An anonymous and provocative essay published in Annals of Internal Medicine exposes the dark underbelly of medicine where doctors displayed stomach-churning disrespect for vulnerable patients.
The author describes teaching a medical humanities course to senior medical students and asking, "Do any of you have someone to forgive from your clinical experiences? Did anything ever happen that you need to forgive, or perhaps, can't forgive?"
The two experiences described in the essay are particularly shocking. The Annals editors have withheld the author's name from the piece to protect the patients' privacy, and have also penned an accompanying editorial that explains the thought-process behind publishing it.