Maria Pettinato

Review of IRCCS IST-Istituto tumori

I went on a private visit to two different special...

I went on a private visit to two different specialists to submit to them the case of my father, suffering from urothelial carcinoma with probable bone secondary diseases. In both cases, the experience proved to be totally negative on a medical level and highly disappointing on a human level. In the first case, in fact, the luminary to whom we turned turned out to be an aseptic scholar of reports, completely indifferent to the patient who, although present, was ignored for the duration of the reading of the paper documentation produced (and not of that digital). In the second case, the specialist in question felt invested with a paternalistic role and, without making a minimum contribution to the search for suitable medical therapy, he thought it well to express personal and moral judgments on the medical and logistical choices made by the patient, using tones and disrespectful and confidential terms. Probably the two distinguished specialists will be very valid scholars, deserving of undoubted acknowledgments, but I believe that the title of doctor is undeservedly arrogated, which by its nature should instead invest the one who welcomes and cares for the suffering patient, paying attention to both physical and to the emotional one.