A man is known by the company he keeps, in the medical profession, the doctor is known by the quality of the stethoscope he/she carries. It is a symbol of healing power, a confidence provider and a versatile style item. Put it in the pocket of your doctor’s white coat, wrap it kind of stylishly around your throat, and stride along the patients’ wards and save their lives. Haven’t you seen enough of this in Hindi films?
A stethoscope in many ways is an iconic item of the doctor’s kit. As a major item in the children’s medical kit, it shares top honours with surgery equipment, thermometers, injection needles and so on. When we go for shopping for toys for our three-year-old granddaughter, the doctors’ kit, which is updated frequently, shows a new display of medical toys. And it is the same stethoscope which the family doctor uses to examine the senior patients at home.
It is partly ornamental, partly professional and conveys a sense of dignity. Coming back to Hindi films, be it examining a girl patient by studying her pulse or just feeling her back and chest, the doctor comes out with the stunning verdict, “Yeh ladki maa bannewali hain”(This girl is going to become a mother). Dr Manoj Kumar (of the Hindi screen) goes a bit further. With just another stethoscope around his neck, he feels the patient’s pulse and comes out with the deadly diagnosis ranging from Adenoids to lymphosarcoma of the intestines leading to immediate surgery. What would the medical profession have done without the stethoscope?
Unless the BJP sarkar comes out with the startling discovery at the next Science Congress that the stethoscope was invented by rishis while performing the ‘Putrakhameshti’ yagna at the banks of the Ganga river, we can accept the western concept of the stethoscope which states that it came about from a French medical man Rene Laennec in 1816 who did not like to bend down and listen to sounds emanating from the chests of his patients. Major developments followed and a new brand of stethoscope followed in the 1940s, the brainchild of Rappaport and Sprague, satisfying the needs of doctors and patients. The new model displayed two sides- one for studying cardio-vascular diseases and the other for respiratory diseases. Further improvements made it a handy tool.
Lady doctors felt that while examining females, male doctors enjoyed certain strategic and anatomical advantages. No solution has been found to eliminate stethoscope from medical science. The iconic stethoscope can never be dead!
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