Hero medical student spots life-threatening aneurism in actor who was supposed to be posing as patient with ANOTHER illness

Fake patient had no idea he had aneurism until junior doctor spotted it

Ryan Jones thought a decoy had been planted to test his abilities

A University of Virginia medical student examining a fake patient as part of his training has saved the actor's life by spotting a life-threatening condition.

Ryan Jones was taking part in a university program, where actors pretend to have a list of ailments that the doctor must diagnose, when he found an abdominal aortic aneurism.



At first the student thought his fake patient, Jim Malloy, knew he had the condition and was a decoy, but he decided to speak up just in case.



Praise: Jim Malloy, pictured with wife Louise, says junior doctor Ryan Jones, right, saved his life

'I said, "I think I found an aneurism" and he played along because that's his job and so I'm like "Does he actually know he has this?",' Mr Jones told WDBJ 7.



Because Mr Malloy had coincidentally been asked to pretend to have the symptoms of the aneurism, he didn't realize the junior doctor had accurately spotted the real condition until later.



' I really didn't think anything of it until the supervising doctor told me they had discovered something,' Mr Malloy said.



' He thought I might have been a ringer that was planted in there to test him, and I had no symptoms. He thought I was a plant with the real situation,' Mr Malloy told CBS.



He and his wife Valerie have been taking part in the university's standardized patient program for years, where actors are given a list of symptoms to pretend to have so they can test the abilities of junior doctors.

Test: Medical student Ryan Jones thought his test patient was a decoy

Relief: Louise and Jim Malloy are grateful to Ryan who spotted the aneurism even though Mr Malloy had no symptoms

'Jim's life was saved by a UVA medical student, no doubt about it,' Mrs Malloy said.



After it was spotted in March her husband had stent surgery to fix the aneurism which, if left untreated could have led to internal bleeding.



The condition can develop for years without having any symptoms, which was the case for Mr Malloy.

Mr Jones, who is in his last year of medical school and plans to become a radiation oncologist, said: 'It feels great to know that I made a difference.'



















