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Steve Corbett
Tuesday, February 01, 2000 Page: 3A
People think they know.
Even though I kept the doctor’s name to myself, they think they have him
pegged.
Nurses and patients believe they have guessed the identity of the surgeon
to whom I referred in a column last week.
They all named the same doctor.
Two Saturday nights ago, I received an anonymous call at home that a
well-known Wyoming Valley surgeon was drinking heavily at an area nightspot.
The doctor, whom the caller named, supposedly was boozing and boasting that
he had surgery to perform the following morning.
Tell witnesses to call me, I said.
Although no calls ever came, the accusation has bothered me ever since.
Did such a troubling scenario really occur? Do surgeons have drinking
problems? Despite their power, brilliance and often charitable ways, are they
just like average people who abuse alcohol?
Of course they are.
The most notable difference is that average people aren’t belting down
highballs and suiting up in a sterile operating room the next day to perform
open heart surgery or repair organs damaged by accidents, disease and trauma.
That doesn’t mean that the doctor they named is guilty of any ethical
lapse.
But if he does have a problem, he needs people who care for him to
intervene.
One person who considers the doctor a friend told me that a number of the
doctor’s buddies already have talked with him about his drinking.
The friend said that although he respects the doctor’s talent and
accomplishments, he’d never let the doctor operate on him.
Life and death matter
Another friend who praised the doctor and commended his abilities said
operating-room nurses have nothing but compliments for the doctor’s operating
room manner.
Yet that same friend acknowledged cautioning the doctor several times about
drinking and driving.
These people care about this doctor. In that, he should take comfort.
He also should take time to diagnose his failings and take steps to mend
his ways.
Booze can sway the strongest hand.
When that hand belongs to a surgeon, the defenseless become even more
vulnerable.
Self-improvement, though, is preventative medicine of the highest order.
Likable, with a good sense of humor, this doctor possesses many qualities
that make countless people want to defend him and his big-hearted ways, his
friends say.
That’s nice in cocktail-lounge culture.
But in the life-and-death world of surgery, the good-old-boy protection
network just doesn’t cut it.
Doctors merely suspected of alcohol abuse should be reported. Hospitals and
licensing boards must be alerted to any and all allegations.
Maybe my standards are too high.
Still, I’d like to believe that surgeons can live by that higher standard.
People’s lives depend on their steady touch.
That’s why strict regulation and steadfast peer review must improve
drastically.
Before the next patient dies.
Call Corbett at 829-7215 or e-mail stevec@leader.net.