jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This would be funny if it weren't true. Many doctors in India want guns. Why? They want to protect themselves from an increasing number of patients who are complaining about poor treatment. It seems the solution for failing to cure the sick is to shoot them. :D

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/angry-mobs-are-attacking-doctors-at-hospitals-in-india/2016/05/20/26820fb8-d5c3-11e5-a65b-587e721fb231_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_rainbow

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Maybe not. Maybe they have guns to keep the angry patients form harming them. From what I've read, the doctors probably need them.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

I guess they haven't discovered, yet,............that instead of killing the doctors, they can sue them for malpractice
as we do in this country. We have an awful lot of doctors in the U.S. from India, and this article may explain why.
As much as they are needed in India, with a patient ratio of 11,500, and working up to 20 hours a day, it wouldn't
take a dedicated doctor too long to burn-out.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Theoretically, that might work, but so many complaining patients and so few lawyers. Hitting the doctor on the head with a chair is faster and more satisfying. :D

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Last year a psychiatrist in Mississippi (I think) pulled out his weapon and shot a "crazy" patient who had already shot his caretaker who was in the office with him. Sometimes it becomes necessary. Doctors are often required to interact with criminals and unstable mentally ill patients, alone in an exam room. The most dangerous patients are unstable psychotic patients not on their medications and drug-seekers (not talking about valid pain patients) who are not getting what they want. Especially in rural health care, the family physician is the psychiatrist, the pain management doctor, and everything else. Doctor-patient encounters are sometimes adversarial. Having armed security nearby is very, very rare.

I rarely carry in the exam room. I had a patient in the past who had a history of violent criminal behavior. He was a demanding narcissist. Did I carry when he was scheduled? You bet I did. When he advised me that he had a warrant out for his arrest, was in hiding, and "would not be going back to jail" - and yet he still scheduled a follow-up visit, I worked with the U.S. Marshall's service to come collect him at his next visit. It was rather dramatic. I recall one patient who advised my assistant that if he did not get what he wanted he "was going to hurt me". Did I go out to the car and get my little friend? You bet I did. It's the ones who don't give you a "heads-up" that you need to worry about. In my rural practice I was happy that one of the medical assistants was a part-time sheriff's deputy. When we knew a risky patient was coming in, she would have her back-up weapon with her - but I knew if something bad happened in the exam room she might not get there in time.

Hey - it's not all tongue depressors and "turn your head and cough"...... What's a doctor gonna' do?

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

There have been incidents of patients shooting doctors in the USA for treatment that didn't cure them. Very rare they are, all have been men. The doctors survived, and the patients are now under the care of prison doctors now.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And here I thought it was all Mercedes and sail boats. :D

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Jeeze, Jerry - the closest I came to a Mercedes was the nice old convertible my receptionist had years back. How awkward - patients would say: "Hey doc, that must be your little Mercedes out in the parking lot".... I would just smile and say: "No, I have children to feed".

SmittyOne Loc: California

Hey, you sound like my kind of doc, doc. Can't treat the sick, halt, and lame, if you are in emergency getting treatment yourself, if you are lucky enough to survive.

Viet Nam Vet

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Good for you Doc! More Americans need to realize that they need to take responsibility for their own safety. The police are a back up at best.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I realize not all doctors are millionaires. On the other hand, those Hollywood plastic surgeons... :D

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

Instead of cough he's gonna swallow hard. I took over my dad's office for ten years. It was in the house in which I had grown up and in which mom lived until her death at 93. Had I remained there I would have gotten a license to carry. I kept a bottle of outdated Demerol in the office just in case ('78-'88). Fortunately the town didn't go completely down the tubes until I left IM to do psychiatry residency. Though a few patients threatened me only once did I refuse to see a patient a second time. He was a pure sociopath. Fortunately it was the last month of residency and I was moving to Boston, four hundred glorious miles away.

A young and very naive psych resident rented a room in my apartment during a three month away rotation in Boston when I was a fellow. He was headed into child and adolescent. One night over a beer he described his plan to have his office attached to his home "just like Dr. Seaver in growing pains." My response, "are you out of your @##&^^*!!! ing mind?????" and the following discussion made him reconsider.

A few years ago in the D.C. area a psychiatrist met with an agitated psychotic patient at his home on a Sunday. Patient murdered him.

In 41 years of medicine and psychiatry there were only a handful of times I was actually hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck-standing-up frightened due to threat. (Many more times than that in CCU settings.) However, I did geriatrics exclusively. I can still outrun an 85 year-old on a walker.

MikeFromMT Loc: So Cal & MT

As an Emergency Physician with a CCW (in Kalifornia no less) I did carry on each shift. I worked in a somewhat inner city hospital in a gang area with a very mixed patient population. My safety outweighed their rights to harm me. I also talked gun safety with a good number of patients - which holster is most comfortable for CCW, why Hornady Critical Defense ammo is better than Golden Saber, why a semi-auto is better than a revolver, why .45 is sexier than 9 mm, best places to get training, etc. It was amazing how many people had similar views.

RICKO

Well, we all know that Doctors bury their mistakes!