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perception
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doctors...
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My perception of doctors and healthcare in general is that in the developed western countries they tend to be extremely well equipped with all sorts of equipment to turn you inside out and display every atom on a computer, but there appears to be a distinct lack of 'hands-on' experience. From Selma's stories and experiences I've learned that the doctors there learn from experience gained by feeling, seeing and hearing rather than interpreting what is on the computer display. While the latter has advantages in some areas, it has disadvantages in others.
Doctors in areas where there isn't much money for expensive MRI or CAT equipment learn from a more hands-on approach where they feel carefully to determine if something's amiss. The more experienced doctors who treated Selma years ago needed only to poke and prod here and there to determine problems with the kidneys, infections here and there and more of such problems that doctors here required a complete range of laboratory blood tests for.
For example, doctors here made x-ray pictures of Selma's a
nkle and declared nothing was wrong. Ukrainian doctors merely touched the ankle here and there to make a diagnosis. The ankle had been broken, the x-ray pictures should have clearly shown this, but the doctors didn't see it.
My boss broke a cap on his thumb that keeps the thumb in place. It was painful and the doctors had x-ray pictures taken. They claimed that it was just a bruise, nothing more. After considerable pain and a year later, he went to see a doctor who looked at his x-rays from a year ago and found that it was very clearly broken. To me that indicates a distinct lack in experience with reading x-ray pictures. So much for all that technology. In any case, with surgery and a titanium cap everything's fine now.
Besides that difference in equipment and working methods there is the problem of bureaucracy in the netherlands. Bureaucracy and plain old "i don't give a damn about your problems"-attitude that has been increasing over the years. Nowadays when you walk into a hospital expecting treatment don't expect to be rushed into a operation room. Instead, they'll just be like "hey why don't you bleed over at the reception, they'll tell you where to go". First they'll assess how dangerous it all is and if you're lucky they'll help you fast enough to prevent you from dying. You could be sitting there with 2 broken legs for over 4 hours and nobody would think it strange.
And then there's the problems of doctors downplaying patients' symptoms. I understand that because our population is comprised more and more of older people that they may get flooded by their complaining about their aches and pains and stuff, but that doesn't explain the callousness of downplaying a serious problem to a level where they basically tell you "you suck, buck up, take an aspirine, it's all in your head" and then a day later you're dead or dying.
So yeah.. lots of room for improvement. Perhaps Selma should go to that medical resort in Thailand or Taiwan or whatever. Apparently the most advanced hospital in the world with the latest and greatest in methods of helping patients.
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(VISITOR) AUTHOR'S NAME
NovaFlash
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
31 july 2008, 00:21:26
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
85.146.160.235
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