@gailb, gailfaith here. I think we almost put too much faith in busy doctors, not that that is an excuse. But I am now disabled due to a Dr.'s mistake but I don't blame him completely. Several years ago before I had one of my knees replaced, the Dr was giving me cortisone and Synvisc to hold off on the replacement as long as possible. One Friday he had injected such and I was fine for the weekend but woke up Monday morning very weak. I basically did nothing much physically except sit and read and by Friday I was back to my "normal." The next time I met with him I mentioned it and he said we'll never give you another big dose of cortisone again. Two years later I had my other knee replaced and at a post surgery follow-up, he had to aspirate the joint to remove fluid. He left that job for his resident to do, but the resident couldn't do it, so the Dr. came in and did it. Of course when I am lying down I can't see what they are doing. I was again fine for the weekend, but again on Monday morning I was very weak again and realized he had probably injected cortisone again. I figure,d since the resident started it, apparently their routine is to inject cortisone following an aspiration, so after the Dr. successfully removed the fluid, he saw the other syringe and per routine, injected it. I thought again by Friday I will be OK again, but this time the damage was permanent. So now I am fighting to stay out of wheelchair as even the Doctors at Mayo told me I can get worse but never better. So the lesson is......don't assume a doctor remembers every detail about every patient ....or even thinks you are someone else.. Several yrs ago I made an appt with another doctor in a totally different field. I had only seen him several times previously. Looking a "my" chart", he started asking me about some medications and I had no idea what he was talking about. Finally he asked my name and then he realized he had someone else's chart! So......if you have thoughts or ideas that any doctor or other professional may be thinking you are someone else, even though you both may be embarrassed ........ASK. They probably won't thank you verbally but I'm sure they will at least think about it later and be grateful for your questioning....even if they were correct in the first place. In your case, maybe he had the right person in mind, but had not updated himself with YOUR records. It doesn't cost anything to ask and it may save........who knows what!