PrintOctober 10, 2009
The Wisdom to Do No Harm
Over a year ago, my wife and I found ourselves caught up in a medical crisis. An important decision had to be made and time was running out. This decision, as most, involved multiple options and tradeoffs for which all the facts were not readily apparent. One thing was clear, we were facing an internal hemorrhage -- doing nothing was not an option. In order to buy more time, a transfusion was necessary. So as the foreign blood entered my wife's veins, our doctor weighed the options. He narrowed the solution down to two alternatives -- perform a well known but highly invasive operation (remove an organ) or attempt an experimental but less-invasive procedure to cease the hemorrhage from within. As presented, the well-known operation came with the lure of a fix-it-all cure. On the surface, it seemed to be the way to go. Then something seemingly simple happened that I will never forget. As the doctor began to hash out for us the details of...(Read Full Article)
