The other day Hubby gets a call in the middle of night. One of the patients has just been shifted from ER to ICU.. the patient, an elderly male is in shock, needs to be intubated ASAP. Hubby changes and rushes back to hospital. The patient has been intubated and access to IV lines secured etc etc. By the time, he comes back, I am fast asleep. Multiple times in the night, his phone rings. After years of being in this profession, he can answer the phone, discuss the case, give his expert opinion and go back to sleep. I wonder how he does that. Early morning at 6, the duty doctor who’s been tending to the patient, informs that the patient is stable.
At around 9 in the morning ( its a Friday morning..holiday for us ) the phone again rings. The duty doctor informs that the patients son is fighting as to why his father got so sick overnight that he had to be intubated. The duty doctor tries to explain that his father was a hypertensive, and due to uncontrolled hypertension had landed up in heart failure.
As per the son, the father was just a little breathless, for which they had got him to hospital. Ofcourse, he didn’t volunteer the information that breathless had been increasing over past 2-3 days, also that medicine had finished a few days back and he had stopped taking.
Listening to the conversation, all I had in my mind was why are human beings so suspicious? Two doctors, nurses and the entire staff in ICU woke up whole night to stabilise their father, and yet instead of gratitude what’s offered is accusations.
There’s a term in medicine called Placebo effect. It basically means, if you trust your doctor/ medicine that it will improve your condition..it definitely will. If you don’t trust your doctor..no matter where or to whom you go …you won’t get better?
Two branches which demand most trust ..medicine and teaching, are both viewed with utmost suspicion. Sometimes, i wonder people trust their kids with maids, yet lock up their jewellery and money. They are patient when it comes to other services yet become impatient when it comes to healthcare. The truth is healthcare is much more complex than what Google search can tell.
When its a delayed delivery of an online delivery, the call center executive will say, “i am sorry, we will try to deliver you at the earliest.” Most People will just fume a little and then settle. When it comes to waiting line in hospital, or a test result which genuinely needs expertise, people would be at their wits and sometimes drive the medical staff mad.
Teaching and medicine were considered noblest of all professions. Yet today, Google baba has filled both the vacancies. Somedays like today, I wonder what it would take for all to realise that the half knowledge they acquire on search can’t replace the years of expertise and that if only they could trust a little.
I am joining Corinne Rodriguez for #Monday Musings. You can find her Post here. Do join me and other bloggers every Monday.
The Vagabond 
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