Quora Query: What is One Thing That you Regret Learning in Medical School?

Posted on 19 January, 2020 by AJ Layon

It isn’t what I regret learning; it is what I regret not learning.

1. That death is cruel, fickle, and unjust;

2. That families often have no idea of medical limitations;

3. That physicians are often afraid to address points # 1 and # 2, or don’t have the skill set to do so;

4. That every death consumes a bit of one’s heart and soul. Doing this for some time, it is clear that end of life care – death and dying – doesn’t get easier, it gets harder and harder.

About AJ Layon

AJ Layon was, for 28 years, at the University of Florida College of Medicine, in the Division of Critical Care Medicine, in Gainesville, FL. For the approximately 10 years until September 2011, he was Professor and Chief of Critical Care Medicine at UF; In September of 2011 he became System Director and Co-Chairman of Critical Care Medicine in PA; this ended in 2017. He served as a Physician in the Surgical Group with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors without Borders) through 2018 and is presently an intensivist in Florida, struggling through the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. While his interests are primarily related to health care, health care reform, and ethical issues, as a citizen of our United States and our world, he will occasionally opine on issues of our "time and destiny". Follow on Twitter @ajlayon
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