For the first time in my life, I heard a heart-surgeon making a heart-breaking, heart-stopping, yet thought-provoking statement on live television. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it – he got my attention.His name is Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oprah called him “America’s Doctor.”
He said he won’t treat someone in the ER (emergency room) in the hospital if he/she is alone.
“When I step into the ER, see a patient who’s conscious, just had a heart attack or some other kind of trauma, fighting for his life, he’s alone, I always ask that patient whom can you call? Who cares about you? Call someone who cares about you to come now. You’re here alone, you can’t be alone here.” (This quote is not verbatim, but paraphrase of his main points.)
Dr. Oz then told the television interviewer that he won’t treat that patient unless he has someone with him, next to him, touch him, talk to him – give him hope and reason to live. He won’t treat that patient who’s alone because unless he has someone there, he will die – he won’t survive.
Dr. Oz went on to say…
“Being in ER is the most excruciating traumatic experience for anyone to endure alone, especially if you’re in there for a life-threatening condition. Your heart can’t sustain the trauma unless it feels emotional support and physical connection.”
As I was processing what Dr. Oz said and why, I went online to check his medical background and credibility. A quick Google search shows that – beyond his celebrity status as “America’s Doctor” on television, Dr. Oz is a cardiac surgeon trained at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine after getting his undergraduate degree from Harvard. He also has an MBA from Wharton Business School, and has served as professor and Vice Chairman of Surgery at Columbia University in New York, and Director for the Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
His extensive medical training and business background tells me he’s not only credible as an ER doctor to heal, but also realistic and practical about what it takes to heal ER patients dealing with trauma, in trauma and post-trauma – and that is hope. Hope from “someone who cares about them,” – someone who’s an “ER friend” who’d show up and be there for you in your life or death moment. Even the best cardiac surgeon or ER doctor cannot save an ER patient unless he has an ER friend to give healing of life – meaning – that’s hope.
At that moment, I asked myself – who’s my ER friend? Have I been an ER friend?
The answer is – thankfully – I have ER friends. And I have been an ER friend.
Do you have ER Friends? Have you been an ER friend?
这是我第一次在生活中，听到一位心脏外科医生在电视上说出了一番令人心碎，令人窒息，但也发人深省的言论。我惊呆了，我无法相信它，他吸引了我的注意力。
他是穆罕默德奥兹一生，奥普拉称他为“美国医生”。
他说，如果在急诊室里的病人是独自一人在医院治疗的话，那么他就不会给他或她进行治疗。
“当我踏进急诊室，看到一个病人，仍然意识清醒，只是心脏病发作或一些其他类型的创伤，正在为生命而抗争着，如果他独自一人的话，我总是会问，你现在最想给谁打电话？有谁在乎你吗？请给那个在乎你的人打电话叫他现在过来。你现在是一个人，但你不应该一个人在这里。”（这些话并不是逐字记录的，但是以他的主要观点改写的。）
奥兹医生的电视采访中说，他将不会给予落单的病人治疗的，除非他有人陪他的旁边，安慰他，抚摸他，和他说话，给他希望和活下去的理由。否则他是不会给孤独的病人进行治疗的，因为除非有一个人陪在病人身边，否则他会死的，他将无法活下来。
奥兹博士接着说……
“独自一人在急诊室里，特别是当处在一种随时都有生命危险的情况下，对于任何人来说这都算得上是人生中最痛苦最折磨人的经历了。你的心脏是无法承受这样的创伤的，除非能让你的心感受到一种情感上的支持和身体的感触。”
当我在整理对奥兹医生进行的采访的时候，我去网上查了一下他的医学背景和可信度。很快谷歌搜索的内容就表明除了在电视荧屏中“美国医生”的名人身份外，奥兹医生还是一个心脏外科医生，他在哈佛大学拿到了学士学位以后，去了宾夕法尼亚大学医学院继续进行深造。不仅如此，他还在沃顿商学院获得了工商管理硕士学位，并在纽约的哥伦比亚大学担任教授和外科学系副主任，并在纽约长老会医院担任补充医学项目的负责人。
他在医学领域所接受的广泛的培训以及深厚的商业背景让我知道，他不仅是可信的急诊室医生，而且是对于治疗急诊病人，处理病人生理创伤，以及创伤过程中和创伤治愈后所引起的心里创伤所需的方式方法方面是非常现实和实际的—因为这个疗伤的过程中最大的关键就是希望。希望来自于“那些关心他们的人”，一些可以被称之“急诊室挚友”的人，他们能够及时的出现在急诊室并且能够在守候那里等你，无论结果是生是死。即使是最好的心脏外科医生或急诊室医生也没有十足的把我能够挽救一个急诊室的病人，除非他能有一个急诊室挚友，给病人的生命愈合的力量，而这种力量就是希望。
在那一刻，我问自己，我的急诊室挚友会是谁？我会是谁的急诊室挚友呢？答案是，谢天谢地，我有自己的急诊室挚友。而且我也是别人的急诊室挚友。那么你有急诊室挚友吗？你会是一个急诊室挚友吗？