Dear Friends
Twenty-five years back, one day,
a rice cooker exploded in our house. Though there was no major physical injury
or damage, one of my family members’ faces got completely blackened, almost
like the boiled skin of an eggplant. In that shocking state, we rushed to a
doctor just beside our house. I cannot call it a clinic, as it was an 8 × 8
room under a big banyan tree. There were no compounder or nurse and no high-fi
sophisticated equipment. The doctor was sitting on a plastic chair, and a
stethoscope & BP machine were on the wooden table.
Immediately, he gave simple first
aid and asked us to bring one specific ointment from a nearby medical shop. We
asked him whether we should take the patient to a dermatologist or any other
big hospital, but he said it was not required. He also said that if that first
aid had not been given, the face might have remained black even after healing.
As he told us, within a few days, the face became normal and the whole wound
healed. He just took ₹50 or ₹100, not more than that. He spoke compassionately
and comforted us before asking us to go back home.
A Johns Hopkins study says that
40 seconds of compassionate talk by doctor reduces patient anxiety drastically.
Another study says that if a doctor talks to a patient compassionately, 2.2
days of hospital stay can be reduced to 1.1 days. You might be wondering why I
am using the word compassion multiple times.
The human spectrum of
responsiveness—spanning Pity, Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion—can be
mapped on a two-dimensional graph with Understanding & Engagement on
the X-axis and Effort on the Y-axis. Positioned sequentially along a
positive regression line, these four terms reflect a steady rise: Pity
sits at the lowest end (“I acknowledge your pain”), followed by Sympathy
(“I care about your pain”), Empathy (“I feel your pain”),
and finally Compassion at the highest point (“I want to relieve your
pain”), where emotional resonance converts into active effort. The origin
represents total apathy or indifference—zero understanding and zero effort.
Doctors and teachers require
compassion (they have to relieve the pain without attaching to problem). They
cannot operate only on the other three platforms. What triggered me to write
this article? Today, I read about Ahmedabad-based ENT surgeon Dr. Nandlal
Manseta. He is 81. His fee structure is unusual. He lets patients decide what
they can afford based on their income. His fee model is based on trust.
Patients are not asked to produce income certificates. Instead, they contribute
according to what they earn, while someone with no income can receive a
consultation without paying anything. His fee formula is something different—
Fee = 0.01 × Monthly Income!!
Today, I am invited by Infinity
Vizag 2026. They asked me to talk on workforce transformation in the wake of
AI. One of the real-time stories I shared is that if humans miss the
compassionate part of their responsibility, slowly AI will enter that role which
was live in Hyderabad and healthcare domain.
AI can remove the task, not
the human! AI can give the human a superpower. However, we cannot delegate
compassion, accountability, judgement, and safety.
Do you agree?
Ravi Saripalle
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