Faux pas

As unseemly as it might appear, a patient's thank you card can be very encouraging to a doctor. Not all doctors derive comfort from such a small token of appreciation - but many do.

On a lovely August day, I received a card from my patient's family. This reminded me of that patient's recent bleeding complication after colonoscopy at another hospital. His wife requested me to speak to his surgeon. I did. His surgeon told me what happened, cautiously remarking that bleeding was under control after the second colonoscopy procedure and tranexamic acid, a medication that has been touted as a brake to the domino effect of catastrophic bleeding. When I learned more about the medication dose that my dialysis patient had received, I told the surgeon to stop it and send the patient to see me. With my patient's poor kidney function in mind, I worried that the drug would accumulate pretty quickly in his body.

My patient didn't manage to walk into my clinic the next day - he was shaky and stuttering in a wheelchair, after being intoxicated by the magic drug. He wasn't back on his feet for at least three days.

Few weeks later, I met my patient's wife who sent me the card. In passing, she told me that she owed me her life, too, when she happened to be under my care ten years ago. "Did I?" I responded, pride written all over my face. "I didn't recall seeing you."

"Believe it or not, I collapsed after being given a shot for my abdominal colic, and was then sent to the emergency room. Too much of the injection dose, I guess. You were the one who saved me at that time."

I listened, nodded and blushed. "Mm-hmm," I thought. "We're praised for making remedies for medical errors. That's embarrassing."