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L I TERARY BI OE T H I C S A ND T H E C HAN GI N G D OCTO R- PAT I E N T R ELAT I O N SH I P Luis Javier Plata Rosas Born in Mexico City. He emigrated to Ensenada, Baja California, to study a degree in Oceanology (UABC), a master’s degree in Physical Oceanography (CICESE) and a doctorate in Coastal Oceanography (UABC, again). He emigrated to Puerto Vallarta, where since then he has been wearing the Black Lions shirt of the University of Guadalajara, since he works at the University Center of the Coast of this worthy institution. He lives with his wife (also an oceanologist, also a doctor, also Leona UDG), two sons and five cats and runs a marathon per year.
“…the two of them skilled physicians.” The phrase from the Iliad explicitly expresses the link between the sons of Asclepius (and I don’t say this to embellish the text, since, in the case of Greek mythology, we are “really and truly” speaking of the offspring of the god of medicine) and the Achaean warriors. Although Podaleirios and Machaon were demigods, Homer omits to mention their divine lineage in favor of their activities as professional healers (and possibly colleagues, if the suspicions of certain historians concerning the poet are correct) in a context where medical skill is at a premium: the battlefield. In their first appearance on the stage of Western literature, doctors play an honored role, with deserved praises heaped upon them. For the great majority of the casualties wounds caused by spears, arrows, or rocks to the head, chest, abdomen, hips, or extremities, including even snakebites―, recorded in hexameter verse with the detail and precision of a surgeon (the aforementioned suspicions are by no means idle), the timely intervention and trauma management of the two “leeches” (to use an archaic term) led to the survival of the patient and, as a result, a low mortality rate: 5%, compared to 77.5% for those unfortunates in the epic poem who did not receive medical attention. The only exception? Wounds to
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the head, which were invariably mortal. Demigods they may have been, but they couldn’t perform miracles. Homer was as detailed in his descriptions of battle wounds and the results of medical intervention as he was sparing of insights into the relations between physicians and their patients, among both Trojans and Greeks (or rather Achaeans). But we know at least that the healers were not described as insensitive to the pain of those they cared for: when Machaon learns that Menelaos has been wounded by an arrow, “the heart in breast was roused.” And as mentioned above, there is no lack of appreciation for
