8 years ago, I listened to my granny Bridgie’s final heartbeats with my own stethoscope. Fulfilling a promise that I made to her when I was a young boy.
“Bridgie, I’ll look after you when you’re old and shook!”
At the end she was 94 and had an overwhelming infection on top of other issues, and her medical team had reached consensus that it was time to let her go.
She was in her own bed, surrounded by family. I sat with her, made sure she was comfortable and completed my promise – I just looked after her until a few hours later she slipped away, I listened to her heart and heard the final beats.
At the time everybody asked me how I could do it, sit there calm and solid, while my family grieved the decline of a matriarch.
I can never explain where this strength came from, but I'm glad I could do it for her.As doctors we’re slightly desensitised to these parts of life, I only existed to serve her needs in the last moments, and I was the rock for everybody else to hang on to as we weathered the emotional storm.
That’s the calling of being a clinician or working in healthcare.
Over the last few years I have had existential crises and tough times, we all do.
Should I stay in frontline practice with the negative impacts on myself and my family?
Why am I still in healthcare at all, it’s such a tough industry?
Should I transition to an easier sector, my skills are certainly transferrable?
But no, I'm still buried in healthcare.
Even though I’ve moved from practice into leadership, I’m still in healthcare, and deep down I know I always will be.
Of course I’ll still have a fleeting temptation to be a financier or a pilot every so often, and then I’ll remember why I’m here.
To help others, it's not about me...
The promise I made as a much younger version of myself has stayed with me, and only grown over the years.
Now I make my promise to all the other grandparents, parents, children and colleagues in the world.Everybody deserves the best healthcare.
To be educated about how to stay healthy when they’re young and can make positive decisions.
To have safe, effective and affordable diagnostics and care when they need it.
To have positive experiences when they’re in their darkest moments, instead of broken systems adding to their trauma.
So, to all of you with me on this mission to make healthcare a little better every day, I salute you and I'm here with you.
It won’t be easy, it won’t be fast, we won’t get to the END – it doesn’t exist.
But if we can make things feel a bit better for more grandparents, children or anybody receiving or giving care, then it’s absolutely worth our effort.
Photo is my granny meeting my newborn daughter, her first great-grandchild, just four days before she passed away.
God bless you Bridgie, I hope you’re resting well in heaven and we're all still making you proud. ❤️
Dr David Morris
David is a healthcare executive, emergency physician and health technology leader, blending clinical excellence with groundbreaking digital health initiatives to revolutionize patient care and medical education.
Hearing my granny's final heartbeats...
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