It is said by a friend of mine that we(doctors) visit each and every part of world by living in the hospital. Some might agree while others might not. Since the start of my medical career i have seen some very interesting cases which have made me a firm believer of this statement.some of those experiences i want to share with you all.
There was once a patient who came for abdominal pain which very severe. After taking proper history and assessing him, we administered him some pain killers and other relevant medications. But he complained of the worsening of pain as the time passed. We tried our second line medications for pain relief but it did not make any difference. Let me tell you that there are very few occasions when these drugs don't work, either the patient is resistant to the drug by having used it frequently or the patient is drug addict, in which we have to increase the dosage and have to use some very potent pain killers. There are some other condition also in which these drugs don't work but we ruled out those conditions as well...I tried to ask the patient again if he is a drug addict but the attendants were not letting him answer and said that he is very religious guy and he will never use any sort of drug...The only drug left for us to try was a morphine derivative which was the last choice...We again tried our best not to give it because it has its own consequences. All of our floor doctors went in the room and tried to counsel him and bingo..he finally admitted that he was an addict...the thing which he was hiding from us which lead to deterioration of his condition and our management..
The point here is that it is not always the fault of doctors but also the patients sometimes mislead us causing these mishaps...
It is just the beginnig of my career but this is just one example, there are a lot of other cases which i will write sometime else..The bottomline is, try to listen to both sides of ftories before making an opinion...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Emotional attachment
"Doctor bed no 4 is calling u"...it was my 4th or maybe 5th call duty when i was being called by a nursing staff..i went there and saw a patient lying with slight bleeding from the recently operated wound...The attendents were a bit worried and called me to see the bleeding..i cleaned and dressed the wound, which was not a matter to worry for a new house officer...The bleeding was mild and was deep so nothing was very much appaerent on the surface..i called my consultant to tell him that the patient was bleeding and he asked me to clean and dress the wound which i already did...I thought it was all over..I did took care of the patient, took a look at the patient every 3-4 hours even if the attendents didn't asked me to, cuz my sixth sense was giving an alarm...The next day i again visited the patient,and after my duty was over, gave the history and other details to the next doctor incharge and went home..
I have to tell you that we have call duty every third day, so on my next call duty i came to check with the patient. The bleeding worsened and there was some vessel bleeding which lead to drop in the hemoglobin count...I took the summary of the past 3 days and i was shocked...The consultant had some meeting in Islamabad and he left 2 days back...as per protocol, if you are going somewhere and you will not be able to attend the patient, specially any critical patient, you pass the patients file to some other consultant who is available..But the doctor didnt do so..Let me tell you that the consultant i am telling about has a very bad name among us but he has an excellent councelling ability due to which he is able to gather patients...He is very poor in his surgical techniques and according to the record, he has KILLED 3 patients in the past 3 months...Anyhow he didnt passed the file to any other Consultant though we have some very good consultants of the city, rather the country in our list of Surgeons but he did not did so...I remembred in my duty i dressed him thrice and i called him(consultant) twice...The patient became critical in the afternoon but he ordered to delay the surgery till night as he was returning then...We waited and waited and atlast he arrived and the patient was rushed to the Operation theatre...Another operation was done and the patient was shifted to the ICU...The next day i visited the patient...he looked better then before but there was something wrong still...Blood was being transfused and he was all surrounded with tubes and wires....
Today when i went to the hospital in the morning i was told by a colleague of mine that he is on ventilator and CPR is being done on him...At the same time an exam was being conducted of our final year student...The consultant didnt bothered to go at first place...He went there only with another doctor after half an hour later when things worsened...The patient collapsed and died but he even then did not bother to tell the truth to the family..He told them to arrange blood and tell them not to worry...Then he came down,started taking the exam with a juice in his hand and a biscuit on the other...At that moment i wondered how insensitive a person can be...He did not declared the patient dead, the deceased's sons were running for blood in every corner of the City and that Guy was having juice and biscuit...I was told later that he never went back and the death was declared by another doctor 2 hours later, when he saw that the consultant was in no mood of declaring the death...
When i heard that i was taken back..It reminded me of his eldest son, who was pleging me to make his father healthy by doing anything,who came from another country for the sake of his father, his wife who used to weep when i went for the dressings and said "Beta meray shoher ko theek kar do" (make my husband better)...and all our colleagues tried their best..but everything was ruined by our head, the consultant who preferred not to lose a penny then losing a patient...
Today when he was declared dead we all were shocked...All i can say is that May Allah give them strength to pass this difficult time.
P.S: Always ask any reliable person before getting a treatment from the doctor..Whether the doctor is competent enough or not..Living in Ireland for 15 years is not a confirmation of him being a good surgeon/doctor
I have to tell you that we have call duty every third day, so on my next call duty i came to check with the patient. The bleeding worsened and there was some vessel bleeding which lead to drop in the hemoglobin count...I took the summary of the past 3 days and i was shocked...The consultant had some meeting in Islamabad and he left 2 days back...as per protocol, if you are going somewhere and you will not be able to attend the patient, specially any critical patient, you pass the patients file to some other consultant who is available..But the doctor didnt do so..Let me tell you that the consultant i am telling about has a very bad name among us but he has an excellent councelling ability due to which he is able to gather patients...He is very poor in his surgical techniques and according to the record, he has KILLED 3 patients in the past 3 months...Anyhow he didnt passed the file to any other Consultant though we have some very good consultants of the city, rather the country in our list of Surgeons but he did not did so...I remembred in my duty i dressed him thrice and i called him(consultant) twice...The patient became critical in the afternoon but he ordered to delay the surgery till night as he was returning then...We waited and waited and atlast he arrived and the patient was rushed to the Operation theatre...Another operation was done and the patient was shifted to the ICU...The next day i visited the patient...he looked better then before but there was something wrong still...Blood was being transfused and he was all surrounded with tubes and wires....
Today when i went to the hospital in the morning i was told by a colleague of mine that he is on ventilator and CPR is being done on him...At the same time an exam was being conducted of our final year student...The consultant didnt bothered to go at first place...He went there only with another doctor after half an hour later when things worsened...The patient collapsed and died but he even then did not bother to tell the truth to the family..He told them to arrange blood and tell them not to worry...Then he came down,started taking the exam with a juice in his hand and a biscuit on the other...At that moment i wondered how insensitive a person can be...He did not declared the patient dead, the deceased's sons were running for blood in every corner of the City and that Guy was having juice and biscuit...I was told later that he never went back and the death was declared by another doctor 2 hours later, when he saw that the consultant was in no mood of declaring the death...
When i heard that i was taken back..It reminded me of his eldest son, who was pleging me to make his father healthy by doing anything,who came from another country for the sake of his father, his wife who used to weep when i went for the dressings and said "Beta meray shoher ko theek kar do" (make my husband better)...and all our colleagues tried their best..but everything was ruined by our head, the consultant who preferred not to lose a penny then losing a patient...
Today when he was declared dead we all were shocked...All i can say is that May Allah give them strength to pass this difficult time.
P.S: Always ask any reliable person before getting a treatment from the doctor..Whether the doctor is competent enough or not..Living in Ireland for 15 years is not a confirmation of him being a good surgeon/doctor
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