Do you know what is Second Victim syndrome?
It is a mostly silent issue which the victim has to face by herself or himself and he or she cannot seek or does not seek a cure! There is no doctor to take care of the second victim syndrome since the victim here is the doctor himself or herself!
There is this amazing novel called the The Checklist Manifesto by Mr (dr) Atul Gawande in which he tells about one case.
While doing a routine case which he had done so many times he became a little complacent and nicked a vessel. What followed was of course a dance of control and capture. The complication was controlled but the patient did go in for extended stay and recovery with some residual issues. The author remembers this case plain as day in spite of the many successful cases he may have had!
Starting from the very first posting to the time when you are at the peak of your career as a doctor or a surgeon; you are always scared! Not for the fact that a wrong decision would make the patient sue you! Yes, that fear is always there! But the bigger fear is that you feel that your decision has caused trouble to the patient! After all, each and every doctor out there is a human! A mere mortal! When a patient returns within a few days of medication and you see his or her face you can know that your ‘treatment’ has not worked!
When you have a complication in the surgery for which you can blame a million things, you still feel for the patient! You may forget all your good cases or routine cases, but you would never forget your slips and complications!
The fact of the matter is that each and every doctor or health care practitioner has a slip once in a while!
My chief used to say that if you do not have complications or failures in your cases then you are not doing enough cases! Failure is a vital part of the learning curve and each time you fail, you MUST learn something! But the emotional toll is real!
So the second victim syndrome (SVS) is defined as the health care practitioner (like the doctor or the nurse as the case may be) who commit an error and are traumatized by the event manifesting psychological (shame, guilt, anxiety, grief, and depression), cognitive (compassion dissatisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress), and/or physical reactions that have a personal negative impact.
It has been suggested that the SVS has very similar signs and symptoms with acute stress disorder and a medical trauma requiring a psychological emergency care.
These “emotional tsunamis” can last for weeks or up to several years depending on the nature of the case and severity of injury to the patient, and even cause long-term consequences similar to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)! This is sure to take a toll on the doctor and his or her practice! But most just keep it inside and move on!
Many such smiling doctors with frown lines are wearing a MASK and it is not N95!
Talking of doctors and stuff reminds of this old Kannada movie starring Ambareesh as a doctor! It was well, inspiring!
One song in the movie though was very catchy…
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