Thursday, December 14, 2006

I could have been a medico after all

Sitting in a cafe in Haifa (Israel) I overheard a father and son (both medicos) discussing difficult patients. Father to son: "So I told him my diagnosis... kidney failure which needed immediate treatment, and he said 'I'd like to try some less invasive herbal treatments first', so I said 'you should get sick and die, now stop wasting my time and get out of my office'... he came back in five minutes and I scheduled dialysis and exploratory surgery, when he came out of recovery he asked me what his outlook was, I said 'you should get well and live'."

I had always thought medicine was out of the question for me because of my personality, but having overheard this I realised that there are successful medicos out there who are exactly like me.