Reflecting on the physician’s social contract
“55-year-old man with history of laryngeal carcinoma, status-post radiation therapy, laryngectomy, bilateral neck dissection, with metastases to the lung, status post thoracotomy, currently undergoing chemotherapy who is being admitted for a for first-time seizure. Patient is a transfer from Riker’s Island.”
Prisoners are a common occurrence in Bellevue Hospital. This, however, was my first prisoner-patient. The hyphenation both as I write this now and as it formed as a concept in …