Disease Proof

I’m not religious. So I have a hard time wrapping my head around this, but according to a new survey in the Archives of Surgery, many Americans think God plays a BIGGER part in saving lives than doctors. Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press explains:

More than half of randomly surveyed adults - 57 percent - said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.

"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.

Pat Loder, a Milford, Mich., woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.

"When you're a parent and you're standing over the body of your child who you think is dying ... you have to have that" belief, Loder said.

Admittedly, I’m an atheist, but the power of hope and positive thinking is undeniable. Although, it gets a little kooky when you start seeing deities in tree sap or Howard Stern in a piece of toast! But, you can combine the best of both worlds when your name is “Jesus H. Cox, M.D.”