Medical aphorisms

kira66715

I know I post everything in this forum, no matter if it's relevant, but I was doing a journal review and found this in the NE Journal of Medicine:

"Medications can at times be thought of as poisons with beneficial side effects."

And, I remembered the Atul Gawande line:

"Surgeons, frequently wrong, never in doubt."

And I did a quick google search and found some more:

http://www.hotflush.com/aphorisms.htm

"The patient in front of you in the exam room is not the average patient from whom statistics were compiled." 

And, as this forum is all about complications, I'm not sure I agree with this one entirely--but it's from William Halstead, creator of the radical mastectomy:

"The lesser the indication, the greater the complication." 

Kira

BoobsinaBox

Kira,

The one on surgeons refers to the BS who took my breasts, and a total of 21 lymph nodes, when he wasn't supposed to and said he didn't.  Thanks for sharing.  It helps to laugh, even ruefully!

Dawn 

kira66715

Dawn, From Dr. William Ostler

"The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism." 

That one directly applies to both LE and your surgeon's appalling lack of honesty. We might just need tee shirts with that aphorism...

Kira

BoobsinaBox

Thanks for that one, Kira!  I'm thinking T-shirts would be great!