PROFESSION HEALTH: Too often, we forget that we are humans first
The body is more than just replaceable parts. This is how we should see our soul. Emotions are what keeps us alive. Greater than the sum of our parts, life is divine, magical. Some of you may disagree but from my journey in medicine, I still haven’t found a physical organ that makes us human, deeply human.
You can change someone’s heart in a transplant and that person is alive and remains who truly is, at its core! The journey may have given him a new perspective on life, but he is still him, even with someone else’s heart.
“What make us human are our memories and our emotions.”
- Dr. Miguel Russo, from PROFESSION HEALTH
In my personal opinion, we cannot practice medicine abstracted from emotions, our own and those of our patients. Medicine is the art of healing humans, we should never forget the human part of it.
From that day where Patch Adam inspired my destiny, I mostly went through understanding my purpose in life and in science: to serve with the true core of myself, with kindness and devotion. I heal my patients as much as they heal me in the process. I like to talk with the patients, and sometimes they even forget what they came in for. I say,
Hey wait, I have to take your blood pressure!
No, I feel fine now, thank you for listening.
Is that medicine? That’s human. I serve as a white coat and my white coat is mostly that, a coat! Too often, I don’t even bother to wear it, it keeps my patients closer to me without it. So, should be with our titles... doctors! I became happy the day I embraced my core and stopped hiding behind means and sciences. That’s my secret to happiness!…