Introduction to the Operating Room
LESSON 2: Operating Room Personnel, Policies, and Nomenclature
2-28
2-28. MEDICAL PERSONNEL AND HOSPITAL AS SCAPEGOATS
a. There are certain cases where the bereaved may justifiably blame the doctors or the hospital and its staff for the loss of a patient. On the other hand, there are a great many cases in which the doctors and hospital personnel have done all that was reasonably possible to save a patient, yet are vehemently blamed for his death. A malpractice suit may even result. This can be a baffling experience unless the dynamics underlying this response are understood.
b. As mentioned above, relationships are never all positive or all negative. Given the ambivalence of relationships and our natural tendency to deny negative aspects of relationship, death of a loved and valued person brings about a critical situation. Anger because the person has left through death is added to the unresolved anger in the relationship, and at the same time expression of this anger becomes unacceptable. In their deep need to express this kind of anger, people often transfer it to the doctor and hospital.
