Hey Doc, No Hands: Part 3

This patient who did not want an internal examination was not in labor and did not have any clinical complaints too. But she was full term. This was her first pregnancy. I was a professor and head of department then. “Sir, this patient is refusing to get examined. We have to check her pelvic adequacy” my registrar informed me. “OK, I will see her” I told them. I prided myself in being able to perform a gentle examination so that the patients would experience little or no discomfort. I had successfully examined many patients that my residents had found uncooperative. Unfortunately this patient would not allow me to examine her. “Mrs. XXX, I need to see if your birth passage is adequate for delivery of the baby. If it is, you can deliver. If it is not, we have to perform a cesarean section on you. If you do not allow us to examine you, we will not be able to make a decision on the mode of your delivery.” “I don’t want an examination” she said adamantly. When a lot of counseling failed to change her mind, I told my residents to talk to the relatives of the patient when they arrived, and if they too could not talk sense into her, to inform the administrative medical officer and send the patient away. I went home at 4 o’clock. What transpired later was amazing. The relatives came in the visiting hours. They understood the situation, and brought more relatives. They also did not want an internal examination. They accused our doctors of troubling them on religious grounds. It looked like the beginning of a communal riot. One of my registrars was of the same religion as this patient. When she informed them of this fact, they changed their approach. They made our residents call a more senior doctor. So they called my associate professor. He saw that a riot was about to begin. So he touched her abdomen, and gravely declared that a cesarean section was required. The relatives agreed instantly because their honor was saved. The cesarean was uneventful and so was her recovery. We never understood how the woman had got pregnant in the first place if she refused all genital contact by anyone. It must have been a miracle of whichever God she believed in.