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Udaipur: One of the noblest professions in the whole wide world is that of a Doctor. God has blessed a doctor with the power of directly helping those in anguish/who are in real need of alleviation of their pains and sorrows due to their bad physical and physiological conditions. This is the reason; a doctor has been accorded the status of having equivalence to God. But, this status of being equivalent to God does not help him as he himself is constantly facing the many risks involved in treatment procedures of patients. There are many faces of this risk, the professional hazards; physical, mental, social, psychological and so on. A doctor has to face these risks night and day and carry out his duties diligently all his life.Doctors are on continuous risk of acquiring many diseases during his work with patients. They are most vulnerable to contagious viral and bacterial infections like common cold and flu. They are also vulnerable to many dreaded and deadly diseases like Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Swine Flu, etc. "Surgeons are at special risk of contracting various infections from the patients such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B while operating patients suffering from these diseases." - says Dr. Anjali Sethi, Senior Surgeon at Ananta Institute of Medical Sciences. "We do not deny surgical operations for those people suffering from HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis B, etc." adds her husband, Dr. Deepak Sethi who is Senior Surgeon at RNT Medical College, "Though we remain very careful, and keep universal precautions while operating such patients but still there are occasions when surgeons acquired these diseases." Physicians and ENT specialists are at risk of acquiring contagious diseases like Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, Swine Flu, etc. Even pathologists may get infections while drawing blood samples and during examination of infective samples.
"Many people of HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis B are unaware of their disease or deliberately hide their disease from their Doctors. This further increases the chances of spreading infections from patients to the Doctor." - says Dr. P.C. Jain, Senior Doctor and Anti-addiction Activist; who also works to create awareness about installation of rain water harvesting systems.
In addition to risks of acquiring various diseases while treating the patients, doctors are on continuous psychological and mental stress. Diagnosing and treating difficult patients may be challenging to them. Surgeons are on more stress during and after surgical procedures. Keeping up to date with latest advancements, diagnosing difficult cases, operating complicated cases, maintaining constant vigil & care of the patients, saving serious patients, etc. are all part and parcel of the daily work routine and active factors of ever increasing work stress. At times it is possible that no remedy is available for a particular disease or the patient is too critical to save. This may impart a feeling of helplessness in doctors. This feeling further adds up to the psychological stress. Busy work schedule, treatment of accidental and other casualties, uncertain timings for emergency surgeries, all eat up the hours of day & night and that is why the doctors are called non-social persons. They cannot even save time for their family and kids. Their family suffers this lack of time for whole life. This overburdened work schedule and lack of sleep adversely affects their health and they are not able to practice what they preach regarding maintaining health.Another factor that is an unwelcome hazard of treating the patients and further increasing the stress level of the doctor is rage of attendants. A doctor is considered equivalent to God, but he is not the God. He always tries to save the lives of patients, but many a times it is not in his hands. There are many incidences where relative and friends of patient have given release to their unnecessary rage towards doctors. There have been many cases of doctors being beaten, threatened and abused. The horrible fact is that the number of these cases seems to be increasing day by day. In many cases the doctor gets seriously injured in such outrage of patients' relatives and friends. Yet another factor is unnecessary political interference and pressure being exercised during the treatment procedures. This may at times cause undue stress over doctor. Being a doctor is not that much easy as it is perceived by many. There are many hardships that a doctor has to face daily in order to treat his patients. He faces all these hardships and cures the people of diseases ailing them. The only thing that boosts up the moral is the happy face of a patient cured by his treatment. This gives him a sense of satisfaction that he works for and desires the most - to be able to cure his patients and lead them to a healthy and happy life.
Recently one resident doctor working in transfusion medicine department has contracted swine flu while working on samples of swine flu patient. He became very critical and was seriously ill for more than two months on ventilator. Even after three months, he is not completely OK.

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