"Professional Etiquette"

[cuddly_tomato]

Very often within a group of people within the same profession a type of unwritten rule seems to take over. Honour among thieves for instance, they don't steal from each other and don't call the cops on each other. Likewise, cops don't "snitch" on other cops who believe apprehending suspects by kicking twelve shades of shit out of them is acceptable.

But this article got me thinking:-

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=33257&in_page_id=2

Doctors' unions in Romania have criticised a decision to make a surgeon pay £100,000 in damages after he lost his temper and hacked off a patient's penis during surgery.

Surgeon Naum Ciomu, who had been suffering from stress at the time, had been operating on patient Nelu Radonescu, 36, to correct a testicular malformation when he suddenly lost his temper.

Grabbing a scalpel, he sliced off the penis in front of shocked nursing staff, and then placed it on the operating table where he chopped it into small pieces before storming out of the operating theatre at Bucharest hospital.

Now, what that doctor did was bad in my opinion. We all loose it from time to time, but when someone looses it and then uses a sharp instrument to maim an unconscious person they need to be locked in fucking prison, not given a fine.

What I found really shocking about this case though was the response of the other medical "professionals":-

The medical costs will be paid by the hospital's insurer, but doctors' unions have criticised the decision that the money for the damages has to be paid by the doctor.

Seriously, why? If this man had been attacked in the street and stabbed would the doctors union criticise making the assailant pay damages? What is the difference?

Vice-president of the Romanian Doctors Union, Vasile Astarastoae, said: 'Ciomu's case is a dangerous precedent for all Romanian doctors. In future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake.'

She added: 'Doctors in Romanian earn too little to be able to pay amounts like this. As a result it will be entirely fair if they only accept cases where they cannot make mistakes. The only way this can be avoided is if the insurance companies cover all the risk.'

This wasn't a "mistake". It was a vicious assault on a man who had placed himself in a vunerable position to someone who he thought was going to do his best for him. But here is this woman making excuses simply because the doctor is a doctor, and "they need to stick together".

So, let me ask you this, if you saw a colleague at work doing something immoral, illegal, or dangerous, would you inform someone? Even be willing to do it on the record and not annonymously?

 

[sidhe3141]

Yes and yes. It shows my boss what an upstanding exemplar I am, it reduces the competition for promotions, it means that I don't have to count on them doing the same thing again when I need to rely on them... Ironic, I know.

 

[D_987]

Wow...he should be put in jail - what a monstrous action, to maim an unconscious person due to personal reasons...

How he can defended is beyond me.

 

[wewontdie11]

HE CUT OFF THE MAN'S DICK! That should be automatic death sentence right there.

 

[Haddi]

Oh god the penis bit makes me scared.

You realize I will never go to the doctor again.
This kind of stuff is unacceptable, what this man did was the work of a deranged man. People who go above the law in manners like this should go to jail, not pay a fine.

 

[sidhe3141]

HE CUT OFF THE MAN'S DICK! That should be automatic death sentence right there.

Apparently there's a way to fix it though... Drop the visceral reactions and answer the question at the bottom.

 

[Ronwue]

This was the last place I expected to find this sort of news from my own country... great entrance what can I say.

And about the topic at hand... I suppose... depends on a lot of things really, mostly because I have a shifted moral compass to begin with (concerning the immoral), if I can be blamed for what he did (for the legal), and if it will damage me or someone I care about or a large number of people aside from himself (if it is dangerous).

And I'm pretty sure that some facts were missed by your site of information, but I care way too little about the subject to get adequately informed. I can say however that there was enough newspaper coverage of the incident which happened a good while ago, and if anyone thought that what was decided in this case was too lenient, they had enough time to scream about it until now.

 

[Mafftastic]

In my chosen career path (psychology) we are pretty much required to inform a higher power if we find out that another psychologist is acting unethically, immorally, or illegaly.

So yes. Yes I would.

(For the record, I'm not there yet, still a student.)

 

[Aardvark]

Professional Etiquette is not telling the useless fucksnipe you're forced to deal with what you really think of them. Just remember kids, everybody hates you. Whether it be because of your whiney voice, your irritating personality or that you're requiring them to work a little more, they hate you, want you to die and would gladly curse your ancestors for providing a fraction of the DNA required to create you to your face, if they weren't getting something out of biting their tongue.

