A Mind-opening Story of a Former Neurosugeon

I stumbled upon a YouTube video about a man, in his late 30s, who was a neurosurgeon, but due to certain reasons, quits his job. So, in that video he talked about why he quit and shared some observations as well as his experience as a neurosurgeon.

Nobody knew why he quit. Who can explain, in a couple of minutes, the things that took you years to process, to finally understand what went wrong? For this sort of thing needs a sit down, a serious talk, and sadly, people don’t have the time. So, he decided to make a video explaining why he quit his job; seeking to resonate with anyone who may have experienced or who are in the same tough spot as he is and perhaps help them in their situation.

As a neurosurgeon, his senior would always tell him that their job as a doctor is to help relieve pain from people. He eventually came to realize what that meant. Their business as a doctor was just to relieve pain; it does not involve addressing what causes the pain. Fortunately enough, although this stern fact had hit him hard, it changed him, it affected him when others would have dismissed the fact altogether for the sake of a stable income.

There’s an interesting analogy that perfectly illustrates what his senior used to remind him of their job as a doctor. Somebody he knew, a physician assistant, told him that the surgery they do is like fixing a house with a leaky roof. They diligently fix the destroyed elements of the house caused by water damage – they would rebuild the walls, beams, columns, resurface the floors, install a new ceiling, etc. and all the while ignoring the root cause of the water damage: the leaky roof. In other words, even when they can perform surgery perfectly to people, there were those who get better – as expected, some get better only temporarily, and some would get even worse. He became confused since he had always thought that the people, whom he operated on, would actually be healed, but it wasn’t always the case.

Well, he thought that something wasn’t adding up; if surgeries don’t always heal people, then what does? For over 9 years he tried everything to figure out how people actually heal. He began to collate information from his patients, those who got better and those who didn’t, such as diet, habits, social relationships, sleeping habits, and etc. Then he found out that the ones who got better had a low salt diet, eat a lot of vegetables, did not eat too much meat, they sweated a lot by engaging in vigorous physical activities, they did not smoke much, did not drink much, they had good social circle, and they had enough sleep. In other words, they maintained a healthy lifestyle. The patients who did these things were permanently healed; others even got better even before their scheduled operation.

On the other side of the fence, the patients who did not have a healthy lifestyle – drinks too much, smoked like a chimney, rarely works out, sleep deprived, did not have good social relationships, these patients, even after surgery, either got better or a lot worse. They get better only temporarily then eventually became sick again.
So, he concluded that to actually heal, it’s essential to maintain a healthy lifestyle. To actually heal, one doesn’t have to rely solely on a doctor, but to rely heavily on oneself. Have a balanced life; get serious and be responsible with your health. If you do this – it will not only heal certain parts of your body – it will actually heal everything.

While we may have found the solution to most of our health problems, but for our doctors and medical institutions, it is quite worrisome. This solution does not sit well with our medical system. These institutions need to make money – they need money to grow the economy as what many of them would claim. As bad as it may sound, they need people to get sick to keep their business thriving. It’s business as usual and their chief business is really not fixing the leaky roof. A stark reality.

This was quite problematic for him as a doctor as it certainly clashed with his values. It was a moral dilemma He was doing a job he no longer believes in anymore – this was the hardest part because this is when things start to become meaningless and when it does, life becomes unbearably empty. So, he decided to quit.

I’m pretty sure many people resonated with what this man is going through. Many chose to turn a blind eye due to financial pressures and few were able to stand with their values, choosing to fare hard. Whichever of the two we think is right, I think it’s best to take the time to ponder and ask ourselves ahead of time: Did I fail to truly live? And not when we are already in our final moments, realize that we had not.