Tragedies

We encounter a lot of awful things as doctors: failed treatments, metastatic cancer, injuries from abuse, accidents, drug overdoses. As we see these patients and situations, we sometimes have to reflect on them in order for us to tend to our own well-being; after being surrounded by tragedy, it is important for us not to get sucked in as well. 

One of the instances that bothers me most is the preventable tragedy. A child in an inappropriate seat without a seat belt sustains severe head injury when the vehicle rolls over at highway speeds. Although he is rushed to the hospital, we could not resuscitate him; his injuries were nonsurvivable. Most providers were shocked to hear that he was unrestrained and not in a car seat. No one could say whether any precautions may have changed the outcome, but I was really affected by this death of a child. Debriefing the case was incredibly important to me to come to terms with the fact that his prehospital injuries were terminal and we could not have salvaged him. It was important to me to reflect, discuss, and conclude that at some level, the laws made to protect kids in cars failed, and this contributed to the death of a child. Of course, this was a problem at the level of the parents, but it is also something that as a society, we can improve. We have to protect our children; we cannot make exceptions to child passenger safety laws. The most tragic incidents are those that feel like they could have been prevented.