He’s almost 10 years younger than me.
He’d been in the hospital for 3 weeks. The ICU room had been decorated, as many families do, with pictures of his life. His wedding. His kids. He and his wife dressed as Darth Vader and Princess Leia for a Halloween party. A few religious items.
Stockdevil/Thinkstock
He was off sedation. EEG didn’t show any seizures. Head CT just showed the extensive damage from his head injury. The neurosurgeons can evacuate clots and decrease intracranial pressure, but they can’t repair brain tissue.
His wife was long past the point of shock when I met with her. After 3 weeks, she understood what the new normal was and how the lives of both herself and their kids would never be the same. She held his hand at the bedside as we talked, asked me a few pointed questions, and then thanked me for coming in to see him.
For me, it was just another day on call. I walked back to the nurses station, got some coffee from the galley, and sat down to dictate a note. There are always other patients to see on the coverage list.
But it still reminds you.
The brain doesn’t weigh much, just 2-3 pounds; it’s about the size of your fists put together.
But it’s everything that we are, both as individuals and as a species. All that humanity has achieved, good and bad, came from the brain.
The rest of him was in good shape. A healthy guy in his 40s. Probably in better condition than me. But with his brain irreparably damaged, none of that meant anything.
Dr. Allan M. Block
Even after almost 20 years of doing this work, this sort of thing still reminds me how lucky I, and most of us, are – and to be grateful for what I have.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.