Sounding: Risky Business
Oops, almost slipped there and impaled
myself on this pen. Very nasty. You could
have someone's eye out like that, you
know. And why wasn't I warned? Surely
the studentBMJ should send some kind of
information to its contributors about the
potential hazards of being a columnist.
What if I develop repetitive strain injury
from word processing the article? What
if I fall off my chair?
The fact is, just about everything we
do carries a risk. Some risks are so
negligible we act as if they don't exist.
Getting struck by lightning is the
obvious example (unless of course you
happen to be swimming through a
thunderstorm dressed in a metallic suit
under a tall tree, with an aerial attached
to you). Humans love to try to quantify
risk. Then we can form insurance
companies and have big offices with
wood panelling.
Once the risks are quantified, the
assumption is that we can then act on
that knowledge in our own best interests.
Therefore all medical students stay out
of the sun, eat five portions of fruit and
veg a day, and drink the odd glass of red
wine only once they reach middle age.
That's the thing isn't it? Loads of
activities that are fun are also risky. In
fact, some things are fun mainly because
they are risky: white water rafting,
skydiving, eating in the medical school
refectory. . . Sure, you don't go
backpacking around Asia in order to
expose yourself to dangers. But part of
the sense of adventure and freedom with
travel comes from a lack of rules that
inevitably exposes us to greater risks.
When my little sister got on a bus for a
three day mountain journey in India, she
asked a fellow passenger how the lone
driver could manage. "Don't worry," her
laughing companion told her, "he has
whiskey to keep him awake!"
Yet there is now an attitude in
developed countries now that life should
be risk free, and if something goes wrong
that there must be someone to blame.
The medical profession has played its
part in the past. Doctors cultivated an air
of infallibility that has come back to
haunt the NHS in the form of ever rising
litigation bills.
Speaking of which, I think I'll claim
compensation from the BMJ for the
post-traumatic stress of the near miss
with my pen earlier.
Carl Morris, third year medical student, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
studentBMJ 2000;08:217-258 July ISSN 0966-6494
