Physicians’ Untold Stories #5

“People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his kindness, they still remain in his debt.” — Seneca

This post was first published in my Facebook page on 1/4/2021 HERE.

The Year 2017

My nurse told me there was a patient’s relative banging on my clinic door this morning.

She said luckily I was doing my rounds in the wards.

“ Dr. Goh is a useless doctor!” My nurse heard her shouting outside my clinic. Apparently the lady who was cursing me in front of my clinic door was my patient Ms. L’s mother.

I saw Ms. L with no known medical illness about 2 weeks ago in casualty.

She was a 26-year old girl who came in with fever for 4 days and abdominal discomfort with vomiting. Her *Dengue Ig M ( dengue serology ) was positive with severe *metabolic acidosis.

Her liver enzymes levels were above thousand. I knew she was having severe dengue with warning signs

In view of her critical condition, I told her mother I needed to transfer her to the general hospital after necessary resuscitation.

Since there was an infectious disease specialist in the general hospital (GH), sending her over would be the best interest for the patient. Her mother nodded and tears were streaming down her cheek.

Ms. L passed away after 1 week in GH due to complications of severe dengue hemorrhagic fever.

If you are going to survive working in this profession, you have to convince yourself you can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard you try.

I get praises often but I get cursing from patients too, the only thing matters to me is the feeling on the drive home that I’ve done something worthwhile in my life.

# Metabolic acidosis is a serious electrolyte disorder characterized by an imbalance in the body’s acid-base balance. In dengue fever, usually it is a consequence of severe hepatitis and shock.

# Dengue fever is usually diagnosed with a positive NS-1 antigen and seroconversion of Dengue Ig M serology.