Competition

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?

I've recently lived exactly the kind of competition I find so distasteful and referred to in an earlier post. I'm working in the same department with a classmate of mine, and a week and a half ago, I saw a fantastically interesting case. Fantastically interesting, by the way, coming from a doctor or doctor-to-be generally means the patient is screwed. Fret not, this guy will live.

But his case isn't the point. The point is, this case is really rare, in that the condition itself is about 1 in 200 000 or so, and to have the right combination of enivronmental factors to bring out the manifestation we saw...suffice to say it's never been written up before and will undoubtably be published now in a major medical journal.

I saw this of course, and asked my fellow (the cardiologist I'm working with) if I could write the case up for publication. He said yes, and I started writing. Meanwhile, as we were only the consult team, we transferred the patient to the inpatient team. The inpatient team happens to contain my classmate, and as we made the transfer, I told him that I was writing the patient up. So, what did my classmate do? He talked to his fellow, and three or four staff cardiologists, and started writing his own article. And since the staff heard about it from him first, he gets the article.

I have only rarely been this displeased with another human being. He completely exemplifies the backstabbing, look out for number one attitude I despise in the ultra competitive medical student type. And though I very much doubt I'll have a say in his life in the future, right now, I'm fairly certain if I did, it wouldn't be a positive one.

Which is of course unhealthy and unchristian. And though I'm not going to actively work to undermine him, I don't think I'll have to. Surely karma will catch up with him. But even wanting him to fail is probably wrong. Big picture, this isn't going to matter a lot, and I should try to remain on good terms with him. But that's not a level of strength I have in and of myself.