Go to Teresa's and Daran's blog (http://rehmeyers.blogspot.com) and read about "Comfort care vs. Heroic care". Then come back here. Their insight leaves me humbled. I deal with the issues of "care" everyday, both comfort care and heoic care. Practicing pediatric critical care medicine embraces both. Children are admitted who are trying to die, or will die. Over the past 26 years or so of practicing critical care medicine, I have learned that "caring" is more than we give, and less than what patients receive. I am a medical ethicist, and deal with the issues of " care" over "cure", and life over death everday and here is what I've found: ask the following questions, and you'll begin to see what "caring" means:
1. do we "care" or "cure"?
2. are we treating the "patient" or the "disease"?
3. do we have a "contract" or a "covenant" with our patients?
4. is the technology we use a "necessity" or a "convenience"?
If we "care" rather than "cure", if we treat the "patient" (the person) and not the "disease", if we have a "covenant" and not a "contract" with our patients, and if we use technology because it is "necessary" for the patient, and not a "convenience" for us (we can attend to other things, personal things, "me" things, rather than being with the patient) then "caring" becomes central in our realtionship: it's about "who", not about "what".
Any one can "take care of " somebody: it's mechanics. But to "care about" and to "care for" somebody, takes self-sacrifice and intent to be there for someone regardless. "Heroic care" is that very "care" that Teresa and Daran are talking about: caring without bounds, loving always, giving freely. And Lord knows, they do it well...
In all things, give thanks,
David
Our mission is to help The Forgotten Children reach their God-given potential by creating opportunities for spiritual, social, mental and emotional development, by ensuring that their physical well being is optimized. David H. Beyda, MD Medical Director, Medical Mercy
- David H. Beyda, M.D.
- Phoenix, Arizona
- I am a pediatric critical care specialist working at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I was the Medical Director and Division Chief of Pediatric Critical Care for 23 years, and stepped down to become Medical Director for Misson of Mercy.I am responsible for the medical care of 40,000 children that Misson of Mercy cares for in 22 countries. I grew up overseas (Africa, Southeast Asia) from the time I was 7 years old until I went to college. My father was a career US diplomat. I started my third world medical involvement when I was 15 years old working with medical groups in Laos, and learned to fly riding with Air America pilots in Laos and have been a pilot for over 30 years. My first formal medical mission as a doctor was in 1979 when I served as director of pediatrics in a refugee camp on the Thailand-Cambodia boarder (Khao I Dang) at the age of 27 years old, still in my pedicatric residency. My heart is in third world countries caring for the Forgotten Children.