No matter what individual experiences one has had with unethical, money-grabbing, greedy doctors or hospitals, at the root of it Medicine is such a truly noble profession.
I’m reminded of this more and more as I come across medical professionals in Britain’s National Health Service, or learn more about the plight of doctors who choose to go and work in war and conflict zones.
The stories one hears of those doctors who are working in war zones are truly awe-inspiring. Most recently there were the stories of doctors in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, one of whom told the BBC what a difficult decision it had been to return to his hometown and to bring his young family with him, and how dangerous the journey had been. Then there were the conditions at the hospital where he worked -- including treating victims of a gas attack -- with increasingly limited resources.
In the case of the Aleppo doctor he was a local man, serving his home city, but consider too all the heroic doctors who go and work for that very humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders. They choose to go and work far away from home, in all sorts of different countries, in conflict zones, in difficult conditions -- to save lives, to heal sick people.
This is even more admirable if you consider how traditional war protocols as framed by the Geneva Convention, are being violated today as hospitals and medical facilities are targeted again and again. It’s been the case in Syria and Yemen and Gaza -- and even in Egypt (the horrific Raqaa episode), and so basically these doctors are trying to save lives knowing that they are war targets.
We tend to take doctors and medical progress somewhat for granted. Keyhole surgery, organ transplants, advanced imaging -- we accept these all as part of available medical care without really taking the time to marvel at how medical science has hurtled forward.
But I am just in awe of how these healers continue to work to cure and re-assure, to research and innovate.
Yes, we’ll all at some point come across the callous, greedy or cold practitioners of medicine, but it seems to me that this is truly the most heroic of professions, at its base dedicated to life and humanity.
It is quite humbling to see in the best of these professionals, their basic commitment to the ethical principles of the Hippocratic oath and their unerring sense of duty to provide medical care whenever needed.
It seems to me that we need to be more appreciative, not just of advancements in medical science but also of the hard work and compassion of those many medical professionals who consider care and healing not just a profession but also a duty.
True heroes.
Best wishes,