Hilfiker, in his writing, explored mistakes from his own point of view; the doctor’s point of view. He tells about the immense pressure that he undergoes as a doctor, and how “perfect” the role is expected to be in the eyes of society. He says: “But if we are unable to deal openly with those that do occur [mistakes], we will find neurotic ways to protect ourselves from the pain we feel. Little wonder why physicians are accused of playing God”.(86) He continues in saying that the event of mistakes, physicians don’t have time or space to deal with their mistakes. They leave it behind and shove it away as an incident that they do not have time to go back and retrace. In today’s society they are looked upon as “perfect” almost. Healing from a difficult incident of a terrible mistake that a physician had made is virtually impossible. Robson, in her writing, shares a different perspective of a medical malpractice. She describes herself as a patient that has been wrongly diagnosed with cancer, and in result, has suffered many horrible-life changing- symptoms from intensive chemotherapy. She describes not only the physical toll on her body, but capitalizes on the emotional toll. The physicians treated her very rudely throughout the process; smirking at her, making inconsiderate comments, and brushing her away at times. She is now perfectly healthy, however, if she would have received some remorse from her physicians (or even received an “I’m sorry” from them), would her emotional recovery have been a lot shorter?
You ask a very good question. I wonder how forgiveness affects healing? I wonder if Robson’s doctors even allowed themselves to admit their mistakes? Hilfiker makes it clear that bearing a mistake can be brutal for a healthcare practitioner, but if they won’t allow themselves to admit the mistake, where does it go? How does it get processed? I find it hard to believe that it just rolls of the shoulder.