Beyond Paracetamol: a reflection on empathy, health, and human dignity

🌿 After sharing my experience with the Dutch healthcare system, I received a variety of responses — from heartfelt support by those who saw themselves in my story, to the quiet discomfort of those who prefer not to talk about these things.

And I understand.

It’s never easy to read a story that exposes neglect, indifference, or mediocrity in spaces where all we truly seek is humanity. But writing about it was necessary — not as a complaint, but as an act of awareness and dignity.

Today, however, I want to go beyond criticism and contribute with what we can build: a more mature, empathetic, and demanding attitude — both from healthcare professionals and from us, the patients.

⚕️ To healthcare workers:

I know you’re often overworked, navigating tight protocols and overloaded systems that don’t always leave space for eye contact or warmth. But every person sitting in front of you is more than a symptom or a file. They are someone who trusts. Someone who expects to be heard. Someone who deserves respect.

🙋🏽‍♂️ To those of us who have faced frustrating or dehumanizing experiences:

We have the right to speak up. To raise our voices clearly and firmly — especially when we are paying for medical care that falls short of basic empathy, professionalism, or safety. Staying silent for fear of being called dramatic only feeds mediocrity.

But we also have the responsibility to not let pain turn us bitter or numb. Our health is also in our attitude. And while we don’t control everything that happens to us, we do get to choose how we respond: with dignity, with clarity, and with purpose.

🧠 And to everyone, as a society:

Mediocrity cannot be the norm. Not in hospitals, not in classrooms, and not in our daily lives. This isn’t about expecting perfection — it’s about demanding the minimum: care, attention, and humanity.

Today, I choose not to remain in complaint.

I choose to turn pain into message.

Experience into insight.

Discomfort into proposal.

Because health is not only about the body.

It’s about respect.

It’s about humanity.

It’s about how we live, and how we expect to be treated.

💬 Thank you to those who read with an open heart. Let’s keep building.

Because staying silent, in the end, also hurts.

Peter Cardi

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