Doctor's Note Leaves Patient Bemused: 'How Am I Supposed to Send This?

A college student was left scratching his head after an important doctor's note he needed to sort his accommodation for next year came through in bafflingly broken English.

Your college years might represent the most exciting of your young life, but it can also be a time of considerable stress or even much worse than that for those on the precipice of adulthood.

That dichotomy was demonstrated in a 2023 Gallup survey of 2,430 U.S. college students during the spring semester. They were asked to list the feelings they had experienced over the previous 24 hours.

While an overwhelming 76 percent reported experiencing enjoyment, 66 percent also felt stress, while 51 percent suffered with worry and 36 percent said they had felt sadness over this particular period.

Given the apparent difficulties many of these young people are facing, it's imperative that every possible effort is made to make them feel as happy and comfortable as possible during their studies.

For Caden, a junior in college already planning for next year, who posted to Reddit under the handle u/Ceejays-RL, that happiness largely hinged on him getting a single dorm room, having battled with anxiety and depression in his teen years.

To get the room approved, Caden would need to provide a note from a doctor confirming his situation. However, getting that note proved slightly trickier than he had anticipated. Caden, who asked not to be named in the story, told Newsweek: "I was trying to fill out a housing form to ensure that I could get a single dorm room next year. I needed to attach medical documentation showing that it is important for me to avoid having a roommate."

At first, everything went off without a hitch. Caden had an appointment over video call with his doctor that went well. "He told me that he would write a note, but we would have to go there to pick it up in person," Caden said. "Since my college is pretty far from my hometown, where the doctor's office is located, my mom went to pick it up."

It was only when his mom scanned the note and sent it to him that the issue became apparent. "Caden has been a patintof the O office for m ultip le years," the note begins. "H e has had a d iagnosis of Anxiety and D epression and he has m proved." The note continues on in similar fashion, ending with the line: "Please consier a sngle room for Cad en to help ease the anxity for success w ith perfo rm ance."

Caden was baffled when he first read the note. "I just thought, 'How does this even happen? Did nobody at the office look at the note before giving it to us?'" he said. "I doubt the doctor is even aware that the note got messed up. It wasn't his fault. We just took the issue up with the office."

Caden saw the funny side, too, sharing the note to Reddit where he asked: "How am I supposed to send this to my school?" He said he is still not entirely sure how it happened. "We assume that it must have been an issue with either the printer or a program misreading the file before it made it to the printer," he added.

Thankfully, he was able to sort the situation out quickly. "We contacted them about the issue and they sent the note to us as a PDF with correct grammar and formatting. We're all good now." Caden is "definitely relieved" it's all been sorted and is now looking forward to college next year.