Word: patients
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...usually leaving the mind untouched. It's MND that confines physicist Stephen Hawking to a wheelchair and last month claimed the life of Australian artist Pro Hart. Experts' understanding of the disease remains sketchy, and riluzole falls way short of being a cure: at best, it might prolong a patient's life for a year...
...Kiernan and Vucic observed that this twitch, as registered on their computer screen, was more pronounced in 28 MND patients than in people free of the disease; even a smaller current produced similar results. "The difference was stark," says Kiernan. "Almost as soon as we'd start the test, Steve and I would know (if the patient...
...want to do is write something like "Right shoulder, 6 months, no trauma" on my chart. Although I lack the heart to tell her, Beatrice would be a better patient if she tried to be a bit more concise. There are lots of Beatrices...
That is the mind-set of many patients who abuse their doctors; my bet is they abuse other people as well. Any good doctor knows when you're too sick to be polite and will let it roll off his back. The squeaky wheel we don't like is the one playing a dominance game. That big wheel is likely to get a shorter, less sensitive examination and more tests, and then still more tests to follow up the abnormalities in the first tests, followed by extra consultations with specialists--anything to relieve the doctor's responsibility...
Doctors and nurses also know when to respect an educated opinion. When the MRI says one thing and I want to do another, they are more likely to be on my side. But you need not be a medical professional, or educated at all, to be a great patient. It's pretty much the same strain of human decency--a truthful consideration of who the people around you are and of what they are trying to do--that infects a good patient and any good person...