Treat well, win or lose

Narinder Arora 

DURING the early part of my government service, I was once having a cup of tea with two other orthopaedic colleagues, when suddenly the civil surgeon came for a surprise inspection. Caught doing nothing, but having tea and engrossed in gup-shup, when confronted by the civil surgeon about what was going on, I held on to my nerves and replied: ‘Sir, we are discussing the plan of management of an orthopaedic patient admitted in the ward.’ He gave a sarcastic smile as he could see through the made-on-the-spot answer. Pat came his response: ‘Remember, one doctor treats a patient, two doctors discuss a patient and three doctors kill a patient.’ The comment did not register as the receptive power of the brain had undergone ‘unexpected arrival of boss’ paralysis. It took me a while to fathom what he meant by his statement. 

Basically in the medical profession, the patient is well served if his/her responsibility is entrusted to one doctor and the treating doctor, like a captain of the ship, will try his best to navigate the patient to safety during rough weather, of course, with inputs from his seniors or juniors wherever needed. This is a practical advice in the era of the Internet, when all information is available online and a patient, armed with knowledge, hops from one doctor to another for ‘ideal advice’, but gets confused in multiple opinions that practically cause more harm. Rather than seeking a ‘bouquet’ of opinions, patients are advised to have knowledge about the credentials of the doctor in whom they place their trust. 

The civil surgeon, on another occasion, while addressing new medical officers — usually given the responsibilities of the emergency and casualty department — offered them advice: ‘Be sure to treat well the attendants of the patient who is admitted to emergency in a serious condition.’ At that time we could not much comprehend what he meant. But nowadays, routinely, we hear of violence against medical practitioners and in a majority of cases, there is lack of proper communication between the doctor and the patient’s attendants. 

Keeping the attendants constantly informed about the seriousness of the condition of the patient can bail the doctors out of potentially violent, embarrassing and difficult situations. While an ideal patient should be trusting, compliant, non-abusive, non-violent and, most importantly, patient, the doctor is expected to be empathic, competent, and not dictated by any commercial interest. 

However hard a doctor may try, he  will lose some fights. A little of a doctor dies with every patient he loses. In the words of Patch Adams: ‘Treat a disease, you win or lose; treat a person, you will always win no matter what the outcome.’