Showing a little heart would not have hurt that learned doc

Reading The Sunday Times of July 22, I came across the article titled ‘Medics who’ve done it all’. I worked as a nurse for 36 years and am now in retirement. I am really proud of these medics who are doing well in Sri Lanka as well as around the world.

As I was reading the article, I could not help but remember a particular unpleasant incident which took place some time back in the 1980’s in one of the biggest medical institutions in the Central Province. The incident concerned a doctor whose name was also in that article and who is still in practice.

A distant relative of my husband was transferred from Badulla General Hospital for an urgent surgery of a broken upper limb. This patient was admitted to the special unit where only broken parts of the body are attended to, not to the general surgical ward. The patient had been seen by this doctor and given a date for surgery. The patient was severely incapacitated and undergoing excruciating pain.

Consequently, I approached the doctor, pleaded with him to consider the patient’s case and give him an earlier time for the surgery. I was quite dissatisfied at his callous attitude. He point blank refused to even consider the case on account of the patient’s serious discomfort.

I am no doctor, but I am a fully qualified nursing officer who has a modest capability of assessing a patient's condition with reasonable accuracy. After all these years the question which still lingers at the back of my mind is would it have been beneath him to show some heart and pay heed on humanitarian grounds and offer some remedy?

I wish these honoured medics of the 1962 batch a comfortable retirement.

By Mrs. A.I. Marikar, Kandy.