It is sad that we do not have the brains, the nationalistic spirit or the guts for our own Arab spring.
KARACHI: Any doctor capable of appreciating the difference between Hippocratic and Hypocrite in the oath that transforms them from mere mortals to angels of mercy should understand the word ‘prognosis’.
Simply put, this word is used to determine and then explain the progress of a disease process and/or a patient’s fate.
With correct knowledge, training and experience, prognosis is reasonably scientific and quite accurate. Some major prognosticators are: Nature of the problem; initial status of the patient; present status determined from clinical and adjunctive information; skills and capabilities of the attendant staff; and possibly facilities and resources available for dealing with that particular situation. From knowledge-based experience of somewhat similar situations, a likely pattern evolves over time and it is possible to compartmentalise some disease processes, some overall scenarios and some progressing problems into what is known as a ‘track record’.
As a teacher who periodically deals with life and death situations, I used medical analogy for the Pakistani layman’s understanding of a term quite widely used across different subjects and fields. At the national level, we can extrapolate patterns of progress or regression in population, education, healthcare, social welfare, militarism, religiousness, gender issues, freedoms, justice and governance.
Anyone with even an iota of a brain can see what Pakistan’s track record of the past 64 years has been. They can also try and find a prognosis for the state that the country presently finds itself in. But as long as civil society remains in denial and stays cannon fodder to a military-mullah-feudal establishment, the patient is as good as dead! It is sad that we do not have the brains, the nationalistic spirit or the guts for our own Arab spring.
Dr Mervyn Hosein
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2011.
