Dastooooo
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This actually didn't happen to me, but my dad. He died years ago, but my mom just told me the story and I found it both horrible, sad, and inspiring. He was an anesthesiologist and there was a period where more and more of his patients started dying and he didn't know why. And when you are pediatric anesthesiologist it must have been horrible and utterly heartbreaking. He started doubting his abilities and it took his toll on his psyche watching kids die almost literally in his arms. He felt he was failing himself and most importantly the kids. He wanted to quit and leave it all because he couldnøt deal with it anymore.
So he asked his boss for a meeting to discuss his resignation, and then his boss dropped a bombshell - his boss was giving him all the difficult and basically "lost" cases that he he knew no one else could handle. He needed the best guy for the toughest jobs! Long story short, he stuck to it with revitalised energy, doing his best to help aleviate pain in the darkest hours of the babies and childrens lives. He never thought about quitting again, and worked all the way till the end before fukkin cancer took him from us.
furnitureandeffects
Jfc.
VisofSer
The reward for work well done is more work.
survivalhumor
God bless him. Your Dad was a quiet hero. Cherish that!
jd0tmack
Know the feeling. This helped me. Think as if, "I would rather it be me giving the best I can give than someone who quit caring years ago."
Jonesso
Sometimes being in the dark about your chances of failure will give you the mentality to try your best to succeed! That man was a hero!
AvoidJW
The world is stuffed with unsung heroes. What a guy your dad was.
IusallypoopwhileImonhere
There is a story prompt on reddit about Valhalla not discriminating on your battle. He would have place of honour at Odin side for that life
bilborrax
thats just something bosses say to keep you quite
CANADIANSNOWJOB
its a sad story till you realize OP is a proctologist
CrazyLizardLady86
They do this to teachers, too. People need a break sometimes, though. Can't be 100% worst cases or they'll burn out eventually.
YELLOWnotYELLOW
I love this story. It’s half horrible, half sad, half aspiring.
oestriecha
https://galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
MrStoic100
He passed a very hard life lesson
WhichOneIsPink25
Not all heroes wear capes
Dastooooo
Many wear white coats!
MedicallyAccurateReplies
Nice to hear this shared. Medicine is a mind fuck and can make the best go crazy. High stakes decision making when tired = anxiety!
Hawkmaid
I'm glad he got answers though, that makes a huge difference to a hard worker.
TairaMai
Mom was an ER nurse, but she started her career in the US in the pediatric cancer ward, back in the 60''s. 1/2
TairaMai
2/2 She moved to the ER because the children's cancer ward nearly broke her.
ambersandz
Same thing in the teaching field. “Oh, you have great classroom management- you get all the difficult kids.”
tg2222222
That's really shitty management methods. Tell the person you're assigning the hardest cases.
ObscureReferencing
Horrible boss
IDontKnowTHIRDBASE
Fuck cancer
Brokecattlefarmer
Sometime it just sucks to be good at what you do.
cruisey
Story doesn’t make sense - as an anesthesiologist, i can’t imagine ur responsible for procedure outcomes
Dastooooo
He kept them alive during procedures, together with other colleagues. But the kids increasingly started dying on them.
OogieBoogieSong
Don't count how many people died on your shift. Count how many you saved/ helped/ made a difference for them. Passing on is inevitable.(1/2)
OogieBoogieSong
And you are doing the best that you can. I see you as a hero for taking this so seriously <3 (2/2)
AlphaKenneyBody
Good at killing people?
Dastooooo
I guess there is an issue with my formulation, sorry!
rebuildingdrizzt3000
Your dad is a hero dude.
Dastooooo
Thanks, he was :)
OdiumToJoy
That's the problem at being good at what you do. Stressful stuff.
OlaphOfTheNorth
"the reward for work done well is more work"
igoslow
true and the flip side is you become so good that you make it look easy. you’ve turned it into an art and this is fulfilling.
blameitonmyjuice
What happened to me: Bosses pulled me off a passion project and gave it to a more junior employee because I made it look easy. I was pissed.
blameitonmyjuice
The more junior employee is struggling and now they want to put me back because they "never should've taken [me] off." Get me off this team.
Photus
You dig the best ditches, you get given the biggest shovel.
IncompetentCrab
.
Nakahana
I find the smallest graves have the heaviest shovels.
DysgraphicProgrammer
"The reward for a job well done is a harder job"
TheFastpaws
A good way to lose your best employees doing that all the time.
bravecatgaming
Yeah I've been the clutch cook at Popeyes for a bit now. I'm getting a pay raise soon but they know I'm a hard worker so I get worked hard
TheGreatBlueWaffle
This is such a grunt expression it needs a PT belt.
Dastooooo
Never heard that expression before! It fits perfectly, thanks :)
Photus
Heard it in the military
Dastooooo
Doesn't surprise me :D
Se7enPr1me
alternatively, never put 100 percent effort into a job that isnt your goal, because if you are too good, it can be hard to advance
Photus
Never be the best at a job you hate.
kbunyan
My new life motto
rdmguy
Wouldn't you get the smallest? So the lazy fuckers can keep up
spiffylookingnerfherder
Yeah that sounds like my experience. You do well with adversity, so here, have some more
Leithoa
Found the city employee
rhetoricIjustmether
Yep, and soon after, the only shovel.
fuckbeans
That only applies when the boss doesn't care about the worker. My bosses care, and I get away with shit no other employee would dream about.
fuckbeans
This includes playing on my phone in front of the suits, telling my supervisors literally "Fuck Off" to anything unreasonable, etc...
rhetoricIjustmether
Your example only says that you a disrespect shit worker and should be fired. Your management isn’t good at their job.
fuckbeans
My example shows that my bosses trust my work ethic enough to trust my judgement when I am asked to do unreasonable things.
