mpbser wrote:Well, if it's the case that her attitude has been cultivated by the fact that a large percentage of her patients are in a weak and desperate situation, e.g. "unresectable", then I have even less respect for her as a human being (not as an HAI FUDR expert) than I already have.
I'm going to address this from a different viewpoint. I don't expect to change your perspective at all, but I want to have it here so that anyone seeing this while they're doing their research on Dr. Kemeny and HAI can read everything and decide for themselves.
I don't feel she has this attitude because she can. I believe this is just how she is. She became a doctor in a time when the medical profession was completely male-dominated. That might partly explain things. Someone also theorized in the past that perhaps she's on the spectrum. I can see that, too. I do view her as a savant of sorts, with all that comes with that.
Because of her singular expertise and track record, her time is in incredibly high demand. According to multiple reports over the years, she sees 40-60 patients a day. This is entirely plausible as the waiting room is packed with folks from all over the world, from all walks of life, of all ages and ethnicities. Over an eight hour work day, that's as much as 7 patients an hour. Between reading labwork, scans, running around between exam rooms, eating lunch...it begins to make sense why face time with her is so limited. Anecdotal average: 2 minutes.
Now, would it perhaps be better if she saw less patients and had more time for the ones she did see? OK...but if she didn't see as many patients as she could, then she might not have been able to see us. Or you. This is also why we don't try to monopolize her time, because there are other people who are in our shoes who need her help.
As it is, we understand her working method. We know first-hand how thoroughly she reviews the scans and labwork. Her team asks us all the basic questions from us for her. That she sees us at all is largely a formality; I don't know that it's even necessary. I just want her eyes on our case, and again, from our experience, I know she's right on top of things.
In the end, she is someone who could have retired a long time ago, and/or segued into a career with an honorary position, giving highly-paid lectures (according to a nurse we talked to, her family has been begging her to retire for years). Instead, she has chosen to remain in the trenches to try to help as many patients as she can. Call me a cult member if you like. But taking everything into account, I'm entirely grateful she's still doing this. And yes, to me she is a hero.
(Last note: We originally consulted with Dr. Yuman Fong at City of Hope. He is a former colleague of Dr. Kemeny at MSK. Dr. Fong has made himself available to monitor our case, despite the fact that we're not his patient...we're not even in his hospital. We are completely flabbergasted at his kindness and generosity. Anyway, he just informed us that Dr. Kemeny has been communicating with him about our case. We would have had no idea she had done that if he hadn't just told us. It just further justifies our faith that she's working hard for us, even if we spend very little time with her in the exam room.)