A Sunday story with a moral at the conclusion.... [View all]

[PCIntern]

When I was training, the most comprehensive and difficult course which we studied was general pathology. In that course, all the basic sciences are integrated with the assumption that since you are now schooled in the “normal“ it is time to learn about the abnormal or pathology. To that end, we studied inflammation and infection, oncology, and various and sundry autoimmune complex diseases, and many many more. The volume of material was frightening, however it was somewhat easily absorbable since our basic science courses had been very comprehensive.

The head of the department of pathology at our university was an extremely erudite and learned man who was clearly a politically progressive humanist: thoughtful, brilliant, (obviously), and very very interested in teaching us as much as he could stuff into our heads. We met weekly in what are known in colleges as recitation sessions, but we were called lab sections, and to one of these he brought a bunny rabbit. He told us that the bunny had been sensitized with a compound such that if it came in to contact with the compound again, it would go to anaphylactic shock and die. he then proceeded, at our collective horror, to inject the body with this antigen, and for the next 10 minutes, we watched it die. I cannot begin to tell you how sadistic and horrifying this experience was, and realize that he was doing it for six other sections for a total of seven bunny rabbits. Annually.

He watched us all very carefully, and then he said this, and I’ll paraphrase, but I’m not far from the exact quotation because I will never forget it, “What I just did now is show you death. I’m sure most of you have never seen the death of a human or an animal in your presence, and God willing, you will never have to have this happen , but I am telling you that a dental office is as good a place to die as any, and that is why you need to be very careful with your history taking, your discussion of the medical history with the patient, and your administration of medications, including anesthetics, and any other prescription meds. I look into your eyes and I see how upset you are with me and I don’t care. What I do care about is that you have learned a lesson today that it is incumbent upon you to prevent this from happening if it all possible under your auspices. Physicians are fortunate in a sense inasmuch as they learn in hospitals, where people are dying daily, but you don’t have to endure this series of horrors and for many of you that is why you chose dentistry as a profession.”

Obviously, I have never forgotten this experience, and I have to say that for better or worse, and believe me, I am an animal lover, and the whole thing made me sick to my stomach, his mission was successful. Which brings me to my point for the day.

When this football player collapsed, essentially dead, on the field a few Mondays ago I was watching it live, and was as horrified as anyone else observing this tragedy in the making. I thank the staff and the doctors and their professional competence for saving him, and was thrilled to see, as I’m certain virtually everyone else is thrilled to see, his return to some normal existence. it is remarkable how sophisticated the process was and how far we’ve come in medical science in a few short years. But I would say this to all: any of us at any moment can sustain a problem which causes sudden death. It can happen on a bus, it can happen watching TV, it can happen while posting to DU, it can happen at the grocery store . For this gentleman, it almost happened at his place of business, which happens to be a football field. I’m certain that analytically it is actually a very complicated series of events which caused this to occur as it is for most people. When some of us have cardiac episodes, people will say well that person is overweight, smoked, was under a great deal of stress, whatever. The fact is that , it is a synergy of these issues which caused the problem. Of course, what we do as thinking individuals is use the “best odds“ technique of trying to minimize risk, but the risk is always there.

I think that the fact that it has been 50 years since a professional Football player died on the field during a game is in and of itself remarkable and all these discussions for increased safety due to this most recent occurrence are somewhat specious: anyone who participates in physical activity at any level is at risk. When I was in high school, I played competitive tennis and was invited to a racquet club for a weekend tournament with local players, and one of the gentleman in his mid-30s who I would describe is looking like George HW Bush in his 30s: tall, physically, fit slim, you know the look, finished his match, took a glass of lemonade, and dropped dead on the spot. They were people standing right next to him who jumped on top of him to try to help there was no pulse. In 1 million years when this guy woke up in the morning, not one person would think that it was his last day on this earth.

Finally, I would say on this Sunday please enjoy the pleasures of man and nature, and the NFL if you, like me, love football, and realize that the only lasting, permanent thing in this whole Universe is Donald Trump’s ability to not be held accountable for a single thing which he has done to damage others in his life.