Underlying

Perhaps it's my training. Whether it's breathing, bleeding, acidosis, pain, treating the symptoms may help short term, but getting to the reason, the source of the problem, has to be the focus. Until that underlying cause is identified and treated, any surface treatment will be either temporary, or even harmful.

Which is where I am on the current national crisis. International.

The public uprising, pushing, is the essential fluid support, supplemental oxygen, direct pressure that keeps us alive. But the real problem, the corruption and conspiracy, must be addressed and expunged, definitively treated, before we can deal with the myriad of other issues. If the patient dies, it won't matter if the splint on their leg is put on properly.

Yes, there is a story there. Big trauma, general surgeons working on abdominal damage. I was sent in to assist the orthopedic surgeon with splinting the bad leg fracture. I wasn't holding it to his satisfaction. He snaps at me that if it isn't perfect, the patient "MAY NEVER WALK AGAIN!"

I look up at Dr. P, who I knew very well, and read in his face that this patient would not make it out of the hospital alive. Dr. P looked at me, he'd heard the rebuke, and I could tell what he thought of it. He was right. Patient made it to ICU technically alive, but no further.

The resistance does matter, essential. But unless there is legal, high level resolution to solve the underlying issues, this will be fatal. We are the conscience, we are giving it time and reason to heal. But the surgeon must stitch up the ruptured vessel, remove the infected foreign body, dialysis must clear the toxins. If we survive this, there will be a period of recuperation and pain. All we want is for this all to be over, but it won't be like that. Old hurts have been exposed and strained, wounds opened, tumors discovered. It's been festering a long time. Whatever happens, it had to be addressed and fixed.