“Vaidyo Narayano Hari.” Our culture places physicians in an exalted position. Between this status and that of a professional to the core, we come across a blend of humanistic and patient-centred doctors.
When I had fever for three days, I visited a doctor near my apartment. He diagnosed it as paratyphoid and put me on a course of medicines. Out of curiosity, I read the instructions of the drug manufacturer in fine print. Scared by the instruction that the medicine should be administered after blood test and further tests during the course of fever, I stormed into the consulting room and asked the doctor the reason for skipping the test. He smilingly asked me, “Do you want to get cured or the blood tests?” I was bowled over by his confidence. I got cured. Knowing that I play bridge, he invited me to his Sunday pastime, a break from his week-long practice. I enjoyed the coffee he brewed and his wit and learned to play bridge better.
Our patient-doctor relationship took the backstage.
In my job in a manufacturing organisation, the medical officer had an infectious smile. Asked about the secret of his demeanour, he would simply say, “Do not be serious always.” I told him my health problem. While the world over people are finding it difficult to lose weight, I found it next to impossible to do the opposite. Listening to all the methods I had tried and failed, he suggested a different technique.
When this also did not work, he confided, “You are perfectly right to listen to your wife on all matters. But on this you simply disagree. Your health is good.” We used to conduct training for employees with a talk on “Health and managing stress”. After the talk, the doctor advised all participants, “Whenever you go on a holiday, make it a point not to lodge in company resorts.”
He explained, “When you are lodging in company resort, the talk will be about the company, the bottom line, who got promoted and who missed. You will get back home more stressed.”
I once decided to consult an Ayurvedic practitioner in his eighties, a physician very methodical in physical examination and recording symptoms.
Spirit of the Vedas
He knew the Ayurvedic texts in Sanskrit, would quote them and explain the treatment. Knowing my interest in the Vedas, he would ask me to join him in reciting a few lines related to health.
He would make the formulations himself, telling me, “I am not giving you drugs. These are food supplements to detox and revitalise your immune system. These are specific for you and not the disease.” Even when leaving his clinic, I used to feel getting cured. Fortunately, the world has many such medical practitioners. Long live their tribe.
lakshmibashyam@yahoo.com
