Snatched!

A frantic shout, a loud voice informed me that there is yet another patient. But this is no ordinary patient. A man came and starts banging on my clinic door demanding to see me immediately. I was taken aback as I thought it's another man demanding money or extorting from me which in any case is the norm, I went out ready for any eventualities and I discovered that he was saying albeit incoherrently in a very excited way that there has been a snatched thief victim and she had been stabbed!

I went out and saw the victim, and my initial response was she was stabbed? where in? I took a look and found that she had been stabbed in the abdomen, which is at the lower part of the stomach. I had to stem the bleeding and that too with some gauze to pack the wound. It looks okay and not actively bleeding and I told them medicolegal cases like this with abdominal wounds are not manageable in a general practice clinic. He was contemplating dumping the patient in my practice and telling me to call for an ambulance! My, this is taking "washing hands clean" to a different level and meaning! This bugger seriously think that it's my duty to pick up their mess? How's inappropriate can people get? I know he's being a good samaritan to bring the lady to my clinic, but then again, if he have some amount of sense, he would immediately send her to the hospital!

I think the general population have the misconception that clinics like mine can do wonders. I think it's best that I reiterate that it's not the case. I have very bad cases finding their way to my clinic and at best I can do is to stabilise the patient and ask them to transfer the patient to the hospital. At times things like this irks me and it's depressing in the sense that I can't do much, even if I want to. I have many things to consider, the problem is ranging from lack of facilities to the medico-legality of managing patients of this sort. Any medicolegal cases, it would be more appropriate to send to a hospital. I cannot imagine managing an abuse case, or the case of Nirmal Bonat, the housemaid that has been viciously abused. Fact is, I can settle the medical part of the problem, but the legal implications are enormous. I have to be present in court and be a witness which is rediculous. I am no forensic expert in this sense, neither am I a psychiatrist. I reckon if I were to have patients like this, the immediate thing to do is to write a referral, that too after stabilising the patient.

I think our economic state is not too rosy. Times are bad and when it is, jobless and retrenched individual has no other option than to take the drastic action to rob, snatch and pillage whatever they can. It's a sad case that essential goods are expensive and leading a honest life is by all means not easy. Since inception our PM has raised basic commodities so many times that hardship is falling on the hands of the rakyat. Ah well, whatever reasons that it is, snatching and robbing is not and never the answer. I reckon thieves gets bolder and bolder nowadays due to lack of policing and bad security in and around the country. We get hordes of reports regarding these in the local medias and it's time that law enforcers wake up and do something. Meanwhile, the lady is but another statistic, physical wounds will heal but the emotional as well as mental part remains a big Question.