The "A Doctor Story Like No Other" Story

The title of my story today is titled "Renouned doctor taught lesson with a story of failure!"  The story in the "I KNOW A STORY" column in my morning newspaper is by Dr. David E. Fuchs.  The author recalls an interesting conversation with former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who died in 2013.  One of my roles as a physician was caring for residents in nursing homes.  One day I entered the room of a new patient, and immediately noticed the photo by her bedside.  It was none other than Dr. C. Everett Koop, the esteemed pediatric surgeon and former surgeon general of the United States.  She revealed that decades ago she had worked with him at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.  One day Dr. Koop came to visit her.  I was fortunate to be in the building, and I came by to catch a glimpse of the surgeon idolized by nearly every doctor I know.  Despite his being in his 90s and in a wheelchair, I immediately felt that I was in the presence of greatness.  After all, he had developed several new surgeries to treat birth anomalies, and he separated more than one set of conjoined twins.  He revealed he had recently been hired by Dartmouth Medical College to help teach medical students how to effectively relate to patients.  After some pleasantries and Dr. Koop making certain I knew I was to take especially good care of this patient, he began to share an experience from his career,  Though in my 60s, I felt like a young medical student again as I listened carefully to every word.  He recalled that many years ago, a young woman had come into the emergency room and was diagnosed with a large blood clot in her lung.  She was going downhill fast, and he was summoned to take her to the operating room to remove the clot.  Because time was of the essence, the usual precautions against germs were skipped as he quickly opened her chest and removed the clot, literally saving her life.  Realizing that there was a high risk of post-operative infection, and, having access to a new wonder drug called penicillin, Dr. Koop told me how he sprinkled penicillin into the chest wound.  "I gilded the lily," he said.  What happened next was quite unexpected.  Her heart slowed, then stopped beating.  There was potassium in that new drug - penicillin - and in high doses, potassium stops the heart, for good.  He had saved her life, and, a few minutes later, had inadvertently ended it.  I was struck by the fact that this world-renowned surgeon, with so many heroic stories to tell, chose instead to tell me this story of failure.  As I walked away, I wondered if his message was that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.  However, I came away feeling that a dose of humility can make the most successful man appear even greater.  The author of this story, a retired physician, lives in nearby East Hempfield Township.  C. Everett Koop died in 2013 at age of 96.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.