Your Health, Whose Responsibility?

Many of us think having one illness to deal with is a big thing in itself.

But ever so often, I hear of people who are battling so many illnesses all at once.

Every three months or so, Suraj will have a patient diagnosed with cancer but who also has been coping with multiple other illnesses, one after the other.

The patient profile will be somewhat like this-

1. Smoker
2. Obese
3. Uncontrolled hypertension for 15 years
4. Uncontrolled diabetes for 10 years
5. Borderline kidney disease
6. Heart attack 3 years back.
7. Cardiac bypass done
8. Stroke one year back
9. And now another major surgery for cancer

Sometimes, non-smokers and people who aren’t obese also feature on this list.

I can’t help but wonder how someone can have so many bodily troubles all at once and what went wrong – physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually –  that they ended up in this position.

In some cases, it’s obvious people brought their misery upon themselves – as in the case of smokers, alcoholics, and people who don’t comply with medical advice with regards to medication and lifestyle. In other cases, the reason for their misery is not obvious and it may require some soul searching to arrive at an answer. I empathise more with the latter category.

There was one patient who had a history of multiple illnesses and was also diagnosed with cancer. Even after successful completion of his treatment for cancer, he landed in hospital every few months. Reason being – his addiction to smoking was making him fall sick over and over again – in different ways.

He was advised repeatedly to stop smoking. But he refused to even try – never mind that he had to end up in the ICU every few months.

Sometimes, such patients also have an attitude. They say – “Doctor, you don’t worry about my smoking. Your job is only to treat us, make us get well and out of this hospital.”

And when some such patients succumb to their illness, their family thinks the doctor was responsible for not helping them get better!

Never mind that the patient didn’t care to take any responsibility for their own health. And talk about conveniently placing the blame on others so we can be blind to our own shortcomings!

Unfortunately, law requires that anyone who comes in for conventional treatment be offered the same, irrespective of how they lead their lives or how they behave in hospital.

If people with such attitudes come to me for energy healing, I would bid them goodbye very soon and tell them I cannot help them set their lives right. And no one could sue me for it!