“It’s only happened to me five times in thirty years, and I’ve wanted to kill myself every single time. Those parents trusted me with their child. It’s a sacred trust and the ultimate responsibility is always mine,” shared Dr Michael La Quaglia in his Humans of New York post. Dr La Quaglia is Chief Paediatric Surgeon at the Paediatric Department at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, his post received over 10 000 comments, confirming that many healthcare professionals share his sentiments.
With 182 new cancer referrals to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead last year and 110 new cancer patients annually at Randwick Children’s Hospital, the reality is that though survivors often suffer ongoing problems due to the cancer or their treatment, the survival rate for childhood cancer is 80 per cent. “We don’t get it right 20 per cent of the time. When you fail, there are down moments. If things go wrong, you do think about it. And the fact that you cure 80 per cent… doesn’t save you. I think you have to grieve,” said Dr Luciano Dalla-Pozza, the head of the Cancer Centre for Children at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
Dr Dalla-Pozza shared that the difficult moments of a child’s death were made easier by the sense that you were actively contributing, “You helped someone and that’s probably one of the core things of being human. It’s also important to accept that certain things are inevitable. You can’t cure everyone. There are some things you can’t do. Some things are out of your control.” To read this full article, click here.
Leave a Reply