As a Young Doctor, certain instincts and emotional responsiveness to patients can make you feel guilty at times. A lot is said about empathy while dealing with patients but that empathy is often met with an inbuilt emotional hurdle, known as professional satisfaction.
So while sitting in periphery dealing with patients first hand and relying on some clinical acumen and theoretical knowledge, a young doctor has a patient whom he suspects to be Acute Appendicitis, a surgical emergency. Due to the lack of laboratory facilities, he is about 50-60% sure… maybe 70%. The tertiary care centre is 6 hrs away by road in a hilly terrain with unpredictable weather. His professional ego wants him to be sure about the diagnosis and then evacuate the patient however, other factors of terrain and road conditions require him to be far sighted. What is more important- the diagnosis or the patient? Obviously, the diagnosis…. Sorry, i mean the patient.
The patient is evacuated comfortably in a stable condition.
As a doctor, the only thing that would satisfy the professional hunger is a confirmed diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis where the patient is being rushed to an OT to be cut open. A more empathetic approach would want him to be diagnosed as some myalgia and return unscathed.
This emotional dilemma is the result of seeing the world through a mirror of right and wrong. And the mirror of a Shrewd Doctor is not the one others would like to hold.
