She was a thin and frail woman. She had come to our outpatient clinic for minor gynecologic complaints. She probably did not have a serious problem, judging by her symptoms. But still she was anxious. That was possibly because she had no way of knowing the gravity of her problem. The nurse gave her position for an examination.
“Doctor, do you change gloves after examining one patient before examining the next patient?” she asked me when I approached her for an examination.
I was surprised. No one had asked me this question before. I had never thought that using a fresh glove for each patient could have any alternatives. She was not just anxious, but terrified.
“Yes, we do” I assured her. She then got examined, diagnosed and treated. She went away happy.
When I narrated this story to a few colleagues, they were not as surprised as I was at her question.
“We had that professor, who went on to win the prestigious ‘Dhanxxxxxri” award for his contributions to gynecology. He used to examine all patients in the outpatient clinic with the same glove” one person said.
“Was there an acute shortage of examination gloves?” someone asked.
“No! He did that deliberately.”
I was surprised at that. “That would transmit infections from patient to patient” I said.
“He must have known that. But still he did what he did. The patient must have heard of such practices.”
“No one stopped him?”
“Honorary doctors used to be like God in those days. Who would dare to correct the honorary head of unit?”
“We had a unit head who examined patients without gloves” another person said.
“Huh?”
“Yes.”
That sounded reckless too. Not only did that person infect patients since his hands would not be sterile ever, but he was exposing himself to the risk of getting infections from patients.
“We should stop such practices” I said.
“Nobody does such things any more, Sir. These stories are from the past.”
“Hm…” I said.
