Medical evidence and the laws relating to compensation for injury / by R.J. Collie, M.D., J.P.

  • Collie, John, Sir, 1860-1935
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medical evidence and the laws relating to compensation for injury / by R.J. Collie, M.D., J.P. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    last year alone I have been threatened with legal proceedings on thr occasions as a direct result of the attitude I found it necessary adopt in the course of my work. To practise successfully detective medicine, as it might fairly 1 called, one is almost bound to add to one’s methods a certain myster to wear a mask, so that the object of the inquiry may be disguise It is wise at times to appear credulous, in order to throw tl malingerer off the scent: a judicious suggestion will often induce hi to overact. Watch for inconsistencies, but never show incredulity, f that is fatal. Your manner should be impassive and your countenan expressionless. Twenty years ago nervous breakdown, i.e,, a lack of inhibition the nervous system, was scarcely recognised ; at any rate, it was t< little recognised. Now we have gone to the other extreme. An exaggerated humanitarianism encourages dishonest claiir and leads to gross exaggeration of symptoms. Let me illustrate wh I mean : A short time ago a man came to me with a wound on his ar literally the size of a split pea. On it were one or two pieces lint half a foot wide and the full length of an ordinary roll bandage. He was an employee, and I certified him fit for dut and stated in my report that he probably had been so for sever weeks. A short time after a solicitor sent me a letter, which he hi received from the plaintiff’s doctor, in which it was stated th whether the man was now fit for work or not was a matter of opinic but my statement that he had been fit for duty for several wee] was libellous. I declined to withdraw anything that had been sai and suggested that if the doctor considered himself libelled he kne his remedy. Nine months later this case was actually brought on f trial. We won the case, and gave the doctor a very bad time in tl witness-box, but think what all this meant to the plaintiff! I met the doctor afterwards in another case, and there was ] fight left in him. He seemed to regret the whole incident, ai somewhat pathetically told me that he had never received his fe< and that his patient was ruined as a result of the action. When an accident happens, especially if the injury sustained is fracture, dislocation, or strain, it is a wise proceeding in all cases give, with some assurance, the approximate date of the patieni recovery. The date, of course, may be subject to revision later. It useful as a “ suggestion ” in a therapeutic sense. The malingerer, ' he who is deliberately exaggerating, never knows when he will ) well. He gives you no ground for hope of his recovery on ar particular date, and leaves you to get such comfort as you can fro