A teacher and a doctor are the saviours of mankind. The former ennobles the minds and the latter cures the bodies,” writer and Dr A J Cronin’s pithy observation can hardly be repudiated even by the staunchest sceptics and naysayers. In my own case, I’ve seen how doctors have helped me recuperate bodily and mentally by instilling, nay injecting (to use a medical term) courage into my system.
They have enabled me to face the scourge of the Big C. Today, if I’m alive, it’s because of the genuine well wishes of a handful of my friends, well-wishers and scores of selfless doctors who never let me lose hope and brought me out of the unfathomable pit of despair.
I, therefore, have chosen the occasion of Doctors’ Day to pay a tribute to those countless saviours, to whom the lives of their patients are much more important than lucre. Ancient India’s famous doctor, Sushruta, wrote in his treatise Sushruta Samhita: “Ityam chikitsarthe abhibhaavak rugnam aste” (a true doctor/physician is like a parent to his patients). So very true. That proverbial parental touch naturally comes to a doctor like fragrance to flowers. He/she is a patient’s mother/father and the greatest well-wisher.
I remember, while teaching at Islamabad University in Pakistan in December, 2010, I fell unconscious in the classroom. When I regained consciousness, I found myself lying in the hospital bed. I went through a series of tests and seeing my condition a bit complex and doubtful, two doctors from the Islamabad Medical College and Hospital had flown me to Marsden Cancer Hospital in London.
Dr Haroon Abbas and Dr Irfan Qadir accompanied me to London as I was unable to undertake a long flight all by myself. The Medical College bore all my expenses, including the air fare. Those two doctors met their British counterparts at Marsden and apprised them of my condition. And the way the oncologists dealt with my case, shall remain etched in my memory till the wrinkled eve of my life. There is a Greek term in medical science. It’s called ‘Amnopsia’ (art of revealing a dreadful disease to the patient). This comes under medical ethics.
Doctors in the west are taught during their medical studies, how to break the news in a manner that it doesn’t unnerve the patient. This is based on Satyam bruyat priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyampriyam (stating the unpalatable truth in a palatable manner). Sadly, there is no separate paper on this at most of the medical colleges in India barring Vellore’s CMC, AIIMS, Delhi and Calcutta Medical College.
This is of paramount importance as it serves as a catalyst and a cushioning agent. I got to know of my Leukaemia in a roundabout manner and by the time its gravity and seriousness dawned on me, I was mentally prepared to face it. For that, I’ll always be thankful to the doctors who treated me and are still treating me. They gave me, what is known as sangfroid in French.
Money may have corrupted many doctors across the world, but there are still quite a few doctors who follow the exalted values of this extremely noble profession. A couple of doctors at CMC, Vellore (they asked me not to mention their names as they love anonymity) treat their patients free of cost and even bear all their expenses.
Both are unmarried with a cause: To treat the patients with utmost empathy. They conduct free counselling sessions for the recovering patients. This gives immense hope to others and fills the hearts of the patients with a sense of happiness and relevance.
English writer and novelist W Somerset Maugham, who himself was a doctor but never practised, would often say that a doctor must be a patient’s friend, philosopher and guide. In one of his novels, he describes a doctor as ‘person who treats the heart, mind, body and the soul’. British doctor, William Harvey, who worked extensively on blood circulation in the human body, called himself ‘my patient’s alter ego’. A doctor is indeed an extension of his/her patients. May this tribe thrive further for the universal good of mankind.
