Patient Notification and Cancer in Russia and the Soviet Union

[Stephanie Briggs]

I've watched a documentary on Netflix a few times called *"The English
Surgeon"*. It's about Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon who travels to
Ukraine to operate for free on patients with (often seen as inoperable in
Ukraine) brain tumours. His Ukrainian colleague Igor, also a neurosurgeon,
runs a free clinic where they can assess patients. Igor hopes to secure
funding to one day build a hospital to help all the clinic patients.

In contrast to what has been said here, Marsh thinks that, in some cases,
offering hope to a terminal patient isn't a bad thing. It truly depends on
the patient, the nature of their case, and whether the tumour is malignant
or benign. It was heart-wrenching to watch as they had to tell a
grandmother that there was nothing he could do for her five-year-old's
tumour, because it had progressed too far. Another case was that of a
23-year old woman, whose tumour was definitely inoperable, to the point
that they wouldn't tell her so until she could get her mama from Moscow to
come back to the clinic with her. They do not want to give such devastating
news to a patient when the patient has no family close by. The woman most
likely had 2-3 years to live, and she would go blind before that. Operating
on her, with what scarce supplies and facilities they had in Ukraine, was
just not an option. Marsh did say that were these patients in London, he
would operate on them all.

The good news is that they showed a successful awake surgery on a young man
whose big tumour was causing epilepsy. He has had no seizures since the
surgery, and can now look for work.

Apologies for the long-winded email, but I have a sort of personal stake in
the subject: I have had many neurosurgeries myself, since I was a baby, to
correct and revise my shunts for hydrocephalus. I'm 33 now. Thankfully, no
tumours involved, but I know how terrifying it can be when someone tells
you they need to operate on my brain, and yet it is just as terrifying when
someone tells you there is nothing more they can do. I've been in both
situations.

I still have severe chronic migraines, but they are being
decently-controlled with medication, and, more recently, Botox. The Botox
has been almost like a miracle, although the progress is very slow-going.
I'm not well-enough to resume studying Russian, but we hope maybe next year
we might be able to start lowering the dosage of my preventative medication
(sodium valproate). Being a patient patient, if you'll forgive the bad
joke, is not easy.

Hope that helps.
Stephanie

*****************************
~Stephanie D. (Sures) Briggs

*Shorn Lambs: Hand-Knitted Scarves, Afghans, Throws and Baby Blankets *
http://shornlambs.etsy.com

My blog: http://stephaniebriggs.co.uk  <http://stephaniebriggs.co.uk>
Twitter: @stephbriggsuk
Facebook:  <http://warmochfuzzy.etsy.com/>
http://www.facebook.com/stephanie.briggs3


On 23 September 2014 01:24, Brian Hayden <bkhayden1990 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> I've heard from a few different sources that in the Soviet Union doctors
> sometimes (often? almost always?) would not notify the patient if they
> found cancer. Was this official policy or a professional custom? Did it
> apply only to cancer, or to other diseases that would likely end up being
> fatal? What was the exact rationale behind / philosophical underpinning of
> this move?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Brian Hayden
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