What does not weigh on Dr. John Riley's conscience is silence. [Names have been changed.] As tempting as it was to tell Thelma Jones and her son that a biopsy was planned of her right lung and that the pneumothorax was the unfortunate outcome of a necessary procedure, John Reilly chose to tell the truth. I admire him for that. I know just how easy it is to be silent.
Many years ago, I witnessed an Ob-Gyn make a terrible mistake during a routine hysterectomy. I stood in the Operating Room retracting a patient's belly while he carelessly hacked out her ovary. I stood next to her hospital bed as he lied to her about his mistake.
"We had to take the right ovary, Gina."
"Why? What happened?"
"Jesus Christ, Gina. It was a mess in there."
"I'm sorry."
She apologized. As if it was her fault that he had butchered her ovary.
He offered no other explanation. Yet I did not speak up when this incident occurred. I was a medical student with my career in front of me; he was an attending surgeon. I participated in the complicity of silence.
Advice: Ask for a clear explanation if a medical procedure has not gone as expected.
Browse for related stories in the index at the very bottom of this page, or read a patient-doctor miscommunication story.
Thanks to Dr. Helena Studer for the source article in issue 33 of Creative Nonfiction.
How terrible this thing is! How any professional doctor can do this kind of major mistake?.It is very acceptable that you have stay silence.
ReplyDeletesilent reflux in adults