"How many lives have you saved today?" someone asked.
My friend K was completely taken aback with this question.
Well, if you take it in the strict literal sense, there should hardly be any. As I often tell our younger colleagues, of all patients that we encounter, 60% will get better irrespective to what we do (or what we not do), 10% will get worse whatever we do, and 29.9% will improve with treatment that any doctor could offer; in other words, they do not have to see you.
It is therefore fortunate to see every year one that 0.1% type of case whose recovery is because of your exceptional skill - if there is any.
And even for that 29.9% type of case, you do not save their lives. At most you hasten the recovery (say, from an acute episode of some chronic disease) or alleviate the symptoms.
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On a second thought, however, I become less pessimistic.
Let me tell you how we save (or persuade ourselves to be saving) lives tomorrow.
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1 comment:
There's one class symptom that we can't seem to alleviate very well at all- psychosomatic symptoms.
I still remember you telling me those guesstimates before, and I find them more true than ever. Except I don't think they're pessimistic, just realistic!!
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