aggle-rithm
Ardent Formulist
I just saw an episode of "Untold Stories of the ER" in which an ER doctor treated a 40-year-old woman with severe abdominal pain. She said she knew what was causing the problem: It was the alien growing inside her. She had apparently been to several doctors, who didn't believe her and so she received no treatment.
This doctor decided to play along with the woman's story and ordered a CAT scan. The "alien" was actually a ruptured aortic aneurysm -- the woman was lucky to still be alive. The doctor told her she needed immediate surgery, but she refused. She didn't want the alien removed, because it was the first of a new species, and she was to be its mother. Finally, she was convinced that she would never give birth to any alien if she was dead, and she needed the surgery to save her life.
The woman got the surgery and made a remarkable recovery, for which she credited the alien, which she said had saved her life.
Now, I think the doctor handled this pretty well (aside from not getting a psychiatric consult -- but he may have done that, and it just wasn't shown on TV). However, he made one disturbing statement in his interview for the show. He said that no matter how bizarre someone's beliefs are, if they give the person a positive attitude, then ONLY GOOD CAN COME FROM IT.
I was stunned at this statement. Only good? The woman very nearly died because of her beliefs! Did he forget how close she came to refusing medical treatment because she thought the diagnosis was part of a government conspiracy?
Anyone else see a problem with this?
This doctor decided to play along with the woman's story and ordered a CAT scan. The "alien" was actually a ruptured aortic aneurysm -- the woman was lucky to still be alive. The doctor told her she needed immediate surgery, but she refused. She didn't want the alien removed, because it was the first of a new species, and she was to be its mother. Finally, she was convinced that she would never give birth to any alien if she was dead, and she needed the surgery to save her life.
The woman got the surgery and made a remarkable recovery, for which she credited the alien, which she said had saved her life.
Now, I think the doctor handled this pretty well (aside from not getting a psychiatric consult -- but he may have done that, and it just wasn't shown on TV). However, he made one disturbing statement in his interview for the show. He said that no matter how bizarre someone's beliefs are, if they give the person a positive attitude, then ONLY GOOD CAN COME FROM IT.
I was stunned at this statement. Only good? The woman very nearly died because of her beliefs! Did he forget how close she came to refusing medical treatment because she thought the diagnosis was part of a government conspiracy?
Anyone else see a problem with this?
