{"id":45189,"date":"2009-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/resident-regrets-snap-judgment-of-patient\/"},"modified":"2009-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-02T00:00:00","slug":"resident-regrets-snap-judgment-of-patient","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/resident-regrets-snap-judgment-of-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Regrets Snap Judgment of Patient"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Katrina Firlik was the first woman admitted into the neurosurgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her recent book, <em>Another Day in the Frontal Lobe<\/em>, provides a glimpse into the training of a brain surgeon. In one chapter she shares a story from the last year of her residency&mdash;a time when she was already becoming jaded to the tragedies of neurological devastation:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I walked into yet another examining room &hellip; a brand-new consult from out of town: 18-years-old, cerebral palsy, spasticity. Okay, okay, I&#39;ve seen this before, I just need to get a good history before my attending walks in. Efficiency is key. I looked at the patient for a second: very skinny, special wheelchair, arms contracted, head support in place, mouth hung open. It was clear I wasn&#39;t going to get the story from him, so I turned to the parents, my back toward the patient, and started to take down the history. &hellip;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>[When my mentor walked in], I cringed. &hellip; He sat down on the examining table, the only seat left in the cramped room. After introducing himself, he surveyed the compact scene&mdash;the patient, the parents&mdash;and then focused his gaze back on the patient. After what seemed like several, almost uncomfortably quiet seconds, he looked the patient in the eye and asked, &quot;So, when did you graduate from high school?&quot; The young man&#39;s face lit up like I had no idea it could.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>My mentor had noticed something I had missed. The patient was wearing a large high-school ring, so large that it looked a little silly on his bony finger. His body, far more than his mind, had borne the brunt of his cerebral palsy. He was a proud, beaming high-school graduate, who used a specialized computer to help him communicate. For the remainder of the visit I sat in the corner, duncelike, humbled by the enormity of this ring now staring me in the face.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>We make snap judgments everyday. Many are innocuous, dealing with the routines of life. But God is always speaking, especially in our everyday routines. When we pre-judge another person and assume we know their story, choosing not to listen to their verbal and non-verbal communication, we make the saddest mistake of all. It&#39;s so easy to view people as a statistic and not as a person for whom Christ died.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3428,3436,3453,3505,3534,3535,3629,3640,3749,3776,3782,3784,3790,3794,3808,3877,3997,3999,4002,4311,4313,4369,4374,4380,4604,4623,4633,4821,5057,5242],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45189","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-appearance","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-attention","tax_ctp_tags-blindness","tax_ctp_tags-busybodies","tax_ctp_tags-busyness","tax_ctp_tags-clergy-appreciation-day-month","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-dedication","tax_ctp_tags-devotion","tax_ctp_tags-diligence","tax_ctp_tags-disabilities","tax_ctp_tags-discernment","tax_ctp_tags-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-equality","tax_ctp_tags-focus","tax_ctp_tags-folly","tax_ctp_tags-foolishness","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-judgment","tax_ctp_tags-life","tax_ctp_tags-lifestyle","tax_ctp_tags-listening","tax_ctp_tags-pastor","tax_ctp_tags-perception","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-perception","tax_ctp_tags-vision"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Resident Regrets Snap Judgment of Patient - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/resident-regrets-snap-judgment-of-patient\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resident Regrets Snap Judgment of Patient - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Katrina Firlik was the first woman admitted into the neurosurgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. 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