no, i'm not about to spill the beans about someone else. actually, it's about me.
more than 2 decades ago, when i started training to specialise, i exposed patients to unnecessary risks.
a few times.
in the 1st instance, i was dealing with a child who was the 1st case in the morning. i later left the care of the child to a nurse while i stepped out to read the papers. it was not the 1st time i did this but on this occasion, i was caught red-handed by a visiting consultant, who came weekly to provide clinical services & conduct teaching sessions. she gently reprimanded me & i appreciated her discretion for that. since that day, i've not touched the papers till all work had been done.
in the 2nd incident, i was involved in a nasty disagreement with another doctor about how a patient should be managed. out of annoyance, i stormed out of the room, again leaving...er...or more like abandoning the patient. the other doctor complained to my boss, now deceased, God rest his soul, & he gave me a mouthful. again, i appreciated that because since then, i've not disadvantaged a patient on the account of disagreement with another doctor.
here's the thing.....
the other day, i heard a doctor did just that - left the patient in the care of nurses when he should have been responsible himself. that brought back those memories i reminisced earlier. it reminded me of how i had neglected some of the patients that had been entrusted into my care. they served as a stark admonition for me - that when i was young, impulsive & with an atrocious attitude, i was not a doctor but a irresponsible & reckless person in a white coat. it also taught me, sometimes when i have delusions of grandeur about myself, i am actually an ordinary guy & there's nothing great about being ordinary.
i feel ordinary & i just want to rant.
12 comments:
What is a youth? - Young, impetuous...the time when the heart rules tha head...and hopefully, when one grows older, one gets wiser... Some don't!
You're only human. ;)
Sometimes too young, too furious. When get older, I guess it will not be so furious anymore.
Doc... i think you are not the only one... I bet there's more out there. :p But as time goes by.. people learnt thru out the years... :)
Hopefully nothing happen to the patience...
To ERR is Human
At least you get if off your chest rather keep it inside waiting to explode, making mistakes.
But, i know you are a good doctor now,my instinct telling me that.
To me, a good doctor must always have the patient at heart, it is like the chinese idiom,,, Doctors must have the hearts akin to that of a father and a mother.
But then again, doctors just like the rest of us,you have your pressures too, unreasonable patients just like my unreasonable customers, but if our hearts are sincere,we will win them after all.
have a good weekend doc, and god bless
it was a good sharing, sharing like this always remind me of, we are only human, make mistakes, learn from mistakes and move on.
thanks everyone for reading my rant & for your kind comments.
by the grace of God, nothing happened to any of the patients mentioned in this post.
i'd like to think that i had wised up & matured thru the years to be a better person & doctor.
can u be my family doc now? :)
Zewt,
can, if you are prepared to disregard my checkered past.
;)
absolutely... where is the good doc's clinic?
Zewt,
sent email to your gmail add.
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