Recently I had two brushes with doctors in entirely separate and unrelated cases – one for my wife’s injury and the other for my mom’s surgery – and in both cases I came out convinced that doctors are not gods! (Even though most patients, in their agony and helplessness, may want to believe so).
In the former case, the doctor (considered one of the best in his line of practice; just retired from the most reputed hospital in Delhi) advised a major spinal surgery within 5 minutes of consultation, and he convinced us (almost; thankfully) that there was no way out, and that my wife should get admitted to the hospital there and then. In fact, the doctor is so prominent and well-known in medical circles that all subsequent consultations yielded the same advice as soon as the doctors (all reputed doctors in their own right) saw the initial prescription by “doctor god.” Just imagine our plight as we rallied from one hospital to another! After visiting a zillion hospitals we took our leap-of-faith with this one doctor who advised us to take a conservative non surgical approach. And, thanks to that one doctor, my wife was fine without surgery, though it took her three to four months of bed rest.
In the latter case, when my mom was getting operated upon (a minor surgery), the concerned doctor (at one of the most prominent hospitals in Delhi) did not pay much heed to her existing medical condition, and just took a standard course of action while preparing my mom for the surgery (despite red flags from us on her existing medical condition). The “doctor god” simply told us that all has been taken care of and that we should not worry about anything. And guess what, there were complications during the operation due to the existing medical condition, and a 15 minute procedure took over 90 minutes!! (Thank god my mom came out fine after the surgery). The complication however could have been avoided had the doctor taken our red flags seriously.
Based on my sample size of two, here are my two cents on doctors, and how you should deal with them:
1. Doctors are not gods
2. Doctors go by statistics, and statistics can be deceptive (anybody with stats background would ratify that)
3. Don’t be scared to question the doctor. No question is stupid question! Even though the doctor may get mad at you (too bad), get all your doubts cleared before taking any course of action
4. Consult multiple doctors and if you hear contradicting views discuss those with the doctors
5. Finally, go with your gut feel. The body knows what it needs to get better (God has designed it that way), so listen to it
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2 comments:
There are various reasons why doctor in India act like "God", particularly the so called specialists with several acronyms after their names. The foremost reason, as I think, is the general ignorance among the masses and the "Sa'ab" culture in the illiterate & educated people alike. For this population, the doctor becomes "doc-saab", an authoritative figure, who begins to think like one. They assume that since they have worked so much to get an advance degree, they know everything. Perhaps they do, but instead of keeping a noble attitude for being in such a noble profession, they take it otherwise when someone tries to question them.
They don't want to accept the fact that in this age of internet, when all the information is available online for us to read and understand enabling us to ask intelligent questions related to one's illness, whatever they say is not the last word. I generally refer to WebMD.com before seeing the doctor so that I can ask her the correct questions. And in case, if her prognosis/diagnosis is some what incorrect, I can correct her, or see someone else. Though, it never reached to that point. After all, they are human and prone to making mistakes.
Another reason, perhaps, is that since the beginning of "Medical Tourism" in India, where folks from expensive western countries seeking cheap treatment come to India, all these doctors from expensive/reputed hospitals are getting paid in dollars/pounds don't care about their "rupee" patient. When they have a "white" cow to milk, why would they look at the "goat", which they can milk anyway.
A handy to do list to get the best of the docs....On a sympathetic note we need to know that the human body is very complex and the highly trained docs get muddled with all the perms/combs....I think at the end of the day you just need to be plain lucky to get treated and a little poorer too !!
Keep writing Sunil...
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