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Doctors

My thoughts on doctors is probably very inconsistent with that with the rest of society. Now, please keep in mind that my current viewpoints are stemming from that which I have been surrounded with and that is a large group of people from an Indian and Pakistani background; those are two countries where being a doctor is revered as something on par with being with a saint. I get such a kick out of people introducing them self as "Dr. so and so", as if that title is supposed to carry some weight with it. Every time I meet a young man (I don't know too many female medical students) who tell me that they are in med school, in residency or are practicing doctors, I will always ask them "What made you decide to practice Medicine?"
I choose the words I speak very carefully, I ask them why they decided to "practice medicine" rather than asking them why they want to be a doctor. Doctors practice medicine, it's not a be-all-end-all title.

People usually respond to my question by giving as much nobility with their intentions as possible, but I can always tell the phonies from those who speak truth. Recently, somebody told me they choose to practice medicine because they enjoyed the challenge. All sorts of questions arose in my mind when he responded. Does he like the challenge of potentially saving somebodies life? (This would leave room for him to potentially have a patient die). That sounded preposterous to me; Life is not a gamble.

I like to be straight with medical students, as in their future profession they cannot sugar-coat a diagnosis. I assume that people from certain backgrounds are pressured to be biology majors and later go on to study medicine by their parents. Their parents enjoy the weight that is carried from telling that their daughter or son is a doctor (living vicariously). I simply state to people this assumption and will tell them that they most likely are becoming a doctor for the financial benefit of it... so, if you want to make a lot of money being a doctor, why not go into Plastic Surgery?

I am fortunate enough to be friends with one of the most prominent and successful Plastic Surgeons in Orange County, California. He has an admirable and enviable life that I am sure is the motivation of many medical students. His practice of medicine is in the specialty of image-enhancement. Is he helping people? Not per say but anything more than making them feel better about them self. If you're going to become a doctor, I am quite positive that you are doing it for the money so why not go in the most lucrative field? I can only assume it's because the young individual thinks it's not as prestigious a field.

I had a nice conversation with a friend recently about his viewpoint of doctors. He thinks that it is a bogus field. He stated that Medicine is all theory, it's not all factual and that many doctors don't even have answers to the simplest problems. I found this very interesting as it is something I didn't shed much light on but correlates a little bit on my viewpoint of doctors. My father is currently suffering through stage four of Lung Cancer and he is very frustrated with his doctor's incorrect diagnosis about his condition and inadequate treatment so there is definitely validity in that point.

A Doctor is a public servant, like a Priest or a Shaykh. He or she should serve the people unselfishly and not be motivated by financial gain. It's a field that you don't practice haphazardly but with incredible focus and attention. I wish that I had gone into Medicine because of my fascination with the spinal cord and vertebrae; I would have loved to have been a Spinal Surgeon. I care not for the pay-grade that comes with the profession but rather would help people in need. I would never introduce myself as 'Dr. Faisal Khan' though because I have never felt the need to flash any sort of title.

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