Yousuf Raza – Do doctors get affected the painloss of their patient

			Sir, I have a little question.
		

			You are very right about the desensitization and
		

			all, but don't you think that it'll affect
		

			the doctor's life too?
		

			Like if they come home and they're still
		

			in that phase of finding the grief and
		

			all, wouldn't it be affecting his life too?
		

			The next day when he goes to the
		

			hospital, I don't think he'll be able to
		

			cope with the situation that well.
		

			Thank you.
		

			Thank you for asking that question.
		

			See, when we as non-doctors
		

			or as medical students, not desensitized yet, when
		

			we attend a funeral or when we are
		

			with a grieving person, we're not as sad.
		

			We are not as broken.
		

			We are not as overwhelmed as they are
		

			naturally, which is why we're in a position
		

			to help them through that time.
		

			One of them may be in shock, not
		

			knowing what to do.
		

			We are sad for them and we may
		

			have known the deceased as well as an
		

			uncle or an auntie or as a friend's
		

			father or mother.
		

			We may have shed a couple of tears
		

			ourselves.
		

			Nevertheless, the degree of emotions is not that
		

			much that we're shocked into like inability to
		

			do anything.
		

			We still can do a whole lot more
		

			than they can in that situation.
		

			We help.
		

			That comes from a place of caring and
		

			concern and not being desensitized.
		

			Bring from that analogy to the medical profession,
		

			will the life of that doctor be affected
		

			as he goes home, as he goes the
		

			next day to his clinic?
		

			To a certain degree, yes.
		

			And it should be.
		

			But if it is to the effect of
		

			rendering them incapable of performing their responsibility of
		

			their duties, then yes, that's a pathology.
		

			But an equal degree of pathology is when
		

			it is not affecting them at all to
		

			the point that they cannot express basic empathy
		

			to their patients.
		

			That they are rude, that they're unethical, there
		

			is illegitimate polypharmacy going on, there's tests that
		

			should not be done that are being done,
		

			that they are passing on the worst news
		

			that the patient has ever heard so casually.
		

			That's a bigger pathology.
		

			Somewhere along, we need to strike a balance.
		

			As a community, we need to be concerned
		

			about, as a community of physicians, a community
		

			of healers, we need to be concerned with
		

			developing that balance.
		

			Because if we're not, then there is something
		

			seriously wrong.
		

			And that's, we're sick.
		

			We're sick.
		

			Entire community of sick doctors, intimately sick.