sdWhy You Treat Me Like a Dog?: April 2006 .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
 
Does Doctor Mengele Live On?
Another medical school interview story - this one relates to Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) which is today.

I was interviewing at Loyola Medical School in Chicago (not the same Jesuit school I have posted about previously). My interviewer was an elderly, white-haired physician, very nice, and very Jesuit (whatever that means...). After exchanging pleasantaries and going over my application, he told me he wanted to ask me an ethical question. It turned out that during World War II, this physician had been part of the U.S. Army force that liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. One of the horrifying stories of the Shoah are the medical experiments conducted by the Nazi "doctors" on the concentration camp inmates.

The Loyola interviewer had a very simple question for me. He wanted to know what I thought should be done with the "research" conducted by the Nazi doctors. Should the data, which in typical Nazi form was carefully and judiciously acquired and recorded, now be used? From a purely detached scientific point of view, much of it was impeccable.

I paused for a moment and thought.

I replied that I didn't think the data should be used in any way, shape, or form as it was not acquired ethically and therefore not valid. To use it would be tantamount to accepting it,and thus validating the methods by which it was acquired. He seemed satisfied with my answer. A week later I was accepted to Loyola (but ended up going elsewhere).

Fast forward twenty years to a conversation I had last week. One of our employees, Jose, a twenty-something year old gentleman who is responsible for recruiting patients for some of the drug company studies we do, was joking with me about a protocol we were starting. We were trying to recruit a 53 year old patient for a study that has a minimum age of 55. I jokingly suggested that we lie about his age, and Jose said that it would be unethical to do so.

His response reminded me of my interview at Loyola, so I decided to pose the same question to him. He too paused and thought about it for a moment. His response was that we should in fact use the data, as it had already been acquired and maybe some good could come of it that way. I told him I disagreed with him, but that I understood his way of thinking.

Yesterday, Jose came to me and told me he had been thinking about the question I asked him. He told me that it bothered him over the weekend, and that he had posed the same question to some of his friends. He said they responded in the same way he did, but that they also understood where I was coming from.

I have always liked Jose, and in particular because he is thoughtful and smart. It has taken many years for many Jews to be able to bring themselves to visit Germany, to buy German products and to forgive in some ways. While I can understand a point of view that seeks to find good where all there is is evil, in my eyes, some things are just not forgiveable.

After World War II and the Nazi doctors' atrocities became clear, the World Medical Association issued the Declaration of Geneva. Recognizing the limitations of the Hippocratic oath, the Geneva Declaration specifically reminds physicians of their responsibilities to humanity:

I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed,
ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual
orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty
and my patient;
I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life;
I WILL NOT USE my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity, even under threat;

As I continue to think about Jose's response to the Loyola interviewer's question, I submit it to you my (few, but proud!) readers.
- posted by wanderer @ 10:46 AM 9 comments
Thursday, April 20, 2006
 
Google Jew Follow-Up
Well, for those of you who think we cannot effect change by our actions I invite you to head over to Google.com, do a search for the word "Jew" and see what we've accomplished! Or, you could just click here.

As you can see, due to the efforts of many bloggers and internet users like you and me we have successfully knocked down the antisemitic site to number two (if only we could get it out of the search results period!).

Congrats to everyone who helped out for a job well-done!
- posted by wanderer @ 12:57 PM 2 comments
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
 
A Happy Passover to All!

Top Five Things I Love About Passover:
1) Matzo ball soup
2) The Seders
3) Charoset
4) Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine (only on Passover!)
5) My dad's famous joke about why we eat eggs in salt water.

Top Five Things I Don't Like About Passover:
1) Matzah
2) Constipation related to #1
3) Not being able to eat alot of things I like.
4) Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine (gotta drink it on Passover)
5) My dad's famous joke about why we eat eggs in salt water.














