Aap bhagwan nahin, doctor hain

Anup received his death sentence in March 2019 The eminent oncologist from a major private hospital took one look at the ultrasound report the bloodwork and the tumour clearly visible in the CT scan and pronounced his diagnosis ldquoI can say with 995 per cent certainty that you have pancreatic cancer You have about three months left if we donrsquot take it outrdquoAlready diabetic Anup first realised something was amiss when his urine remained consistently dark yellow His total bilirubin count was 202 mgdl against a normal between 01 and 12 mgdlThe oncologist recommended the Whipple procedure a complicated rare and highrisk surgery for removing pancreatic tumours Because the pancreas is buried behind several other organs the Whipple procedure involves first removing the gallbladder then parts of the small intestine the bile duct and a portion of the stomach to finally reach and remove the tumourThe procedure is rife with risk and life afterwards is usually wretched full of cautions precautions and restrictionsIn Anuprsquos case to get the bile moving again they first put in a biliary stent using a noninvasive endoscopic procedure While at it they took five samples from near the tumour for biopsyThe results were a surprisemdashthey could find no cancer The oncologist brushing aside the results as sloppy began calling Anuprsquos wife pressing her to convince her husband to go in for the Whipple procedureldquoThat struck me as unusualrdquo says Anup ldquoDoctors donrsquot usually call patientsrdquoHe began to suspect that the oncologist was more interested in performing the Whipple procedure than in curing him Pancreatic cancer is one of the rarer cancers ranking 14th in incidence and 7th in mortality worldwide In India it ranks 24th among cancers with 10860 new cases in 2018 and 18th in mortality The cancerrsquos incidence is about 81 cases for every crore IndiansOver the next three months the lab performed biopsies on five more samples and then five yet again for a total of 15 There was still no sign that Anup had pancreatic cancer Meanwhile the tumour began to shrink on its own eventually disappearing entirelyThe oncologist clearly disappointed that there was no cancer to cure pronounced Anup a lucky man and changed the diagnosis to ldquochronic pancreatitisrdquoAnup is indeed lucky Hersquos still alive five years later because he survived a close encounter with a corporate doctorIn the age of privatised medicine we routinely place our lives in the hands of corporatised doctors young and ambitious professionals who go by lab reports rather than their own instincts Highly trained and clinically cold they have replaced that extinct warmhearted tribe known as family doctors for whom healing was a scientific but compassionate calling Their eyes ears and fingers told them more about the patient than lab reports These were the healers immortalised in Bollywood film dialogues with lines such as Aap doctor nahin aap bhagwan hainToday those gods have gone For the majority of todayrsquos physicians employed in private hospitals saving lives is a corporate goal to be achieved through a battery of hightech often costly laboratory tests In this new world patients are warm bodies anatomically identical Medical expertise is standardised and interchangeable and one doctor is just as good as any other After all if medicine is a science any practitioner should reach the same diagnosis and prescriptions based on the lab test reports RightWrongMy life has been saved over and over not by high technology but by sensitive caring doctors who combined science and wisdom with intuition believing that their job was to help their patients live well and eventually die wellThe following tips for recognising such a doctor may one day save your life1 Donrsquot be subservient Todayrsquos doctors are neither gods nor your bodyrsquos overseers Google the diagnosis thoroughly Upload your lab reports to an AI like ChatGPT and ask it to reinterpret the results in plain language2 Be shameless Get a second and even a third opinion because different doctors have different opinions3 Listen to your body Even experts can make mistakes and errors in judgement My longtime doctor a brilliant sensitive and caring healer did some tests on my heart and told me an angiogram was unnecessary But my body thought it did so I insisted The resulting angiogram found two 90 per cent blockages4 Put your faith in the doctor who occasionally tells you to let your body heal itself rather than rush to prescribe pills5 Donrsquot let technology awe you A private hospital wanted to replace my frozen shoulder rotator cuff with titanium A Chinese chiropractor used acupressure to restore me fully in a onehour sessionAbove all remember itrsquos your body and your risk When my father needed spinal surgery and the doctor told him ldquoYoursquore an old man I canrsquot take the riskrdquo he called him outldquoWhat risk are you taking sirrdquo my father asked him ldquoYoursquore worried about risking your reputation But itrsquos my life not yours I will decide what risks to takerdquoYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper