In daily speech, people often describe themselves, their friends or family members as “suffering from a disease” or “suffering an injury”.

For example:

“My father suffers from diabetes.”

or

“My son suffered a broken leg when he fell off his bike”

This wording focuses attention on the feelings of distress experienced by the sick person as well as expressing the speaker’s love and sympathy for that person.

A medical report should describe disease and injury objectively without the addition of any emotional content or sentimentality. Therefore, we use phrases such as “has a disease” or “sustained an injury”.

For example:

“The patient has diabetes.”

(Note that a current condition is described with the present tense “has”, while a previous condition would be described as “has a history of….”

“The patient sustained a broken leg in a fall….”

(Note that the verb refers to the time when the injury occurred and is described in the past tense.)