My doctor is on some kind of insurance alliance committee. He said that one of his colleagues had a patient who he sent to have a chest x-ray. She did not go and did not come back for a visit until six months later. He again recommended a chest x-ray and she did not go. Several months after that, she went into the emergency room and when they took x-rays, found that she had extensive lung cancer. Dr. G says that it’s not fair that the doctor will probably have to pay fines or have to accept some liability because he did not follow up on his patient. After all, the patient had refused to go to get the chest x-rays he had recommended. Dr. G said that there is no other profession where its members are held to such high standards as doctors.
The doctor said he didn’t mean to tell me things that weighed heavily on his mind, so he told me a joke about the Pope and a pizza delivery man.
July 31, 1996