Cure

Medical students or doctors must have been asked for about the gazillionth time why they choose to practice medicine, and if that’s because they want to save life.

This is one of those questions where my first impulse is to say "Of course!" and "Impossible!" at the same time (which is of course impossible).

While I wish I could have answered something inspirational, the truth is that whenever students ask me for such advice, I would quote, without hesitation, Voltaire who once said that "the art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."

So it goes. To anyone labouring under the impression that doctors heal their patients who catch the flu or common cold, reality can be sobering. Can we hold anyone responsible for a patient who gets better after a bout of flu?

More often than not, medical doctors offer advice rather than heroic treatment. Add in the number of diseases for which there is no cure, ailments that are self-limiting, and all the treatments that turn out to be harmful rather than doing patients their favour, and my heart sinks to my boots.

Now don't get me wrong; I love my work as doctor. In any case, the bottom line is that if we want to love the work, we should remind ourselves that a lot of our patients get cured by nature, not us.