StemCell Therapy

Dr. John McGonigle| Guest columnist

Dr. John McGonigle is an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University.

I am a board-certified primary care doctor and an assistant clinical professor in family medicine at Brown University. I have been practicing primary care in Rhode Island since starting residency at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket in 2006. I am educated, trained and schooled in the most powerful system of medicine the world has ever known.

Indeed, I have not infrequently described this system as analogous to the United States military. When Europe was overrun with Nazis, send the U.S. Army in, and tell them to flatten anything that resists. Its great for killing Nazis. As our recently concluded experience in Afghanistan tells us, send the military into a country and ask them to build schools and they will fail miserably. Wrong tool. Unbeatable in war, quiescent in peace.

The United States, Rhode Island, and the rest of the planet have been engaged in an undertaking unparalleled since the Second World War. While the politicians stay at home and dither over strategy, the people go offand fight. We have been asked to operate on a war footing, and whatever our political or social or economic means have enabled us to do we have done. We have cussed, and spit, and sometimes ridiculed higher officers but have done what they have asked, when they have asked, and in whatever spirits we can muster.

Last year was more straightforward in primary care, since it was all triage, all the time. We didnt know much about Sars-Co-V2, and knew less about treatment. Little of its spread, little of its contagion patterns. Our patients knew even less. They brought us unanswerable questions of life and death, and we worked tirelessly keeping the emergency rooms from being tragically overrun. The usual go to the ER for a full assessment when one was uncertain, or too tired to shake the uncertainty, was off limits.

To carry the battlefield the confusion had to be minimized. ER and ICU doctors and nurses fought heroically, in shifts. Primary Care is not adrenaline soaked and filled with mayhem, but it is unrelenting and remorseless. Primary Care makes it possible for ERs and ICUs to function at ALL times, and when Primary Care is overwhelmed like dishes piling up in the restaurant sink the establishment no longer functions anywhere near optimal efficiency.

We are tired from all the fear and we are tired of filling out forms. We are tired of having kept the supply and chow and ambulance lines going to the front for over 21 months now. Like a returning army our people have come home, and many are gravely scarred. For some the wounds are obvious, and the thank you for your services and sorry for your losses are heartfelt. For far too many the wounds are unseeable and barely reachable and require patience, not stitches.

The tidal wave of wounded families that I am seeing is unparalleled in my 15 years of practice. I am seeing the harms within: between parents, parents and children, children, children and schools; between parents and peers; between my patients' blood pressures and their suffocating, sedentary fears; between health-giving practices and the despairs of a war zone.

We have all been hearing about this war we are in and I am tired of hearing about how much preventative care has been deferred and ignored, and how much the mental health and well-being of the nation needs attention. The country is devastated, and to continue to keep it on a war-footing is prolonging the devastation. It is time for COVID to put down its weapons. The eagle has landed. It is time to start building schools.

See the original post:
Opinion/McGonigle: It is time to stop fighting - The Providence Journal

This entry was posted on October 15, 2021 at 1:52 am and is filed under Preventative Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |