Maybe it’s my African heritage that teaches a deep respect for your parents and elders or maybe it is a fear of the rod as I grew up in a home where it was not spared. So when I see a 15-year-old boy, presenting for surgery to a lower extremity because he was riding his 4-wheeler without a helmet at a speed that caught the cops attention and in the process collided with a tree yell at his mum, I almost loose it. When he tells his mum “..to shut up and go home and clean his room!”, that is where I want to give him a good hiding.

On one side, I blame parents who do not discipline their kids if the chickens come home to roost. Unfortunately, this deep disrespect of women translates into deep disrespect for female nurses and  physicians. And so rudeness towards his mum progressed to rudeness towards my resdent and circulating nurse who were both female.

Where is the rod when you need it?

jnkdg

One of our orthopedic surgeons did 3 total hip replacements today.

The first was a 16-year-old boy who had avascular necrosis of the a femoral head from chronic steroid use.

The second was a 38-year-old who also had avascular necrosis of a femoral head from alcohol abuse.

The third  wa 59 and has been a runner since his teens. He had some impressive arthritic changes in both hips and knees.

That is the life of a nurse or a doctor. Some patients you empathize with. Others, you want to knock some sense into. But stop! Professionalism and the oath both call out and empathy for all becomes the order of the day…..

…..even though some do not deserve it.

jnkdg

Is a physician playing God if he lets a patient die whose prognosis is really grim? Is it not better for the dignity of the patient, the family and the medical system if that happens? Why do we as physicians seek to prolong life at all cost, even if it means prolongation of suffering and false hope?

I don’t care to think of the millions of dollars that would be saved if we let patients with grim prognosis enjoy their last moments with their family at home instead of in the ICU on a vent.

Maybe someone needs to play God!

jnkdg

Somewhere in the Western hemisphere, a  48-year-old man has a failed liver from drinking too much and is scheduled to receive another liver through a transplant. In the last few years, he has not been able to work and has no insurance but no sweat, there’s Medicaid. So a man who has spent most of his adult life drinking and not working gets another chance at life and this is paid for by people who work hard and pay their taxes.

Cost: $100,000 to $400,000!

Somewhere in the third world, a 5-year-old boy has asthma and is dying. The parents could never afford the albuterol and steroids the doctor prescribed. The boy is in respiratory distress but there no possibilty to support his breathing. He is  going to die…miserably…

Cost of albuterol (MDI): approx. $40.00, Flovent approx. $100.00

Makes you wonder….really wonder….

jnkdg