Comments on: Good News at Fallbrook Hospital — a Short Story

By: john gordon

john gordon — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:52:32 +0000

Hunt’s reply is so much more expressive than I could ever hope to match. She is in the trenches and it brings back the thought of “walking a mile in my shoes before you critisize, etc.” Her final comment is what hurts us practicioners, that the comments were so one sidedly negative.
Until the us vs. them, have and have nots, rich vs. poor and class warfare practiced by our elected (and often non-representative) representatives is seen for what it is and ended, things like this will continue not out of animosity, but mostly out of ignorance.
Jack

By: Patty Campbell

Patty Campbell — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:00:14 +0000

KB,
They’re not all dickheads. When I fell in the airport and cut my lip and cheek badly, my darling doctor left his Sunday racketball game and drove twenty miles to me in Fallbrook to sew up my face–without a scar. And he didn’t charge me.

But the piece is wonderful. Your style gets better and better.

Patty Campbell

By: Elise

Elise — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:01:04 +0000

I don’t think doctors are dickheads. Personally, I’m glad they are around, no matter how sensitive or insensitive they are. I thought about becoming a doctor, but decided I didn’t like to be around sick people, so I’m glad there are people who do.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:56:43 +0000

K-B,

Loved your piece. I can relate. To the physicians, “heal thy self”.

Anne-Marie

By: kbgressitt

kbgressitt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:19:30 +0000

Hmm, interesting. Those who are not the target of criticism take it personally; those for whom it’s intended are not likely to respond. I’ll feel complete the day I get a note from a target that reads “Yeah, I’m a dickhead, and I’m going stop that now.”

Love,
K-B

By: Hunt

Hunt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:14:42 +0000

Yesterday between noon and midnight I took care of 37 patients, including, amongst others, two people having heart attacks, a man who was only barely breathing because of an anaphylactic reaction to a beesting, a 48 year old woman who was in agonizing pain, dying of widely metastatic cancer, a retired professor with a kidney stone, peeing blood, and a child whose mother spoke only Korean but did not want to use a translator. I spent almost 2 hours trying to find a psychiatric bed for my suicidal patient, after having already spent a half an hour getting information about her from her mother and from the police officer who had brought her in to the ER. Then I spent half an hour trying to find out the location and phone number of the boarding home in which my retarded patient lived, because she didn’t know her address and the home had not sent anyone with her who could tell us. Then I spent another half an hour trying to find her a ride home because the boarding home couldn’t spare staff to pick her up.

When I got off duty at midnight I was in the midst of a conversation with the partner of my dying cancer patient. I spent another 45 minutes with her as she sobbed out her grief and fear. Then I had to dictate all of the charts that I hadn’t had time to finish while I was busy caring for my patients. I left the hospital at 2:55 am, the earliest I have gotten out all week. I have not had time for a lunch or dinner break for over two years. I just got over yet another UTI born of never having time to go to the bathroom. One of my nurses recently told me that she is afraid to drink anything starting an hour before she comes to work because she knows that she is unlikely to get time to pee.

Almost every day that I go to the hospital, one or more of my patients starts off the conversation by telling me how much they hate doctors and hospitals. I talk with my colleagues, hear how they have fought with insurance companies trying to get them to pay for the medications their patients need, how they haven’t gotten home in time for dinner with their families in years, and how, after 20 years in practice, they are still paying off their med school loans. All of us are hospital employees, because in this day and age, nobody can afford to stay in private practice.

In the past month, I have gotten three thank you notes from greatful patients, and two complaints, one from an addict who was peeved because I wouldn’t prescribe narcotics for her bruised shin, and one who had come with a rash, and was angry because he had to wait while I cared for another patient who couldn’t breathe.

