Laboratory investigations are so everyday ordinary things that one cannot imagine they can have anything to do with human thoughts, emotions, or attitudes. Well, one would be wrong to do so.
I recall one resident doctor, having qualified and gone away from our hospital, who had substituted the cerebrospinal fluid report of a sick newborn baby with pyogenic meningitis with a normal one. Fortunately the boss had a feeling that the baby had pyogenic meningitis, even if the report was normal. SO she checked with the laboratory and found the real report. The resident doctor had doctored the report so that she would not have to work hard treating the baby. The baby went home fine, and the resident doctor did not repeat this after being reprimanded.
There was another resident doctor, a kind person, who had substituted a hemogram report showing leucocytosis with a normal report. Fortunately there was another report which showed leucocytosis. When asked the reason for doing so, she said the patient wanted to undergo a sterilization operation very badly, and would not have been fit for surgery if the leucocytosis was noticed by the anesthetists. When explained that the idea was not to do something the patient wanted, but to treat her as her medical condition demanded, she promised to not repeat performance. She stuck to her word.
Then there is the story of a resident doctor who claimed her Registrar was torturing her. One of the alleged methods of torture was that the Registrar would keep patients in her ward longer than necessary and would ask her to get laboratory tests which were complicated, so that she would have to do extra work.
I think there will be interesting stories related to the most drab things, as long as they are related to human beings.
I recall one resident doctor, having qualified and gone away from our hospital, who had substituted the cerebrospinal fluid report of a sick newborn baby with pyogenic meningitis with a normal one. Fortunately the boss had a feeling that the baby had pyogenic meningitis, even if the report was normal. SO she checked with the laboratory and found the real report. The resident doctor had doctored the report so that she would not have to work hard treating the baby. The baby went home fine, and the resident doctor did not repeat this after being reprimanded.
There was another resident doctor, a kind person, who had substituted a hemogram report showing leucocytosis with a normal report. Fortunately there was another report which showed leucocytosis. When asked the reason for doing so, she said the patient wanted to undergo a sterilization operation very badly, and would not have been fit for surgery if the leucocytosis was noticed by the anesthetists. When explained that the idea was not to do something the patient wanted, but to treat her as her medical condition demanded, she promised to not repeat performance. She stuck to her word.
Then there is the story of a resident doctor who claimed her Registrar was torturing her. One of the alleged methods of torture was that the Registrar would keep patients in her ward longer than necessary and would ask her to get laboratory tests which were complicated, so that she would have to do extra work.
I think there will be interesting stories related to the most drab things, as long as they are related to human beings.
