Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The mad doctor



Some months ago, I went to a polyclinic to see a doctor after falling ill to a bout of stomachache and diarrhoea.

As I entered the consultation room, I saw the bespectacled doctor behind his desk asking me to take a seat and enquiring me on the illness I had. Next he proceeded to check for the symptoms, a part of the routine procedure. I opened my mouth during the process for him to take a look at the throat using his specialized equipment, it was to my surprise and shock when he suddenly grimaced in front of me, raising his voice to me to open my mouth a little bit bigger. The suddenly change of attitude and mood shocked me and it was also an unprofessional conduct coming from a general practitioner. This doctor seemed mad and looked mad.

Few months passed and one day on my way to work, I bumped into the doctor who was walking in the other direction towards my estate. He wore office wear and I presumed that he is now working in a hospital in my estate. This young doctor wore a happy expression on his face and was smiling and talking to himself as he walked. Strange fellow.

For the next few months till today, I will quite regularly see this young doctor on my way to work, always talking and smiling to himself, oblivious to the glances eagle-eyed passer-bys may cast on him. As the self-expression were subtle and made while the doctor was walking, not many people might have notice the doctor’s strange behaviour, but I was conscious of this doctor due to my nasty encounter at his consultation room with him.

I am worried if we leave medical treatments to doctors who may not be mentally sound. It is such a fine boundary between doctors and murderers. When doctors botch up a procedure, overscribe medication for their parents, causing loss of lives, that is when a doctor becomes a murderer. Was the doctor too stressed by his medical studies or work and become mentally unsound? I just hope that the mental illness of this doctor could be either improve and go off or be discovered by his peers or superiors. I definitely do not want a mad doctor to treat me as my life will be at stake.

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