CNN physician-journalist poses ethical dilemma after treating Nepal victims

This article is about a physician-journalist who was filmed while performing surgery on earthquake victims in Nepal. Ethical questions have been raised after a CNN crew covering the Nepalese earthquake filmed its chief medical correspondent performing emergency brain surgery on an 8 year old girl. He also resuscitated a woman mid-air on a helicopter, using a cardiac thump. Dr Sanjay Gupta was reporting on the devastating earthquake and is said to have regularly stepped in to saves lives while covering the story.


Gupta is not new to carrying out medical procedures in front of the camera. He has also treated a young boy in the Middle East while on assignment as well as examined patients on camera after the earthquake in Haiti.

The article states that people are worried about the ethics of filming a journalist’s medical intervention. There’s certainly a possible confidentiality issue, as well as the potential for self-promotion. When you film the journalist performing medical procedures, they are now the story instead of the main story. Several ethics experts have previously raised questions over the conflicting instincts of a physician-journalist. There are uneasy feelings over how “news organizations at some point appear to be capitalizing for promotional reasons on the intervention by journalists”.

In Nepal, the CNN crew filmed surgery on eight-year-old Selena Dohal, who had a fractured skull after a roof collapsed in her home. Gupta was called on by Nepalese doctors to assist in this procedure. He described it as a makeshift operating room, using iodine and sterilized water to clean the injuries. He had no surgical drill to cut open Dohal’s skull because of the lack of electricity and had to use a saw. The other incident that was filmed was in a helicopter flight where a woman stopped breathing. With no defibrillator, Gupta delivered a heavy blow to her chest in a last-ditch attempt to restart her heartbeat. 

These actions were definitely heroic. However, was it unethical to film these procedures? Or was it to show the world how bad things are over there? Gupta could have chosen not to film the procedures but his job as a reporter was to capture these moments. Were his actions unethical?

References:

Elgot, J. (2015, May 1). CNN physician-journalist poses ethical dilemma after treating Nepal victims. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/01/cnn-physician-journalist-ethical-dilemma-nepal-sanjay-gupta