A Not-successful-at-all Story

It is a Hobson’s choice I have never had to make in my 25 years working for large multinational companies. They did not teach me how to deal with a situation like this in the premier MBA school I went to. Never have I had to make a decision that would directly save the life of a human being. Or not!

A poor 88-year-old farmer lives alone with his wife of 67 years in a remote village of Uttar Pradesh in India. They have no children. Half his body has been paralysed. His paralysis is a result of fluid accumulation in the left side of his skull, which is squishing his brain. He also has an old clot. They have been trying to locate a brain surgeon who can operate on him for several days. Unfortunately, there are no neurosurgeons within a few hundred kilometres of where he can be transported to safety. And even if there was one available, he could not afford it. They heard we, at Global Medics, have some amazing specialists with us. So, they reached out to us for a second opinion that could save a life! Hoping for hope!

Our neurologist tells me he needs urgent surgery to drain out the fluid from his skull. Maybe you do not need the world’s best neurosurgeon for the procedure. But you do need an operation theatre with skilled professionals and the resources. That costs money. We have to be honest and explain the limitations of what Global Medics could not do at this stage….. We can offer a second opinion, but we cannot save the life of this patient. It is so hard to accept the fact that we are likely to lose him in the next few days. For all our talented specialists and amazing AI technologies, there is a limit to what we can deliver. I felt so humble. So helpless.

As we struggled to find a solution for this patient, we realised the stressful decisions the triage doctors in an Emergency Department would be undertaking as their day jobs! Prioritising which patients to focus your limited resources on also implies deciding on which patients would miss out on the care. My respect for them went sky high!

Global Medics has limited resources, just like any other organisation in the world. Recognising where we would be able to add maximum value with those resources is critical. The experience I have just gone through deciding on the care to be delivered brought such a great clarity of focus. Harsh lessons in management from the Hard Knocks University of Life!