The tragedy

The Philippines Hostage Crisis on August 23, 2010 was a tragedy.  A former Philippines police officer caused eight deaths and himself being killed after eleven hours of holding hostage of fifteen Hong Kong tourists in Manila.  Part of the event had been broadcasted live and many Hong Kong citizens had watched in TV.  We were shocked by the drastic turn of the situation.  Our hearts were broken when we heard the gun shots.  We felt terribly sorry for the victims and their families.  Among these feelings, most of us also felt angry.  The actions of the Philippines police were nothing better than foul play.  That was a tragic demonstration of the Murphy’s Law, that anything capable of going wrong did go wrong.

I could feel the anger of many people while reading commentaries and responses from newspapers, magazines and the internet.  I looked into my angry feelings and tried to reason why I felt angry, as anger could be dangerous if it was not addressed properly.  The obvious reason was the unskillful rescue by the police.  It led us to the conclusion that they contributed to the failure of the rescue, and therefore death and injuries of so many people.  I did not expect the Philippines to be comparable to other advance countries like the United States.  They could be less well equipped and less well trained.  However, it was their performance which led me to the conclusion, without reasonable doubt, that they lacked the right attitude and the “heart” to save lives.  Their “didn’t care” attitude guided their actions.  So common sense was not applied, and consequences were not anticipated before each move.  Sadly, these seemed to apply to all levels in the Philippines team.  No one had the mind and intention to discharge even his basic duty of care that he owned the victims.  Via satellites, I could vividly feel the actualization of the unavoidable tragic ending because of the problematic attitudes.  I felt angry.

The above “attitude and common sense analysis” reminded me of two stories told by my patients.  (I think family doctors would share my experience of listening to stories, sometimes long-winded ones, from our patients.  It is interesting to note that many patients do come to tell their stories and forgetting about their chief complaints after the first two minutes of consultations.  It is more interesting to find that some patients come to give advice instead of receiving advice.  Anyway, these two stories were told by two young pretty ladies and I listened to them with great interest.)

The first lady complained about her bad experience after her eye check by an ophthalmologist for dry eyes.  Her contact lens were taken off and her pupils dilated while she told the nurse that she did not have any spare contact lens or glasses.  The consultation was uneventful and the diagnosis was dry eyes.  However, she had difficulty in locating the door when leaving the clinic and was luckily directed by the nurse to the door.  The rest of her trip home was less lucky and she asked me to surf through Youtube to see if there was any clip showing her wandering around in the corridor, in the lift lobby, in the MTR station and in some places unknown to her; and touching the walls and everything nearby.

That was not the end of the story.  What agitated her more was the experience in the following week.  She visited a beauty salon for what I called augmentation of eyelashes.  It is a process which practically sticks some artificial eyelashes to the original eyelashes, on a one-to-one basis, to make them look longer, and maybe thus prettier.  Her visit was for the removal of the previously augmented ones and then to have new ones someday afterwards.  The punch line was that after the removal of the fake eyelashes, the technician was really taken aback when my patient told her that she did not bring with her any make-up for the eyes.  She practically stopped my patient from leaving and tried hard to find some remedy for her.  No, it was not what you and I figured.  She was not selling any other product to my patient.

The next lady’s story was about her face allergy.  She was troubled by rashes on her face for several months.  She had seen various doctors including dermatologists.  Many tests had been done and important causes including immunological causes like SLE had been excluded.  The diagnosis was there: allergy; but not much could be done except local application of steroid cream.  Systemic steroid and oral anti-allergy medication had been tried but effects were only short-termed.  And of course traditional Chinese medical practitioners had been consulted and some magic ointments from neighbors and relatives had been applied and with no significant effect.

She was cured eventually. Her family doctor asked her to make a detailed diary of the appearance and subsiding of the rashes together with her daily activities and everything that came in contact with her face.  Upon careful analysis, it was found that the beginning of the appearance of the rash coincided with the partial tearing of her duvet bought in Shenzhen.  A breakage of the duvet cover led to the exposure of some fiber content that might cause irritation.  A changing of the duvet eliminated the rashes in a few days time.    

These two stories came to my memory because they both illustrated that knowledge, technique and training sometimes were not the most important ingredients during consultation.  With a caring attitude (the heart) and common sense, a girl who stuck eyelashes was more aware of consequences after operation.  A family doctor with training in dermatology incomparable to a dermatologist could use his time and patience (and common sense) to help his troubled patient.  These are the lessons that I regularly bring up to remind myself. 

(Source: HKMA News September 2010)