Doctors don't get surgery

Kim Hyon-jeong, an orthopedist at Seoul Metropolitan Dong-bu Hospital, says in her book “Doctors don’t get surgery” that people shouldn’t rely on hospitals too much.

By Yoon Ja-young

To stay healthy, it’s good to have checkups as often as possible. If problems are found in a person’s joints, artificial implants can be a practical solution. The same applies to teeth. These are readily accepted solutions for Koreans who currently enjoy access to the most developed medical services in the country’s history. Doctors, who are equipped with the latest medical knowledge, however, don’t have frequent health checkups, don’t undergo surgery often, and a smaller portion of them choose chemotherapy compared to other groups if they develop cancer. Why are doctors so reluctant to enjoy the full benefits of available medical services? Kim Hyon-jeong, an orthopedist at Seoul Metropolitan Dong-bu Hospital, says that it’s because they know both the positive and negative effects of medical treatments.

“Everything has light and shadow. Regular checkups are recommended for mass screening, thereby enabling early diagnosis and easier treatment. However, there are shadows as well. Sometimes we detect things that need not be detected, resulting in people having unnecessary treatment.” She cited thyroid cancer as an example. It’s easy to find people who undergo thyroid cancer surgery in Korea, but many in the early stages of the cancer end up having unnecessary surgery following diagnosis, according to Kim.

The doctor published a book, “Doctors don’t get surgery,” last November, to point out that people in this country are doing themselves more harm than good in an era of “medical excess.” The book was chosen as “Book of the year” by Dasan Mall, an online bookstore.

She said it would be news in the orthopedists’ community if one of them got surgery, while people easily decide to get joint surgery, disc surgery, etc. “People are just taking too much medicine, deciding too easily to get surgery,” she said, citing degenerative arthritis as an example. “It comes with aging. Is aging a disease? Aging is a natural process, and stiff joints are a natural part of aging. It would be something to treat if the patient feels too much pain, but in many cases you get used to the arthritis. It becomes like a cold, you feel pain three to four times a year, and then you are okay the rest of the time.”

Kim said that she doesn’t mean that having a replacement is always bad. She means that people should be prudent when making choices. “Having an artificial joint isn’t like your own joint. Some people have a fantasy that they will be 100 percent okay after they have surgery, but this isn’t so. Replacements also wear out, and people then need further surgery. Every time you have a procedure part of the bone is carved away. You should go for it if your quality of life rises by 50 percent after surgery, but some people won’t experience such dramatic improvement.”

According to a report, the number of joint replacement surgeries performed in the country increased by five times from 2001 to 2010, while it took 20 years in Sweden to see a five-fold increase. Some experts, hence, have shown concern that some hospitals might be performing replacement surgeries on patients who can get along okay with other treatment.

Kim said it is difficult to identify a single factor behind the medical excess. “The medical consumers themselves, the management of the hospitals, the government policy, the marketing of the pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, doctors, and media all contributed to this phenomenon,” she said.

Returning to a balance

She said it is time that people get back to the balance. “I am not saying that medical services are bad. I am talking about the balance, where you have neither too less nor too much. Problem is that we have passed the tipping point. That’s why doctors who share these thoughts started making voices.”

The doctor said that people seem to have too many expectations of hospitals and modern medicine. “They think all diseases should be curable in an era when man can fly to the moon. However, there are many diseases doctors can’t cure yet. They rely too much on hospitals, and there the problem begins,” she said.

Kim studied Ayurveda, Indian traditional medicine, at the California College of Ayurveda. “I recognized the limits of medicine while I was teaching at medical school (Ajou University). I had studied Western medicine enough, and I thus wondered if there would be answers out there.” She said she didn’t find answers in Ayurveda, either, but she learned to look from a different perspective. “It was like trying on new glasses. It was helpful.”

Paradigm shift

The doctor said that the whole country seems to be suffering from “medical student syndrome.” As you get to know certain diseases, you start worrying that you seem to have the symptoms. They become hypochondriacs, worrying too much about health, and it becomes even more difficult to be wise consumers of health services.

Kim said we should make a paradigm shift — it’s time to ask “What should I do for myself?” The answer is obvious — exercise, balanced diet, less stress, a happy family, enjoy friendship, do a job you like, take regular exercise, lead a healthy lifestyle, Kim said of things we all know but don’t practice. “People aren’t making efforts to do this, and they expect hospitals to solve all problems. It is better to exercise and lose weight instead of worrying whether you will be healthy.”