This Is Not The Way, Doc !

I had wondered why some people take noble professions like nursing and medicine. Long time ago, I was confined in a hospital for an appendicitis surgery. A nurse was friendly with me and I asked her

“Why did you take this profession?”

“Coz, I like this”

“May be in your case its true, but I personally don’t think all those who came to this profession are service minded”

“yes, that’s true. Many of them are there just to get a job”

The result?

I was referred to a specialist with an X-ray of my spinal chord (in connection with the surgery I mentioned above). Instead of me just showing the X-ray film and handing over the referral letter, I tried to give an intro to start a conversation

“As per the X-ray, it looks like something could be wrong…so my doc asked me to meet you”

“So, it is the problem with the X-ray and not you, right?” with a kind of expression in his face..

That was the way the specialist responded. He knew very well what I was trying to tell. Is that the way to talk to a patient? No, not at all. At least he could have kept mum instead of being rude like this.

Well, I got reminded of this incident coz of another incident. A colleague of my wife fell ill. And finally it was confirmed as liver cancer. How did the doctor tell this to his patient?

“Look, come to the reality, you have liver cancer”

Yes, that is that was the doctor’s expression. And the patient really felt bad, so did his friends and even me.

Yes, the doc was telling the truth, but this is not the way. These days, a person spent hundreds of thousands to become a doctor, unless he/she is on merit seat. They need to pull that money with interest and hence all they want is money. So, even for silly cough and cold, docs sends the patient for so many tests *. But still, don’t they need to be a little polite? At least doctors who believe in a holistic approach believe in body-mind connection. And hence, it is always good for a doctor to not to be rude with his patients, if he/she really care for them.

( *How do I know these tests are not required? Well, since 10 years, I am with a doctor who is a real doctor and a human in the first place. I personally discussed this thing with him. And he smiled, and said:

“As you know, its all business. Doctors have their interest…” . He showed me a prescription pad given to him as compliment by a lab and continued “ ….even if I have to send a person to this lab, I wont use this pad, coz that is as good as me asking my patient to go to that particular lab. I won’t do that…”

I had seen lots of docs in my life so far. Some times as a patient, many a times as a by-stander, many other times during visiting a friend or a relative or an acquaintance (when they are hospitalized). But so far I saw ONLY TWO good docs who kept/keeps values in their life. I owe a lot to these two for listening to my stupid questions and answering it… they both did not hesitate to share their knowledge at all).