Retiring early from medicine: Is it ethical?

Eight weeks after I delivered my third child, I was diagnosed with a four-centimeter lung mass. Yes, you heard that right. For those in medicine, this is terrifying to hear as the first thing that comes to mind is lung cancer. Lung cancer is notoriously hard to treat, typically fatal with a short life expectancy after diagnosis and extremely unfair to a lifelong nonsmoker who has spent 12 years in the prime of her life dedicated to training to become a physician. Luckily, I soon found out my situation was not as grave as first expected. A PET scan leaned toward benign diagnosis (or at least consolidated disease). I could temporarily push aside the paralyzing fear of leaving my three young children with no mother and focus on getting rid of this mass that was causing pneumonia, difficulty breathing, coughing for more than two years and go ahead with scheduling the thoracotomy. After resection of the mass which was densely adherent to my pericardial sac and phrenic nerve, I lost about a third of my left lung. To my amazement, after my ICU stay I left breathing better than I had been in years. Benign diagnosis was confirmed. This experience made me reevaluate my life, and it stopped my “hamster wheel” of life I had been running on at a dizzying speed. I viewed this health scare as a second chance at life. I didn’t take this lightly as it almost seemed unfair that I got this chance to live while others who have a lung mass often have it turn out to be one of the most fatal ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Oncology/Hematology Pulmonology Source Type: blogs