Nobility in theory and practice

No one is evil.

Everyone’s default setting is good, but sometimes their goodness gets corrupted by selfishness or stupidity or anger. Having a selfless and noble philosophy is a good start; but then again selfless and noble philosophies are a dime a dozen. Go to any comic book store and you’ll read how batman never compromises his belief in justice for the sake of expediency, most constitutions (but not Australia’s) are enshrined with values such as that we are all born with certain inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But not everybody has the opportunity or the strength of will to put them into practice.

What follows are some examples of nobility in practice that I have come across so far during my time here.

I was sitting in my preceptor’s surgery today when a man who works in the hospitals blood bank came in to talk about a patient. Let’s call him Dave. Dave had a low platelet count and despite several transfusions the count was not rising substantially. Dave was financially strained and would not be able to afford transfusions for much longer. He was from a rural town and was recently forced to sell his house in order to afford treatment. He also had children and the man from the blood bank (Barry) was worried that their education and their future prospects may be being unintentionally sacrificed. Barry suggested that patients often do not reveal these concerns to their doctors unless asked and so was advising my preceptor to tell Dave plainly if he had a problem with hematopoiesis (blood cell, including platelet production). That way, he would not continue spending money on transfusions that were not fixing the underlying problem. What impressed me here was simply that Barry took the time to enquire about Dave’s personal life and then put in the effort to confront Dave’s doctor about the issue. The effort was not much but it revealed that Barry really cared for this stranger, hence, nobility in practice.

Patients come in occasionally without any family members. In India, a patient’s family does a lot of what we Australians would expect the hospital to take care of. A simple example is with drugs. Here, a doctor will prescribe the drugs, but then it is the patient’s responsibility to acquire them from an outside pharmacy and make sure that they are being taken as prescribed. With such a system patients who come in on their own are in a bit of a bind. Patients here do not wear hospital gowns, they just wear the clothes they came in with, and if they want a blanket they have to bring it themselves. We were told toady of such a patient, and before I could think of the blanket situation, my preceptor said that he had a spare blanket at home and that if the patient needed it he could have it. Again, the effort was minimal, but the thought and the offer revealed that my preceptor cared.

In an urban slum, three doctors I met have dedicated themselves to not only look after the health of their respective communities but also to act as mentors and help with social, economic, marital and other problems. Their effort is maximal and reveals thorough nobility in philosophy and practice.

It is comforting to be surrounded by such people, people who have maintained their default setting.