It's The Thought That Matters

... that I will eventually turn into the man that I despise to be. In just a week's time, I have seen how 2 men transform a noble profession that has existed for thousands of years into a selfish and inconsiderate occupation. A week back, I brought a family member who was feeling ill due to a simple case of indigestion to the nearest hospital as he was complaining of how the discomfort was preventing him from falling asleep thus making his life miserable. Concerned, I immediately rushed him there and while the nurse was attending to him, I was paying close attention to how she took down the details and reminded myself that I will be just like her in the near future. After getting the necessary information, she then passed the case to the doctor who was in-charge that night to look into the case and come up with a solution for it. As usual, the patient goes in and complains about his/her problems while the doctor listens attentively while his/her brain constantly works out what probably went wrong in arguably nature's most complex system. I totally get it when the expert starts suggesting that it could be the food, activity or maybe come up with some treatment that involves drugs that I haven't heard of (mind you, I'm still in uni). What I didn't understand that night was when the doctor insisted that my family member should perform a heart test when he's just having indigestion. Look, I know that some bacteria could spread here, there, yada yada yada but if that was the case, we wouldn't be in the outpatient department waiting for you to dispense some more effective painkillers than the general aspirin or panadol. Why can't the donkey just give whatever was needed and stop there and then? Why the extra tests or even medication? Simple. He's probably trying to squeeze every possible coin out of his ailing patient so that he could fill up his pocket and also his bulging stomach. In the end when the receipt was issued to us, the figure at the bottom that was neatly underlined came close to almost 3 meals in the Starhill Gallery and not just any 3 meals, 3 freaking meals in Jogoya without any promotion or discount. That's how much the nincompoop charged us for consultation + the unnecessary test + Gaviscon (which I could have just bought for 30 bucks in Guardian/Caring/Watson's). Now if this incident wasn't enough to tick me off, we'll fast forward to today where my brother got involved in an accident with me sitting beside him. He probably knocked whatever was left of the poor man's balls off the motorcycle when they collided. I haven't seen such a scared look in a man who just got hit. He was instantly checking his limbs, fingers and face even though I kept reassuring him that everything was fine and in place and also insisting that I take him to the nearest clinic to clean up the scratches/scrapes on his hand and a bruise on his face. Thank God that he had his helmet on otherwise it wouldn't be a doctor's consultation that I would have to attend. Anyway, I quickly ushered him into my car and rushed him to any clinic that I could find and fortunately, there was one that opened their doors even on a public holiday. I brought the uncle to the receptionist and told them that it was an emergency for the uncle to be looked at since he just got involved in a collision (his head was lying under someone's front bumper, mind you). I was relieved to see that they immediately got to him before I even took a seat but what happened next really made my blood boil. After they brought the uncle into the consultation room, I chose to sit directly outside where I could see him to see what happens next and how the doctor would handle the case. He just casually strolled in from the other room and took a look at the poor uncle who was still bleeding a little from his hand. As a doctor, no wait, scratch that. As a human being, the first thing that we do when we see an injured fellow is to help him even my friend who isn't doing medicine knows that. Isn't it common sense that you would try to stop the bleeding and also the pain before moving on to further discussion? Not in this numbskull's case. He asked the uncle who brought him to the clinic and when he saw I was sitting outside, he asked if I wanted to give the uncle the "treatment".  Naturally, I was confused when he asked me that because in my mind, there's only one way to handle this case which was to clean his wound, apply some antiseptic and you're already 75-80% done. What's left would probably be to give some antibiotics to prevent an infection and the cream to reapply when it wears off but NO. He had to ask a myriad of questions like what do I have in mind, who was the doctor there, was I the doctor, was he the doctor and all that crap. Why can't he just bloody explain what he's planning to do instead of just telling me that he wants to give the uncle "treatment"? Moreover, he even had the cojones to tell the uncle that I refused any form of medication for him because I questioned what was about to be given. Infuriated, I just agreed to his "treatment" and waited for the uncle to get out of there so that I could settle the bill and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. I swore to myself that I will never patronise that clinic anymore in my life and I vowed to never walk the same path as these two sidekicks. My friend even told me that if he knew that I turned out to be that way, he would jab me in the kisser until I come to my senses and turn the other way. Other than that, I guess I'm just glad that nothing serious happened to that uncle or else I wouldn't be calmly sitting here ranting my heart out.

PS: Jeffrey Archer's Sons of Fortune book is a good one and I would suggest that if you haven't read it, you should (not that I'm paid for any form of advertisement). Till then, good night readers.