The "God Complex"

Yesterday was awake till 1.30 in the night watching this gripping thriller "Malice" on Star Movies. A movie which starts off with young girls being mysteriously murdered in a laid back U.S neighbourhood; actually does quite a twist on its head and provides immense mystery and intrigue to the plot and makes it a totally watchable fair...

Tracy (Nicole Kidman) and Andy (Bill Pullman) are two happily married couple and suddenly one day they bump in to Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin) who happens to be the classmate of Andy from High School...

However, for me the high point of the movie (no doubt the plot and sub plot were the winners handsdown) was when Tracy had a familiar attack of abdominal pain and is taken to the hospital. The operating surgeon happens to be Dr. Jed Hill who opens her abdomen up. Upon opening the abdomen, they find out that one of her ovary has a cyst and has to be removed. Further examination reveals that the other ovary might require removal (Dr. Hill thinks that it is necrotic and should be removed while his team feels other wise). Without heeding to the team's advice Dr. Hill proceeds to remove Tracy's 2nd ovary.

After surgery, when the 2nd ovary was carefully examined, it was found that it was an absolutely healthy ovary and due to a judgment error by Dr. Hill Tracy could no longer bear children...

Tracy, pushes for a case of medical negligence and charges the surgeon with medical negligence with serious consequence to the patient i.e in this case the inability on Tracy's part to become mother  ever again. A medical board is constituted where Tracy and Dr. Hill's lawyer argues out the case and all the while Dr. Hill calmly listens. Upon inquiry with Dr. Hill's  teacher from Harvard Medical School and reading from his (teacher's) comment in the past on the overall attitude of Dr. Hill in having a "God Complex" in his approach to treating patients, Dr. Hill can no longer holds himself and bursts with extreme vehemence on the lawyer thus:

"Dr. Hill: The question is, 'Do I have a God complex?' which makes me wonder if this... lawyer... has any idea as to the kind of grades one has to receive in college to be accepted at a top medical school. If you have the vaguest clue as to how talented someone has to be to lead a surgical team. I have an M.D. from Harvard. I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery. I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever, sick at sea. So I ask you, when someone goes in to that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry, or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death, or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trauma from post-operative shock, who do you think they're praying to? You go ahead and read your Bible... Dennis, and you go to your church, and with any luck you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, He was in operating room number two on November 17th, and He doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something. I AM God"

As myself and my wife watched the movie, my wife watched at the screen in utter disbelieve as to whether any doctor could utter such things...

However, the fact of the matter is an increasing percentage of doctors, physicians and surgeon suffer from the "God Complex" which arises from the larger fact that modern medicine has given them enormous power to heal diseases and patient beyond the boundaries of the possible...The gratitude, supplication and reverence which should have humbled these professionals, have wrongly, stoked that "God like" fire in them where they leave under the illusion of being God and playing God... With multiple leaps in scientific and genome discovery, man is in the verge of creating life and playing God... Only time will tell us if he is able to match the compassion and benevolence that comes along with the tag of playing "God"...

Having worked in the health care field for nearly 4 years, I have seen doctors who are a mix of people with "God like Complex" and people who are so humbled by the enormity of their responsibility and power as to make one's selves bow one's head in reverence...

The people who have a mis conception of being God are people who have the least consideration for human life or emotion... Beyond their regular clinical life, they are sheer brutes and ruthless dictators who think that all human dignity and respect is below their stature and they can do to their subordinate anything that they please to do... Such an extension, beyond the clinical realm, makes life of people who work with such demon a living hell... 

Fortunately, I have been blessed with bosses who are great doctors, leaders and human being who have sensitivity to the feelings of not only their patients but also to their subordinates and colleagues. It has been my constant endeavor to stand up strongly against any such tyrant during my career and refuse to be subjected to his whims and fancy as I myself being a doctor do not subscribe to such point of view...