Thank a Neurosurgeon Today

“Priests, cops and soldiers. Nobody gives a damn about them until they need ‘em.”

When one of my neighbors – a Boston Irish type full of barroom philosophy – growled that gem at me when I was about 12, it was the most profound thing I’d ever heard.

Today I’d like to add neurosurgeons to that list of unappreciated folks who can make a huge impact on our lives.

Although it takes months to mobilize an army, faith to summon a priest, and ... hmmm, I’ll hold my tongue when it comes to the cops I know!... neurosurgeons can, hypothetically, work miracles in just a few hours. And they don’t check to see if you’ve behaved yourself in the past, like some of the others, they just do what they have to do.

Let’s just say you have a totally unexpected seizure on a Monday and get rushed to the hospital. Would you imagine that by Wednesday evening you’d be free of a brain tumor and looking at going home to your family before long?

Given that I might know someone who is having that sort of week, I’d like to start Thank a Neurosurgeon Day. Consider this:

• it takes at least 4 years of undergrad education, 4 years of med school, a yearlong internship and then a 5 to 7 year residency program to become a neurosurgeon 

• these are the people who -probably- aced their AP bio classes in high school, which meant NOT going to the basketball championship parties, learning to play beer pong, or participating in class skip day

• despite being brilliant life-savers, they undoubtedly walk around the supermarket like the rest of us, looking for the low-sodium soy sauce, and get treated like idiots by the high school kids who work there when they have to ask which aisle it’s in

• they’re capable of HOURS (let’s say 6 or so) of excruciatingly precise surgery that could – if one millimeter off – erase a mother’s memory of her children

And, thank you, too, to the anaesthetists, NURSES, and everyone else who helps make these miracles happen every day.