Gawande ~Uncertainty

The way Gawande delivered this piece as a story in his life made this such a good read. His accounts were emotional, intriguing, and intense at times which helped deliver his message. One quote throughout the piece stuck with me. He said “This is, in the main, uncertainty at work, with the varying experience, habits, and intuitions of individual doctors leading to massively different care for people…Eleanor Bratton, without question, would have been treated completely differently depending on where she went, who she saw, or even just when she saw me.” (249) Gawande is illustrating the thought that doctors, even in the most critical circumstances, rely on their gut to make decisions in many cases. The women in this story had a case of Necrotizing fasciitis, which is a deadly bacterium that rapidly kills the flesh of her body. If Eleanor was admitted to a different hospital, different doctor, or simply the different time of day, she may have not survived. My father had this bacterium. This makes me think, if my father was even an hour late to going into the hospital, would he still be here? If he had even gone in the day before, would the doctors suspect that he had Necrotizing fasciitis, or send him away and tell him that he simply had cellulitis? My sophomore year of high school was when he had the emergency amputation. However, it was just last year when I took my father to the “in and out” clinic for stiches on his head (he was hammering the ceiling, and the hammer went into his head). The nurse asked him why his leg was amputated. My father replied with “Necrotizing fasciitis”. The nurse, to our amazement, told us of a story in which he encountered a patient a few years back with the bacteria and saved his life; the patient was a lawyer, and the nurse could recall the snowy night just like it was yesterday. That patient was my father. The nurse told us that he had an inkling that something was wrong, and that’s how he knew my father was in trouble. I am glad every moment of my life that that nurse was there that night, and that he, whatever was in his gut, decided to put my father under surgery and save his life. Decisions in medicine are crucial, and it is scary at times to think that doctors may not be 100% certain. However, things may surprisingly fall into place at the perfect moment.