Doctors will inevitably make mistakes because they are also human

Every time I walk into a bookstore, I pass Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and am reminded of a specific anecdote he shared. Kalanithi, MD, was a seventh-year neurosurgery resident and his lung cancer had metastasized – a process which was only being controlled by a new drug his oncologist had decided to try. But one day, Kalanithi had severe nausea and had to be hospitalized to stay hydrated. A second-year internal medicine resident (five years Kalanithi’s junior in training) was in charge of his care, and he decided to take Kalanithi off his cancer drug because it might be causing damage to his liver. When Kalanithi argued with him that this was unlikely since he had been taking it for a year, and that without taking it a bone-searing pain would set in, the resident responded: “If you weren’t you, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I’d just stop the drug and make you prove it causes all this pain.” I still think about this hurtful interaction and marvel over both the insensitivity of the medicine resident and the grace of Kalanithi to forgive him. (In writing his memoir, Kalanithi chose not to name the resident because he didn’t want this physician’s career to be defined by one moment of irritability toward a patient.) It takes an incredibly self-empowered patient to have a doctor say something hurtful or insensitive and forgive them because as patients we are so vulnerable and so trusting of our doctors. Continue reading ... Your ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Education Hospital Source Type: blogs