There is a very fine line between
two sides of this fence.
I stay on my side; I become a
patient. A typical patient who trusts and doubts doctors with the same fervour,
who imagines the doctor will be able to cure me, who wants to practically hug
the doctor when something terrible has been fixed, and who wants to find
another, ‘more reliable’ doctor when there is no relief, and who even tells other
friends who is a ‘good’ doctor to consult and why.
I jump across and I come to belong
to the side of doctors. I see their viewpoint, their tensions, their joys and
their sorrows.
My father is visiting us, and
yesterday, when he went for his walk, a child fell down in the park and started
crying. He could not see the child in pain and offered to look at his
presumably hurt leg. He did not know the parents or the child, or anyone for
that matter, and he could have ignored and continued walking like the rest of
us do, but no- he could not walk away. Being a doctor is what he is, has been,
for the last 50 years! When he came home, he was very happy because the child
had gone home running!
My brother would have done the
same, or even my brother-in-law, or even my sister, or my sister-in-law. I
guess, once you are a doctor, you can’t help being one when you see someone who
you think you can help.
I have seen this side of the
fence all my life. When we were small kids, we would hear the door-bell ring
all times of the day and night, and our father would never turn away a patient
even though it was a clinic, not a 24-hour hospital with ER or A&E
facilities. I see the same now- with rest of my family- who all are, shall I say,
unfortunately, in the business of saving lives?
I say unfortunately because
saving lives is no longer just a noble thing- it is a complex equation of
money, facilities, accessibility, ability and destiny. My brother and brother-in-law are both neonatologists-
very sensitive area because it has a lot of emotional investment, both for them
and for the patients’ families. They are based in small cities where such level
or quality of healthcare had been unheard of before, and for everything
bordering on ‘serious’ or life threatening, you had to run to the metro cities
like Delhi, and wait to get treated in the maze of super-speciality hospitals,
where even trying to get doctor’s attention needs effort; or die on the way
because there was nothing else that could be done! But it is not just making
such a facility available in a small city- it is what comes with it! They give up their mental peace and pleasures,
and in return, sometimes they smile when they win love of a child and his
family, and at other times, they go through intense mental agony because in
spite of their best efforts, they are unable to save a child, and feel responsible
for it even when we all know that not only our body but God also works in
mysterious ways. They understand the pain of his family, but there is nothing they
can do except feeling solidarity with the family.
I have seen both of them spending
entire nights in the NICU to treat a serious patient, discussing cases at the
dining table, missing their own kids’ birthdays and school performances only
because there was a patient admitted who could not be left alone even for a
minute, being up and back in NICU at the slightest ring of the phone, being
available 24x7 even over the phone, and what not. They impress me, and I love
them not because they are family but because there is a passion involved there.
They give me faith, and confidence that there will always be some doctors who
are not in for the money, or quick gains…there are some who really want us to
get well, and who are happy when we do feel better.
On the other side of the fence,
this means that I give benefit of doubt to the doctor when his treatment does not
meet my expectations, change doctors when I am unhappy with the way I am being treated,
even not recommend him when someone asks, may be even complain to the authorities
if I feel serious damage has been done due to the doctor’s negligence, but….remember,
doctor is just another human being who has worked really hard to be in a
position to save lives, but he is not God, and like rest of us, doctors also do
not have all the answers, or any magical powers or potions.
