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...

Can Do, Will Teach...

In the course of a person's journey and his evolution, comes a time when man is at a cross road and has to take decision on Which is the best option for him as a traveler...

In recent times I have toyed with the idea of getting fully in to training  and education initiatives in the public health domain... The reasons are many... some of which I will try to put down as:

1. I have enjoyed teaching and structuring new education/training program addressing the 'felt needs' of the audience,
2. The most enduring impact on health status or services can directly be made in the best manner by ensuring that your workers are trained adequately in the work/services that they are supposed to deliver at a community level and,
3. In my opinion (that's just 'in my opinion' totally), the most rapid and swift impact on any intervention can be made effectively through the right training and education

 When I turned to literature, Internet and did some groundwork to somehow 'justify' my feelings ;) I came across some pros and cons of the idea and one the quotation by George Bernard Shaw was something which made me stop and think awhile...

The famous GBS, in one of his famous quotation says (rather humorously though)

" Those who can, do; those who can't, teach'.

Although said in good humour by old man GBS, it made me think...

It has been a universal and rather sad common thread running across all the nation across the world which is this: that the people who take up teaching are the one, who for lack of any other vocation takes to this profession while comfortably oblivious of the fact that it is the job of the highest order which requires to shape the thought leaders of tomorrow, the inspiring generals of our future nations, the compassionate saints of humanity and the sharp scientists who will take world to its new era; in fact the learning institute in that sense becomes the crucible where our tomorrow takes form and shape in the hands of the inimitable artist: the teacher...

Indeed, such is the power of teachers as we have seen through ages: examples of Chanakya, Aristotole and Socrates abounds who have helped shaped our history, destiny and the course of human civilisation...

But the question remains thus: if we do understand so much about the value of teachers and their contribution in shaping future generation, then why across the world teacher and teaching is such a neglected issue. The answer I think lies within ourselves...

Although all of us cherish the value that our teacher gave us, hold on to their ideals and become nostalgic when we mention their name; yet how many of us would really like to venture out to teaching ourselves as a full time vocation...

I remember a small incidence which gets back to me on occasions like these...

We were in The Gambia and I heard a small conversation between my school principal and the head of the training institute for the community (The school was a charitable school run by my community.).. The Principal was complaining about the quality of teachers who come out of the training institute to join the various schools of the community and how appalling was their standard overall not only in terms of teaching but also in their overall conduct and discipline..

The head of the training institute just heard the Principal out, smiled and replied in Urdu...

"Kya karien.. hamarey jaise padhe likhe log apne acche bacchon ko doctor ya engineer banane bhej diya karte hain.. aur jo ghar mein koyee kaam ka na ho.. jo khud padhayee thik se na kar raha ho, shararati ho usse hum training isnittute bhej dete hain teacher ban ne.. (What to do, educated people like us send our meritorious children to become doctors and engineers.. while the one's who do not do so well in studies and are mischievous are sent to the training institute to become teachers)..

However, with increasing demand on teachers (who  more than help you cram up theories and show you easier way to pass your examination) a time has come when there is increasing demand on  those who are good practitioners of the art and are hence increasingly asked to double up as teachers to pass their skill along... As for me, I have realised this new phenomenon (with which I have experimented myself ) hold s a great deal of  practical implications for the organization.. Increasingly I have seen that by working on such an assumption and making it a reality (in a participative manner), the performance of the workforce has gone up manifold with fresh energy being infused in them through the new training and capacity building program...

As for me, the journey of my own evolution and self development has started yet again and as with other such experiences, I will await this experience to enrich me and make me more complete as a person and and as a professional...

 Will end by sharing a quote which inspired me...

The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people. 

 

K. Patricia Cross