Placing your complete trust in your doctor means you’re giving up your responsibility of paying attention to your care. Over all, this is true, but there are times when complete trust; however uncomfortable, has to be given. We have to submit to doctors for medical procedures, for example.
I must say, I was extremely uncomfortable when I had my abdominal surgery on Friday afternoon. Knowing the doctors were interested in getting my procedure completed so they could take the rest of the day off played havoc on my courage.
I came to realize how serious it can be for doctors to make mistakes, and that they can (in fact) make mistakes when I almost bled to death two summers ago.
I had a procedure where the doctor was sticking a needle/catheter into the space between my lungs and the pleural membrane to drain fluid.
That doctor managed to slice an artery, and I lost 5 or 6 units of blood into my chest cavity.
I remember being nervous about letting the doctor do this free-handed, but I let him since I am a veteran of many successful medical procedures involving getting stuck with needles.
So, after the procedure was over, I remember going back to my room for a few minutes, then I was …. Lets just say “out of it”.
So you see, I am very weary of doctors now! They can and do make mistakes. This doesn’t mean I don’t submit to their expertise, it means I do it much more hesitantly.
I now ask the doctor questions to calm my apprehension:
1. Is the procedure necessary ?
2. What can go wrong?
3. Are you prepared if the thing that could go wrong, does go wrong?
4. Have you done this procedure before? If so, how many?
5. How many?
I’ve had to place my trust in doctors again, but I did so with much more of an awareness to their fallibility. This fallibility apples to medication errors as well.
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