Health flashbacks: In the line of duty

Abstract

Although the medical profession has traditionally held, as confirmed in a modernized version of the Hippocratic Oath, that: “the health and life of my patient shall be my first consideration”; it is also recognized that the pursuit of this ideal can, and at times does, have a deleterious effect on the health and even the life of - the medical practitioner. This fact is readily apparent with regard to infectious disease, where the close physical contact of doctor and patient predisposes to the transmission of infectious agents; and the current AIDS pandemic has highlighted this danger of medical practice. What occurs less frequently and is, often undocumented as well, are instances in which bodily harm is inflicted by the patient upon the medical practitioner; and, with this in mind, the following two incidents which occurred in the Belize (City) Hospital are herein reported.