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Why it’s important to take charge of your own health

Immediately after his surgery, my dad was having tremendous amounts of shortness of breath, in addition to other complications. I reached out to my closest friends who are physicians and started updating them on my dad’s status daily. They pushed me to ask all the right questions to the doctors, yet the doctors were not willing to take any suggestions. Days passed by, and the doctors were not doing much to help my dad. To make matters worse, this was all taking place during COVID times. It was hard for us to visit my dad and even harder to speak to a physician to learn about my dad’s daily status. With no empathy from the doctors, they eventually told us they would not be able to provide care for my dad anymore. They wanted to withdraw care for my dad, but we were not ready to lose hope. I was furious and devastated. Why did the doctors not plan for an exit strategy if a complication arose after the surgery? Why did they keep him sedated for three weeks? Why did they give up so easily? Why did they not initiate the right treatments or do the required imaging in a timely manner? I always used to hold doctors to the highest regards and standards until this experience.

Courtesy and Author: Himani Joshi