Physicians and patients often face tough and agonizing
choices. Sometimes, there are no good
options available. On other occasions,
there are two seemingly reasonable choices in front of you, but there may be a
very different outcome from each pathway. For example, a patient may be advised by a
surgeon to submit to the scalpel while the gastroenterologist counsels to opt
for another 48 hours hoping that the medical situation will improve. Which physician is correct? They both may be right. If the patient were to deteriorate 24 hours
later, then the operation that had been favored by the surgeon would have been
the better choice. If, however, the
patient were to improve spontaneously a day or two later, then avoiding high
risk surgery would be clearly favored.
Physicians make decisions based on knowledge and
experience. Often, there is a conflict
between knowledge and experience that physicians struggle to resolve. For example, a doctor may have read in a
medical study that a medicine is not effective for a particular condition, and
yet his personal experience supports the drug’s efficacy. Does he deny his own experience and deny his
patient the treatment? And, medical judgement, as I have posted previously, is paramount.
My points above apply to many professions and, indeed, to
the life decisions that confront all of us.
We draw upon our prior experiences, consult others, engage in due
diligence, weigh the options and make the best decisions we can based on what
is known or knowable at that moment. A
bad outcome may be the result of an excellent decision.
Clinton vs Trump
Choose Your Poison!
The presidential election that is upon us has posed a
conundrum for millions of us. Who to
choose? I have spoken with several octogenarian patients who have told me that
this is the first presidential election that they will not cast a vote for
either candidate of the two major political parties. These are not rabblerousing partisans,
disgruntled NAFTA haters, culture war mercenaries, anti-immigrants or elderly
alt right aficionados. They are among our
‘greatest generation’ who express disgust and disgrace with the electoral
choice that has been forced upon them.
Imagine how they must feel to have never missed a presidential vote in
60 years, until now.
In my view, no reasonable person can argue that either
candidate meets our nation’s highest ideals and values. Making the case that one’s vote is the lesser
of two evils is not exactly a rave endorsement of a candidate. And, as is always the case, voters and
supporters diminish the flaws of the candidate whose politics they approve of,
while magnifying flaws of the same magnitude in the political adversary.
Is not voting for either candidate a defensible and
honorable option?
This IS the worst election ever!! The only thing we know for sure is that one of them will win....so sad!!
ReplyDeleteI hate both of them as well. But what about from a medical standpoint, particularly insurance? Every year my insurance changes and I'm afraid of losing my PPO. That may seem shallow but I don't see that I care for their other stances, so why not vote according to that particular issue?
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