We doctors will help our own – but not at the expense of other patients | Ranjana Srivastava

If you have a physician in your family, you are privileged. But even if you don’t, we have your back

I recently came across a letter to an ethicist that made me stop. A doctor’s mother sustained a head injury from falling on concrete. The son bypassed two hospitals to take her to his institution where she received prompt treatment that led to her having a scan and staples in an hour. For any other patient, the writer argued, the ordeal would have taken five hours. After consulting religious leaders (with opposing views), the writer sought the ethicist’s opinion on the doctor’s conduct.

Reading this, I thought mea culpa.