Tuesday, March 22, 2005

doctors aint god

if you think that the safest place to have a heart attack is when you are among doctors, think again!!! few days ago, there was a health meeting attended by all the top and senior doctors in kedah. during the course of the meeting, one of them had a heart attack. he probably thought nothing serious would happen to him since he was in good hands. unfortunately, NONE of the doctors present there could remember how to perform CPR(cardio pulmonary resuscitation) to revive him. CPR is a vital life saving procedure in many medical emergencies but none of them could remember. im not to sure whether the poor guy survived or not. anyway, the director general of health aint to amuse bout it and ordered all the doctors present in the meeting that day to go for a course in CPR. im sure its pretty humiliating for them.

doctors dont know everything. thats a fact. its impossible for a doctor to remember every single thing that he has learnt in medical school. its just not possible. a surgeon is a master in the art of surgery and anatomy but not in biochemistry and microbiology. a physician is good in all the related pathophysiology and biochemical abnormalities afflicitng mankind but the same cant be said bout his surgical skills. the key here is to remember the important basics.

though forgeting something as important as CPR is unforgivable for a doctor, the simple fact is many of these skills will be forgotten if they are not put into practice regulary. a paramedic or a staff nurse is definetly more skilled in these methods compared to a doctor for the simple reason that they are doing it most the time. doctors are there just to diagnose and prescribe the best method of treatment. hence many of the important skills are forgotten over the years. so hope you guys out there will stop thinking doctors are a bunch of demi gods with healing powers. they are just mere mortals

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