3 ms·

It's hard to imagine the emotional weight of working in pediatric oncology back then, when outcomes were so bleak

• ethbr1 1y ago
  My father knew a neurosurgeon in the 70s(?), when the outcome statistics were pretty bleak. He asked him how he handled it, and the guy said "Because the few that I save wouldn't be, if we didn't do anything." Sometimes, greater than zero is the win.
• akharris 1y ago
  I don't fully understand how he did it. I know he took a lot from the line in the Talmud that said "whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." My mom says that his baseline was incredibly high and that he was incredibly resilient. He also had a big rebellious streak, an analytical mind, and endless compassion.
  • throwaway2037 1y ago
    > the line in the Talmud that said "whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." I am not Jewish but I learned about this phrase watching the film Schindler's List in high school. That phrase, and listening to Ben Kingsley's character say it, has lived, rent-free, in my mind for the last umpteen years.