Famous Among Top Surgeons in the 90s-Chapter 1854: Hard to Say
"Why don’t you ask her why she didn’t take the medication as instructed on the bag?" said Doctor Su, immediately questioning the patient.
Feeling extremely wronged by the doctor’s blame, the female patient began to describe the complicated process of picking up the medication yesterday: "The instruction on the bag wasn’t clear whether it was once or twice a day; I couldn’t read the numbers. I asked the pharmacy staff, and they said they weren’t sure, and told me to go back and ask the gynecologist. I had no choice but to return to find you doctors."
Upon hearing this, Doctor Zuoliang took out the medication bag to have another look.
The bag probably had mistakes due to the pharmacist’s busy schedule; in their haste, they had swapped the numbers for the dosage and frequency, initially writing it as ’two pills once a day’. Later, realizing the mistake, they had sloppily corrected the numbers with a pen over the original.
The patient, seeing these haphazard changes, surely wondered whether it was 1 or 2, and fearing she was mistaken, could only ask the medical staff again.
At the pharmacy window of a top-tier hospital, the crowd is bustling, and the noise is loud. The pharmacist, busy at the time, couldn’t hear what the patient was asking, and assumed the patient was questioning why the doctor prescribed the medication that way. This sort of query, the pharmacist couldn’t answer, thus advised the patient to consult the prescribing doctor. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
If the patient found her attending doctor to ask, there wouldn’t have been an issue. However, at that time, Doctor Zuoliang was busy with Student Xie elsewhere, completely out of reach.
In a rush, the patient grabbed any doctor in the ward to ask, thinking they were all gynecologists and surely one could answer her. Outsiders don’t understand why doctors don’t manage other doctors’ patients, assuming all doctors are the same.
Held up by the patient, Doctor Su, eager to get back to her own work, didn’t have time to carefully check medical records and prescriptions for a patient not under her care, thus threw a line to the patient: Take the medication as instructed on the bag.
Under normal circumstances, this advice wouldn’t be wrong. The issue was that the ambiguous numbers on the bag were exactly what the patient wanted to ask about.
The female patient said, "I asked her later if it was 1 pill or 2. She said 2."
Nine times out of ten, Doctor Su was frustrated being entangled by a patient not under her care and didn’t clarify whether the numbers on the bag referred to dosage or frequency, giving a casual response.
Listening to both sides, sorting out the sequence of events in their minds, Du Haiwei let out a long sigh: not knowing what to say. Most clinical disputes arise this way, everyone rushing like sprinters; issues are bound to happen.
If the pharmacist, despite being busy, had paused to ask the patient clearly about their doubts over numbers, there wouldn’t be any continuing issues.
If Doctor Su had been more patient to check which medication this was for the patient, as a gynecologist, she would’ve known the usual dosage of this medication and wouldn’t have carelessly answered ’2’. Or she could’ve helped by asking a nurse to fetch Zuo Liang, preventing the patient from taking the wrong dosage subsequently.
If the patient hadn’t been in such a rush and insisted on finding her attending doctor for inquiries, surely nothing would have happened.
At this point, Doctor Hu spoke first with harsh criticism of the patient: "They all told you to go back and ask your attending doctor. Why did you insist on asking a doctor who doesn’t understand your condition?"
So, does this mean the responsibility falls on her? The female patient’s face turned pale.
Feeling distressed for his wife, the patient’s husband held his wife’s hand and argued with Doctor Hu: "She couldn’t find her attending doctor, what do you want her to do?"
