Thursday, August 11, 2005

This is not an attempt to defend the doctor who handled Goyong's son and I am not saying too that there wasn't any negligence; maybe there was but I am not in the position to say that because I do not know the case and I wasn't there when it happenned. What I am saying here is just based on what MY REACTIONS are to the facts that I do know based on Goyong's posts in his blog and his comments.

As I mentioned, dengue is really a traitor. In a published study, it has been said that it "is among the most dramatic events in clinical medicine". This is because the course of the disease is just that - dramatic. A patient can be fine at this very minute then in a matter of 5 minutes, he can go into shock. There is no "de kahon" treatment for dengue, meaning, it is a case to case basis. When I was still on training, our mentors always reminded us to treat the patient not the laboratory exam results. You see, a patient can have a platelet count of 5,000 but if he is not bleeding and if his other vital signs and laboratory exams are okay, then there is no need for transfusion; while in some cases, a patient will be needing transfusion already with a platelet of 100 (which is actually still acceptable) because he is already bleeding and already have a low blood pressure for his age. So the treatment of one case will not be the same as the treatment for another case. Also, every doctor has his own "style" of treatment, a case can be treated differently by two doctors. To each his own kung baga. This is because one doctor may have seen something that the other doctor didn't OR one doctor maybe thinking of something that the other doctor is not thinking of. Our books will only teach us the principles of medicine but in real practice, what we learned from our books is very much different from what we see in our clinics everyday. That is why sometimes we do commit mistakes and that is also why medicine is an ever changing science.

To Sir Goyong, thank you for sharing your story with us. This will be a reminder for me to strengthen my commitment to give the best care to my patients. I just hope that one day soon, your memories of your son will be that of the happy times you had together not the bitter circumstances of his loss. God bless you and your whole family!