Is It So Difficult For Doctors To Say Sorry?

Ok before I start griping about how unprofessional some doctors can be I just want to clarify that I do acknowledge that God has a purpose for everyone and truly there are some doctors who are put here on earth to be God's healing hands. Unfortunately, there are also some who have gone ahead of themselves and think that they are god and that the rest of the world owes them a living.

In my opinion, I believe that any doctor that goes into the profession for the money do not qualify to be doctors. If money is the motivation then truly these doctors are doing an injustice to mankind. How can a doctor look at a patient and only see dollar signs and not the welfare of the patient? How can a doctor look at a patient and not empathize with the suffering and pain that the patient is going through? How can a doctor look at a patient and not want to do their best to heal or easy the patient's suffering? I know everyone is allowed an off- form day but unfortunately I think when it comes to dealing with anothers life there aren't second chances.

When someone chooses to be a doctor it comes with the job that they are expected to live up to a higher standard of care. Clearly no one is perfect and mistakes are made. But when you are dealing with a life and a mistake is made, there is even more reason why doctors should learn to apologize. I understand doctors find it very difficult to acknowledge that a mistake has been made for fear of lawsuits but as the saying goes there are many ways to skin a cat. One need not apologize for the mistake but at least be empathetic and acknowledge the pain that the patient has to endure for the "unexplainable" event/ situation.

So what caused this ranting? I've blogged previously about my friend Noe. As mentioned in my earlier post, her last scan results were not good and she has to undergo a much more intensive chemo treatment, this time 3 sets of 5 daily session in a row with a gap of one week in between sessions. When she did her earlier round of chemo, it was decide that to ease the pain of all the poking and vein finding, she would insert a chemo port. So she went to see this doctor, Dr C Ng, who is supposedly a surgeon at the hospital she's being treated in. From what I understand from my cousin, a chemo port is usually inserted close to the neck region where there is less flesh. For whatever reason this is done I'm not too sure. Anyway, this "brilliant" doctor decided to charge my friend $4,000 to insert the port. But after her surgery, when she woke up, she noticed that the port had been inserted just above the swell of her breast. When she asked this "brilliant" Dr C Ng, he said that he did it for cosmetic reasons, in case she wanted to wear any low cutting tops.

Come on!!!! Here's my friend trying to fight for her life and he's telling her about cosmetic reasons. How idiotic can he get?? So when she went for next cycle of chemo, as expected the port did not function well. So C came (note he doesn't deserve to be called a doctor) he twiddled with the port and lucky for him got it to work. Unfortunately, that was the first and last time it worked. So poor Noe had her veins poked for subsequent sessions. When the first cycle was completed, she returned to see C and all he could say was to wait for the scan results in order to decide how to proceed. The best thing was that for that so called "consultation", C had the audacity to charge her for the visit. Not a word of apology!!!

Unfortunately, as mentioned, the scan wasn't encouraging hence this new chemo session. Since her forearm veins can no longer be poked, she returned to C and went under GA for him to put in a new port. Mind you, the old port still remains. This time he charged her $2000 to correct his shoddy work. Just last Tuesday, Noe began her latest series of treatments, and guess what?! the port didn't work again. Not only did it not work but it leaked. Noe was in such pain and was crying as the nurses took the line out as the chemo leaked and burned her surrounding tissue. As expected, C was no where to be found. Even the oncologist couldn't reach him!! It is so frustrating to see someone who is already suffering to have to suffer more because of another's incompetence. So now Noe has to be poked day after day through whatever feasible vein on her hand.

I'm sharing this because not only because I want to vent but to warn others out there to stay away from this doctor. He doesn't deserve to be a doctor. Like my friend put it, he was more interested in reading about some anal probe allegation on his desktop than looking at her breast :) That truly shows how committed he is as a doctor. The shocking thing was that apparently he's know among other doctors as a con-man. I'm not upset that he made the mistake, what I am pissed off about is that he didn't even apologize to my friend for putting her though all this. So dear people, be aware and be careful when choosing doctors!!