Monday, 14 May 2018

The Poor Prognosis Sign

Please Note: This article is intended only for Doctors and medical undergraduate and post-graduate students. Non-Medicos please do not read this article.

In trauma patients with severe injury where chances of survival are bleak, it is essential to get the fact across to the patient. Since the trauma occurs unexpectedly usually in a fit person, the fact that death can occur sometimes does not register in the shocked mind of relatives.

Even if the treating doctor conveys the fact, if death does occur, the relatives sometimes blame the treating doctor. They allege if the doctors had told them clearly that there was a risk of death in their patient, they would have taken the patient to some other center / hospital for better treatment.

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) met with his friend, Dr. Dharamraj Agarwal, (Fictional Name) a prominent Neurosurgeon, of the city and asked about this problem as he routinely sees many serious cases of Head Injuries with a high death rate.

Dr. Dharamraj said, “In serious cases, I keep on explaining to the relatives that there is the real risk of their patient dying till I know that they have clearly understood this fact.”

“There lies the problem,” said Dr. Dev. “How do you know that the relatives have clearly understood the risk of dying of their patient?” asked Dr. Dev.

Dr. Dharamraj replied, “I just keep on explaining repeatedly until one or two relatives start crying.” “This is one indicator that the poor prognosis has been clearly understood by the relatives. If the attendants do not exhibit appropriate signs, I keep on hammering the facts till it hit home.”

 (Based on true incident)
— ND
© Author. All rights reserved. 

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

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