Doctor or bully ?
“You won't live long”, said the doctor to my aunt.
My first question to all the people reading this article is: Are doctors the arbiters of our destiny?
It is not that I am getting emotional, nor am I trying to draw anyone's attention, but I have been asking this question to myself for the past 1.5 years and haven't yet been able to come up with a suitable answer.
One of my aunts is suffering from pulmonary hypertension. This is an incurable disease. They say you can fight serious diseases like AIDS and cancer, but you are dead once you have pulmonary hypertension. Unlucky for my aunt, she is suffering from this disease and only God knows what's at the end of the line for her.
Regarding this matter, I have to make a comment about the doctors of Bangladesh. Is it written anywhere in medical ethics that the doctor goes up to the patients and say, “Sir/ Madam, you won't live that long. Start counting your days”. I just want to know, does this make sense?
I have not travelled to several countries, nor have I seen variances in different cultures, but I am sick and fed up with mine. Here the doctors tell their patients directly, “You won't live long”.
Many of us watch different kinds of movies, documentaries over the TV and the Internet. According to my knowledge, I have seen, the doctors normally call up other members of the family and explain them if the patient is in critical condition. They never say, “Oh God! It's all over for you”.
The doctors of Bangladesh are good. Some of their treatments do change lives, but do they have to keep on continuing this bad habit? Or will I call it a malpractice?
My aunt went to by far the best hospitals in Dhaka city and everywhere the doctors were saying the same thing. “You won't live long”. But when we took her to India, the situation was totally different. The doctors there never said anything negative like this even to us. Isn't it strange that we being a country neighbouring India have practices so much different? How long will we lag behind like this?
My aunt is a very nervous person and whenever the doctors say something like this, she loses her nerves and her health deteriorates. Does this statement have a meaning to her? Yes, it does. It breaks her down completely.
When will our doctors learn how to be professional? Won't we ever see a change in our culture? Won't these mishaps taking place in the medical arena of Bangladesh ever come to an end?
Should we treat our patients in this manner? Or should we bring a little change? Who will answer my question? Will it remain a dream or will it ever come to being? It's not only me who wants a change. The 160 million people of Bangladesh want an answer.
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