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The Power of a Smile

By Jason A. Strelzow, MD, FRCSC

The question is a good one – and quite simply the answer is: what haven’t I learned from my patients? One poignant moment occurred during 2020 when our department had moved to team-based COVID coverage, shifts of sequestering at home alternating with intense, busy “on-service” rotations during which there was extreme concern about the prospect of constant exposure to COVID-19, and continuing to deliver care to emergency patients. In the middle of a very busy day in the OR treating emergency patients, I spoke with a patient pre-operatively who had amputated 4 fingers and required urgent replant who truly made me stop in my tracks and reflect. Even with everything going on, he turned to me and smiled, saying, “Even though there are millions of bad things happening around us, smiling makes us both feel better.” This patient, in such a critical situation, had the insight and the ability to separate himself from the negative and still focus on the positive. This is an amazing skill that I have tried to emulate in some ways, as a tribute to him, in the days and months that have followed.

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