So why do we eat eggs in salt water? Well, according to my father, and utilizing the Hebrew slang for a portion of the male anatomy known as "eggs", that's precisely how high the water came when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea...
- posted by wanderer @ 10:37 PM 12 comments
Saturday, April 08, 2006
 
No Movie This Week
If you would like another hint about the significance of last week's movie title, look in the comments. (Don't look Cruisin' Mom, its a spoiler if you plan on seeing the film).
- posted by wanderer @ 9:27 PM 2 comments
Friday, April 07, 2006
 
What They Don't Teach in Medical School
The following is a note from an occupational therapist transcribed directly from a patient's chart I saw today:

Occupational Therapy (O.T.):

Patient's daughter vehemently refusing occupational therapy.
Daughter also concerned about texture of liquids on patient's tray.
Daughter stating she did not request O.T. and is more than willing to do
everything for her mother/the patient. O.T. off the case at this point in
order to protect patient's daughter from any further agitation. However,
O.T. remains available at any point in time should there be a need. J.Doe, O.T.R.


There are many things wrong with this note. Let's see how many we can find...
- posted by wanderer @ 3:03 PM 5 comments
Thursday, April 06, 2006
 
Doctors With Avatars
Psychotoddler has posted a Yahoo! instant messenger conversation we had yesterday where we learned we had something in common...
- posted by wanderer @ 2:27 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
 
Saving Healthcare Dollars
Yesterday, Doctor Bean over at Kerckhoff Coffeehouse posted about the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and how it isn't working. An interesting discussion about health care delivery in the United States then ensued. I left a comment there that I am proud of, and think it deserves further discussion and perhaps further political action if someone has the energy to make it happen. I decided to repost it here in the hopes that this could happen, and in the off chance that there are people out there who read this blog and not Kerckhoff... The comment follows:

One of my ICU professors when I was a medical resident proposed a relatively quick fix to Medicare which I haven't heard too much discussion of since. It is a known fact that the vast majority of health care expenditures in the U.S. is at the end of life, or in the few months preceding the end of life. We go to great heroic measures to prolong the lives of people who by all rights should be dead, and in fact, if they had a choice in the matter probably would be.

Therein lies the point, as my prof pointed out. It should be a requirement that anyone who enrolls in Medicare have an advanced directive, as well as a health care proxy who will make decisions for them should they become incapicitated. These should be kept on a centralized database, easily accessible in any emergency room (and changeable if the subscriber so desires).

Doctor Bean and Psychotoddler can tell you about the endless and very expensive days elderly, chronically ill, demented, unresponsive people, with no quality of life whatsoever spend languishing in our hospitals, ICUs and yes, nursing homes. They are kept alive because they never made their end-of-life wishes known.

The current assumption is that as health care professionals, we should be prolonging life at all costs. The same assumption applies to Medicare/Medicaid and that as a society we should continue to prolong life at all costs. That assumption needs to change. There is nothing wrong with dying, at the appropriate time.

A mandatory advance directive would be relatively easy to enact, simply becoming an integral part of the application for Medicare/Medicaid. I firmly believe that this would result in substantial savings to the health care system and slow the runaway train of ballooning health care costs.

Do those of you reading this have an advanced directive? Do your loved ones know what you would want done if you were terminally ill? Have you designated a person to be your health care proxy in that event?

I'll get off my soapbox now.
- posted by wanderer @ 1:23 PM 4 comments
Saturday, April 01, 2006
 
It's Saturday Night Again - Movie!
Wow, this is the eighth installment of Flick of Da Week. It's getting tougher to find good movies to share. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!

Anyway, the image pictured in the right column is from this week's film, which though excellent, interesting and well-done, wasn't widely released. It was an unusual role for Samuel L. Jackson, but nonetheless, he does a great job as always. Two questions to address:

1) What is the name of the film?
2) What is the significance of the title?

Good luck.

Previous weeks:

Saturday Night Movie I
Saturday Night Movie II
Saturday Night Movie III
Saturday Night Movie IV
Saturday Night Movie V
Saturday Night Movie VI
Saturday Night Movie VII
- posted by wanderer @ 8:46 PM 12 comments

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