Patient's Perspective

I am much undecided when it comes to this subject as I have been on both sides of the issue.  As a health care professional, I understand that patients should always be the center of care.  We have to be responsible and hold ourselves accountable for our actions and our work.  However, I also believe that as a patient, I have an obligation to be proactive with my care and in-tune with my body, and I encourage my loved ones to take the same approach.

Last year, just after Thanksgiving, my mother underwent minimally invasive robotic surgery.  She took very good care of her body pre-op and tried to follow her doctors’ orders post-op, to the T.  Being the holiday season and just weeks before Christmas, she decided it would be nice to slowly stroll through the mall.  My father would do all the reaching and lifting, she would just do the pointing and smiling (or so she said-- I’m sure she did a little more than she should have).  My parents then decided to host Christmas dinner at their house.  My mom did most of the cooking which meant she was on her feet most of the day.  Sure enough, she went to bed that night, feeling lousy and exhausted.  By 4am, the next morning, she was startling my dad out of his sleep because she was bleeding at the surgery site and wanted to go into the emergency room.  By 7am, she was in the operating room.  As we all suspected, she over extended herself.  The verdict was that a few internal stitches came loose.  Her recovery time and post-op orders hit a hard-reset.

Who was to blame in this situation?  Although she is my mother, I would have to secretly say it’s her fault.  I’m sure her physician, Dr. Reynolds, was frightened going into the emergency surgery worrying she made some critical error.  Dr. Reynolds did everything she was supposed to do [clinically] and can feel at ease with that.  What she did not do, was get to know my mother personally and know that if she gave her an inch, she would take a foot.  She told my mom she could do some light walking not knowing my mom would hear “go Christmas shopping and cook a 15-pound turkey”.

In this situation (and because I know better than she), my mother, the patients’ perspective should not be the most important determinant in this adverse event.  My mom was upset and might have wanted to blame everyone in the OR but it was really her doings resulted in an adverse event.  If my mother didn’t have myself (a young health care professional) and my sister (a 4-th year medical student) telling Dr. Reynolds the real deal with the adverse event, she could have had a malpractice suit in her hands.

In this field and in this country, I have learned that it is almost a part of the American culture to sue anyone who makes you feel slighted.  My mother could have easily gone in with my father shouting “wait for a call from my attorney” and no one would disagree with her.  Too many people hold their physicians up higher than they should and get away with it.  Doctors are not gods.  But a lot of patients are ignorant to their responsibility to be accountable for their care just as they expect their doctors to be.  Doctors should be able to feel comfortable and confident in their delivery of care.  The only way they would feel that is if their were laws protecting them and enforcing patients to be responsible and alert when it comes to their health.