are you a superhero?

 

 

True story:

 

It happened again today. I was in the grocery store when one of my patients from way-back-when rushed up to say hello. She went on to tell me how much she missed me as her doctor, and then she told me her story. She had recently visited our office for some minor problem that had nothing to do with her heart. In fact, she didn't know she even had a heart condition. But then, out of nowhere, she suffered a major heart attack while she was in the bathroom. She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent surgery that saved her life.

 

She couldn't say enough about how grateful she was for the care she received...immediate, thorough, and skilled. Also, compassionate and caring. She still couldn't get over how lucky she felt to have been in the right place at the right time. I told her it wasn't the first time that something had happened in our practice. One patient collapsed in the parking lot as he was getting out of his car...and lived to tell the story. Another time, a patient's heart stopped beating as I was taking his pulse.

 

 

Another patient was complaining of indigestion when, in fact, he was experiencing a heart attack in evolution.

 

"Having a heart attack felt

nothing like I how

I thought it would feel."

~www.myheartsisters.org~

 



The point is that, as health care providers, we take incidents like these in stride, while our patients literally take them to heart. It's gratifying to be able to help, but we don't see ourselves as heroes or gods. Patients sometimes do, though.

 

If you don't think of yourself as a superhero, think back. Whose life did you save? How did it happen? How does it make you feel? Tell us the story.

 

"You are braver than you believe,

stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think."

~Winnie the Pooh~

 

jan