The Anesthesiologist, the Surgeon, the medical team and Respect.

          Respect - The Essential Ingredient.

          In a recent legal action a man in Virginia was awarded half a million dollars after being ridiculed and insulted by a forty-two year old anesthesiologist and her associates. The man recorded the incident while being prepared for the procedure, apparently to make sure he had the doctor's instructions recorded.  It appears he left his phone running and found he had captured the entire conversation, including that which took place whilst he was anesthetized, during the procedure.  Apparently, soon after he was asleep, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Tiffany Ingham,said to the anesthetized patient, "after talking to you for five minutes in pre-op, I wanted to punch you in the face and 'man' you up a little bit."  When an assistant noticed  the patient had a rash, the anesthesiologist told her not to touch it saying she might get syphilis on her arm.  Then she added, "It's probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you'll be alright."   Other medical personnel added similar derogatory remarks.  The whole recording is available on the net. 

          I have no doubt that some will regard this as typical of many physicians and tar us all with the same brush.   That is far from the truth and these few rotten apples do inestimable damage, to what for the most part has been a noble and caring profession.  Because they betray the trust of their patients and debase the profession, they need to be dealt with most severely and certainly should not have free reign to practice unsupervised medicine for a very long time.  A penalty, probably totally paid for by malpractice insurance, ends up by upping the premiums for the good guys and letting these miscreants off with little penalty.   It surprises me that our admission policies, our four years of undergraduate medical training and several years of post-graduate training does not enable us to cure or expel such individuals from the system.  But as most of us who have been in the medical educational system for any length of time know, once a student gets in to the system it is almost impossible to get him out without an M.D. after his name.  

          It was not always thus.