Breaking the Bad News

Virtuous doctors are humans with a heart for their patients and their patient's families. They recognize the "importance of their role" in breaking the bad news to the family members.

Doctors can be God's instrument of healing their wounded heart if they allow God to use them.

Watch and learn.

Oh those #TearsOfGreys feels! 󾌺󾌺󾌺 #GreysAnatomy
Posted by Grey's Anatomy on Lunes, Oktubre 19, 2015

Love turns you upside Down

I was about to take a rest when I chanced upon an episode of Grey's Anatomy season 9. It must have been centuries ago since I last watched an episode of Grey's. The episode's plot was about the new interns going on their first 24 hours of duty. It was like watching Grey's and her gang when they were interns too. This takes us to memory lane when we were starting to realize our dream of becoming full pledged doctors.

I am with World Vision now as a health officer and I should expect that I will have less time to none of any clinical practice. But this week, we have a Children's Congress and me and another guy will be the medical team for the whole event. My partner in the medical team is a nurse but has not been clinically practicing for several years now. Seeing congress participants coming to us with complaints of cough to abdominal pain and different wounds reminds him of his first love - clinical work. However, he said, he has a new love and although he is reminded of his old love, he will not leave his new found love now.

We grow up and hope to become what we dreamed to be, for me that was being a doctor. A doctor in the hospital, practicing clinical medicine. But as we journey in life, things happen and our first love may not end up as our lasting love. Love does turn us upside down.

Sometimes, it is nice to remember your first love... once in a while.  

Who is your God?

Last weeks episode of Gray's Anatomy showed us a glimpse of how people - patients, their families and doctors, perceive healing by God.
Dr. Allison Montgomery was back in Seattle Grace to bring his brother who needed brain surgery. Her brother's case was next to impossible to be resolved. Thus, Dr. Montgomery seeks the help of God. Quite interestingly, she goes to two different gods. In one scene, we see her in the chapel, down on her knees, silently staring at the cross. We gather from her friend's comments who were watching her that she is not a known churchgoer. In fact, she doesn't know how to pray. Here is a doctor that doesn't know how to pray - basically she doesn't know how to talk to God. She cannot verbalize the desires of her heart that her brother would be healed and that her brain surgery will be succesful.
On the next scene, we see Dr. Montgomery pleading to her ex-husband, the great neurosurgeon Dr. Shephard. Dr. Montgomery asked Dr. Derek Shephard to play god - to be powerful enough to cure her brother. She pleads whole heartedly, emotionally and with with tears flowing from her eyes. It almost looks like she is praying to Dr. Shephard for help.
Here are two pictures of the gods that people look up to in times of need. In the first case, God is perceived as the healer. But as often the case, God is only called upon in times of need. God is the patch to every hole. A band aid to every scratch. On the otherhand, medicine is the healer. Medical science can figure out a creative way to work around the difficulties of diseases and solve the problem. Medicine can do anything. Medicine is god.
Notice that in the two scenario, I have left out the doctor. The reasons I did that needs another blog. Suffice it to say, that the doctor here is perceived to the gods.
The point of the distinction I am making is that in times of medical crisis, we pray to a god to help us. We seek a powerful god. Sometimes we seek help from God. Sometimes we seek help from medicine. Sometimes we seek help from both because one is not enough. It is the latter two that I will criticize. Most of the time, we are blinded by the fact that when we seek medical help we put our hope in medicine. We make medicine the god who can heal us. Yes, we might believe that there is God but we really think that it is medical science who cures us. We simply reduce God to a metaphor of healing power. We do not really trust that God can work miracles and heal diseases. Worse, like the second case, we might indeed be praying that God will heal us. But in case he does not, we hope that medicine will step up and pick up the slack. Sad but true. Now, when we ourselves are faced in a situation similar to that of Dr. Montgomery, to whom will we pray?

Scared of the Dark

The last episode of Grey's Anatomy deals with our fears of being alone in the dark. When we were children we were scared of monsters. When we grow older our monsters are different - self-doubt, loneliniess and regret, but we are still scared of the dark. We are scared because we feel we are all alone. The darkness that we are in are the challenges and difficulties of our life. When we are sick or one of our beloved is seriously ill. When we are beset with financial difficulties. When we have estranged relationships with our friends and families. When we are faced with pressure from work, school or play. Everyday there is darkness in this broken world. We feel scared in the dark. But as Christians, we have the courage to deal with the darkness in this broken world. We know that God is with us. In our most trying times, the body of Christ - the church, comforts us. Family and friends are there to share with us the love of Jesus Christ. Even in the darkest moment of our life - God is there because God is still Lord of all - even in the dark. Gods light shines brighter than any darkness that makes us scared. And so as Christians who always put our faith and hope to the promise of Christ, we are not scared. For God is with us. Nighttime isn't so scary because we realize we are not all alone in the dark.

