During the lunch today, I joined a group of final year medical students from Germany who are on an elective rotation at our hospital. I asked them, one-by-one, what their most shocking experience in Nepal was. One of the students described it thus (the gist of what he said):
I was in the emergency room. They brought in a 3 month-old child who was not responding. Doctors in the emergency room did the required resuscitation for a long period. They placed in an airway tube, gave medications, but the child did not survive. After they were done with the resuscitation, they just left. Tube was still hanging out of the mouth of a dead 3-month old child. The leads of ECG were still in the chest. The dead body was bare. Family came back, they were crying. It was just shocking to me that people just left without any respect for the dead body. I thought, is it accepted in this culture? In our culture, even if someone is dead, we are expected to pay a basic respect to the dead body.
Is it cultural?
Absolutely not! We have to just see the patient's family, and stand in their shoes to know that it is not cultural. Who would like to see a dead child with ominous plastic tube hanging out of mouth, chest littered with sticky pads, body bare and abandoned?
Then what is it? In my opinion, it is a plain neglect and lack of empathy. It is very likely that the doctors are doing this out of habit and ignorance but not deliberate evil. They saw it being done the same way by their teachers; perhaps no one has questioned them seriously about that in the past. Furthermore, I suspect, it is reflective of the power structure in a doctor-patient relationship in our medical practice. Our patients hardly have any power. They pay for the care most of the times but still have hardly any say in the care they receive. Doctor imposes his decision. Questioning a doctor's authority is considered outrageous. In addition, our doctors are loyal to their superiors than the patients. You see the same doctor speaking very courteously to his superior while being very disrespectful to the patient. This is again reflective of our hierarchical power system where one's career prospects are dependent on power holders (superiors in this case) than the actual subjects of the creed. In our current system, welfare of our patients and family takes a backseat. This is a problem-- an outrageous one.
I was in the emergency room. They brought in a 3 month-old child who was not responding. Doctors in the emergency room did the required resuscitation for a long period. They placed in an airway tube, gave medications, but the child did not survive. After they were done with the resuscitation, they just left. Tube was still hanging out of the mouth of a dead 3-month old child. The leads of ECG were still in the chest. The dead body was bare. Family came back, they were crying. It was just shocking to me that people just left without any respect for the dead body. I thought, is it accepted in this culture? In our culture, even if someone is dead, we are expected to pay a basic respect to the dead body.
Is it cultural?
Absolutely not! We have to just see the patient's family, and stand in their shoes to know that it is not cultural. Who would like to see a dead child with ominous plastic tube hanging out of mouth, chest littered with sticky pads, body bare and abandoned?
Then what is it? In my opinion, it is a plain neglect and lack of empathy. It is very likely that the doctors are doing this out of habit and ignorance but not deliberate evil. They saw it being done the same way by their teachers; perhaps no one has questioned them seriously about that in the past. Furthermore, I suspect, it is reflective of the power structure in a doctor-patient relationship in our medical practice. Our patients hardly have any power. They pay for the care most of the times but still have hardly any say in the care they receive. Doctor imposes his decision. Questioning a doctor's authority is considered outrageous. In addition, our doctors are loyal to their superiors than the patients. You see the same doctor speaking very courteously to his superior while being very disrespectful to the patient. This is again reflective of our hierarchical power system where one's career prospects are dependent on power holders (superiors in this case) than the actual subjects of the creed. In our current system, welfare of our patients and family takes a backseat. This is a problem-- an outrageous one.
u write amazingly! for me, u have offered a lesson. every one deserves to be treated with dignity!!
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