Missed and wronged
Some junk referrals I get every now and then:
Ref: Woman in her twenties broke down and cried uncontrollably when told that her boyfriend was brain dead and all artificial life support would be removed.
What do you expect the woman to do? Laugh, dress to kill and then go celebrate at the coolest pub in town? This is simply a normal reaction to bad news. It’s only a few seconds after the bad news, you can’t label her with any psychiatry disorders. The poor lady is grieving. Give her a chance to be sad and mourn. Plus, I’m not God, I can’t bring his boyfriend back to life!
Ref: 80-year-old diabetic, hypertensive man admitted for fluid overload refused to take his medications.
What they didn’t do – explain to patient about his diagnosis and prognosis, his new medications and their indications. You can’t blame the old man for being careful! Who knows somebody is plotting to poison him? Anyway, after telling him what all that was about, he obediently took his “candies” without complaint.
Ref: Patient came in with an acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. The episode is now resolved and she is ready for discharge. Yet on the first review, she broke down and cried. Refer PSY to rule out depression.
After exploring the patient’s history and sociocultural background inside out, left, right and center, I found nothing mentally wrong with her. Finally I asked her why she broke down the other day. Apparently, the physician told her that her lungs were a goner. I flipped through her case notes and saw nothing of the sort. Miscommunication? Most probably. They induced the tears, labelled them pathological and then called psychiatry to review. Duh!
Hospitals and medical centres are systematic institutions, and the medical staff get so used to viewing patients as cases they forget that these people are human too. Humans shed tears when they are sad or upset. Humans are thinking beings and they need information to function well like everyone else.
Sometimes, we fly in rockets exploring alien planets so much so we forgot how to walk with our feet on flat ground. It’s time to slow down and take a look around and be a simple human being again so we can help our patients better, not to prolong their suffering or delay healing.
July 30, 2008 at 4:41 am
Wow some of this cases are really blown out of proportion. Seriously the first case is way way understandable if not whole expected.
And she get referred to psychiatry? WTF?
I mean people make mistakes, but doctors are supposed to be very very careful and NOT make mistakes – least it be a life threatening one for their patients.
July 31, 2008 at 9:22 am
Ah Poh,
I have a gathering with my uni mates this weekend and JB outing next weekend!
When’s your next ‘no-call-weekend’? 16th or 23rd Aug can, my calender is still blank =D
Come let’s plan one meet up, just like Wei Lin’s visit!
July 31, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I’m not on-call on any of the weekends this august! Hehehehehehehe… well, coz someone changed her calls with me. *wink* So let me know your plans ok…
August 5, 2008 at 3:09 am
Cindy,
Weekend of 16th or 23rd? Mana satu? Hee..
August 5, 2008 at 6:08 am
pei yun: how about 17th? a day’s out with u gals. my boss invited me to his house for “kenduri” on the 16th. i’ll be going 2 kl for a drug talk 22nd-24th
August 5, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Oh.. let me ask the girls k? Kailing is organising a Bintan trip on 16th, don’t know if she can make it =P
You have mail that you check often? Let’s ‘discuss’ more ‘privately’, haha!
August 11, 2008 at 8:12 am
sounds just like case of tai-chi to push the patients from department to department, as usual…so typical malaysian..
u girls met up with wei lin yet?? i haven’t seen her in agesss