We launched the Gabriel's Life site a week ago (www.gabrielslife.org). So far, response has been really great. I think people get it. I hope they get it.
It has been interesting to me that people read my story and what happened to my son and get angry. Often they rant about the doctors and medical industry, as if they think that will comfort me. As if being angry is the response I want from them and that it will make sense to me. It doesn't.
Maybe I am very naive and clueless, but it doesn't make sense to be angry at the doctors. Dr. Edwards, Gabriel's neurosurgeon, is an amazing person. I used to tease him when I saw him, saying he looked younger all the time, I didn't want him to retire and leave me without someone I knew and trusted. I bet his wife does. Hard to imagine being the spouse or child of a neurosurgeon, does his phone ever stop ringing? Do people ever stop needing him? Does he ever say, "No, I cannot operate on your child's brain today, I have plans."?
If I have a really great day at work, I schedule a bunch of meetings and manage to return ten calls. A bad day, I botch up flight reservations and get 30,000 printed copies of a typo. Consider a doctor's good day, they save someone's life, they hug the happy family, and say, "He will be fine." What about the bad days, people don't get better and there is nothing that can be done, people die. Or the really awful days, you make a mistake and something really horrible happens. How many of us could handle a doctor's bad day? Not me, no thanks.
To expect perfection from everyone, including doctors, is to not allow them to be humans. The element that allows a person to feel compassion and sadness, is the same one that allows mistakes and errors. Can't have one without the other. I am glad that doctors are not mechanical robots, am glad they smile and cry, and am really glad they are willing to make sacrifices the rest of us can hardly imagine.
This is why I like to be around you. You inspire me. Don't worry about the flight...I'll hitch a ride ;-)
Congratulations on getting the site live.
Posted by: David LaPlante | November 15, 2007 at 07:04 PM
L,
You are so much more evolved than even some of the most exceptional human beings out there! I wish more people thought like you....
L
Posted by: Luann Abrams | November 21, 2007 at 09:11 AM
Amazing. I miss you.
D.
Posted by: Deanna Wlad | January 17, 2008 at 08:40 PM