SHOULD THE DOCTORS TELL?

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 3 November 1920, Page 4

SHOULD THE DOCTORS TELL?

The doctors at the meeting of the British Medical Association in Cambridge decided that a doctor should not disclose his patient ’s secrets. The common sense of the question was stated by Gir John Bland-Sutton, one of the most famous of British surgeons, in the “Weekly Dispatch.” “The question will never be settled at the conference or anywhere eke; it depends absolutely on the individual case.” The doctors’ resolution ran thus: — ‘' Having further considered the question of professional .secrecy viewed f:om the standpoint of the medical profession, and with special regard to venereal disease, the representative body reiterates the opinion that the medical practitioner should not, without his patient’s consent, voluntarily disclose information which he has obtained from the patient in the exercise of his professional duties.” FLYING SICKNESS. $ According to those aviators who arc troubled with the complaint, flying sickness combines the worst features of the diving bell disease, which is caused by the injuries divers suffer from when they descend too suddenly from a great depth. By suddenly rising to great, altitudes the aviator suiters the aerial form of the disease, and in view of a medical authority gas bubbles Form in the aviator’s tissues, and they are, to a greater or lesser extent, torn apart. By descending ino suddenly from a great altitude the diver’s disease is reproduced. The ear drums are driven in. the eyes feel crushed, the vision is disturbed, and blood gashes from the mouth. The delicate- tissues surrounding the nerves and brain are disintegrated. causing nervous troubles and insanity. It is now believed that many of the tragic and unaccountable deaths of aviators were due to this littleimdcrstood disease. This- was probably the case with one youthful hero who won world wide renown. While flying a long wav from the front he rose suddenly to a great height and fell, for no known reason.