I have been thrown up on, bled on, and peed on more times than I can count. On a daily basis, my fingers go into place we shouldn’t (though sometimes do) talk about at the dinner table. I work nights, holidays, and most weekends. I often go three or four days not getting to see my beloved. I take care of patients at my dining room table or in the grocery store when they can’t afford to pay to get their care in the clinic or in the hospital; my life is not my own. I spend hundreds of hours studying and teaching and spend thousands of dollars every year for conferences, courses and certifications in order to help myself to stay competent.

Once in a while I get to save a life, or to make a frightened child laugh, or to help a patient by sorting out a difficult diagnosis, and then I remember why, many moons ago, I embarked on this carreer.

But then I read your piece, and the responses in which people are agreeing that “…docs are dickheads…” and I weep.

By: kbgressitt

kbgressitt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:43:23 +0000

You, Jack, are a gem, and I’ve worked with some fabulous docs who also go well above and beyond. However, although the story is fiction it is based on an actual experience at our little hospital, where one morning’s anecdotal evidence suggests that one out of four attending physicians in our friendly village has heart. I’d like to think our Chamber of Commerce’s PR campaign would be embraced by our local healthcare practitioners, and I remain hopeful that it will be!
Love,
K-B

P.S. If I were ever to get my back fixed, I’d opt for you — take Tricare? (tee and hee)

By: john gordon

john gordon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:33:50 +0000

A lovely story and one that should be circulated as a reminder, not because most doctors don’t take the time or have compassion, but because we all can use a reminder every once in a while and doctors, like the rest of the human race, are not perfect.
Having been one of the ‘dickheads’ for 35 years, I have always prided myself on my compassion and empathy and the time that I spend with my pts. I have made mistakes to be sure, but hopefully they were never at the expense of the pt’s privacy or humanity.
While stories of waiting rooms and the various people crowded into an inadequate space for the most part, makes for good copy (rather like a story about ‘boy scout helps lady across street’ is less exciting than ‘boy scout trips lady into street’), I suspect that there are more Dr. Hiseys in the world than this story would indicate. Ref. Kim.
I also suspect that even those who consider all doctors to be dickheads have stories about a dickhead that got up at 2 AM to treat her problems or calm her fears, another who spent a little longer than usual answering questions or who called her at home long after office hours to tell them about some test result that was important to them.
Obviously, I take umbrage at the broad painting of all physicians, medical and surgical, as having the bedside manner of a cement truck and, of course, having the corner on dickheadedness. I do know that I am not perfect, but I do try. I also know that I work harder and longer today for less than I did 15 yrs. ago. I often operate into the evenings and I get up at night for emergencies. I have 1 1/2 people in my office that do nothing but handle ins. forms. I am distressed that my pts. do not understand what is happening to them in today’s medical climate and do not understand that socialized medicine will lead to rationed and more expensive care. Physicians are retiring or leaving medicine because they can’t make a living (esp. in primary care) and pts., especially older medicare pts, can not find a family doctor. Until our pts. realize that Medicare rates are welfare rates and that soon, there will not be enough doctors to care for the older population, we are in for a lot of unpleasant surprises.
However, I apologize, I digress.
Thank you for a poignent story and a good reminder to all of us who try our best to take care of a lot of people every day that we need to take the time to stop and reflect every once in a while. I hope that lots of your readers can also remember some good experiences to relate.
Keep writing. I am enjoying them and your expertise.
JCG

By: Marcy

Marcy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:32:49 +0000

I’m with Elise . You are so wonderful at this.
I love the part about the pictures in the hall.
This was a searing comment on the lack of humanity in medicine done on a slow sizzle.

Sometimes I think our healers take too many “God: classes in medical school. They are so removed from the very people they are supposed to be treating. It’s more a “process” than a “treatment”. You get the idea that the process is more important than the patient.
Not to mention that many have the bedside manner of a cement truck.

By: Carol

Carol — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:22:29 +0000

Thank God for humor, be it: Peurto Rican or dry, when it comes to O.R. , E.R. or any DR, for that matter, that has lost their passion and compassion for ‘life’s’ work. Quit!
Our best healer lies within….listen and trust…or get a good referral.
Love your passion, K-B.