Fed Up

Today is one of those days that I wished I am still practicing in UK rather then here in Malaysia.

A patient came in complaining of poor vision. She is a heavy diabetic. One eye virtually blind and the other only having 40% vision. She have been having treatment by the eye doctor for the past year but stopped for the last 4 month. I was shocked to hear that since she was still under laser treatment. Apparently she said her vision did not improve and she felt pain every time the treatment was done on her. On further examination, it was clear that she had extensive hemorrhage on the retina. I proceeded to explain that with her condition (proliferative diabetic retinopathy - in simple term, the inside of her eyes was bleeding due to her diabetes), laser must be done so as to protect what is still there. It is very rare to see recovery and if recovery do occur its a small percentage of what you have already lost.

Needless to say my half hour trying to talk to this lady was in vain. She told me that she only wanted glasses and I should just do what she wanted. At the end I told her boldly that she would go blind if she insist on not having her treatment done.

To cut things short, it ended with an angry lady leaving my practice and me wasting 40 minutes free table time.

Optometrist in Malaysia are just not appreciated.