INTERNSHIP DIARIES #5 - THESE HANDS AREN'T MEANT TO DO HARM

How much can a shortfilm influence you? If you say not much, let me tell you - some shortfilms are one of a kind. They leave a lasting impact on you, the way you look at your profession, the way you practise it. Ethical considerations are central to good medical practice, and THE PROMISE, a shortfilm by 2010 batch MBBS students of GMC Trivandrum, is an intricate portrayal of a doctor's life, the various allegations he faces and how he recovers from it, only to remind himself(and doctors like you and me) that "his hands are not meant to do harm."

Medical negligence is a crime - any doctor who is found guilty of following a negligent clinical practice will be punished. And it is a sore experience to be accused for something you are not aware of. The hero of our story, a practising neurosurgeon, had an instance of being wrongly accused for injecting phenytoin into the iv drip of a patient with seizures, during his surgical residency. His friend and medicine resident had injected phenytoin into the drip, unaware of the contraindication of the drug in a case of acute intermittent porphyria, which the patient was actually diagnosed with.

Friendship, courtship and profession came to a standstill - the real faces of friends are revealed and our hero is crushed into less than nothing, when his friend and medical resident says that he was not present on the scene when the drug was wrongly administered, and our protagonist is accused of serious medical negligence leading to the death of the patient, and is suspended till further notice.

Years later, a pedestrian is brought to the ER with severe injuries and history pertaining to that of a road traffic accident. Falling GCS, unstable vitals, bruise marks and a fracture tibia, along with traumatic head injury - the attending neurosurgeon at the facility happens to be our protagonist, and he asks his subordinates to arrange for an emergency head surgery team, along with a laparoscopic surgeon. Guess what happens next, as he sees the patient for the first time - he calls off the surgery on seeing his friend lying before him, fighting for life.

The bitter experience during his residency resurfaces in his mind as he refuses to perform the surgery. Finally, he decides to perform a parallel surgery - a craniectomy and a splenectomy - for which he took an on table death consent, with full knowledge of the possible consequences of such a procedure, including death. He was happy to gift eternal rest to his adversary, but God willed otherwise.

Humanity and moral obligation are highlighted in the climax in a single sentence,

"THESE HANDS ARE NOT MEANT TO DO HARM."

That our responsibility as doctors is to provide care, relief and reassurance to the patient, irrespective of any past hostility. That a beautiful sweet revenge may be crafted by our hands, the hands that heal, the hands that cure.

You may watch the shortfilm here:

https://youtu.be/ZXpcSfdBj00