The Gift of Faith

In Grey's Anatomy this week, they introduced a couple of new characters. But what interested me was the belief of the Navajo patient that they had. The patient had beliefs that his cardio thoracic surgeon did not necessarily agree with. The patient had a heterotopic heart transplant 6 years ago, meaning another heart was put to help his own heart to work. Now he wants the "piggy-backed" heart removed because he claims that the ghost of the person who owns the heart is haunting him and he wants the heart back so they can get rid of it ritually. Here's the deal, the cardio-thoracic surgeon does not agree with his belief but rather insists on adhering to the medical protocol of throwing the heart into medical waste.

What we see here is an interplay of two belief systems, science and religion. I love what the Navajo patient replied to his doctor when they told him that she doesn't have beliefs but only adhere to rules. The Navajo patient reminded him that adhering to rules, thinking logically and scientifically is a belief in Science. He, the Navajo patient, believes in more than that - more than what Science can explain and demand.
The patient is telling us that people may have different beliefs and we adhere to that. This phrases are familiar - "If you believe that, fine. This is what I believe. This is what I do. I make my mind on what I believe."

For us Christians, we always talk about what we believe in. We also talk about how our belief in God defines our faith. Our belief equals our faith. We think that our belief, our faith, is our own action. We forget that faith is a gift from God. We do not make our own faith, thus whatever we believe in is something that was given to us and not out of our own doing or thinking. It is not even by our own choice. Our Christian beliefs are informed by the faith that was given to us by God. So what do you believe in?

Re-integration

The last episode focused on Dr. Hunt who just came from a tour in Iraq. He comes back to the "real" world and struggles to integrate himself back. Seattle Grace Hospital is a little community that has their own rules and social norms that medical practitioners adhere to. Because Dr Hunt served for several years in the desert - in the wild, he is an outsider to the Seattle Grace community. He is the only person left from his unit and ever since he have lost the ability to relate and interact with people. So he tries hard to be part of the society again by becoming an ER doc at Seattle Grace. But the renowned and world famous surgeons of the hospital despise the outsider because he is radical, different and wild.

The plot of this story reminds me of the leper whom Jesus healed (Matt 8:2; Mark 1:40). Lepers are viewed as unclean and thus shunned by the society so they become marginalized. In order for them to be accepted by the society again, the priest must declare them clean and fit to be part of the society. So when Jesus heals the leper and tells him to show himself to the priest, Jesus does not only want to cure his physical illness but also to integrate him back to the society. Jesus always emphasizes the human need for relationship and community. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors... even our enemies - those despised. Christians are called to have reconcile our division with the marginalized and the unwanted. Remember, Jesus dined and related with the despised taxpayers, the sinners, the prostitutes, the poor, the sick and all who have been pushed to the edges by the society. Christian communities are called to be an alternative reality where everybody can be embraced, reconciled and integrated. Sometimes, we might be Dr. Hunt - the leper that Jesus have healed.

"I have a dream..."

"I have a dream... that the ER will be full..." uttered Dr. Bailey. And Dr. Cristina seconded. This was part of the opening scene in the season 5 premier of Grey's Anatomy.

Of course, the doctors were alluding to Martin Luther King's famous visionary speech in Washinton. King's dream was about social unity, equality, reconciliation - in essence a vision towards a better community. On the otherhand, Dr. Bailey's vision involves an emergency room filled with trauma patients - probably from road accidents, assault, and any other traumatic incidents that one can imagine. Why this dream? Doctors like Bailey and Cristina, at least those who wants to further their careers, dream of being able to practice their craft of healing and one can only practice it if there are patients to attend to. I have to say, most "normal" doctors do think this way - to have more patients to attend to. For whatever reasons these doctors can think of - more patients, more income; or more patients, more oppurtunity to improve skill; more patients, more able to help people, they all hope that they will have more patients. Is there something good about this? Or is it all bad? Is a doctor wanting more patients for herself equal to wanting more sick people? Now, the idealist intern might probably will think otherwise, because more patients just mean more work to do. Either the intern is lazy or very hopeful that no more bad things will happen to other people, their thought is far from the reality of the "normal" doctors. What am I trying to say here? The sad reality that most doctors today look at the patients as no more than objects of their crafts and less as humans. Worst, doctors may just see the trauma, the illness, separate from the person. Even worst, patients may just be mere charts. But for a Christian physician, its all different.

Christianity teaches us that humans are the image of God and therefore we should treat all humans - ALL, as sacredly as we can. Not because humans have life but because of the fact that they are humans (and not animals) and made them "just a little lower than angels (Psalms 8:5)."

