My Journey of becoming a TCM Physician Chap 12: When the Security had to be called into the Clinic
As it was mentioned before, the number of patients in hospital, not to mention China hospital could be unimaginable.. So in one department, one doctor can see up to hundred of patients in one just one shift (of course it was with the help of interns and students like us =)
And during the period of time when I was there, many cases of patients attacking the doctors occurred. Like physical attack (hacking with axe, with knife, with hammer). These incidents did not came out in the public media but they happened. And we in the medical field all knew. Reason for the attacks? Usually was frustration and unhappiness towards the hospitalized family member not getting well. Scary right?
So during one of my night shift to help a Pediatric doctor, it was again a night of the clinic flooding with ill babies and kids. We usually should end by 9pm but as you have guessed, it always always overflowed to 10 plus 11 pm. And the parents were all getting restless because the wait was getting longer. So then I remembered one father came in to talk to my mentor for that day. And then he started to raise his voice after the mentor told him it was getting nearer to his kid’s turn. But he was still unhappy and I could feel the tension building up………
Then I heard my mentor said, “叫保安”(translation: call the security). And I knew things were getting a bit too exciting……. So it was me that went to call the security in and the tensed conversation between my mentor and the man was still going on when the security came in.
So usually with authority, people would tone down and that was exactly what happened. And the security guard stayed on for the rest of the clinic time until we closed for the day…
I very much wanted to take out my phone and take photo of the security in the clinic but I did not dare to so I got no pictures of that but I guess you could imagine how ‘interesting’ it was to have a security watching out for us when the consultations went on.
It takes a daredevil to be a doctor, isn’t it? =)
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