by Dr. Jude Verzosa

In the practice of medicine, there are different levels of suffering.

There is suffering ascribed by genetics as a result of what one is born with.

There is that which is acquired because of a lifetime of poor choices.

There is that kind that occurs when a patient is not given the right care; and there is the kind that occurs when the patient is not provided the opportunity and time to choose the right care.

Then there is the worst kind of suffering. The kind when one is not accorded compassion worthy of the respect befitting of a human being. This kind may transpire because it is inadvertently caused by another. It sells itself as an expected condition of being in need of care. It numbs the care provider, the patient, and those who stand in the sidelines who can, in fact, do and say something about it. Silent and propagating, it deprives the person of one's God given dignity and encourages its acceptance as the norm.

I wish to call this organization to see the worst kind and to invoke compassion as a cure. Compassion compels us all to speak up, to act, and to change ourselves.

Works of compassion need to be proclaimed so that it can inspire regardless of the judgment of others who choose to be complacent in the pretense that the compassion in providing patient care should just be kept within the confines of the examination room.

We may question the reason as to why there is so much emphasis on the patient’s experience. But we need to keep in mind, that in being called to be healers and to be the light to those around us, we are tasked to stand up and be exposed ourselves.

In the end, it can be compassion that unites us all.