Prof Gregory Cheng is the Chief of Haematology in Firm2. He was a victim of the SARS epidemic when our teaching hospital was hit very hard in 2003. I attended his haematology clinci today.
We have seen quite a few cases with haemolytic anaemia, aplastic anaemia, myeloproliferative disease and acute lymphoma. He spent a lot of times between each patient to discuss and teach us about the various aspects of the diseases that we have just seen in the previous patient.
The last patient is an 80 years old gentlement, Mr Wong, with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma, he has got very bad bone pain for 5 years due to the extend of his disease. He wheelchair bound and very weak. He came today with very severe anaemia and a very tired looking body. He has refused any blood taking and any medication except pain-killers. All in all that showed how bad he was managed, nobody has paid any attention towards his pain and to relieve his symptoms, so now he has lost all his hope in living and his trust in doctors.
Prof Cheng has spent 30 minute trying to pursuade Mr Wong for blood transfusion and admission to the hospital for pain management. Mr Wong refused. Prof Cheng has then went on to allow him to have outpatient transfusion in his office and promised Mr Wong a very short hospital stay just to relieve his pain. Mr Womg once again refused. Despite all of Prof Cheng's effort, Mr Wong just wont have anything other than pain-killers, Prof Cheng gave Mr Wong his telephone number so that he can be contacted anytime when Mr Wong wishes to have a tranfusion.
Mr Wong has not wasted any of our time even when he refused all of our treatment, he has shown and reminded us how important is to care for the patient rather than just managing the disease. Prof Cheng has shown us what a good doctor should have done, and he is exactly the kind of teacher that we should have in the medical school.
The whole clinic lasted from 1030 to 1430. It could have ended earlier if Prof Cheng has not spent so much time teaching us and talking to Mr Wong. We were very hungry towards the end of the clinic but I still think it is very worthwhile.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The story about one doctor versus the whole World.
Chip in
關於我
- Marc
- Shatin, Hong Kong
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called For Flickr Badge. Make your own badge here.
1 則留言:
Think about it, probably only Profs have that much time to talk to a patient. Can you imagine a MO who has a hundred patients outside his office and he has to see all of them in a morning? Can he afford the time to explain and care so much for each patient? That is the tradegy in the public section, even if you have the heart, you may not have the power to do that. Unreasonable workload only blunts your affect. Wait until you become a professor than you can be a good doctor maybe.
發佈留言