" zebra law "

We need a Zebra Law. Every one  just laughed and thought that concussion after his car accident affected him. He was talking otherwise normal sentences with normal affect.

He was a driver involved in a car accident. He was wearing seat belt, his air bag deployed, and he got multiple injuries. He was rear ended at a pedestrian crossing when he was trying to stop for an inattentive pedestrian, who suddenly stepped on the road and keep walking.  As per this man's recollection, that pedestrian  was fully occupied on his cell phone looking at it with ear plugs. He was not seeing the on coming traffic, as well as not even able to hear wheels and noise of traffic.  No one knew what was so important for him to not pay attention on the road while crossing it. But that is a  daily observation of all of us, pedestrian are more and more self absorbed species like on a suicide mission. They use their right with certain degree of impunity even risking lives: theirs and others.

That pedestrian was saved by the sacrifice of this man, who was now being  treated for  injuries like he was Saving Private Ryan. He got concussion and now he was adamant to have a Zebra Law.

As he became more  stable, I reminded him about his  utterances of words at his presentation to the hospital; some  sentences were logical others were still trying to find meanings. He was confused, and certainly struggling to survive at that time.

He was recovering so I asked  him about the law which he was proposing . He looked at me, and with a clear voice said, Zebra law will require drivers to honk on inattentive pedestrians while on the pedestrian crossings. That will be a Zebra alert and will save lives like a no text and driving law for drivers. We need to respect roads and life.

Sadly, as far as we know that the pedestrian who was saved by this man, will never know about his actions and responsibility for that avoidable accident. He may also not know about this truly unsung hero who saved his life. 

"losing sight to gain vision"

The eye surgery did not go well for him. Being a diabetic was not easy for him, and then the complication associated with high blood sugar arrived for him.

To some, a disease wants to be acknowledged like some tragedies need to be respected; some quietly, others out loud. The proclamation of a diagnosis is not a medal, it is a name tag  assigned to identify that more is coming. There are requirements of life style changes to following diets, watching  calories, getting tested, finger pricks with a glucometer, and keeping up with supplies. There are doctors visits, friends' and family's opinions, people's judgments and comments.  Life is tough and so on.

He was a non-compliant patient as he described himself, who was living to eat. He was not overweight which made him not believe or be convinced by what his doctors were telling him all along.  Then he was diagnosed with Diabetes. He took the news as doom and gloom. He struggled with why me questions. Even then he did not do enough to support his compromised metabolism. He kept his habits, he kept his taste buds happy and it took him no time to get to where other diabetics would have taken years to get to: eye sight issues as a complication of diabetes among other things.

As we were  talking about his diabetic care the other day, he told me about his love for food and what a sacrifice it is to him to not eat what is not good for him. He told me that he is now a very diet conscious person.

To some, there are sacrifices of a preventable nature before the loss of ones eye sight occurs.  It is as if they had the vision to avoid foreseeable future tragedy. Others sadly gain vision only after losing their sight, and contrary to most understandings of conventional wisdom, we may say that hindsight vision is not always twenty-twenty.

"footnotes and fine print"

It appears as no one wants to learn from history. That was true then, it is true now. Look at our politicians. We are all interested in ancestry.com to find out something about us. Some is fantasy, some is curiosity and some has nothing else to do. But what about the connections we already know. The established facts about  our family history and our susceptibility to certain diseases with a reasonable certainty. For example, our DNA and our parents smoking history, their cancers and our smoking habits and our risks. He said it all. He was on a roll, then he had a smile. It looked like that he was in a debate and he just won the argument.

He was a know-it all doctor before professor Google time. I saw him as a patient. He was an inhouse consultant as he designated himself. He was a self proclaimed grand round moderator. The problem was that it was a non stop grand round, like a 24 hours breaking news from a mainstream TV channel. He won't stop talking and listen to others, he was suffering from an illness affecting his mind and body, and others souls. His loved ones were suffering as seeing him fading away in a losing battle of cancer.

He smoked all his life. A better judgment was expected from him. His parents had cancers. But as they say we are humans first then doctors, and we all breath the same air of life: stresses, life events, losses and triumphs. Our daily life goes on as we forget, we ignore, we come up with excuses, we are running around to catch up chores and we lose the things so dear to ourselves, our health.

 As a practicing physician he must have seen patients with cancers and he must have surely given  them advices to stop smoking . I have seen the classic pictures in medical history books where doctors were in pictures, smoking a cigarette or a cigar while in wards seeing  patients. Though it does sound not so classic now but we know that some doctors still smoke and their drinking habits are phenomenal. They are the ones who are at risk by choice.

To some history is a story of past events cataloged in a time stamped calendar, and it is not supposed to teach us anything, it is just what happened then. To others, history has a story header with detailed accounts of cause and effect with  footnotes and fine print. We cannot learn by ignoring the footnotes and fine print of our history, our DNA. We can certainly modify and  change our risk profile, and ultimately make a new history of better us if we just pay enough attention to what is already known to us; our DNA, our family history.