Is Compassionate Medical Care an Oxymoron?

On October 31^st, I was leaving a doctors office on the north-side of Indianapolis. I spied a rather distinguished looking gentleman in the hall. He had just stepped out of a Urology Office.

In his hand was envelope. I watched as he stopped and stared blankly the item in his hand. He started down the hall, and he stopped again. He had a black expression, and appeared frozen like ice. He started down the hall once more. And, again stopped frozen in his steps, staring at the envelope in his hand. When he looked up, our eyes met. What I saw was unmistakably a successful man with salt and pepper hair, and soft blue eyes behind his wire rimmed glasses. When our eyes met and I knew that this man was as fragile as the spider.

We shared an elevator, and as we descended to the parking lot, we walked along, like we were departing together. As, the doors opened, the sunshine spilled like rosewater washing over us. I politely commented on the beautiful weather. In the exchange he said he was going to find a way to take advantage of this gift of the Indiana Summer day. He stopped once more an looked at the envelope in his hand.

How irronic, I would learn that this man was the voice of humanity. He was a retired news reporter , who had spent his life reporting the achievements and success of those who rarely make the five o'clock news. He was planning an extensive sailing voyage. He had two grown children who had completed college and he had had a happy life. I was also to learn the envelope in his had test results: His diagnosis was cancer.

I began to think about the quality of medical care in our country, and discovered I have more questions than answers....

How can it be ethical to hand some one a cancer results and not recognize that this person is in crisis?

How is it that the medical professionals can treat people as if the mind and the body were distinctly separate?

Why are they not some one trained in counseling or compassion employed to assist someone who just received a devastating blow?

How is it that some stranger in the hall has more awareness and compassion than the medical providers?

When did it become ethical practice to divorce the human soul from the human body and treat patients like these things are two entirely different entities?

Is it ever ethical to allow someone in crisis to leave the doctor's office?

Who is response-able?

I welcome comments about this topic...