Doctors shouldn't get ALL the credit for a successful surgery!

Everyone congratulates doctors on successful surgeries, but they're only looking at half of the picture: What about the patient? After all, if the patient didn't make an effort to survive, no one would be thanking the doctor!

I've made it back from some very scary operations, including two near-death experiences in which my heart stopped beating long enough to be of major concern to everyone in the operating room. If I had decided to leave, all of the medical procedures in the world could not have kept me in that body. I have a very strong will, and I was not ready to go anywhere, so I hung around until they stabilized me; I was not going to be a surgical victim! Even though I was physically weak, some part of me, maybe my soul, was strong enough to maintain my link to life even when my body seemed disinterested.

I am a dialysis patient, and my life is full of medical treatments, hospitals, and the deaths of other patients. I have seen seemingly 'healthy' patients enter a downward spiral and never recover, because they are simply too tired to keep fighting. They go in for a routine procedure and never leave the hospital, even though extrordinary measures were taken to keep them alive. Some of them resent dialysis and feel like a burden on their families, and it seems as if they will themselves to die. When they need surgery, it's as if it's a long-awaited "Get Out of Jail Free" card, and they jump at the chance to leave a life they have no interest in anymore.

I wonder if their doctors understand their feelings, or if they beat themselves up for losing them. It's got to be tough to be a nephrologist and see your patients die one after the other... elderly dialysis patients usually have several other health problems that further complicate dialysis and shorten an already diminished lifespan. But do they even ask their patients if they want the surgeries they claim are necessary? And do they understand that, ultimately, it is the patient's will that will prevail?