The cancer specialist at Lynn Cancer Institute in Boca Raton, Florida threw his papers down on a table and angrily shouted at his patent: “Do I have to do this. That’s not me. Do I have to do this. I don’t want to do this.”
The patient left in tears. She had brought a diagnostic sample and asked her doctor to send it to a medical laboratory for analysis. Whatever confidence the patient put in this doctor was immediately eroded by his fit of distemper. All of his work at the Harvey and Phyllis Sandler Pavilion meant nothing. He was a medical maniac that abused his position of power and trust.
“Orthopods think they are gods. This is the only orthopedic surgeon I'll work for. He consults with us and treats our opinions seriously.” The person that related that was an X-ray technician in New York. He worked for a doctor that valued consultation with his staff and listened and respected their opinions.
One of the nastiest doctors encountered by a patient was at the New York City based Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute. The doctor was arrogant, mean spirited and petty. He may have studied in his field but clearly he had no respect nor regard for his patients. When a patient asked questions about her condition and the course of treatment, the doctor took it as an insult to his godlike wisdom. How dare a patient question his authority. The doctor angrily retorted: “I’m running this case. You are not going to run it. I don’t have to answer your questions.” The patient left in tears.
Television soap operas dwell on medical maniacs throwing temper tantrums all the time. That clever misfits attain the practice of medicine is not unexpected. It takes a lifetime to learn all that is necessary to understand and treat the human body. Most never learn how to treat the human soul.
We made a diagnosis of sleeping sickness in Africa. Puncture of a lymph node in the neck revealed the organism alive on the microscope slide. So thrilled at having made the diagnosis we called a colleague to look into the microscope, excited at the find. We neglected to realize that the patient was still sitting there. She broke into tears. It required calming her so that she would understand that our enthusiasm at the diagnosis meant we knew what was wrong with her and she could now undergo a course of treatment. Enthusiasm at the discovery was had at the expense of the patient’s emotional well being.
Older patients, especially, are subject to medical maniacs. A veneer of courtesy disappears once the patient is totally under the control of the doctor. This is a generalization and unfair to many fine physicians that do care, really care, for their patients. “Our family doctor has been treating us for years. He knows our family history and is concerned. We can reach him day or night in an emergency,” a West Palm Beach patient said.
She consulted their family doctor when an aged uncle’s health deteriorated in a care facility. It only required a phone call. The doctor helped sort out the medications that she told him her uncle had been prescribed by the institution’s doctor. The medications, if continued, would have killed her uncle. As a result of the caring, competent medical advice, the family moved the uncle to another institution. He received proper care. His condition improved to the extent that he could leave on excursions to go shopping and take dinner out with his family.
The degree of competent care received in a hospital or from a physician is directly related to the patient’s ability to demand it. That is not to say a patient or family member should shout, throw their weight around or interfere with staff. They must pay attention. The old, “Yes, doctor” attitude has to be replaced with a patient that asks informed questions and actively participates in the treatment. A good physician appreciates that.
Readers will be able to add many more examples of medical maniacs that abuse their authority and power. Patients, especially those with cancer, come to the healer with concern and anguish. A diagnosis of cancer, in any of its forms, carries with it dire images of languishing death. While physicians that specialize in oncology clearly realize this, many are unable to be human. Brilliant minds that enabled them to pass multiple choice tests that granted them board certifications are often not able to relate to deep rooted dimensions of human suffering they diagnose every day.
The dilemma comes, not with clumsy social skills, rather with mean and unbridled egotism. Being clumsy with words and social skills is common enough. Anyone that attended college with a pre-med student recognized their brilliance but also, in many cases, their eccentricity and lack of social skills. It takes brilliance to get top scores, to memorize and make grades that will eventually gain admittance to medical school. It takes deep-rooted humanity and caring to be a good doctor.
There are all kinds of positions in the medical field. Specialization is required since no one can amass the knowledge necessary to be an expert in every area. The dark side to being brilliant is being egotistical and power hungry. “Good morning, doctor,” a physician addressed a plumber working on his house.
The plumber didn’t understand. “I’m paying you a doctor’s wage,” the physician explained. “They are doctors,” he laughed. Money factors into a physician’s relationship with patients. Many feel that their lifetime of education and experience is worth more than they are being paid by insurance companies or government healthcare programs. They are jealous of their neighbors.
Of course a walk around the doctor’s parking lot at any hospital will reveal a bevy of high priced luxury cars. Their homes and lifestyles are among the rich and famous. For some, keeping up appearances has put them in debt. With all of this, medical care has gone through the roof. “For the five days I was in the hospital, my bill was $250,000. Imagine that. A quarter-of-a-million dollars for five days,” a heart patient said.
There it is. Socialized medicine has not worked in England. A son recently flew to London and wrote a check for his mother’s hip replacement. Her surgery was delayed and her place in line under the government medical program meant an additional wait of four months. That would have killed her. With a check from the dutiful son his mother was operated on the next day and out of the hospital and home with her family.
All of the factors of life in general are reflected in medical practitioners: greed, egotism, arrogance, incompetence, and delight with power. “If a patient has the ability to become educated, and the Internet is an amazing tool today, then asks questions, doctors may consider the person to be a problem patient,” a cancer patient related. Some bad doctors even consider the informed patient to be a threat. Questions they cannot answer are fended off as challenges to their knowledge.
“If there is one thing a patient must know it is that being informed is important but they must also be aware that questions they put to their doctors should be presented in a delicate way,” the cancer patient counseled.
Her tears and distress at the fit of temper tantrum thrown by her specialist at the Lynn Cancer Center will not deter her. The rebuff would have crushed most patients suffering from cancer. This one physician disgraced his profession and dishonored a cancer treatment facility endowed by charitable donors. If only the donors saw his conduct they would be appalled.
In dealing with matters of life and death every day, medical maniacs must not be placed in jobs that require patient contact. When they are discovered in practice, peer review must weed them out no matter how many multiple choice exams they managed to pass by memorizing facts to get board certified. The only important question is the one they missed: a patient’s overall well being comes first.
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Note: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and are not necessarily representative of Epoch Times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Christopher Fine investigated government activities around the world while attached to the U.S. State Department’s Inspector General’s Office. He served in many posts including Special Counsel to U.S. Senate Investigating Committee and Senior Assistant District Attorney in New York County.