Trick or Treat - a survival guide to health care
17 Fighting over a case The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox: A lion and a bear were fighting with each other for the right to devour a little lamb seized by them at the same time. The fight was
long and fierce. At the end of it both lay wounded and exhausted. A fox which was
watching the scene for long realised that they were too weak to even stand up. He moved in and ran off with the lamb.
A Case grabbing: Seeta, a 30 year old school teacher, consulted a corporate hospital
for a neck swelling. An Ear, Nose, Throat specialist diagnosed it to be a thyroid swelling and told her, "It needs to be removed. I can do it. There is no great hurry. Take your time to arrange for your medical leave, etc., and come back within a month or two."
Seeta was apprehensive about an operation and consulted a general surgeon for a
second opinion. He examined her and said, "Yes. It is better to operate and remove it without any delay. I can do it next week.� When she informed him about the earlier
consultation, he rang up the ENT specialist and they started arguing who should operate on thyroid glands.
Seeta was stunned at this development and left the hospital. She was taken to a plastic
surgeon by a health care worker. He managed to convince her that the operation-scar was the most important thing about neck surgery and operated on her. B Case dumping: Beevi, a 50-year old farm labourer, went to a large teaching
hospital as she had not passed urine for three days. The duty physician found that the
kidneys were distended with urine and referred her to a urologist. The urologist 51
