INDEXING TITLE: RSMUJER’S Medical Anecdotal Report (06-02)

MAR Title: The Greatest Love

Date of Medical Observation: February 24, 2006

Narration

•         Have you ever actually laid down your life for someone?

•         It was a regular duty day when two patients arrived at the ER wheelchair-borne with blood all over their clothes. They were brought by their son, who looked panicky. I asked what happened and he said that the couple was stabbed by an unknown assailant and that his mother risked her life to spare that of his husband.

•         I immediately checked on the patients’ status and found out that while the husband sustained minor lacerations, the wife had her stomach and omentum eviscerated. Vital signs were hardly appreciated.

•         We hurriedly inserted two large-bore intravenous needles and brought the patient to the operating room for exploration. Unfortunately major abdominal vascular structures were injured and patient died on the operating table.

•         After pronouncing the patient dead,   I went out of the operating room and informed the husband that his wife was dead. He sat down, cried for awhile and told me how he failed to express his love for her wife.

INSIGHTS: (physical/psychosocial/ethical/stimulus/reinforcement/ discovery)

•         Love is unconditional commitment to an imperfect individual to meet his or her needs even if it requires personal sacrifice.  Real love is not getting but giving; it embraces sacrifice, not simply indulging the one we love.  Love is kept alive through little acts of kindness and thoughtfulness.  In this case, the love of the wife was a self-sacrificing love.

•         So remember … if you love someone, you got to tell him or her.  You’ve got to always say what you mean. Take everyday to be an opportunity to tell someone what he or she means to you.  Seize the day and have no regrets