“In ancient Rome the doctors used to graft successfully. They’d place a finger on the severed end of an artery and say to the patient: ‘Now, old fellow, just come across with the fee, right away, or the finger will be removed and you’ll bleed to death.’
“We are coming to that. We may not work it in the same way, but the idea will be the same. Even now they—or we—want money before operations, and will endeavor to learn something of a patient’s standing in the community before his check will be accepted. Wouldn’t a business man do the same thing? And if surgery is becoming a business, why isn’t it proper? It is proper—from that standpoint. But, oh, the pity of the passing of old ideals!
“The whole matter seems to me a question of economics. The medical profession is a belated profession. We cannot collect a fee by statute under certain conditions—as when the call comes from a third party. We must have money. What is there left to do? Graft! Or ‘commercialize.’ That’s a nicer name for it. Let’s see now just what the public brings on its own head.
“There’s a man who thinks it is necessary that his leg comes off. He has nerved himself for the operation and has announced his willingness to pay, say $250. A conscientious surgeon examines the leg and saves it without the use of a knife and the man recovers the use of it. In a few days he is able to sit up and dispute the bill for $100, claiming it is exorbitant. What do you think his argument is? This:
“‘You didn’t have to operate. Why should it cost so much?’”
“That may not be logic, but it’s what happens right along. That is the grateful reply we get from many patients for saving them from mutilation. And it is things like that which have largely influenced surgeons, I believe, to operate when it is unnecessary. It is not right, of course. A surgeon should be as a father and mother to a helpless, sick soul. Still he is human and he must live. Like Robin Hood, there is a better class of surgical robber who takes only from the rich.
“You know, the rich are always in a precarious condition. It’s a mighty conscientious doctor who will tell a rich man that his trouble is only imaginary. The average physician or surgeon will fly around briskly, ‘dope’ the man up and then probably remove a perfectly good appendix—bill $2,000.
“I attended the son of a rich man who really had appendicitis at one time. The operation was successful and the boy pulled through, although I never saw a more serious case. I sent in a bill for $2,000 and received no reply. I tried again and received no reply. Shortly afterward I met this man on the street—you’d know his name if I were to mention it—and he said, ‘I have no intention of paying your exorbitant bill.’
“I wouldn’t sue. Never do. Bad practice. So I compromised for $500, although he could have paid $10,000 without missing it—and the operation was worth it.
“There are rogues in every profession. There are brutes in the medical profession who will demand money from a woman before she is out of the anæsthetic—who will haggle with a dying man as to terms. And there are many of them. I could mention names of men in Chicago that would make you open your eyes. The really first-class doctor of the old school who retains the old ideas of the profession should have a halo. He deserves it. Of course he can’t live by pursuing such antiquated methods as those of a gentleman, but then—says the rest of the world—who needs to live, anyway?”