Who will you believe in medical treatment?

In Malaysia, as a doctor is a well-establish known professional to us. They will respect you if you are a doctor, especially a good caring doctor. Everytime when somebody has been saved from a life-threatening disease, such as heart attack, they will very thankful to that doctor service.

However, this is part of the scenario. As what we see or heard from the patients are sometime went to try of traditional medication, in which the person who sell the medicine also does not know about the actual content of it. They sell it as they know it was used to “safe” somebody life before. Do they know about the side effect? The indication of it? How’s the drug reaction if mix with the medication prescribed by a doctor?

Everytime when I am questioning my friend/uncle/aunty/patient/parent/, they will give you a reason of why they don’t want take the medication that was offered by a registered doctor, in which it has many side effects. As an example is they will tell you that paracetamol (one type of pain killer) is not good as they can cause our liver damage. However, do they know how many dosage of pain killer can cause liver disease? Do they know that how many percent of patient who take the drug has the side effects? Sadly, they don’t know. It’s not their fault as they are not the professional of this area. As a result, the health education regarding this should be carried out to make our friends aware of this. The patients are more believe to traditional medicine that was not known of its chemical proportion than the medication that we have taking many years to do the experiment on it…

Is it very sad?

However, what I’m talking here is not specify to the traditional medicine doctor, such as “sin se”. What I’m talking is those person that selling this kind of drug at market and many people trust them more than a healthcare workers. The sin se abilities to treat a patient is how much I not know. But, their effort should not be denied as they have their own experiment. So the traditional medicine that I’m stating over here is towards those who not understand the diseases, out body system and drug reaction well, but still act as a very “high class Doctor”.

Same scenario occur when you are asking a patient to do a x-ray, CT scan. Bla…bla…,
and they refuse as it has radiation. However, do they understand that why are requesting the investigations??
As a doctor, if they are really professional, what they are requesting is for the benefit of patient. Ideally, they won’t put patient at more HIGHER risk to a disease. Take an example: if a patient has intracranial bleed/ bleeding inside a brain, a CT scan is need to further confirm the diagnosis. If pt refuse because of this, then it will affect the treatment and may be he or she will die more faster. In fact, if they do the right decision and was saved, then he will be cured. Counted with the radiation he exposed, he may be deducted of one year of survival out of the ten years he has. So, total 9 years, compared with the one minute that then he die. As a result, think carefully, my friend.

This is why the medical lecturers are very strict of the medical student behavior, study, presentation and some more. The medical students life can be fantastic as every minute to them is a gold. Once you miss an interesting lecture or teaching, then you will need to put more hard works to regain it back. Everyday study and study, application and need to know all, ranging from patient races, age, country, environment, occupation, family, pets, cars, and more more more…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………all these are very important. They should know how to ask, write, report, and interpret. Communication ways is part of their learning. So, this is why I said medical student life is fantastic. However, relax and playing is part of their life also. They are not always studying for 24 hours one…..

Last, take home message is believe to your doctor more than the person who are not fully medical based is the right choice. However, all decision is still your own decision, it’s just an opinion, I respect YOUR OWN DECISION. Have a nice day……