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medpundit |
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Friday, April 04, 2003"One of the questions doctors ask themselves is, 'Did I kill this patient?' This is one of the most profound human experiences you can have, especially when you try to do good. For many of these people, it takes years to process this psychologically." Some leave their professions after such traumatic experiences. Charles says the physicians involved in errors often do not seek counseling. But many develop depression and sometimes post-traumatic stress disorder. In a report in the early 1990s, The Heart of Darkness: The Impact of Perceived Mistakes on Physicians, doctors described their emotions as angry, agonized, appalled, worried, guilty, fearful, embarrassed and humiliated. They have no place to turn, Barach says. It's hard to escape those feelings even whenever there's a bad outcome - even if no mistake has been made. Every decision has its consequence - and sometimes those consequences aren’t what we expected. An antibiotic could cause a fatal allergic reaction. What looks like gallstones from every aspect defies all expectations and turns out to be a heart attack. Or maybe the one question that would have yielded the one vital piece of information to provide the correct diagnosis didn’t get asked. Even when we do everything right, patients die. Yet, most of us, in those circumstances, still question ourselves. Wondering if we overlooked something that another doctor wouldn't have missed. It's tough trying to be perfect in an imperfect world. (Thanks again to Howard Feinberg) posted by Sydney on 4/04/2003 08:47:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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