Читать книгу Above and Beyond - J.S. Dorian - Страница 79

“Honor a physician with the honor due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him: for the Lord hath created him.”

APOCRYPHA, ECCLESIASTICUS 38:1–3

My friend phoned me to vent her anger; when she was finished she said she felt better. Then she apologized, thanked me, and hung up. The focus of her fury was her oncologist, who had been insensitive and detached as he rushed her through a weekly checkup that morning. “I felt like one of fifty faceless patients passing through on a conveyor belt,” she fumed.

We’ve all had similar experiences and feelings during visits to doctors. At one time or another, every one of us has been rushed, patronized, or treated disrespectfully. Following such episodes, it is tempting to conclude that physicians care less about medicine than they do about money and that the most important charts in their lives can be found in the financial sections of newspapers.

The truth is that few doctors choose their specialty purely for financial gain. Once we are over our annoyance at the slight we have experienced, can we really believe that any doctor can counsel hundreds upon hundreds of patients, many critically ill and some terminal, and remain unaffected by other people’s pain?

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Do I unfairly disparage all doctors as “callous and greedy”?