A patient leaves a lasting impression on one doctor’s life
This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.
In 1985, Mark Metersky was a medical student, doing rotations at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.
One of his patients was a young man who struggled with a heroin addiction. The man had been in the hospital for a lengthy stay to treat a heart problem, and Metersky found him to be difficult.
“He was manipulative. He would bargain. He was the bane of my existence,” Metersky recalled.
In the same room was a man dying of AIDS-related lymphoma, under the care of another doctor. This second patient had exhausted all treatment options, and the only thing doctors could do was to manage his pain.
“Unfortunately, 40 years ago, we were much less skilled at treating pain,” Metersky said. “And in this patient, we were not doing a great job.”
Early one morning, around 3 a.m., Metersky was called in to see the second patient; apparently, the man’s discomfort had increased and he likely needed more medication.
“When I got to the room, the lymphoma patient looked horrible,” Metersky remembered. “He was delirious, barely conscious, clearly in pain, sweating [profusely], with his hair plastered to his forehead.”
Metersky still thinks about what else he saw in the room — his patient cradling the lymphoma patient’s head in his lap, wiping his brow with a towel.
The young man, who had previously been manipulative and defiant, was providing the comfort that Metersky says doctors had failed to provide.
Over the next 40 years, as Metersky went on to practice pulmonary and critical care and to train other doctors, he kept that moment in the back of his mind. He says it taught him to always be sensitive to his patients’ suffering and to do whatever he could to alleviate it. Sometimes, that meant simply sitting next to them, or expressing his concern.
“But it also told me that there are very few patients, or people in general, who are all good, or are all bad,” he said.
“You’ll find generosity and compassion in some unlikely circumstances. And these are both lessons that I’ve tried to carry to the present day.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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