When Doctors Get Sick, 1988

When a doctor gets sick, his status changes. No longer is his role de­ fined as deriving from doctus, i. e. , learned, but as from patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb, patior, i. e. , to suffer, with all the passive acceptance of pain the verb implies. From pass us, the past participle, we get the word passion, with its wide gamut of emotional allusions, ranging from animal lust to the sufferings of martyrs. It is the connotation, not the denotation, of the word that defines the change of status. When a doctor is sick enough to be admitted to a hospital, he can no longer write orders; orders are written about him, removing him from control of his own situation. One recalls a sonnet from W. H. Auden's sequence, The Quest, which closes with the lines: Unluckily they were their situation: One should not give a poisoner medicine, A conjuror fine apparatus, Nor a rifle to a melancholic bore. That is a reasonable expression of twentieth-century skepticism and ra­ tionalism. Almost all medical literature is written from the doctor's point of view. Only a few medically trained writers-one thinks of Chekhov's Ward Six-manage to incorporate the patient's response to his situa­ tion. Patients' voices were not much in evidence until well into the twentieth century, but an early example is John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624).

I: Cardiovascular Diseases.- 1. Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.- 2. Coronary Disease.- 3. Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.- 4. Myocardial Infarction.- 5. Cardiac Arrest.- 6. Viral Myocarditis.- II: Orthopedic-Neuromuscular Disorders.- 7. Guillain-Barré Syndrome.- 8. Meniere’s Disease.- 9. Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma and Limb Amputation.- 10. Lyme Disease.- 11. Prosthetic Hips.- 12. Multiple Sclerosis.- 13. Disc with L-5 Root Compression.- 14. Herniated Discs.- 15. Parkinson’s Disease.- 16. Parkinson’s Disease.- III: Neuropsychiatric Disorders.- 17. Cerebral Concussion.- 18. Alcoholism.- 19. Depression.- 20. Depression.- 21. Manic-Depressive Psychosis.- IV: Gastrointestinal Diseases.- 22. Ulcerative Colitis and Avascular Necrosis of Hips.- 23. Ulcerative Colitis.- 24. Ulcerative Colitis.- 25. Ulcerative Colitis.- 26. Crohn’s Disease.- 27. Crohn’s Disease.- 28. Duodenal Ulcer.- V: Cancer.- 29. Anaplastic Carcinoma of Neck.- 30. Brain Tumour.- 31. Malignant Melanoma.- 32. Malignant Melanoma.- 33. Hodgkin’s Disease.- 34. Cancer of Sigmoid.- 35. Mycosis Fungoides.- 36. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.- 37. Benign Giant Cell Tumor of Sacrum.- 38. Seminoma of Testicle.- 39. Renal Carcinoma.- VI: Chronic Diseases.- 40. Chronic Renal Failure and Hemodialysis.- 41. Diabetes Mellitus and Complications of Pregnancy.- VII: Acute and/or Self-Limited Diseases.- 42. Anaphylaxis.- 43. Viral Hepatitis.- 44. Tuberculosis.- 45. Trauma.- 46. Ectopic Pregnancy and Complications of Pregnancy.- 47. Hemorrhoidectomy.- 48. Phlebitis.- 49. Bleeding Ulcer.- VIII: Aids.- 50. Aids.- Epilogue.