The Bad: Best Friend's Father becomes quite ill and is taken to the emergency room. He is then admitted to the hospital, and because his kidneys are in bad shape has to wait before they can do a heart cath. He has a mild heart attack while awaiting the cath. When kidneys are cleared to have the cath, he has another mild heart attack during the procedure.
Doctors recommend open heart surgery to this 87 year old, kidney diseased man, whose heart, by the way, has 3 or 4 total blockages while the rest of his heart blockages are 80 to 90% blocked. Surgery? I should have titled this The Good, The Bad, The Crazy, The Greedy, and The Ugly.
The Ugly: Doctors (all of them) have been barely civil to the elderly patient and his wife. His wife was asking a question to one of the doctors and he WALKED OUT while she was in mid-sentence.
There has been no ice or water in the water pitchers. Family has to go down the hall and fetch it themselves. A nurse might help the patient onto the potty, but by golly, there is where he stays unless a family helps him clean up and go back to bed.
When the patient told the doctor he decided he was not going to have open heart surgery, the doctor became angry. "You know if you walk out of here I can guarantee fifty-fifty odds you will die a sudden death."
Patient tells doctor: "Son, are those the best odds you've got? I prefer one hundred percent guarantee of a sudden death. Besides, I've got a son I ain't seen in two years, and I am looking forward to seeing him and My Savior both." The doctor WALKED OUT without saying another word.
And you might guess only two out of a dozen or so doctors could speak the native language well enough that family could understand them.
The Good: In a word, hospice. They were there on time, they had the room set up before the family got home, they have been respectful, clear, and kind.
They told my friend's daddy that from now on he was back in charge. If they suggested something he didn't like, he could tell them so, and they would suggest an alternative. They've made him comfortable. They've explained everything from how the bed works to medications. They are pursuing possible veteran's benefits that the family didn't know about.
And more important than that - or anything else, for that matter - they have truly listened to two elderly people that need to be listened to. They need to tell their stories.
They need to be heard.
To all you folks out there in the medical field: Is that too much to ask?
I have MANY fine Physician friends who offer kind considerate and Christian service to their patients. In contrast, I have seen doctors who appeared offended when I asked a simple relevant question.
ReplyDeleteI fear the MD culture is a hard one to survive with compassion for sometimes uncooperative, poorly educated, and ungrateful patients like me.
This is unfortunate, because the medical profession is a great opportunity for service to mankind. Thanks to the great docs who do see it and do it around the world.
True. I have friends who are doctors. I have doctors who treat me. Some have been wonderful, some have been stinkers. I'm afraid there are some really bad stinkers out there, and it's a shame, because as you say, what a wonderful calling to have and serve with compassion and empathy.
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