One of my colleague who works in a private hospital had recently faced an awkward incident that is troubling me as a doctor for past few days. Last week one of her cousin brother was brought to the same hospital she works with, after a severe road accident with multisystem injury. He was presented with severe head and spine injury and right side hemothorax. Unfortunately, she was not present in the hospital at that very hour and her cousin did not survive even after immediate medical attention and all dedicated efforts of doctors in trauma and critical care division.
Now she feels guilty and blames herself for not being present there. She thinks that being his cousin she could have provided a better care to her brother. This situation made me wonder if a doctor should treat his relative when brought to an emergency and trauma care when relative in very critical condition?
