Story from my chamber: Ungratefulness or stupidity

One Bangladeshi patient came to me as an outpatient, a few days earlier. He came with his foreman who was an Indian. The patient came with complaints of fever, dizziness and giddiness, headache, and a history of a fall on his face & having a cut injury to his lower lip.

According to him, during lunchtime that day, he was alone at home. While eating his lunch, he suddenly felt light-headedness and fell on his face. Most likely, he was unconscious for a few minutes. When he came to his sense, he found out bleeding from his lower lip. However, he couldn’t come to a hospital immediately (one of the main problems I have seen in Oman. Patients can't go to a hospital whenever necessary). He came after evening.

He was kinda lethargic when I saw him. I found mild oozing of blood from his cut injury sites. When I examined, I found that he had cuts on either side of his lower lip; inside and outside. I usually don't stitch up inside of the oral cavity (I only do to outside skin, no mucosa). But he needed the suturing on both sides.

So, I told them (patient and foreman) to go to a nearby bigger hospital where a surgeon was available who could close both cut wounds. They went and around half an hour later, they returned to me. In that hospital, from the emergency room, he was sent to the dental doctor where no stitches were done. He wasn’t sent to a surgeon either. His external wound wasn’t even cleaned. A mouthwash, antibiotics and a painkiller were given.

They were satisfied with the management (!) there and came back to me to get treatment for other complaints like headache or dizziness etc. I was kinda surprised to see him in the original/previous state. According to my assessment, he didn't get the appropriate management there. Both cut wounds were to be stitched up, otherwise the wounds wouldn't heal fast.

I called the dental doctor of my clinic to see his inner wound. The dentist also told that it needed to be stitched. So, I closed the outside wound and he (the dentist) closed the inner wound. We (me, the dentist of my clinic and the dentist of another hospital) gave the medications accordingly. We told him to come for follow up after one day.

He came for the follow. However, he seemed unhappy. He came directly to me without registering his name. The cause of his attitude was that his inside stitches were removed already, automatically. He had to pay a few Omani Rials to the dentist for the stitches. So, he was angry about the removal of the stitches. He was asking "what are the benefits for me, as the stitches are already removed?"

I told him that according to your conditions on the previous day, stitching your wound was the right call according to our judgement. Outside stitches are OK, however, the inner's are gone which was an unexpected outcome. Sometimes we face something which isn't intended for. And we need to accept that.

Seemed like he wasn't convinced. He left afterwards.

The end

[Own experience. Shared in other platforms]