最英勇的事 The Most Heroic Thing · Sean

关注微信公众号：为你读英语美文，获得更多图文资料 关注新浪微博：为你读英语美文，和我们交流互动 本期主播：Sean-多伦多大学在读 本期文章：The Most Heroic Thing 录制地点：加拿大 多伦多 What is the most heroic thing you have ever done? 你做过的最英勇的事是什么？ 我们的主播-潇雨说，小时候，撑着雨伞从围墙上跳下来，想体验一下跳伞的感觉，结果伞翻过去了，腿折了。 听友-夏木说，跟男神表白啊啊啊。 听友-似是故人来说： I insist in running for nearly a month. Actually I&`&m a little bit fat and can&`&t pass the 800m running test. But now I can run nearly an hour without stopping. 你呢？ 今天，想要和你们分享的答案是来自名字叫做 Drew Young Shin的儿童心脏病科实习医生的故事。他做过最英勇的事情——你可能会觉得荒诞——是吃掉了一只蟑螂（cockroach）。 I ate a cockroach（蟑螂）, This requires an explanation. While a trainee as a pediatric cardiologist（小儿心脏病医学庄家） during my rotation（轮岗） in the cardiac ICU（心脏重症加强护理病房）, I met a stoic(坚忍的) twelve-year-old girl (her fictitious name (化名) will be Tammy) diagnosed with heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy（扩张型心肌病）. The heart muscle was weakened to the point where it no longer could sustain the needs of the body without the support of continuous infusions（持续输入） of powerful medications. There was no other option: she needed a heart transplant（心脏移植手术）. She was stuck in the ICU, mostly bed-bound（卧床的）, waiting for a new heart. Depending on where you are in the United States, the average wait period for a matched kid-sized heart to become available for donation is five to six months. For many patients, it&`&s simply too long, and some die waiting. When I met Tammy, she was emaciated（憔悴的）, weakened, depressed, and well into her third month of hospitalization（住院治疗） with no word of an available heart. She struggled as an adolescent would — frustrated with life, isolated from her friends, literally plugged into pumps and IV bags（吊针袋）, and surrounded by rotating physicians and probing medical students. I couldn&`&t help but to notice that her room was her metaphorical aquarium, cage, even prison cell. (隐喻的鱼缸，牢笼，甚至牢房). Passerby ICU staff would constantly walk by, some would take the time to peer in, a minority would walk in, but mostly to examine her or drop off her meals. I overheard a cardiology fellow joke to another, referring to Tammy as the "mascot" （吉祥物）of the cardiac ICU given her extensive length of hospitalization. I&`&m not entirely sure she didn&`&t overhear(无意中听到) it as well. Her view from inside to outside must have solidified the feeling: healthy people laughing, interacting, going home to family and friends. Tammy&`&s response was to be severely withdrawn（沉默寡言的）. Emotionally shutdown. When I was assigned to her, I tried to connect with her, but could not get any traction. I was nervous as a new trainee, and my goal really was not to screw up her medical treatment plan. But recognizing her depression, I did consult child psychiatry（儿童心理学） to help her during this time. I stopped by her bedside multiple times throughout the day to chat, specifically avoiding medical jargon（医学术语）. During the first few weeks, I ended up mostly speaking to her mother, as she stayed withdrawn. After some time, through subtle probing, I discovered one of her favorite TV shows was "Fear Factor" （美国真人秀节目-“挑战恐惧”）— a reality based TV show that puts contestants through extreme challenges. I started watching the show so that we had something in common to talk about. I had the idea to bring "Fear Factor" to the Cardiac ICU. After convincing several of my colleagues, nurses and even the ICU attending to participate, we set up daily challenges for the medical staff to go through, very much in a Fear Factor manner. Wheelchair races, who-would-tolerate-the-biggest-IV-needle, etc. I could tell Tammy was instantly interested. She looked forward to the next challenges. My challenges for her were mostly physical (as a secret agenda to get her rehabilitated（恢复）: transplant recipients（受移植者） do far better when they are better conditioned). Her interest grew, and she started coming up with challenges of her own. "Put an NG tube（鼻胃管） in your nose!" (she had one), "Drink the nasty Colace(磺琥辛酯钠, 通便用)!" (she had to, too). Her mother commented to me that for the first time in a long time, she&`&s smiling. It was a fateful Saturday morning, when I came in for my call, I found both Tammy and her mother sporting an evil grin. They had procured a cockroach（蟑螂） to ingest（咽下） as the next challenge. Everyone instantly refused to partake（参加） in this one. So did I. Towards the afternoon, it looked like this challenge was going to be a bust. Tammy was by nature a stoic girl, but I could tell she was more than disappointed. Fearing we would lose the momentum（动力） of her new found spirit for life, I mustered up the stomach to entertain the notion. I looked at the dead ghastly thing with as much of a poker face（面无表情） as I could gather. When I said I would try, Tammy giggled with so much delight that I knew there was no turning back. I could not break her already broken heart. I&`&ll spare you the details of the act itself, but I could see a look of gleeful horror yet immense satisfaction on her face while I was holding my nose and chewing. She clapped with vigor after the unimaginable deed was done. The nurses looked at me with disgust. My colleagues avoided me. But I had the joy of that girl for a few minutes, and it was worth it. That evening, when I was rounding, she was getting ready for bed. I checked in on her vitals and all was stable. I said goodnight, to which she replied, "Thank you for today." For some reason, the way she said it completely warmed my heart. Early next morning, our team received a call that a heart was available. She received a heart transplant（心脏移植） that very day. She sailed through her operation and was discharged to the ward then home shortly thereafter. （她顺利完成了手术，之后被安排到普通病房，很快就能出院回家）A few weeks later, I received a photo from her in her Tae Kwon Do （跆拳道）uniform — noticeably fuller than her previous emaciated self and . . . healthy. In her note, she said "Thanks for being my hero." Her clinical course（临床病程） was marred with complications（并发症） and near death experiences. At one point, I was performing CPR（心肺复苏术cardiopulmonary resuscitation） on her. A second time, I electrically shocked her for a malignant arrhythmia（严重心律不齐） — both times averting certain death. But I am confident that her hero reference had nothing to do with that. It was all simply because I ate a goddamn cockroach. But it changed my perspective on what it means to "care" for a patient and how to have a meaningful impact as a physician. 垫乐： 植松伸夫 - Eyes On Me Secret Garden - The promise 久石譲 - 人生的回转木马 主播：Sean; 制作, 发行：永清 文字及垫乐归作者或版权方所有 图片源于网络 为你读英语美文，Read English for You 微信公众号：为你读英语美文 官方新浪微博：@为你读英语美文 荔枝FM 搜索【为你读英语美文】收听