Abuse in the Ward - Medical Student Experience
Abuse comes in all places. It's easy to abuse people who are somehow weak, therefore it shouldn't be surprising that people get the abuse from doctors and nurses.
I am a medical student. In my environment, patients abuse almost never happens, though it happened in my hometown where patients complain a lot about maltreatment by doctors and nurses.
Maybe in small towns mentality is different, maybe there is too much ignorance and fear. My granny got sick, she got cancer, and twenty years later she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She has been treated by this doctor for years, who is the only available doctor in town, so even if this person is not nice most people must keep their mouth shut for fear of not being taken care of.
I had to discover for myself how bad and abusive this person really is.
Being a medical student I have the right to take a look at all the paperwork regarding my granny, everybody, should be allowed to take a look at medical reports regarding them self, therefore having my grandmother consent I should be able to reach all the information I need about my granny.
I was never allowed to take a look at the data for myself, I was allowed to have a small conversation with the doctor.
The first time I talked to him he was brief, and quite cold I must say.
The second and last time I ever spoke to him was a few months later when I told him my granny was in pain and needed a stronger medication. He reacted very badly, extremely arrogant and rude, and he nearly screamed my head off. Quite frankly I hadn't planned such a reaction and didn't answer back. End of story.
His reaction made my paranoid mind wonder if he had something to hide since he made clear that he didn't like displaying medical information.
My grandmother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and nearly twenty years later she has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctor said it was a new cancer and not a metastatic cancer and therefore treated it as lung cancer.
I was never allowed to take a look at the clinical records he so jealously kept in his ward, I peeked through the papers and the FNAB paper said: "Malignant cells" not specifying the cancer type.
Was it lung cancer? I have doubts at this point.
What if it wasn't?
Please help.
Thanks a lot.
I'm real sorry to hear about the situation in your town. I hope you are able to change things now that you are a medical student (future doctor) and help your fellow citizens overcome this egotistical doctor.
Good luck and let us know what happens.