By Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili

There came a point in my career when medicine stopped looking familiar. 

Years spent as a surgeon taught me how to diagnose, operate and make difficult clinical decisions. But sitting outside a consultation room as the caregiver of a close family member taught me something far more profound. 

Medical school had prepared me to stand beside an operating table, but life placed me on the other side of the consultation door, waiting with investigation reports in my hand and hope tied to a doctor’s response.

Like millions of families, I found myself staring at my phone after sending a WhatsApp message to the treating doctor. Then the blue ticks appeared. 

The clinical facts hadn’t changed, but my emotional state had. My anxiety eased the moment someone acknowledged my concern. Hope returned before any medicine was prescribed. 

Healing began with a simple human gesture.

That experience transformed my understanding of medicine more deeply than any conference or textbook ever could.

Doctors treat disease, while patients remember how doctors made them feel.

But while Doctor’s Day celebrates doctors, I keep wondering: what kind of doctor do people hope to meet when they fall ill?

Credentials, fellowships and academic titles certainly count, but presence counts even more. 

A reassuring smile can calm fear before a fever falls, while gentle words restore confidence before investigations confirm........

© Kashmir Observer