As a Critical Care Medicine specialist, I have two main fights against critical illness. The first, and main fight, is to try and treat the critical illness that brings the patient to the ICU. This is why I am there in the ICU. This is why I became a Critical Care Medicine specialist.
And I love joining that fight. I love rolling up my sleeves and battling the critical illness and its pathophysiology. I love going head-to-head against an illness that is trying to kill the patient before my very eyes. I love doing everything I can to help bring healing to the patient.
And when we win the battle against that critical illness, the feeling is nothing short of exhilarating.
The other major fight I have is against an undignified and ignoble death. If it becomes clear that my patient will not survive the critical illness, then I fight like hell to make sure they die with dignity and comfort, without pain and suffering, and on my patient's own terms. If I can do this, and also help the family not feel any guilt, this brings me happiness as well.
There is another fight I wage in the ICU as well: the fight for the organ donor.
The story of the organ donor is almost always steeped in terrible tragedy: a horrific accident, or a suicide, or a sudden and unexpected cardiac arrest. These terrible conditions then leave the patient's brain dead or severely damaged, but the body mainly intact. Hence, the consideration of giving the ultimate gift - the vital organs - to someone else suffering from end-organ failure.
Whenever this decision is made, then I fight like hell to make sure the healthcare hero - the patient donating his or her organs - is safe and sound so that this wonderful gift can be given. This may mean ordering any number of tests or imaging scans. This may mean performing any number of minor procedures. This may mean prescribing any number of medications.
And it do it because, I really want my patient - the one who suffered terrible tragedy - to be a source of life-giving mercy to someone else. I really want those other people to get a new lease on life, just like my uncle did, who received a kidney transplant many years ago.
Organ donation is such an important gift that someone can give, and I am a registered organ donor myself. And so, whenever the opportunity arises, I fight like hell for my hero, my patient who will donate one or more of their organs, so the donation goes as planned. And when it does go as planned, the feeling is also nothing short of exhilarating.
