Second Opinions

I have always wondered how doctors make analysis of problems they face during the treatment of patients. More so, because the human body is probably one of the most complex systems there is and scientists have not even decoded all its secrets.

So, western trained doctors with drug compounds, surgical techniques and other forms of tools are face with dilemmas when trying to diagnose, treat and hopefully cure their patients. In this book, Second Opinions by Jerome Groopman provided me an insight on how doctors think, analyze and decide the course of treatment.

In it, Groopman discusses about his own predicament of an back injury he suffered years ago in which he has since recovered. He also talks in personal terms of the anxieties he and his wife (also a doctor) felt when their first child had a potentially life-threatening episode. All in all, eight stories were shared by him with all the difficult medical terms but still told in a narrative manner that the lay-person like myself could understand.

With the limits of the tools and techniques available to western-trained doctors, it seems that once the onset of any disease has begun, it would be prove difficult for them to help repair the human body. There were failures but also successes in the eight stories which seemingly showed how frail our human bodies. It also showed the human element of emotion in play between the patients, the doctors and also the family members.

Making sense of the known or unknown disease is difficult for the patients as they face their own mortality. Therefore in light of such unknowns, even doctors with decades of experience do face tough decision making choices on what to do.

Not the best of books to read to reassure you that our doctors can help us in our time of need. But it does tells us that we should take our health for granted. Doctors like all other humans, do make mistakes and second opinions with other doctors do help the patients and their families in the overall process of clarifying, understanding and eventually accepting the health issues they face.

The book does actually talks about intuitiveness in decision making in this arena. Sometimes, the data that is being generated by the machines does not tell us the full picture and diagnosis do go wrong. It seems in the modern age, our healers has been too dependent on the high technology machines like CAT imaging, X-rays and many others.

The healers of ancient times did not have such luxury, but what they have do have was a body of knowledge kept through the ages of the medicinal properties of herbs, plants and animals that have curative effects for the various diseases. This is what we call "Traditional Chinese Medicine" or TCM.

I have watched some Chinese documentaries previously which showed how doctors in China are using a combination of TCM and western drugs and techniques in combating the major diseases of our age. I cannot remember the name of documentary now. However, the thought of marrying both western medicine and TCM is not widely accepted in other countries other than China.

Hopefully, with more documented evidence of more successes by the Chinese in the treatment of the various diseases, this knowledge can actually be used by western practictioners for the overall benefit of mankind.