Now, is it proper for doctors then to dream of people to get sick? Or does the doctor not necessarily hopes that more people will meet accidents but rather hopes that whoever meets an accident may come into her care? This is why a Christian docotr can resonate King's words. Because she knows she is a Christian and she knows that God will use her to be God's vessel of healing. And so she hopes that these trauma patients and their families who are hurting and broken may encounter God's reconciling love through her. And so the Christian doctor prays, "I have a dream..."

Grey's Anatomy

A new season and new posts...

Wait till we get underway... Watch out for the upcoming posts....

Theology of Grey's: Doctor and Uncle

Chief of Hospital, Dr. Richard, was torn between being an uncle and a doctor. He had a niece, Camille, who had a metastatic ovarian cancer that presents with an esophageal tumor blocking her airway. She can either undergo experimental chemotherapy and have it surgically removed then live a longer but suffer a complicated, painful and difficult life or choose to forego the treatment plan and live a stress-free, painless life for several weeks before she dies. Her family members are begging her to choose experimental chemotherapy and rare surgical operations because their "world is better with her (Camille) around." But Camille wants to go because she is "so so tired," and just want to live a short but happy life then let the natural consequence of life take its course. Adele, Dr. Richard's wife, begs him to convince their neice to choose treatment. And so, Dr. Richard tells Camille... "as your Uncle, I am begging you to take it (the medical option)... even if there's just a slim hope of survival... take that choice... but as your doctor, I will do whatever your decision will be..." She wanted to go home, Dr. Richard sent her home.

Here is the theology of Christian ethics that most people do not understand. In a life and death situation, we want life. But what is life? Is it just breathing 20 cycles per minute and having a heart pump 60 beats per minute? Even though the person is bed-ridden, socially non-functional and kept physiologically viable by a life support? Is that still life? Here is what Christianity teaches us. God became human in Jesus Christ to give life and have it abundantly. Not just to have life... but have it abundantly. When Jesus healed the sick, made the blind see, the lame walk and the dead come back to life... Jesus gave them life again, a life they can live abundantly. When Jesus died on the cross... Jesus gave us life by defeating the power of sin that prevents us to live an abundant life with God. That's life, an abundant life! That's the kind of life that doctors are ethically called to offer in their healing ministry.

Yes, doctors are God's instrument to give us an abundant life. Adele, Dr. Richard's wife, did not understand that "calling" for doctors. She did not know what it means to be a doctor, a doctor that God uses to give life. Adele said to Dr. Richard, "I thought you were a doctor, I thought being a doctor was about saving lives...I'm disappointed with you." What Adele did not realize is that as a doctor, Dr. Richard gave her niece a chance to live an abundant life.

Theology of Grey's Anatomy

I was watching Grey's and it just struck me how the media is feeding all these poor principles in life, if not poor theology. I never criticized a tv series because I usually just watch and enjoy them. Never letting it bother or affect my emotions, perspective in life or things like that. But in reality, and psychological and sociological studies prove, TV series really affect us. So, what are some of these poor principles in life - poor theologies that they offer? This week's episode on Grey was talking about forgiveness. I was agreeing at first with their idea about forgiveness, that if someone commit a mistake then you forgive. She was almost making sense to me when she explained that in life you are going to get hurt and there is only one thing to be done, forgive. Then she concluded in the end that to forgive and forget... the advice we usually get, is good but not practical. Now, I thought about that for a moment and asked when was forgiving a practical matter? Then I realized that for non-Christians they thought it was a choice they had to make. It's either they forgive or not. That's one problematic view media is giving. But for us Christians, we are commanded to forgive. We are told to forgive our brothers and sisters as many times as they did us wrong. That is what is commanded of us, not merely suggested for us to do. It is important to note however, that we can forgive because we never hate the person.

We hate the wrong act committed against us, but never the person. This is an important thing to consider. I realized this when Grey continued in her explanation "When someone hurts us we want to hurt them back. When someone wrongs us, we want to be right." Grey's perspective suggest that we want to exact vengeance to another person and want to hurt them too. Why? Because her non-Christian anthropological understanding of humanity did not separate "action" from the humanity of the person. Of course, the act was done by the person but we must understand why. The wrong done by the person is a product of a sinful state. But all humanity is originally good. If we never separate the wrong act by a person then we will never see the goodness inate in them. We will always see the wrong done to us. And we will never learn to forgive another person.

But Grey redeemed herself by concluding that "without forgiveness, old wounds never heal. Without forgiveness, old scores are never settled. And the most we can hope for is that someday... well be lucky enough to forget." She is right. Without forgiving someone, the hurt is not healed and restored. But here, Grey is suggesting that if we cannot forgive then we could only hope to forget the pain caused to us. She may be right, that we might be able to forget the wrong done to us. But forgetting does not mean that the hurt done is healed, that the pain is eased or that the broken relationship was restored. Forgiveness still needs to be done. Even after years of forgetting, it is only by forgiving that all the hurt and brokenness is healed and restored. It is only by forgiving that we can truly forget.