Case study

I've concluded that I don't really care enough to update my blog about the day to day happenings in my life, so I'm changing the focus a little bit with this post.

The other day I discussed the following case with a friend (yes, we're med nerds):

There is a 9 year old boy who is definitively brain dead. There is no chance of recovery. He requires a ventilator to breath, and in one month his body will completely shut down (his heart will stop beating). The parents are Orthodox Jews and believe (in accordance with their religion) that death is when the heart stops. They do not believe that brain death means that someone is dead.

The doctors want to remove the boy from the ventilator; the parents insist he be left on it until death (from their perspective) occurs. Who would you choose to side with if say you were on an ethics board?

Evaluate the scenario from two worlds, one in which there are finite resources and the boy is occupying room space in the hospital as well as using up a ventilator that might be needed elsewhere; the other where there are "infinite" resources, there is no burden to the hospital, doctors, medical staff, or other patients if the boy is left on the ventilator.

Additional details:
- Yes, the boy is completely brain dead, 0 chance of recovery
- The parents are willing to pay the money to keep the boy on the ventilator
- It's their only child

I'm interested to see what you all come up with...

Goals

Actually just one goal. I scored my first college hockey goal on Sunday :D

Don't Sing It, Just Bring It

This is a phrase that I first heard here at SLU from my roomies, but it's probably one of my favorite phrases nowadays along with my personal variant:

"Don't sing about it, just bring about it"

The meaning is pretty simple, and we all can take something from it. Basically don't just talk about something, do it. So next time you have a choice between talking and walking, try walking.

Obama's Inauguration Speech

I tragically missed the first few minutes of Obama's Inauguration Speech due to chem lab but I rewatched the whole thing afterward on everybody's favorite youtube. Just some thoughts:

In a word: "wow" President Barack Obama is certainly one of the best speakers of all time. Every time I listen to him speak I can't help but be drawn in, mesmerized by his words. I literally get goosebumps. Having debated for 4 years, I've seen good speakers, bad speakers, intelligent speakers, dumb speakers, charismatic speakers, and likely any other description you could think of. Obama's speeches, be it his Democratic nomination speech or that at today's inauguration, absolutely blow away 99.9% of all speeches I've ever heard. The remaining .1% include only the best of the best, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (no I have not heard an actual sound clip but the words speak off the page), JFK's inauguration, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have A Dream,"

So why? what makes his speeches so powerful, so moving? I'm sure linguists will dissect his style for years to come. Whole books will be written on the subject. But for me, it is the sincerity of his words. I don't know the man. The closest I've ever come to him is by reading his book or listening to him speak at a rally, but for some reason I implicitly trust him. When he says that he will transcend right and left politics, I believe that he will transcend right and left politics. Every. single. one. of. his. words are delivered with force. No word is wasted. No word is thrown out there as filler. It is the hallmark of every great orator to rouse the masses and to stir the hearts of even their fiercest critics. Obama has done so consistently from his first step into the limelight at the Democratic convention in 2004. Say what you will about his ideology, but he is undisputably one of the great speakers of our time. You might think "hope" is just a cute catch phrase, but now even the most critical side of me can't help but do just that, hope.