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PATIENT PHONES
101 PHYSICIAN ON SHABBOS,
COMPLAINING OF
SEVERE BACK-PAIN. THE
PHYSICIAN FEELS IT IS
NOT DANGEROUS
1 Question Physician discounts possible dangeR of back-pain
A patient phoned his physician on Shabbos complaining of back-pain
the likes of which he had never felt before. The patient was sure the
severe pain stemmed from a dangerous illness. The physician knows
the patient and his condition well. He believes that these severe pains
are due to a benign disease that the patient has, and that there is no
pikuach nefesh involved. Does he have to nonetheless take the patient’s
view into account and desecrate Shabbos in order to treat him?
Dr. Moshe Rothchild
We received another similar question:
In middle of the week, a doctor was asked to see a patient who was
suffering from severe headaches. He examined the patient thoroughly
but found nothing. He gave him medication to relieve the pain and
calm him, but nothing more. The patient insisted that his pain was
due to an internal disease, and asked for a referral to the hospital in
order to do extensive testing.
The physician would like to know whether Torah law requires him
to reckon with the possibility of a dangerous illness?
Dr. Dov Ehrlich
Specialist in Family Medicine, Bnei Brak
266 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
The Iggros Moshe also adds that if a healthy person is caring for a #
patient whose illness is contagious and he needs a vaccination in order
to prevent contagion from the patient, he is allowed to be vaccinated
even if it involves desecration of Shabbos. It is known that the Gaon,
Rav Yisrael of Salant zt”l, instructed people to eat on Yom Kippur at
a time when cholera was rampant, in order to avoid contracting the
contagious disease.
Although there is a slight possibility of rejecting the proof of
the Iggros Moshe, by claiming that tsafdina in the teeth and in the
intestines are one and the same disease, which begins in the mouth
and ends up in the intestines; it thus emerges that the disease in the
mouth is the beginning stage of the intestinal illness. We have not yet
seen that if mild disease is likely to lead to a dangerous disease, we can
already view the patient as being endangered? Nonetheless, it seems
that the words of the Iggros Moshe are clear. 20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Magenta
However, I found that another Gaon seems to say the opposite. The #20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Yellow 20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:--
Gilyon Mahara’i (of Rav Avraham Yonah Jewnin, z”l, from Horadna,
printed at the end of the Mishnayos, Zera’im, Vilna edition) writes
that we learn in Tractate Berachos (Ch. 5:1): Even if a snake is wound
around his ankle, he should not interrupt his prayer, to which the
Rambam explains (in his Mishnah Commentary, ibid) that in most
cases the snake does not bite. The Acharonim wonder (see Rashash,
ibid, and in his Chiddushim on Berachos 33a; Responsa Shoe’l Umeis-
hiv, first edition, Vol. 1 #254): We do not follow the majority when it
comes to pikuach nefesh. Should we not, then, be concerned about the
minority of snakes who bite?
The Gilyon Mahara’i answers (in the Gilyon of the Mishnah, there),
as follows:
In my humble opinion, regarding all these matters, one should
not look at what has not yet occurred, but only at what there is at
that time. This is like a patient who is not in danger, where we have
no right to desecrate Shabbos for him even though there is concern
that his present disease will lead to another disease which will put
him in danger. If we desecrate Shabbos for him now, we may prevent
him from contracting another disease. In my humble opinion, the
Non-Dangerous Disease 2 251