Wuhan Tongji Hospital Incident: Doctor-Patient Communication and Medical Ethics Challenges
preface
Recently, a video about Wuhan Tongji Hospital has caused heated discussions on the Internet. In the video, a woman who identified herself as a family member of a patient was agitated, accusing the hospital of irregularities and even suspecting that the doctor had deliberately concealed her illness for the sake of an organ transplant. She claimed that her son was declared brain dead by doctors without being tested for brain death and eventually died when he was removed from the ventilator, and that the doctors had a bad attitude when questioned, refusing to respond positively to the questions and even using harsh language.
As soon as such accusations were exposed, they immediately aroused widespread heated discussions among the public. Some people expressed their understanding and support for the conflict between doctors and patients, believing that there are indeed problems in doctor-patient communication, and the interests of doctors and patients are not equal, and misunderstandings and conflicts are prone to occur. However, some people believe that the patient's family members are too emotional and overly aggressive, and such doubts are not conducive to the normal medical order of the hospital, and it is easy to cause trouble to doctors and other patients.
Either way, such an event raises some questions for us to speculate. What exactly is wrong with doctor-patient communication? Are there flaws in the hospital's medical decisions? How can we better protect patients' right to know and medical safety? This article will analyze this incident from different angles, and I hope to give you some inspiration and conjecture.
Event Recap: Doctors' declaration of brain death raises questions
The person involved in the incident was a woman surnamed Li, whose son suffered brain damage due to an accident and was taken to Wuhan Tongji Hospital for emergency treatment. While the family was anxiously waiting for his condition to improve, the hospital told them that the patient had developed symptoms of brain death and needed an organ transplant in time.
Ms. Li thought that the doctor's judgment was too hasty, and without conducting a scientific brain death test, she arbitrarily announced that the patient was brain dead, and forcibly removed the patient's ventilator without the knowledge of the family, resulting in the patient's eventual death.
In the face of such a medical dispute, Ms. Li's emotions can be said to be very excited, she feels that her rights and interests have been greatly infringed, and she also doubts the doctor's intentions, believing that the doctor will so hastily determine that the patient is brain dead for the needs of organ transplantation, and there are illegal operations in the weaning operation.
In this video, the doctor's attitude is indeed a little incredible, knowing that the patient's family's doubts are very legitimate, but he did not patiently explain and communicate, but used some rough language, and even directly asked the patient's family to "get out", such an attitude also made others present very dissatisfied and indignant.
Doctor-Patient Communication: How Can It Be Improved?
No matter how you look at it, such medical disputes are a wake-up call for us, and it also makes us think more about doctor-patient communication. Doctor-patient communication is a very delicate and complex matter, and the roles and environments of doctors and patients' families are completely different, and it is easy to have information asymmetry and emotional conflicts.
But in any case, both doctors and patients should learn to respect each other, and should also learn to empathize with each other, so that they can communicate and negotiate more effectively. For doctors, they should not only provide medical treatment, but also inform patients of their conditions and treatment plans in a timely manner, respect patients' right to know, and give patients sufficient support and encouragement.
For the patient's family, their emotions may be very sensitive and fragile, and the doctor also needs to be patient and careful enough when communicating, and should not use some overly professional or indifferent words, but should stand in the patient's perspective, use plain language and way to explain, and can also give the patient some psychological comfort.
The improvement of doctor-patient communication not only depends on the personal efforts of doctors and patients' families, but also plays a very important role in the management and system construction of hospitals. Hospitals can strengthen the training of doctors' communication skills, and can also set up a dedicated doctor-patient communication team to help deal with some complex and sensitive doctor-patient relationships, and provide more professional and comprehensive support to doctors and patients' families.
Health Decision-Making: How to Ensure Transparency and Fairness?
In addition to doctor-patient communication, such incidents also raise some questions about the hospital's medical decision-making. In this case, the patient's family felt that the doctor's medical decision was too hasty, did not fully consider the patient's actual situation, and did not give the patient the opportunity to be tested for brain death, so they announced the patient's death without authorization.
Regardless of the purpose, doctors should put the interests of patients first when making medical decisions, and should also follow the principles of medical ethics to ensure the transparency and fairness of medical decisions. Hospitals can establish a multidisciplinary consultation system, which can discuss and evaluate the opinions of multiple parties for major medical decisions, and can also invite patients' families to participate in the decision-making process, fully respecting patients' opinions and choices.
In addition, some of the hospital's operations and decision-making should also be subject to social supervision and judgment, especially in special cases such as brain death, the hospital can invite third-party experts and organizations to evaluate, and can also disclose some relevant data and information to the public in a timely manner, so that the public can better understand the hospital's work and decision-making process, and can also reduce some unnecessary speculation and misunderstanding.
Medical Safety: How to Protect Patients?
Such incidents also remind us that medical safety and the protection of patients' rights and interests should not be taken lightly at any time. Whether it is the medical operation of doctors, or the decision-making and management of hospitals, it may have a significant impact on the life and health of patients, and the safety of patients should always be put first, and patients should be given adequate protection and support.
For similar medical disputes, the society should also face them with a rational and responsible attitude, and cannot blindly abuse and blame, let alone irresponsible speculation and speculation about hospitals and doctors, which will only bring more trouble and harm to doctors and other patients.
On the contrary, the society can express concern and supervision through some reasonable channels, and can also participate in the improvement of medical safety and hospital management, so as to jointly create a safe and harmonious medical environment.
epilogue
The doctor-patient relationship has always been a sensitive and complex topic, and it is also one of the issues of concern to all sectors of society. In such a doctor-patient conflict, we can also see that the public's understanding and support have a very important impact on the investigation and handling of the incident, as well as the communication and negotiation between the doctor and the patient.
It is hoped that through such an incident, more people can speculate and pay attention to the doctor-patient relationship, and it is also hoped that the relevant departments can intervene and mediate in a timely manner, give the public a satisfactory and fair answer, and also give both doctors and patients a friendly and understanding social environment.
As the general public, we can also start from ourselves, improve our attention to medical knowledge and medical safety, enhance our ability to identify medical information, and learn to face various challenges and difficulties in the doctor-patient relationship with a rational and peaceful attitude, so as to contribute to the improvement of the doctor-patient relationship and the development of medical and health undertakings.