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When the Patient’s Family Refuses Care
Gaitonde, Rakhal Gopichandran, Vijay
Gaitonde, Rakhal
Gopichandran, Vijay
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n194cs250.pdf
Adobe PDF, 73.66 KB
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"It did not need much expertise to diagnose an acute abdomen in Velu and to know that he needed immediate referral. To our mind, only a surgeon’s scalpel could have set the problem right. At the very least he needed to be seen by a surgeon and possibly get an ultrasound scan to rule out any dangerous complication. But this did not happen and Velu was taken home. While the four pillars of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice are useful to guide us in most of our clinical practice situations, there are gray areas such as these where the practice of ethics becomes fluid. Had Velu not belonged to a marginalised community, with its own reservations and apprehensions about modern healthcare, this situation may not have arisen. We visited Velu at his home the same evening. A faith healer had been summoned and after her ministrations, the young man had made a dramatic recovery. This made us wonder if this had been a self-limiting form of acute abdomen, an exaggerated response to some form of milder abdominal condition, or whether it was truly a paranormal healing experience. The next day Velu walked into the clinic and thanked us for our care."(pg 248)
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2011-10
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With permission of the license/copyright holder