Hippocrates stricken in Gaza

The Hippocratic Oath states: "I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. The health and life of my patient will be my first consideration. I will cure all patients with the same diligence and commitment. I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient."

In Gaza, doctors and nurses where killed, hospitals and ambulances targeted. Those who dedicate their lives to heal are attacked because they were trying to live up to the oath.
UN, WHO, WMA, Geneva conventions. IHL.. words and acronyms that do not hear the cries of agonizing heroes nor smell the odor of putrid bodies of innocent heroes.

Picture: Palestinian doctors send the wounded babies to a hospital in Gaza City on Monday morinng. Israeli warplanes pounded the building of Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Sunday night which is the second attack against Palestinian government building within one week.

Doctor-patient relationship

"The message I want to convey in this painting is most of all the relation of trust, a bond that can and must be built between the physician and the patient. The scene resembles a powerful womb where you can 'pass out' as a result of the anesthesia one takes. Yet, knowing that one is in trustworthy hands makes all the difference. This is so on the scientific, the psychological and the moral levels. After all, physicians are human beings with whom we share the same fate and the same human condition." Exclusively for our blog by Mimoza - the painter of Between Blue and Green.

Many patients are complaining about the physician-patient relationship. Doctors, they say, are skilled people who know the science of medicine quite well. Yet, when we are in their presence, we are reduced to an illness, a disease. What is lacking is a physician-patient relationship that makes the patient feels that he/she is a person cared for, not an illness to be treated.
Why has this happened and what can be done to remedy the vision of the old medical practitioner as 'healer'?

Bioethics Matters

Hit by blockade and airstrikes, Gaza's hospitals in crisis - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hit by blockade and airstrikes, Gaza's hospitals in crisis - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Breaking point... a wounded Palestinian man is carried on a stretcher into a hospital in Rafah. (AFP: Said Khatib)

Palestinian patients wearing masks, to protect themselves from smoke and dust caused by Israeli shelling, crowd at Gaza City's southern al-Quds hospital corridors, after a section of the medical facility was hit by Israeli fire. About 500 people including patients were huddled in a Gaza City hospital that suffered a "direct hit" in an Israeli air strike Thursday, the international Red Cross said.(AFP/Mehdi Fedouach)

Patients Denied Treatment Due to Siege

Basic medicines including those for the treatment of chronic illnesses and diseases such as cancer, renal and liver diseases are missing. Necessary medical supplies are becoming scarce and constant power cuts are damaging CT scan machines and x-ray equipment at hospitals in Gaza.
Article 24 of the Declaration of Human Rights states: " Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." Health is not a commodity or a luxury but a basic right.

IT'S ON THE NEWS! What do you say?

A 13 year old girl refuses a heart transplant and is granted the wish to die. (nov. 2008)

As a treatment for her leukemia, young Hannah Jones was given doses of a drug which ultimately led to the development of a hole in her heart. The hospital has attempted to force her to undergo a heart tranplant, however, the young girl felt that she has suffered enough for several years and that she already had "too much trauma".

Aware of the result of her decision, Hannah chose to let go. Her family support her and are planning her dream trip to Disney World.

The "best interest" of Hannah was at issue. Who knows best and who is to decide? Her parents? the health care team? or Hannah herself although she is only 13?