Storytellers

The unscrupulous assassination of clinical acumen Vijay Gopichandran, Chennai Today I saw a young man all of 28 years of age who came with gradual and progressive weakness of his hands and feet over 2 years. It all started 2 years ago when he was hospitalized with a fever in a local hospital and treated with some “injections” for more than 10 days. He became better and went home and started noticing the weakness. After a thorough history and a physical examination, it seemed that he may be suffering from some form of motor neuron disease, which was gradually and progressively impairing his muscle activity and would probably confine him to a wheelchair soon and maybe even cost him his life prematurely. Long after this patient left the clinic to a tertiary care center for further evaluation, I was contemplating on the looming uncertainties in medicine and how not a day of clinical practice passes without having to confront these uncertainties. As a medical student posted in ...