What’s an ant in the ear got to do with an E.C.G.?

Today you go to any doctor for treatment, the first thing they do is to send you to get all types of tests done. They give you a slip of paper with their name on it and the necessary tests to be taken. I wonder if most of these tests are really necessary, but who cares how the poor patient finds the money to pay for it, apart from the fees the doctor charges.

Gone are the days when the doctors cared about the sick. I am not saying that there are no selfless men and women in this profession, but it is rarely that you would come across such persons. Recently, I took my wife in the early hours of the morning to one of these medical centres, as an insect had got into her ear and she was in great pain. The first thing that the doctor on duty wanted done was an E.C.G. Then, when I explained to her that it was her ear that needs to be looked into, she very reluctantly got some instrument and after one glance she said, “No, there was nothing to be seen”.

In disgust, we went to the Kalubowila Hospital. We were taken to the E.N.T. ward and the doctor there looked into her ear and said these very words: “There is a small kumbiya (ant) inside.” They asked me to come in the morning and kept my wife back, and the ant was taken out by that time.

An E.C.G., had I got it done, would have cost Rs. 400. I wonder, considering the number of patients who come to this clinic daily, how many of them are asked to do an E.C.G?

By Noel D. Rex, Nugegoda.