Believe it or not, there is a lot more to medicine than meets the eye. While we’re often content to assume that doctors are infallible and always right, they can, in fact, be just as fallible as the average person. That being said — since they’re constantly in contact with new and challenging medical problems every day of their lives— they’ve had to face the good, the bad, and the ugly of this world. Dr michelle lynn liebermann is one such doctor, who has given us five mind-numbing facts about doctors.
1. You’ll Never Get Used To The Blood
There are a variety of different fluids inside your body right now, but they all contain the same thing: blood. We don’t usually think too much about the chemical makeup of blood, but it is extremely fascinating, and no two people have the same type either. Every human body has between 45-55% water in their blood, which acts as their fluid.
Also found inside our blood is around 15% red blood cells for transporting oxygen to places in our body where it’s needed most (i.e. muscles), and another 5% is made from white blood cells that help fight infections such as tuberculosis or measles. Regardless of what types of blood cells you have, it’s definitely an interesting thing to consider every time you get a cut or even donate blood.
2. Doctors Can Make A Lot Of Mistakes
While we’d like to believe that doctors are perfect human beings with never a wrong answer, the truth is that medicine is an extremely complex field. In fact, according to the Journal of Medical Ethics, there are approximately 19–41% more errors committed by doctors than what they allow to be reported. In other words, doctors themselves admit that they commit around 60 mistakes on average in their careers. That number is nothing to scoff at.
3. Your Doctor Can Be Wrong Even When They Have The Right Diagnosis
If you hear that a doctor has diagnosed you with a certain illness, it can be difficult to keep in mind that it’s not always the end of the story. In fact, there are plenty of illnesses out there for which doctors haven’t found a definitive cure or medication to treat it — even diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease remain without answers for many people around the world who suffer from them. An estimated 7–10% of all deaths in our country are due to mistakes made by physicians themselves, so this should really give people pause when visiting the doctor with their concerns.
4. The Seasonal Flu Can Kill You
A lot of people are aware that the seasonal flu can be a serious illness for many people, but they probably aren’t aware of how incredibly deadly it can be. In fact, according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), 36,000-42,000 people die every year in the United States alone from influenza.
When you consider that the flu kills approximately 1-4% of all flu cases every year in our country, and knowing that there are only 500 million cases reported worldwide each year, this number should scare you. Statistics show that on average 12.6% of children who have the illness die on average — considerably higher than many adults.
5. Doctors Don’t Have A Vaccine Against Humor
Most doctors love their job, and are passionate about treating patients who need it. Of course, they’re also human and enjoy a good joke every now and then — but their patients don’t always appreciate humor as much as you may think. In fact, according to a study that was recently conducted at Yale University, one-third of young doctors have had a patient complain about them joking around during an examination or procedure. On the other hand, one-fifth of medical students have been reported to have explicitly said that they’re afraid of telling a joke due to the consequences that it could have on their career.
CONCLUSION :
Whatever your relationship with your doctor may be, it can’t be any better than the one you have with yourself. As doctors themselves will tell you, mistakes are made every day in the hearts of many people — however, you’ll never get used to them. Sometimes the only hope for a cure is simply in knowing that there’s always hope for change.
