New Sense of Being A Doctor: A look at doctor-patient relationship

Dr. S G Murthy has penned his experiences of being a doctor in a heart-touching memoir, “New Sense of Being a Doctor”, published by Power Publishers.

Doctors are there in our lives to cure us, to give us a better life. And yet, doctors are feared, because a need to visit a doctor means we are suffering from some ailment.

Doctors are best avoided.

But how does a doctor feel while treating sick people day in and day out? Listening to the worries and anxieties of people must have some affect on doctors too.

It can’t be an easy thing to have responsibility of someone else’s pain 24x7.

Here is a book that tells us stories from the point of view of a doctor.

We sympathise with the patients but this book makes us realise that doctors need an equal share of sympathy and understanding from us.

The book is divided into several chapters and each chapter narrates the author’s experience related to some unique medical case.

By the term, “medical cases” I do not mean that the medical aspects have been detailed here.

Rather, the author has told us about the emotional and societal aspects of the physical ailments that some of his remarkable patients have gone through.

Through the course of the narration we come to realise how much of a support a doctor can become in a patient’s well-being, not only physically but mentally as well.

The chapter that I liked the best is titled, “Paralysis”.

This story is about a girl who gets Bell’s Palsy a week before her marriage. The girl’s father is worried that her wedding might get cancelled because of her ailment.

But the doctor steps up and calms down the father, reassuring him as best as he can.

The doctor even gets the father into touch with the right people who can treat the girl properly.

We would generally expect the in-laws to react negatively in such situations but this story shows us that this world is not yet gone to the dogs.

Humanity is still not lost.

Instead of ditching the sick girl, her future in-laws and her fiance decide to stand beside her and support her mentally.

This story tells us that there are still people who know how to empathize and how to love. All is really not yet lost.

Reading this story just made me see the emotional experience of a doctor as he journeys together with his patient through some difficult ailment.

The book is a must read in the bucket list and is now available at Flipkart, Amazon, Ebay, Snapdeal and powerpublishers.com.

(Reviewed by Priya Das)