Marlo Thomas | 08/06/2009 11:00 pm

Marlo Thomas Defines the Difference Between Doctors and Friends

By Marlo Thomas

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In response to: Are there things you would never tell your best friend, but would tell your doctor? And vice versa?

Well, let me put it this way: With a doctor I feel I must get a second opinion. With a best friend, I don’t.

Read more about: Doctor, Friendship, Health, Relationships, Secrets

7 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

That’s right, Marlo: they bury their mistakes! (The doctors, that is. But maybe the friends, too?)

By James the Game on 08/07/2009 12:32 am

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What about a doctor that is also a best friend?????

By Eldebbo C on 08/07/2009 7:02 am

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Well, Eldebbo, if they’ve got split-personality, no problem.

By James the Game on 08/07/2009 8:38 am

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Better question.Are there things your oncologist should tell you but WON’T??In the last three weeks I have come in contact with three family’s at St.Jude with children dieing of DIPG and discovered that St.Jude simply DECIDED not to tell the family’s about the ONLY PHASE 3 TRIAL in America for DIPG.Then I sent them the documentation on this trial.You would think that a hospital with a 100% failure rate with PONTINE BRAINSTEM GLIOMA would want thier patients to know this.Shame on you Larry Kun.

By randy hinton on 08/07/2009 8:49 am

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Not everyone qualifies for these trials and I have to wonder if perhaps so far none of the children at St. Jude’s has qualified in which case it would be far more cruel to tell the parents about the trial and then tell them their child does not qualify.

I am one of the worst critics of health care in this country and so far the only criticism I have had, or heard until now, of St. Jude’s is with regard to the association with one of its supporters which I put aside because the money is desperately needed and was "once removed" from the source which was what I really had a problem with.

No doubt Marlo will read this and no doubt Marlo will check and no doubt Marlo will be told what I just said. Life is very cruel. We do the best we can. St. Jude’s has always done just a little bit more than just the best they could do.

By Baby Snooks on 08/08/2009 2:19 pm

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Randy, here’s some reference data: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00600054

By James the Game on 08/07/2009 9:33 pm

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Right now one of my best friend’s married one of my doctors, the only doctor that is advocating for me within the bureacracy of the hospital system I find myself now mired in.

The doctor has, to date, been able to give a fair and balanced accounting of what has happened and what steps we need to pursue. Without someone with a strong understanding of the inner-workings of this hospital system, my chances to get into a controversial program for liver transplant would be non-existent.

My primary care physician for the past 16 years has been a remarkable woman who bucks the system. She is known around the globe and speaks at various international conferences and oddly, she believes in the patient first, unlike many other doctors who are slaves to the system. Is she a friend? Not in the most strict sense of the word. But she is a trusted ally, someone I have shared laughter, heartache and tears with, who has always been there to advocate for me.

That is the exception, of which I am gratefully aware.

By Mike Ward on 08/10/2009 5:31 pm