Index title: EESTONILO’s MAR (01-06)

MAR Title: Empathy

Date of Medical observation: May 2003

Narration: 

How do we delient empathy from sympathy?....sympathy in simple term is feeling sorry for others pain, empathy on the other hand is actually feeling others pain as well. Why did I differentiate these terms? Simply because this 2 terms separate us as a human being among other creations…Simply because we are just like any human being. 

As a fresh  doctor I was once tested with a patient who I should admit, I could have jeopardize if not time was on my side that night..I was having a  jam packed ER duty then, when a 15 year  old came in complaining of chest pain,in my mind i was thinkng more of a psychosomatic chestpain, so  my initial act was to give her oxygen, At the back of my mind thinking she would be okay in a few minutes. Then I attended to my other patients… a few minutes after, the young man’s father caught my attention  and to my surprise my patient was already in distress, I took his ECG and I was dumbfounded to see spiking ST segments and widening of his QRS…    

So, I immediately hooked her with D5W,an managed her as a case of myocardial infarction, after which I referred her to my consultant, and told me that she might be suffering from myocarditis.I then took a better history of my patient , a day prior to the consult he had a flu like symptoms , and DOB was intermittently experienced..to sum it up my patient is in CHF… 

Guilt overwhelmed me then,  if  only I took time to feel his pain  and  emphatized, and took him seriously, I could have prevented further assault to his condition…of course Im no God, but it is a different  story If  I have asserted all possible efforts. 

Insights: (Physical,Psychosocial,Ethical)  (Discovery,Reinforcement, Stimulus) 

I learned my lesson the hard way, that is I should consider every symptoms of my patient seriously…and take them as if my own, in that way I may not take any subjective complaint for granted…Being a doctor is indeed a tricky and taught calling, we often are caught between being objective and being humane at the same time. Maybe the best way to solve this dilemma is simply combining the 2 elements together, because  being good theoretically and clinically  is not equivalent to being a good doctor,   a vital factor of  feeling and embracing each signs and symptoms erasing any doubt that it is real to our patients is how to deal with it as a whole. It may be time consuming, but I don’t think we have so much to loose  instead more to gain if we take time , emphatize… ..then analyze.  

Let me end by quoting a challenging phrase by Edward E. Hale from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul:

 “ I am only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”