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"Doctor Gillio, should I buy life insurance??? Our smiles are gone. We are scared we will die."
Robert GIllio MD • Apr 01, 2020
Most of our frontline health heroes are not even considering not going to work...but are now asking about how to buy life insurance.
I remember fear when we were in training and AIDS was the mystery and we had to do bronchoscopies on those patients. It motivated me to innovate with bronchoscopic simulation and an early attempt at robotics to reduce my risk. That's how I dealt with the fear. Fortunately, my colleagues eventually solved this viral issue. We were young and invincible too, but we had the gear and support. Now we are older and ashamed that we have allowed our health care profession to have evolved into a sick care system with competition, margins, and manners counting as quality, and now for some, marginal care of staff and patients.
Twice in 2 days I got a call or a text from a young resident in training. They are getting ready for the "surge" of patients. One is currently sick with a cough after 28 hour shifts in the ICU at a major medical center. The other reminded me of talks of short supplies, inadequate staffing reminiscent of stories we once discussed about care in Africa, where patients families bought the medicines in the market if they could, brought them to the hospital, and stayed nearby cooking the food and doing the laundry. That was in a developing nation and they were visiting clinicians in training. They said it is like a war zone or that hospital overseas. Their conversations at work are about insurance and precautions for our families as much as case management.. "Its a thing, where most of us are buying life insurance to cover school loans and protect their families from hardship should they die in the next month or two.".
Later my phone rings and I am talking to my local colleague. My close relative is urgently failing and hospitalized at age 89 with 103 fever, pneumonia, diarrhea, and sepsis, but was deemed not eligible for testing due to shortage of the test kits. Short staffed, poorly supplied, and not enough tests to be able to manage the care.
Shame on us in business, politics or health care for letting it get this bad on our watch. Let's support our troops. Dig in and find what PPE you have and load it into the LOCAL Stockpile registry at www.betheforce.health. Then reinforce the physical distancing behaviors to reduce their patient load. We must get past this and use it as an impetus to change the system or we will not have people choosing this formerly wonderful rewarding profession.
The Marstronaut in Training program will begin this spring, starting to prepare middle and high school students for a career that could include being one of the first astronauts on Mars....a Marstronaut. You might want to watch as we humans land there today with NASA broadcasting beginning at 230 eastern.
Photo Credit CSPAN. VIDEO link. TEDTalks Young people are a Force for CHANGE.... Let's have the courage to realize that in our moments of darkness..."there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it." Its time, young people, to "merge mercy with might, and might with right" and do the right thing to help us show compassion for all, and protect each other leading with the light of our example to wear the mask, get the shot, feed the hungry, and be kind as we come out of this challenge by making it the opportunity to create a new movement.. Be the force for health, for safety, for kindness, for change. Connect withJoin us at @ Betheforce.health .
PHOTO AND GRAPHIC CREDIT: DR. JAY BHATT HEALTH EQUITY IS A COMPLEX ISSUE. If you are not healthy, it's hard to help others or make change. Taking personal responsibility to understand issues YOU CAN CONTROL is crucial. Learn about health literacy social determinants of health, and the history of racism in America with the free Force for Health Advance the Dream Basics Group. Join and take more responsibility for your own health outcomes controlling the things you can as you work for change. #theforceforhealth #advance the dream JOIN HERE
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