“THANK YOU”
Larry Griffin, MD
H
e and his wife were enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon lunch recently,
when he was tapped on the shoulder.
When he turned to see who wanted his attention, a young girl, about nine years old, said
simply “Thank You,” and gave him the biggest
and most sincere hug ever. When he asked
what he had done, she said her mother and
father, sitting nearby, had told her to come
over and tell him thanks for saving her life when she was being
born. He turned to see her parents sitting nearby, and though they
were familiar to him, he couldn’t, racking his brain, recall doing
anything special or out of the ordinary during the delivery of this
young girl nine years previously. The young girl’s mother and father,
however, were delighted to recall in detail the development of distress
during labor and an emergency cesarean section, resuscitation, and
a wonderful outcome with a little girl doing excellently in school
and in extracurricular activities. After hugs all around, the mother
said to them, “After my husband, I love your husband, this man,
more than any other in the world.”
In fact, he had done nothing more than what we do every day - care
for our patients, and practice good medicine in their best interests.
There was nothing out of the ordinary in this case, just doing what
we do. It was not even unusual enough to remember it specifically.
Yet to those parents, and that little girl, he was a superhero, and no
protestations or facts will ever change their minds.
The “he” isn’t important, because it’s the story that’s important…
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LOUISVI HQQP