Time for compassion

Today I was speaking to a friend who is working in internal medicine in an ER. While I was talking to him, he got a phone call asking him to consult on a lady who had arrived in the ER and refusing to leave and wanting to be admitted. He is still in residency training and I asked him what he was going to do. He said that it was simple. He would order the basic blood tests and then tell the lady that she can certainly stay in the hospital if she was willing to pay a $1000, because no insurance would cover her medical bill without a valid indication. And I asked him what will happen then. He laughed and said, "the same thing that always happens, she will leave."
By now I was extremely interested and asked him whether he would have solved the problem she came to the ER with. He replied that she had no problem. The blood work will have indicated no problem. There was no reason why she needed to be in the hospital. She was healthy. She would be taking the bed of a person who genuinely needed to be admitted.
I persisted, saying there is a reason why she wants to come in to the hospital. He agreed and said "That is not my concern. I am not a psychiatrist."
By now I was playing the devil's advocate. "What if she feels unsafe in her home and is coming to seek help but is not telling the real truth because she is frightened of the psychiatric ward." He replied, "It still is her problem, not mine. If I started conducting these voodoo hunts for crazies, there would be people who would die of heart attacks."
He had to go and attend to the patient. I let him go.
I was later thinking about our conversation. There are many things that would have been different in an ideal world. Money would not come in to play when basic human rights were concerned. I believe access to reasonable health care a basic human right. Mental health problems would be as important as physical ailments. A person would have the luxury of time to discharge his or her's professional duties. Work would be a joy rather than a burden.
Doctors even though adhere to a high code of ethics have been trampled by an unknown fear. The fear of lack of time, the fear of lack of sleep, the fear of lack of performance, the fear of lack of money, the fear of seeing themselves as a failure who never could amount to anything despite their brains and hard work that they put in to becoming a doctor while their class fellows enjoyed themselves and dallied their time away.
When you reach the top of the pyramid, you are not the same man. The journey changes you.
One of the basic things that comes with experience is the ability to be patient with a patient (who is called a patient for a reason). Since one never knows what life can throw out, it is of the utmost importance to be well grounded in the present and not let fears get in the way. When a day is started, there is every potential that I might be jumping off a plane by night fall with a parachute strapped on my back and there is every potential that I might be dead by night. Regardless of the potentials, one thing is certain that I have control over. I can enjoy and accept every minute of life as a gift.