Leberbs
And burn through the witches
Unbridled007
I’m so glad I’m not the only one that thought this. Thank you.
Counterfit
And slam in the back of my Dragulaaaa
lncorrectGrammerNazi
daenih71
His boss should have been upfront about his strategy. Nearly broke the man and lost a valuable employee
Zhopa101
THIS! A million times this. This is the difference between a bad boss and a good boss. Or a shitty stupid selfish idiot and thoughtful one
jmulderr
Or, his dad's boss came up with the right thing to say to get a young doctor through a tough patch.
MedicallyAccurateReplies
Sadly something inherent in the culture/ medicine. Also, we all just crack on, thinking we're the issue if we fail, when huge other factors
ColonelColon
Honestly I sincerely doubt he realized. It's just natural to put your best worker on the hardest jobs.
diesoz
I had a boss who did something similar (no lives on the line) and I hated it. Ended up leaving b/c I felt I was being left out of my own job
JeezusJuice
What do you do?
TheThoroughbredOfSinBadHorse
Same. Follows the same principle of “you’re so good at your job, here’s more and harder work to do.”
dreadpiratekirk
When I found out that shit was happening to me, I demanded a raise with back pay. Ended up quitting shortly after getting paid.
JoeT85
Yeah, his boss was a coward and a bastard. That's the sort of thing you take him to lunch and talk over. Good guy dad though
F0rger
I think that's a fair point but I wonder if his dad's response would have been equally as powerful.
Ryann85
This! I told my director how unhappy I was cause my workload was ridiculous for last year. Asked for help, got none. Finally he said ...
Ryann85
We are trying to stretch your abilities. I was thinking that’s bullshit, and if not why didn’t you say so a year ago.
muffledicecreams
Yeah, same goes to “we’re paying you this much (pittance) because we want you to grow into your role.”
degenerator
Gosh, then maybe they could expand your pay to cover that stretch?
JeezusJuice
That is bullshit. That’s their way of saying you’re not gonna get help.
Dastooooo
Yeah my thought exactly. Maybe his boss assumed he knew, but you know what they say about assumptions
jdell64
So are you doctor house now
Missyloved
They’ll do this with nurses too. The charge nurse will often put the hardest patients with the strongest nurses.
neoritter
Even then, I think even knowing the idea isn't ideal. Morale is a thing and it takes the best to be able keep it up in situations like that.
Imalwaysready
They'll screw you on your yearly employee review if you don't have mutual understanding of what they are?
allofmycandy
Don’t do it?
Corin
Yeah, when you make an assumption, it shows a lot of gumption.
lespritdelescargot
(1) I just tried to put myself in the boss's shoes, explaining this to your dad, and I find it very difficult to justify what he did. The
GeneralWho
I don't, yet you're confidently asserting that I do.
OiishikataAK
Boss may have been doing it subconsciously, once he was confronted it clicked so he told him.
Talligan
Are you assuming I know that saying
lespritdelescargot
(2) best I can come up with is "I couldn't tell you because I didn't want to risk any complacency, however unlikely".
DoorCellar
It was definitely just a lack of soft skills. Cause he was an old-timey dr boss man.
Stuey1221
Ass out of U and Me
CaptainBigButt
That doesn't sound too bad
GanjalfTheGray
No damn it... That's "assume". An Assumption makes an ass out of You and Umption
JustinSane6
Were they dying because of the surgery, or because he was administering too much anaesthesia? It wasn’t his fault if it was the surgery.
sumbitchthatwashot
giving the fast that OP hasn't responded to this thread I CALL BS on the whole story
Dastooooo
They were dying from whatever issues they had, following the surgery. So not directly related to his administering of anesthesia.
Picniconthewaterfront
It is extremely rare to die from anesthesia, and most hospitals refuse to let patients die in the O.R. This story makes no sense.
Dastooooo
They weren't dying from the anesthesia. They would die from whatever disease/problem they had, and unfortunately he was often in on the op.
just1ncred1ble
It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either in the context I know. But American healthcare is different than Canadian. 1/2
just1ncred1ble
They know the patients risks for sure of going under anesthetic. They wouldNt routinely put someone under that wouldn’t wake up. 2/2
just1ncred1ble
The more I think about this the less it makes any sense
SunSalutationOfTheDancingSlothman
There are some procedures that need to be done despite the stability of the patient. When surgery has to be done despite the risks, 1/2
mishelli925
If the child dies in the day or week following your care, you definitely feel like shite. Many anesthesiologists follow up on their patients
mishelli925
To see how they are doing. Especially if the surgery/anesthesia was rocky, complicated, hard and the child is really sick. You get very
mishelli925
Attached and invested in their care/journey
Picniconthewaterfront
You are right. Very caring anesthesiologist will visit complicated cases more than once post op, but they are far and few in between. But
Picniconthewaterfront
This is mostly due to constraints of heavy case load and having to supervise other anesthesia providers.