Shengliver’s Note: A Chinese teen casts doubt on her doctor’s conscience.

A Chinese high schooler, Miss Yuan Wen, saw the doctor last Sunday. She had an ear problem.

When she arrived at the doctor’s surgery, the nurse on duty told her that the doctor would not come until 8.30 am. Yuan Wen had to wait. Luckily in the room there were only an old couple, who had come before her. They waited patiently.

The doctor punched in around 8.30. He changed into his white uniform and took the seat behind the desk.

He questioned the couple and diagnosed the old gentleman as suffering from an ear problem. His verdict after the examination was that the old guy needed to be hospitalised for further treatment. The patient asked if it was expensive and if he could get treated at home alternatively. The doc said he couldn’t, adding, “Your health matters more than your money.”

While the senior citizen was being processed, a middle-aged guy came in and exchanged greetings with the doc. It was clear that the two were on first-name terms.

When the first patient was being ushered away by the nurse for more procedures, the middle-aged man, who came later than Miss Yuan, jumped the line and took the seat before the doc, completely ignoring the teenager’s existence.

Miss Yuan was tolerant. The uncle probably was in a hurry or might have more appointments to go to on the day, the girl thought.

After examining the man’s ear, the doctor told him that it was not a serious problem and that after a few days, his ear would heal itself. While the two were chatting and bantering, Miss Yuan listened in.

The doc said, “Had you met a different quack today, you would have to spend a fortune on drugs. You are lucky, mate.”

Both men burst into laughter.

At long last, Miss Yuan took her turn. The week before, Miss Yuan had come to the same surgery, where another doc had attended her. Given some drops, she was told to drip the liquid into her ear three times a day. She felt the pain had been eased with the help of the medication.

This doc had a look at her ear and wrote her a prescription for the same drops. This time she was instructed to apply the water six times a day.

Miss Yuan was bewildered. She explained to the doc what she had done to the ear the previous week, but the doc predicted that her trouble would be cured once and for all following his way.

Actually, the middle-aged man, the doc’s friend, had the same condition as the teenager. To her perplexity, the doc had prescribed his acquaintance no drug at all, and the man had been reassured that it would not be long before his trouble was gone, drug or no drug.

Exiting the doc’s office, Miss Yuan found herself pondering the questions, “Is this doc honest? Is he good? Why did he treat the three patients with the same complaint differently?”