accurate clinical diagnosis even when processes are following the best evidence available,” Virji said as a reminder. “Nonetheless, none of us are perfect.”

He reiterated that students can provide feedback to the Health Center through various methods, including: directly emailing Associate Medical Director Khalid Malik at ksm@nyu.edu or Associate Director of Counseling Vedrana Mladina at vm73@nyu.edu, through the suggestion box at the Health Center, anonymous surveys that are sent out twice a semester, filing an anonymous complaint through the patient advocate, or through the Student Government.