 

[Haddi]

HE CUT OFF THE MAN'S DICK! That should be automatic death sentence right there.

Apparently there's a way to fix it though... Drop the visceral reactions and answer the question at the bottom.

Let me get it outta me system first.

AGHH SCARY DOCTOR GONNA CHOP OFF ME DICK.

Me so scared.

And scarred.

Now for intelligent.

It may seem like I'm a snitch, but I hate to see people who just go above rules, try to bend them, or just plain break things.
I always report them.

 

[Avatar Roku]

...Why am I reminded of Doctor Steinman?

As for defending a coworker, it depends. If he's been stealing paper clips, I won't turn him in. If he maims a guy, I definitely would.

 

[nova18]

I believe that if what someone doing isnt necessarily harmful to anyone and that they are doing it for the right reasons, I wouldnt report them.
But for this situation, I would walk him into the police station myself.

Theres a line that needs to be drawn when it comes to professional etiquette.
If a Doctor takes some medicine from supplies to treat his own sick kid, then maybe it would be immoral to turn him in.
When a doctor puts someones life at risk, then he should be reported.

*BTW, I know that stealing medicine could endanger someone who needs it, but you can see where I'm trying to go with this...

 

[wewontdie11]

HE CUT OFF THE MAN'S DICK! That should be automatic death sentence right there.

Apparently there's a way to fix it though... Drop the visceral reactions and answer the question at the bottom.

I think I'm allowed a visceral reaction to a man being dismembered in such a fashion. I'll never approach my local practice in the same way again...

But actually concerning the question, if my co-worker chopped off a patient's Johnson, then yes I would definitely report it and lose all respect for said co-worker as a human being. If it was violent or a major legal infringement then I would also probably report it, and have it on the record that it was me, far as I'm concerned it's the right thing to do. Most other little things like nicking a pen or taking off half an hour early I'd let slide though.

 

[Erana]

OK, now, that guy was just plain insane.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

The thing about this case that I find so shocking is the fact that this man is being defended by doctors. Most doctors go into medicine to help people, at what point did this change into defending a man who severely maimed another while unconscious and under his care?

All doctors are human, and all must make mistakes. Are these doctors thinking "I had better defend this guy, just incase I make a fuck up and need defending myself"? If this is the case they are behaving extremely unprofessionally and putting their own careers above the actual work that they do.

Is there a point where you make a choice - your career, or what's right? If so this is a prime example of how you can be drawn so deeply into a career driven mentality that you have no idea how absurd your position can be. Defending this doctors actions goes beyond the bounds of idiocy.

 

[Break]

Why didn't anyone stop him when he started slicing it up on the table? I mean, sure, he could've been too quick for anyone to react when he lopped it off, but putting it down, and cutting it into small pieces? Did they just not think to do anything? Like take the scalpel off him, or call the fucking police?

 

[RebelRising]

HE CUT OFF THE MAN'S DICK! That should be automatic death sentence right there.

My jaw literally dropped at that part.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Why didn't anyone stop him when he started slicing it up on the table? I mean, sure, he could've been too quick for anyone to react when he lopped it off, but putting it down, and cutting it into small pieces? Did they just not think to do anything? Like take the scalpel off him, or call the fucking police?

Apparently not. Although, to be honest, I don't really blame them. The man is armed with an extremely sharp scalpel, not to mention what this man did might just not register with your brain for several minutes. I like to think I would have interviened, but I can't rule out the possibility I would have just watched, dumbfounded, as it happened. Just to shocked to actually know what to do.

Give me a good 30 minutes for my brain to come to terms with it though and I know exactly what to do. Lock this person in prison for at least 5 years, and never ever let him work in a hospital again. I certainly wouldn't condemn making him pay damages to the person he assaulted. Take his fucking house and all his belongings as far as I am concerned.

 

[_Janny_]

'Doctors in Romanian earn too little to be able to pay amounts like this.

I'm not trying to defend the guy, but it's true, doctors around here get paid horribly...

Anyway, I'm with cuddly_tomato on this one, that doctor was perfectly aware of what he was doing so he should be put in jail and fired from the hospital.