My face is red and pulse is up. Why? Because I just read about a patient who was treated shabbily last night.
Ronni is a runner and a leukemia survivor who is in the hospital to undergo her third stem cell transplant. You can read the details on Ronni's blog post today. In summary, the technicians responsible for transporting her for an MRI of the head were inconsiderate beyond any possible excuse.
Ronni is one of my favorite Healthy Survivors. She has been a model Healthy Survivor for all of us, like Randy Pausch. Last night she demonstrated an essential skill: her ability to choose her battles. By letting slide the egregious behavior of the radiology techs, Ronni's full energies are remaining available to focus on the tasks of getting well and living as fully as possible under the circumstances.
Well, I am not in treatment right now -- and it is not happening to me, but to someone else -- so I have the energy to feel angry at and embarrassed for my fellow healthcare professionals. As a physician-survivor, it makes me cringe when I hear stories like this. I'm so sorry it happened.
I applaud Ronni for staying focused on getting well, even joking about the mess-up by calling it a "comedy of errors." Ronni is the one who would get hurt most by getting angry; Ronni is the one who benefits most by letting go of anger right now.
I just hope Ronni can take comfort in knowing that there are health care professionals who are trying to make changes in graduate education that will prevent incidents like this from ever happening to patients in the future.
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