Life as an Extreme Sport

Category: Bioethics

It’s about time I added a category for my field of study, eh?

The New Scientist Would Like us to Know: Psychological torture ‘as bad as physical torture’

Bioethics

A new report says that “prisoners subjected only to psychological torture report as much mental anguish as those who are beaten.” Well, perhaps if we ditched the notion of a ghost in the machine and left the mind/body division where it belongs – in the past – this wouldn’t be nearly as much a surprise.

I exist in my finger, I exist in my hand, I exist in my arm and leg and chest and… where do I stop, and where do I begin? What can you remove to still retain I, and what must go away for I to be lost?

further details on how not to procure organs

AJOB Editors Blog, Bioethics

The LA Times has a follow-up on the organ procurement/transplant case that Ina’s Sporula mentioned a few days back. Some intrepid soul at the paper decided to request the originally referred to report via the Freedom of Information Act, and received a 76-page document from federal investigators that reads like a litany of 101 things to not do when procuring organs for transplant.

As more comes out about this case, it’s likely that the transplant surgeon will be the one made an example of, the over-zealous doctor that pushed too far. It is, after all, a nightmare scenario I hear repeated as the basis for why so many people are not organ donors, even though they would want an organ transplant themselves if it were necessary. But what is so interesting, in a “if you can’t be a good example you’ll be a horrible warning” sort of way, is reading the summary of the full report in the LA Times and realizing how many medical personnel (nurses and doctors) were present in the room, uncomfortable with what was going on, and said nothing until days, days, later. This seems a much more systemic problem than one over-zealous surgeon, to something endemic within the culture of the hospital itself.

-Kelly Hills

Originally published at the American Journal of Bioethics Editors Blog.

validation

Academics, AMBI, Bioethics, University of Washington

I spent a while with my former adviser/mentor yesterday, and it was weird, and it was good. In some ways, I felt a sort of closure that I didn’t in June. He was honestly surprised I’d made it through everything grad school and the universe threw at me in my first 6 months, not because he thinks little of me, but because he thought it was simply too much to ask any one person to cope with. I reminded him that he told me, several years ago, after the death of one of my closest friends, that life never got easier – you were always juggling, and what counted was how well you juggled.

“I said that?” he said, very puzzled. “Yep.” “Well, it does sound like something I’d say, I’m just surprised I would have said that then…”

But the thing that he said that actually really, really meant a lot, was when we were in the car driving over to meet some other folks. I was telling him about the opportunities I have at work, and the people I’m working with, and some of the more general stuff I’ve been doing. He paused, and said he hoped I realized that for how bad the first bit was, I actually sounded like I was integrating in faster than most graduate students do when they make the move I did, and that what’s being offered and given to me, I should take as one of the greatest validations of, well, me, that I can get.

I admit to laughing it off and telling him that no, really, it’s just that they needed a warm body with at least part of a brain, and I managed to fill both those requirements, but he didn’t let me get away with it, and forced me to acknowledge that I do realize how lucky I am. But for him, it was more than that – he really did want me to see it as validation. I guess he’s still concerned about my confidence (or general lack of it). I think he was trying to say “see, CHID isn’t the only place that thinks you’re pretty cool.”

It all kind of ended abruptly, last year, rocky and rough and not…how I would have liked. And I think I finally got what I wanted, what I needed. I’m not sure I can articulate what that was, only that it was.

wait, will physical therapy help?

Academics, Bioethics

As we have already discussed, the AHA has released some truly mindbogglingly short-sighted recommendations on how to treat all chronic pain patients, which basically boils down to “what pharmaceutical options?” But I didn’t share the truly funny part about this last night, which is that earlier this month, a couple of gynecologists released the results of a small study suggesting that ibuprofen is ideal at treating dysmenhorea, more commonly known to people (okay, women) as extremely painful periods.

As I quipped to Daniel in email, this would appear to fall under the AHA guidelines for a chronic pain being improperly treated. Perhaps these women should try physical therapy, instead.

Less tongue-in-cheek, these two articles actually highlight a large issue that surrounds the whole notion of doing studies and releasing results in the first place. There is often very little coordination between different organizations, which leads to a mismatch of recommendations that end up leaving the average patient very confused (and frankly, sometimes I wonder about the average doctor, too). This is a larger scale example of the same thing that can affect patients who see multiple physicians: poor communication leads to contradictory, conflicting, and at times dangerous treatment combinations.

We have got to start working together and reaching across disciplinary boundaries to expand our knowledge, rather than staying within our insulated worlds and not considering how our professional words and actions are going to impact others.