The Right To The Truth: For families and friends of patients with cancer

by I.C. Papachristos, Peter Goldstraw (Contributor, Foreword), G.A. Rossetti (Editor)

Provocative book reveals widespread abuse of cancer patients’ rights.

Should all patients be informed when they’ve been diagnosed with cancer? If the answer is “yes,” Who should break the bad news to them? And How is such news best delivered? How much of the truth can a patient handle?

Patients’ inalienable right to know the truth about their condition ought to be guaranteed the world over. Yet this right is routinely violated. In Greece, for example, cancer patients are frequently kept in the dark about their diagnosis. In fact, this right is routinely disregarded all over the globe with appalling consequences.

In “The Right To The Truth,” the author—a thoracic surgeon—presents Counterexamples inspired by events observed during 33 years of clinical experience, and he addresses each with well-crafted Arguments in favor of the patients’ Right to know :

► for Trust
► for Protection from predators who would exploit vulnerable patients
► for understanding that Sacrifices are sometimes required to achieve cure
► for acquiring well-founded Hope
► for Overcoming fear of the unknown

The book :

► offers advice to family members of cancer patients, as it is usually they who shoulder the burden of deciding whether or not to have their loved one informed.

► offers thought-provoking ideas for those who care for cancer patients. Physicians, nurses, psychologists, clergy, and friends are all urged to be truthful with patients; lying leads only to suffering.

► repudiates hypocritical arguments that claim withholding the truth from patients “spares them avoidable distress,” when the exact opposite is true. The hypocrisy behind brazen deceit inevitably becomes a source of harm to the patient. Myriad unethical, even illegal, wrongdoings are exposed that they should be banned from clinical practice once and for all.—

http://www.papachristos.eu/righttothe...

Genres: Health

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 26, 2016

About the author

I'm a thoracic surgeon and current Head of the Thoracic Surgery Department at the 424 Military Hospital in Greece. It’s a position I’ve held since 1999.

My early years were spent in my hometown, Kalampaka, which lies under Meteora, a picturesque rocky complex with post–Byzantine monasteries built on top. I studied Medicine at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. I’ve been practicing Medicine since 1988.

I began my specialist–training initially in Athens, Greece, then continued in the United Kingdom cities of London, Glasgow and Belfast. I’m a former Regent of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons for Greece (2005–2010). My areas of interest include lung cancer, bioethics, medical ethics, and medical documentation. Click on this link  for more details about my scientific and medical work: www.icp-med.gr/engl/scientific/

I serve as a Colonel in the Hellenic Army Medical Corps.

My inspiration for writing emerged from career milestones and other events in diverse geographical locations and cities in the UK, Greece, the United States, France and elsewhere. My first three books were written and published in 2016: two in Greek and one in English: www.papachristos.eu

In favor of :
coffee (lots of coffee), wire fox terriers, humanism, history, photography, design and reading.

Fb page: http://www.facebook.com/icpapachristos/

Reviews

[Έλενα Σελιώνη · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book worth reading!!!! I loved it and it made me believe in its cause from the first page!
«The Right To the Truth» is about the fundamental right of every human being, the right to know his true medical condition! The book reaches out to all cancer patients who try to cope with the fact that their health is failing, as well as people who find out bad news for a loved one and feel lost and even the patient's caregivers who must deliver him the bad news...

How should they do it and most importantly, why is the truth absolutely necessary, despite its bitterness? All answers in «The Right To the Truth»

[Έλενα Σελιώνη · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, loved the straightforward manner it approaches such a delicate issue, the right to know the truth. In fact, it denounces the disastrous tactics of concealing a patient's diagnosis from him, or even worse, lying shamelessly to him. The author reports numerous examples from his long experience of patients who ended up completely ruined, not physically, by the oblivious state their doctors or their family members had deliberately put them into. Caught myself being 100% absorbed reading the stories by the lively narration and the author's excellent writing skills. Certainly recommend it not only to patients, but to medical - paramedical staff and relatives of patients.

[Tasos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching. Very useful.

[Τασος Καυχιτσας · Rating 5 out of 5]

Συγκινητικό. Λέει τα πράγματα με τ' όνομά τους, στα ίσια.

Προσφέρει λεπτομερείς οδηγίες για τον τρόπο, για το πώς πρέπει να γίνεται ενημέρωση ασθενούς με καρκίνο, αφού πρώτα έχει ξεδιαλύνει κάθε αμφιβολία για την αναγκαιότητα αυτής.

Με τα αντιπαραδείγματα καυτηριάζει πολλά κακώς κείμενα, ώστε να ευαισθητοποιηθεί ο αναγνώστης. Να προστατευτεί.

[Bory]

roman

[Jason Papaioannou · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book provides valuable info for the benefit of cancer patients. It isn’t written by a mere outsider, but by a medical practitioner. He discreetly blows the whistle, within some limits, of course... He bravely exposes some dysfunctional aspects of the establishment of Medicine!

The author’s criticism of shoddy record keeping is priceless. His condemnation of permitting multiple resuscitations and deaths, poignant. Revelations that physicians are human and subject to temptations of their darker angels, (like Avarice, Pride, Jealousy, Covetousness, Etc.) are amazing.

[I.C. Papachristos,MD]

Interactive “author’s notes” are included in this ePub edition, instead of conventional footnotes (paperback). They were created by using the “pop-up widget.”

This ePub edition is available on iBooks Store by Apple in 51 countries. Link:

https://itunes.apple.com/book/id13353...