English

A few weeks earlier, I had read an extract from an article in my reading comprehension exercises. By chance, I found this article quite interesting and it might give some enlightenment in our lives.

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Dr Roberts was very tired. There were so many patients and he had been working the whole day. He had listened to their complains non-stop and had been glad to get rid of them after dispensing some medicines. Roberts was a good doctor but he certainly did not want to waste so much time with patients. Medicine was just business to him. It was simply a means for him to earn a living.

A nagging cough forced Roberts to see a doctor. To his great dismay, he learned that he had a malignant tumour in his throat and it not only could rob him of his ability to speak but might also kill him. It was a great shock; doctors should not fall ill, he thought. Roberts did not know what to do. He told his wife about it but while he had a somewhat good relationship with her, they had never been really close. He had always been very busy before and never had much time for her or anything else. She listened and knew that he was not quite sure how to handle this problem. He had always been very business-like and unemotional.

Roberts started his treatment. Waiting for hours at the doctor’s clinic was quite a different experience. He had always been the one patients had waited to see. He looked around; some seemed to be in pain while others looked anxious. Why were there so many forms to be filled in by patients? They were so tedious. Roberts realized that he had never bothered about his patients’ feelings before. They were just specimens to be examined and treated.

When the doctors examined him and suggested various treatment options, he was surprised that many of the doctors were unsympathetic and even unkind. He could lose his life and the doctors did not seem to care. Wait a minute - was that not how had treated his own patients? Roberts was anxious about his surgery and surprisingly it was the kind words of a nurse which comforted him. The doctors remained impersonal.

When Roberts put on the surgical robe, he felt small and undignified in it. His wife looked at him with anxiety and said that she would be praying for him. He was grateful for her presence. He had taken her for granted for so long. As he was pushed into the operating theatre, his heart was pounding. This must have been how many patients would have felt and he had never known nor cared.

Roberts surgery was carried out by Dr Evans, a surgeon Roberts used to laughed at for being such softie to his patients. He was gentle and sympathetic, spending hours talking to them and Roberts had mocked him for his ‘softness’. Now he was glad that he was Dr Evans’ patient. He knew he was in good hands.

The surgery was a success. Roberts made slow but good recovery. He met many other patients in the ward and many were at the terminal stage but they had great courage, which was inspiring. Even though they were dying, they had a kind word for patients like him. There was old Mrs. Canon, who had such a joyous approach to life. She knew that she was dying of cancer but it did not matter to her. She made everyone laugh with her jokes. The kind words and support from other medical personnel helped him to recover will. His wife visited him daily and his dear companion as she sat by his bedside every day and read to him. They became close as they had never been before.

Restored to health, Roberts was determined to be a more caring healer, and also worked hard to be a better husband and father. Now he knew first-hand that patients needed kind words and that support and love helped them to recover faster. He had learned it the hard way.

~~The writer not only inspired doctors to be more caring towards their patients, but also taught the reader to have an ability to sense other people’s emotions. Most of the time, we are adamant about our point of view, but we ought to think about others’ feeling as well. Whether in the work place, family hood or kinship, these are the things that are undoubted.