Atonement

I trained in a large university teaching hospital in Montreal. Our patient population was cosmopolitan. We learned how to interpret the silence of one ethnic group, the screams of another. The atmosphere was a tolerant one. Empathy abounded, yet patients had to adapt to us, come on time, wait their turn, and accept any piece of information or advice that we, with our white coats, had to offer. We supplied them with the facts, often without being asked. Although patient autonomy was respected, there was no question about who had the upper hand. Medicine and its practitioners were from the dominant culture.

Recently, things changed for me. I have become an immigrant physician, having moved to Israel 3 years ago. Knowing that I had come to an advanced medical system, I nevertheless felt that I had something to contribute. I brought my own brand of “good medicine” with me, hoping, of course, to do good.

A 70-year-old man came to my hematology clinic in September with a new diagnosis of lymphoma, …