Let's assume you're a damn good cancer specialist.
A patient comes to you, needing your expertise.
She is the wife of a guy running for the office of President of the United States.
He happens to have become a multi-millionaire by suing Doctors for malpractice.
What do you do?
Is your dance ticket filled?
Hat tip- Kevin, M.D.
2 comments:
"Well, Mrs. Candidate-of-the-Moment, it would appear that your cancer has recurred. At this point, you have between one and fifteen years left. Would you like to aggressively treat it, or let it run it's course?"
Notice that if she dies in a year, treated or not, the doc is seen as 'heroic' - if she lives, whether treated or not, the doc is even more heroic. It's a no-lose for the doc.
Just one of them many interesting dilemmas that await me in medicine. From a professional standpoint, I would treat her if she desired treatment. But I would tell her up front that I was uncomfortable with helping the wife of a malpractice lawyer and I would make her and her husband sign about 10 different waivers. Hopefully, they'd make the intelligent choice and seek out another doctor.
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