>>That was a very broad statement<<
Well, our presumed patient has now reached the emergency room. He will be surrounded by busy nurses, orderlies, interns, residents, a lab technician maybe who will take some blood, an electrocardiogram technician who takes the cardiogram. He may be moved to X-ray and he will overhear opinions of his condition and discussions and questions to members of his family. He slowly but surely is beginning to be treated like a thing. Decisions are often made without his opinion. After hours of waiting and wondering whether he has the strength, he will be wheeled into the operating room or intensive treatment unit and become an object of great concern.
He may cry for rest, peace and dignity, but he will get infusions, transfusions, a heart machine or tracheostomy if necessary. He may want one single person to stop for one single minute so that he can ask one single question-but he will get a dozen people around the clock, all busily preoccupied with his heart rate, pulse, electrocardiogram or pulmonary functions, his secretions or excretions, but not with him as a human being.
All this is being done in the fight for his holy life, and if they can save his life they can consider the person afterwards.
Indeed, Time is not primarily money. Time is Life. |
