To Let Live or Not?

Who gets to decide whether a life is worth preserving or not? Who gets to decide the fate of a newborn who hasn't yet seen the world?

A newborn who might not be able to appreciate the beauty of life. A newborn who may forever be dependent on external support. A newborn who may never be able to fully reach his potential. 

Or who may…

Who may actually be a boon to mankind. Who may entertain millions with his talent. Who may find the cure to cancer. Who may just live a happy life. Who may survive as a fighter. Who maybe just another person LIVING.

Is it the doctor who works his best to save him/her from becoming an ‘it’? For a doctor it might just be an achievement... The 'I saved him' tag. The 'I gave him a second life' tag. But, is he going to be a part of his life forever? No.

Is it the parents who waited patiently to feel the first kick, to hear the first cry and then find out that the baby is 'defective'? Afterall, they are the ones who are going to live with the child… or maybe ‘bear’ with the child (harsh but true words). For some of them, the child maybe a 'burden'- a drain on their personal resources- time, strength and finances. But for others the child can be a pure source of joy.

I have seen the way a mother's face lights up when she sees her baby for the first time. 
I have also seen the way her eyes swell up when she hears that her child needs corrective surgery and that her child, being the tiny being he is, may not be able to survive through it. 
I have seen the way a surgeon's face lights up when the child survives the grueling surgery and the critical post-surgery days. 
But rarely have I seen a doctor getting really emotional about letting the child go. (A defense mechanism that comes with experience, to keep working and carry on with duties.)

So what happens when a neonate's fate is to be decided? What should be done when the decision is to be made? Whose decision is more important- the doctor’s or the parents’?

What should be done when a neonate goes into cardiac arrest? A doctor can save him with the CPR... But those crucial minutes of lost oxygen may render him a vegetable for life. An adult gets the option to sign a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) to be saved from the torture of ‘hanging up there’. But a neonate? Who gets to decide for them?

What is more important? Saving a neonate from death or saving a LIFE? Giving the ability to breathe or giving a life?

The emotional turmoil of a young doctor can rarely be cleared. These questions don't really have any answers. Experience may just harden up our souls and hearts- make us indifferent to some things.

(Apologies to the Grammar Nazis for the chaotic language.)

Modified Kubler Ross Model for Surgical Grief

 

Disclaimer:

Iam not responsible for what is following. This is a joke and in no ways meant to hurt the sentiments of any doctor/ profession/ institute/ patient/ or anybody or anything. Also, I do not take credit for this model. Iam just putting it up.

 

"Modified Kubler Ross Model for Surgical Grief"

What do surgeons do when they are confronted with a post-op patient of theirs who isn't doing as well as expected? They undergo the following stages-

1. Cursing
• !@#@$% "Why are you disturbing me? Iam tired from the long surgeries."
2. Denial
• "Who? My patient? No way... The operation went perfectly fine (read as patient came out of OT alive!) You got to be kidding me! He is fine and you are wrong (whatever it is you are trying to tell me- Iam not listening."
3. Anger (read as cursing under breath)
• #@$&*^$#
4. Bargaining
• "Listen, why don't we try to cover this up..." (actually this stage never happens. Skip to 4)
5. Acceptance
• "The operation didn't go well. Lets do some more tests and correct it before it is too late."
6. Depression
• "My spic-n-span rates are dropping... Nobody will come to me for surgeries anymore."
7. Cursing!
• !#@#@#$@ "Why did this have to happen to me?"

Read Disclaimer again!

 

Soulless??? (Scrubs Diaries 4)

Death is all around. More so in a hospital. I haven’t been in a hospital long enough to get used to death on a daily basis. I have only been a medstudent and an intern. Both are phases of a doctor wherein everything is new, exciting and adrenaline inducing. Yet… Yet, one would always remember the first death they saw, the first death they blame themselves for, the first death that could have been prevented, the first pediatric death. What is important is that one should also remember the deaths they actually prevented, the lives they actually saved. The balance of our memories is what will keep us sane. That, and of course friends (Twitter friends too) get us through.

 

Like Dr Cox says death is joked about just to distance oneself, to get by. The doctor needs to move on as soon as possible. The doctor needs to get past the emotional aspect of it in order to carry on with work, and in order to learn from it and if possible avoid the next one. Learning from every mistake is important. Mistakes in this field are fatal.

So, doctors do tend to seem soulless over time. But, that is only to preserve the soul they have.

No copyright infringement intended.