A recent book by a Vancouver neurosurgeon questions a common practice among medical professionals to emotionally detach from patients.
Dr. Chris Honey has practiced neurosurgery for 25 years and is the head of the neurosurgery division at the University of British Columbia. His book, The Tenth Nerve, published this February, includes stories of seven patients who, according to him, have taught him how to be a better doctor.
Honey says that in the 16th century, when medical technology was not well developed, a doctor’s job was more about providing emotional support to patients than medical care.
It’s a big difference from how medical students are being trained today: they’re told to limit emotional engagement with patients because, as Honey says, riding a roller coaster of compassion can pose a real personal risk to the patient. mental health of doctors.
But Honey argues that a real understanding of any disease requires listening to patients and taking genuine care of them.
A doctor is depicted listening to a patient. Chris Honey says a real understanding of any disease requires listening to patients and taking genuine care of them. (kobps2 / Shutterstock)
“The scalpel can only go so deep, and technical skill can only carry one,” he wrote in the book.
Honey spoke with CBC presenter Gloria Macarenko on CBC’s On The Coast about what she’s learned from her patients and why communication between doctors and patients is so important.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
“The scalpel can only go that deep, and the technical skill can only carry one.” What did you wear?
When I started my surgical career, like many young surgeons, I thought I knew everything: I would just tell patients what they needed and operate on them.
But over the years, I realized that there were some patients who profoundly changed who I was, how I understood medicine, how I understood the human condition and also how I understood myself.
What I have realized is that you can learn a lot from patients just by talking to them and listening to their stories.
How has your approach to surgery and your own outlook on life changed?
For example, many of these patients have conditions that have never been described before.
One of the standard practices in medicine is to listen to the patient’s history and see if he recognizes the pattern and then label them with a disease. But if you don’t recognize the pattern, our knee-jerk reaction is to say, “You know what? It’s all in your head: you’re making it up.”
I met a woman with a condition that people had just told her was all in her head and that she was psychogenic. But I believed her, she forced me to believe her.
Over the years we discovered what was happening to him and finally we discovered a new condition called hemilaryngopharyngeal spasm or the acronym fortunately short HELPS: when the vagus nerve, or the tenth nerve, is compressed, it can cause symptoms. to your body.
Chris Honey describes VANCOUVER syndrome as one in which a patient has a cough without lung-related causes. (Shutterstock / mangostock)
We have found a second condition that will be known in medicine as VANCOUVER syndrome.
VANCOUVER is the acronym for Vagus-associated neurogenic cough that occurs due to unilateral vascular invasion of its root. Pressing the vagus nerve can cause signals that make you feel like an incredible tickle in your lungs. These people have a cough, but there is no lung cause.
Patients were told, “You just had a psychogenic cough, so learn to live with it.” But fortunately we found the cause and the cure, and so those patients taught me medicine.
You said not just talking to patients, but listening to them. Is there a message for other doctors?
It is a message that BC has clearly learned from the stellar example of Dra. Bonnie Henry, who is really able to listen to patients and communicate to them what they need to do in their best interest.
I think we have done very well in British Columbia in terms of our communication skills. But it is a recurring theme in medicine: the doctor must listen to the patient to really understand what is happening to him, not just the disease, but how it affects the family of the patient’s circle of caregivers.
LISTENING Dr. Christopher Honey in his new book, The Tenth Nerve:
On the coast7: 23The tenth nerve – Dr. Christopher Honey
“The scalpel can only go so deep, and the technical skill can only carry one,” is a quote from a new book by Dr. Christopher Honey, a neurosurgeon at Vancouver General Hospital. He talks about finding the tenth nerve in the human brain. , and his new book.