https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/06/13/try-try-again/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 00:28:46 -0400<![CDATA[The saga of Dr. Jayant Patel is that of a man who concealed his incompetence by never staying in one place long enough for consequences to catch up to him.  But though he buried his true track record, Patel took care to bring with him enough social proof to persuade a new set of victims to trust him.  As long as he could stay one step ahead, he was gold. It wasn&#8217;t as if nobody suspected Patel wasn&#8217;t all he claimed to be. One gets the sense that many of his patients had doubts even as they looked up to him from the operating table, but never enough to challenge him openly; to impel them to say the one thing that would have saved them: &#8216;I don&#8217;t want this doctor, get me another&#8217;. And yet the truth was that he was probably trying; trying hard to be a doctor. One of the charges against him was that he treated patients that&#8217;s weren&#8217;t even his. Maybe he figured he needed practice. If at first you don&#8217;t succeed, try, try again. But that didn&#8217;t help him because the basic problem was that Patel was incompetent. He should have been something else. And getting an incompetent to try harder only gets you more incompetence.]]>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:27:12 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2010/06/13/try-try-again-n189839