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| Matt McCarthy |
Full Title: The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year by Matt McCarthy
To a large degree, the grinding and grueling nature of this work is deliberate. The belief is that those who cannot withstand the rigorous training process are not equipped to deal with the ceaseless day-to-day strife of becoming a full-fledged physician.
As it happened, one of his earliest patients, a middle-aged professor, might have died unnecessarily, due to Dr. McCarthy’s failure to gauge the potential implications of what appeared to be a trivial fact. Perhaps the castigation given him by his supervisor was more severe than this oversight warranted. Still, it alerted him to the need to treat even what might appear to be a simple anomaly as worthy of deeper examination.
A further hurdle lay in the lack of balance between the number of patients scheduled and the time allowed to deal with each one in a comprehensive manner. Hence, when a respectable-looking gentleman asked for a refill on his Viagra prescription, Dr. McCarthy could discern no reason not to oblige.
Chagrin and humiliation arose when his supervisor asked if he had read the patient’s chart well enough to learn the man had a criminal record which had resulted in imprisonment. He then felt the ultimate layer of shame when informed this patient’s conviction had been for sexual assault.
A question of humanity arose when, a woman with only a remnant of sight, afflicted with immune deficiency syndrome AIDS, was found to be carrying a small bag containing cannabis. Despite her pleas not to deprive her of it, as it comprised the only remaining relief she could find, ethical obligations compelled Dr. McCarthy to do so. Naturally, Any such lapse on his part would have placed his license to practice in serious jeopardy.
Still, a more subtle issue arose when this patient refused to take the medications prescribed to slow the progression of her AIDS. Her physical and emotional pain had reached a level where she could find no reason for prolonging her life.
This refusal forced Dr. McCarthy to accept the reality of the right of a patient of sound mind to engage in a form of passive suicide. Due to the rapport which had developed between them, for a few days she agreed to take a small number of tablets. Still, to his dismay and personal hurt, he found, one morning, this lady had checked herself out in the night, and could not be dissuaded from leaving.
Later, encountering her in the waiting-room, he told her how he had felt, and asked her reasons. She told him, in an almost maternal way, she had done what she felt was necessary, and that her departure had not in any way reflected a lack of gratitude for his care and concern. As they parted, he felt no certainty that she would go back onto those medications. Still, he knew he had offered her all he could in terms of support, and she had felt warmed by his kindness.
Sadly, this solicitude brought to the fore his most profound terror. After showing a more recent intern the most efficient way to draw blood from a patient, he inadvertently pricked his own thumb with the needle. This might have been a minor mishap, had the patient in question not been afflicted with AIDS.
Fear for his health as well as ethics required Dr. McCarthy to reveal this both to his supervisor and fiancee. While both of them gave him encouragement and and tenderness, they could not shield him from the horror of the potential effects if the disease were to take hold.
As a reader, I found the most moving part of this book to have been Dr. McCarthy’s generosity in confiding this to the above-mentioned female patient, along with a willingness to take his medications with her.
Ultimately, this memoir opens to us the small but persistent area of uncertainty between professionalism and humanity. In short, we are permitted to see both Matt as a human being and Dr. McCarthy as a physician.
