Question

QUESTION 3 a) Do you think Dr. Abbasac, in the film First, Do No Harm, acted in accordance with tenets of The Hippocratic Oath, and do you think Robbie's rights as a patient were met in accordance with The Patient's Bill of Rights? b) If Robbie's mother had had the opportunity to be advised and guided by having listened to the podcasts "Empowering Patients" and "Patient Advocate Foundation: Our Mission," and by reading the different articles in this Module on selecting, hiring, and firing doctors, do you think she would have handled Dr. Abbasac differently? Explain your answer in detail.

Answer 1

3. a) In the film 'First, Do No Harm,' Dr. Abbasac, the neurologist in charge, is portrayed as a self-willed character with poor manners. She did not act in accordance with tenets of The Hippocratic Oath, as she did much harm and made the patient's condition worse. At first, she prescribed a medicine like phenobarbital, which has many side effects like cognitive impairment and behavior problems. This made the child run crazy in the house and caused an injury, and the drug was tapered upon the mother's request. Phenobarbital is a medicine to be tapered down and not stopped abruptly no matter how worse the side effects it caused are. Robbie goes into status epilepticus and his dose of Valium was increased with no effect and then paraldehyde a drug with fatal side effects, which could even melt the container if stored in a plastic one, was given. Dr. Abbasac wants Robbie's parents to consider surgery and to start investigative procedures for the same. The parents consider surgery as a dangerous option and wanted to consider any other viable option. They could not agree with whatever decision Dr. Abbasac made and wanted to try the ketogenic diet, which the doctor did not agree with at first.

Robbie's rights as a patient were not met in accordance with 'The Patient's Bill of Rights.' The ‘patient's bill of rights’ guarantees certain rights for those receiving medical care. It can be a non-binding declaration or a law. The ‘patient's bill of rights’ guarantees all patients fair treatment, information, and autonomy in medical decisions, among others. All these guaranteed rights were infringed in Robbie's case. In the ‘patient's bill of rights,’ the 4th one is the patient’s right to know the diagnosis, testing, prognosis, treatment, risks, and side effects of medications. A clear violation of this right along with partial violation of some other rights can be seen in Robbie’s case.