Sunday, September 07, 2008

Me, Doctor and Mechanic

I often think that doctors and mechanics stand on the same principle when treating symptoms of their patients. They tend to resolve in the most general or common cause of the symptoms based on their past experience. Without proper background of the patient and the limited time they have, perhaps their conclusions of the symptoms make perfect sense at the time. Let’s say John goes to the doctor complaining about the high temperature of his body. After a quick scan, the doctor concluded that John got a high fever and gave him some pills as prescription. Meanwhile there is a Jane who goes to a mechanic complaining about high temperature in her car engine. After a quick scan the mechanic concluded that the fan of the radiator is the reason. So both John and Jane go back to continue on their respective destination. Few minutes on the drive, maybe a little less than half an hour, Jane discovers that the engine starts to heat up again. So she stops at the side of the road fearing that the engine will go overheat. After half an hour or so, Jane starts driving back to the mechanic complaining about the high temperature of her engine. So now the mechanic is a bit baffled and takes a closer look which consumes more time to tell her the problem than before. After a few test the mechanic concludes that the problem may be due to the thermostat connecting the radiator and the engine. Thermostat controls the flow of water around the engine, if the engine does not reach a certain temperature, the thermostat will block the flow of water from the radiator to the engine. Once the engine starts to heat up, the thermostat will let the water circulates the engine. So mechanic just removed the thermostat saying that it will not have any effect on the engine. So after saying goodbye to the mechanic, Jane drives a way. Few miles towards her destination, the engine started to show sign of overheating yet again! Jane quickly makes a U-turn towards the workshop and indeed the mechanic is as surprised to see her. Now, the manager of the workshop also coming towards with a bunch of other mechanics thinking that either the mechanic in charge is incompetent or there is something really wrong with her car. After some explanations by the mechanic in charge, they concluded that the mechanic has done what is necessary and there is still something big causing the problem. The workshop owner suggests that Jane let them take apart the engine and do some “surgery” or major overhaul. Reluctant at first, but Jane has no other choice; the heating of the engine might have caused some other problems inside the engines as explained by the mechanics. The oil may have been spill out or the radiator itself is broken. Few days later the car is done and no more unusual heating problem!

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