HOW COVID-19 HUMBLED ME ... and made me a better doctor

It was spring of 2020, and I was in full personal protective equipment at the bedside of an elderly woman with COVID-19 pneumonia. I was trying to facilitate a FaceTime call with her family when she started drifting out of consciousness.

“Doctor please, we need your guidance,” said Ms. R’s daughter. “We know she is old and in poor health, but if we put her on life support will she pull through, or will we just be prolonging her suffering?” “It is such a new disease, I honestly don’t know,” I replied. “I am so sorry.” COVID has deeply humbled everyone, particularly those of us caring for people stricken with it. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had no proven treatments and no experience with how patients would do. That was hard for me, and for a lot of other doctors. For many years I took pride in knowing the answer, whatever the question. Many times I would leave a patient’s room after playing “the doctor with all the answers” in a case…

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The Art of Healing (Digital) - 1 Issue, Vol 2 Issue 79

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