Goethe

A wise attending quoted Goethe today, he said, "we can only see what we know how to see." or something along those lines. Essentially what I learned is that don't take every opinion. Question always. Don't accept. We had a patient for which we were considering CABG vs Stent placement for a very bad heart. The CT surgeons, interventional radiologist, and whichever cardiologist was the attending of the moment agreed that CABG was not an option. My attending said - well how do you know they were right? are u sure? this could dramatically change the number of years this man has to live. Certainly as a medstudent my opinion doesn't ever matter much, and i personally really had no idea, but I never stopped to question the opinion of these experts. Maybe the experts were right - but what if they weren't. The worst part is that we as a team never stopped to consider that maybe they were wrong. I guess its true what they say in medicine - you can never trust anyone but yourself. this is why you double check labs, findings, make sure you wrote your orders correctly, review and review to make sure you dont' miss something and if someone tells you something you go back and check it again for your self. And it goes the same for any expert opinion you ask for. always do your own research. always push for more answers, i mean it could be your only family members life on the line.