Confessions of a School Nurse by Michael Alexander

Author:Michael Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007586417
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-04-14T13:49:14.942000+00:00

Part two

It came as no surprise when Igor went to see a specialist orthopaedic surgeon. His parents would have it no other way, and Dr Fritz was happy to pass him on. Unfortunately I was there when the surgeon told Igor the good news.

‘You don’t need surgery.’ Igor couldn’t hide his disappointment and resorted to what all fourteen-year-old children say when they’re at a loss. ‘But Mum said I need surgery.’ The surgeon shook his head. ‘There’s no benefit. It will heal fine. Surgery is not only unnecessary, but risky.’ He added that when you operate in such an area there can be problems with healing, as well as the risk of causing damage to the surrounding tissue.

‘There’s a lot of nerves and blood vessels that could be damaged,’ he pointed to a model of a shoulder on his desk to illustrate his point. ‘In this case, surgery would be the wrong thing to do.’

Igor’s parents were unsatisfied because it was our village doctor who had made the referral, and they wanted an opinion from an orthopaedist that they had found themselves. Victor re-emerged, in real life this time, and took Igor to the specialist the family had found. They were told exactly the same thing.

I never got to exchange pleasantries with Victor and only managed to see the outline of a hulking frame dressed in a black suit with matching sunglasses, dwarfing the driver’s seat of a Mercedes, cigarette hanging from lower lip. He was more real and sinister than any film.

It’s good that some people have the chance to shop around for second, or even third, opinions, but it’s a bit pointless shopping around when you don’t listen. If you’ve got enough money, you’ll eventually find someone to voice the opinion you want. I see this sort of thing a lot, and it can be dangerous. I used to think it was about culture, East versus West, but it’s a culture that transcends nations – the culture of money.

Three doctors’ opinions in two weeks was not enough and we were told Igor was going to be flown home.

‘I’m going home for an operation.’ Igor still sounded angry, but it wasn’t directed at us, it was at the whole health system of this country. ‘We have proper doctors in Russia. They’ll know what to do.’ I couldn’t believe any doctor would be crazy enough to operate on him given that two top orthopaedic doctors, from a country famed for its skiing and fractures, had said ‘no’.

Igor returned four weeks later with the scar to show where the metalwork had gone in.

As far as medical treatment goes, anything is possible when you’ve got enough money, but it doesn’t always equate with better care. In a world where medicine is big business, it’s getting harder and harder for nurses – who work every day on the frontline – to be heard.

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