First do no harm

But it’s okay to humiliate and ridicule? This warped version of a doctor’s Hippocratic oath is probably the one sworn to by the team of surgeons and nurses operating on a poor, helpless patient in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, unfortunately, right here in Cebu. They videotaped an ongoing surgical procedure on a patient, and laughed and cheered after a can of body spray was finally removed from the patient’s rectum.

How it got there is not the issue. Besides, the patient had already paid dearly for his “lifestyle” because of the incident. Clearly the issue here is the conduct of the operating team, who were not content in just keeping the “funny case” to themselves, but even uploaded the said video of the canister extraction from the unknowing patient’s rectum on YouTube for the whole world to see. YouTube guarantees the complete humiliation of the patient, not to mention a possible lifetime stigma on himself. So much for these self-proclaimed honorable medical professionals with Messianic complexes who probably think they are God’s gift to humanity and are above scrutiny when they commit mistakes and, in this case, a possible crime.

This is exactly why we need legislation that governs the specific and peculiar relationship between patients and their doctors. It is a relationship like none other — where the patient, in most instances, surrenders himself entirely to the decisions and discretions of the physician. Aside from the thousands of cases already documented of injurious and fatal results of medical negligence, malpractice today — because of this incident at the Sotto Hospital — now clearly exhibits to the public that it includes such unacceptable behavior which clearly tramples on the rights of the patient. There have been numerous reports since the 70’s about doctors — even from prominent institutions — making fun of patients, gossiping about patients’ conditions and revealing otherwise classified information about the condition and prognosis on prominent personalities.

The former medical Malpractice Bill, shelved for more than a decade in Congress because too many doctors and hospital owners end up as Congressmen, was resurrected because of the unrelenting efforts of the People’s Health Watch group. PHW was founded and is most active in Cebu. I founded its Metro Manila Chapter. Together with victims of negligence we have gone as far as push for a new bill to be filed and adopted in Congress. While some Congressmen and Senators have pushed for a watered down version of the former bill – and that this was our way to compromise just to start on an information campaign on Patients’ Rights — today’s committee chairman in the House and Senate, evidently, have not made Patients’ Rights their priority.

Because legislation is taking too long, a parallel effort between the Philippine Medical Association and the People’s Health Watch has been forged in drafting a Memorandum of Agreement on the basics of Patient’s Rights. We are currently on this. Still, malpractice proliferates and many, many doctors are still as arrogant and resistant to discipline —— something long ago identified and addressed in First World Countries.

The present set of laws on reckless imprudence resulting to injury or homicide is definitely insufficient in protecting us from these erring medical and allied medical professionals, who believe that everything they do are beyond question and scrutiny. When a patient comes to a doctor, and consents to a surgical procedure, however simple, he puts his complete trust on the doctor to treat him with the highest level of professionalism. After all, we’re not talking of a contractor fixing a ceiling, or a plumber fixing a leak, a cab driver driving a passenger in his taxi. We’re talking of a person in some form of pain, seeking relief if not cure. Not to be humiliated and ridiculed by the very people he has put his trust in. So why do we use the same law governing cab drivers and contractors for medical practitioners?

 Do we now require that relatives of patients be present in the operating room, if only to make sure that their loved ones are not treated the way these monsters with medical degrees treated this patient in Cebu? I guess we should. And to think this is but one incident that has found its way to media. Who knows just how many have perpetrated similar acts of cruelty to countless patients all over the country? At a time when you are most vulnerable, these “professionals” decide to play with your body, play with your soul. This is unacceptable. This is unforgivable.

Many doctors believe we do not need additional legislation against doctors. This incident only proves otherwise. The offending surgical team should be stripped of their licenses. They have no business being a part of this once noble profession. They have to be removed, if only to salvage what is left of being a true healer, and not a paparazzi clothed in scrubs.