Ignorance is Cool, Stupidity is Unacceptable (2/3/15)
The lesson I learned this week was I can tolerate ignorance, but stupidity is unacceptable. Ignorance is a burden we all share. No one is all-knowing, not even an expert is omniscient in his or her own field of study.
However, it’s amazing how many brilliant people shift from ignorance to stupidity once they have reached a certain level of education and experience. I have seen this in every professional environment. I’m talking about a form of arrogance where a professional overtly or covertly dismisses someone else because there is no possible way that a ‘layman’ could provide any meaningful contribution to the discussion.
In 2005 I was rushed to the hospital with a 104 degree fever, where I waited in the ER lobby for over an hour behind life or death situations like cheerleaders with minor arm fractures. This hospital visit ended up being a three week inpatient procedure because experts from four different departments were in conflict for seven days over the correct strategy to follow. In the meantime I laid in a bed in excruciating pain with my health deteriorating by the day. Finally a doctor put his foot down and said this is what we’re doing. He was right.
Two months later I was rushed to the ER with the same condition. After waiting in the lobby for an hour with a 104.3 degree fever I was finally brought in to see the medical staff.
“What seems to be the problem son?”
“Doc, I need an IV, a shot of Dilaudid for pain, and a shot of benadryl for my fever. I have an abscess in a Desmoid tumor in my abdomen that has begun to experience necrosis. I need to be sent down to imaging and scheduled for surgery to have the abscess drained.”
“So who’s the doctor here?”
I learned the hard way the first time what I was going through and I wasn’t about to wait around for a week of ego driven infighting again. However,an assertive and educated patient threatened this particular professional’s ego. I got my shots, and before I was admitted to a room the ER physician had me scheduled for imaging. I was put on the schedule to have the abscess drained within 5 hours of leaving imaging, and my hospital stay was cut down from three weeks to ten days.
Two months later I was rushed to the hospital a third time with the same symptoms. After my standard one hour wait in the lobby I was brought in back.
The nurse attending to me asked, “What’s going on?”
“Nurse I need an IV, a shot of Dilaudid for pain, and a shot of benadryl for my fever. I have an abscess in a Desmoid tumor in my abdomen that has begun to experience necrosis. I need to be sent down to imaging and scheduled for surgery to have the abscess drained.”
“Doctor?”, the nurse looked over as if asking for clarification and permission.
“Nurse you can do what he said and then find him a bed upstairs, he knows what he’s talking about.”
“Thanks Doc. Good to see you again too.”
Needless to say I made an impression with my ER physician on my last visit. None of us will ever know everything, even when we are the best in the world in our field. There is something that can be learned from everyone, but if your ego makes you dismissive of someone you feel is beneath you then you have crossed from ignorance to stupidity. Ignorance in subject matter can be corrected through various forms of education, but the arrogance that leads to stupidity can be permanent.
