Kashyap Patel, Medical Director and Consultant at Blue Cross Blue Shields of South Carolina, Past President at Community Oncology Alliance, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“The Power of Observation: One Evening That Changed Everything
Two and a half years ago, during a dinner event for the No One Left Alone Foundation, I noticed something subtle that would prove life-changing. My colleague and dear friend Chip Travis was visiting Charlotte. As we sat at a high table at Zinicola, I observed he seemed uncomfortable—his movements weren’t quite right. When I asked about it, he apologized, explaining he’d had a minor car accident and was dealing with what he thought was just a muscle spasm.
Something didn’t sit right with me. I pressed further. He mentioned having had kidney cancer 25 years earlier but being ‘all clear.’
That pause gave me concern. At 9:30 PM that night, I brought him to my home for an examination. What I found suggested this was more than a sports injury.
After consulting with an orthopedic surgeon colleague at 10:30 PM, we both agreed: this needed urgent attention. I insisted Chip get imaging done immediately when he returned to Florida. Within days, scans revealed multiple bone lesions—stage 4 kidney cancer recurrence.
Today, after treatment at an exceptional teaching hospital, Chip is in complete remission and living a normal life.
This experience reinforced three critical lessons:
1. Trust your clinical instincts. Years of training and experience create pattern recognition that shouldn’t be dismissed, even in social settings.
2. Healthcare is about people, not transactions. When we truly see our patients—and colleagues—as whole human beings, we notice what others might miss.
3. Every interaction matters. Whether in the exam room or at a dinner table, being present and observant can save lives.
As physicians, we’re trained to observe. But in today’s rushed healthcare environment, we must resist the pressure to overlook subtle signs. Sometimes the most important diagnosis happens when we simply refuse to let something go.
Chip’s faith and his family’s support played an enormous role in his journey. But I’m grateful that being a keen observer that evening allowed us to catch this.”
More posts featuring Kashyap Patel.
