By William Pais
Mangalore, Jul 9: Believe you me, I am one of those who believe doctors are human beings too and attribute no divine status to them. Doctors make mistakes too. That in Mangalore case of medical negligence, of leaving behind artery forceps in the pelvic area of an operated person, came to light on doctor’s day, was a mere coincident. Mangalore city surroundings, boasts of six medical colleges and students from across the country come here to get qualified in medicine.
What happens when a city gets more medical colleges? Does it become healthy or does it diagnose itself with more sickness? With so many super-specialty hospitals with state of the art diagnostic and surgical equipment, generally one would expect a good medial care. Go to most of the hospitals you would be surrounded with students who bombard you with questions. And this is repeated in turn, perhaps giving you feeling - are they finding out what you are telling is the truth? Does patient care become a thing confined to hoardings and other advertorial material?
The woman in this case lived with the forceps for almost four years, as a result of which there was internal injury. She was operated and the “Deposit of negligence” was removed but not without resultant damage. The doctors who operated the woman for the second time briefed the media saying it was an accident defining “it can happen anytime with anyone.” A disgusting defence. Most of the cases of medical negligence slips out as there is no visible proof but in this case denial was almost impossible, as the shiny shape of scissors in radiograph made it impossible to deny the charge.
That in court of law it is almost impossible to prove a case of medical negligence, reflects more about legal system than lacunae in medical profession. Where does one pin the responsibility of medical negligence? The consent you give before a surgical procedure seems to absolve themselves of any kind of malpractice and negligence. “Media blew it out of proportion” said one of the doctor reacting to the incident, further adding “media does not give publicity to the achievements of the doctors” - I beg to differ. There are numerous reports lauding the efforts of doctors to save a life, perform that rare surgery. Giving the patient the wrong dosage, giving the patient the wrong medication, leaving things inside the patient's body after surgery, are not common mistakes but playing with precious life.
Most of the medical consultants have teaching profession in the medical colleges. Their consulting hours are jam-packed with patients, perhaps depriving of each patient the due attention. With the terrible pressure on time management it is humanly not possible to give attention to one patient he deserves. Around two years back, I went to doctor for consultation and the clinic was closed with message on the door- If you don’t trust us don’t come to us. I later learned doctors were on strike that day. Of course, how can we afford to have doctors who go on strike, who are given the charge of patient care? Doctors of course can go on holidays but not on strike.
We always need good doctors to treat us well and we love them for giving their time and expertise to enable us to walk back again. That, as a society we are well fortified to withstand drawbacks in political, economic and legal arena. We can stand worst roads, bad drains, erratic electricity, or a life without gadgets or even a bad neta but how can we not have good doctors to whom we could go and say “Doctors, do whatever it takes but save my loved one’s life.” To whom can we plead our weakness when we are not healthy? To whom do we feel trusted and say “I give myself totally to you Doctor, do whatever with me but don’t send me back in a state worse than the one which I came in”.
To be doctor is to be divine and discharge a sacred duty. “We run to your succor, Oh dear Doctor, heal me and heal thyself.”