True, Best Selves

Paul Thurrott just reposted this personal post on his blog that was originally for his subscribing readers:

My best personal example of this happened 21 years ago when my then one-year-old son almost died in Phoenix from bacterial meningitis. His life was saved by a doctor who had the smarts and insight to believe that a type of infection that was, at that time, not at all common could be the cause. I was also impressed by how my wife reacted to this tragedy, taking charge and making sure that our son got the care he needed. I later told her parents that their daughter was a superhero. Meanwhile, here I was in the hospital with a dying child, looking up at news of what turned out to the be the Columbine school shooting–in my haze, I thought it was happening locally–and worried that this already over-burdened care center was just about to get a lot crazier.

Our son did recover, but he completely lost his hearing and he later received cochlear implants. A few years after this, we visited Phoenix again for the first time–we had moved back to Boston in part because it’s a center for the type of care he needed–and we took him to visit the doctor to thank him for saving his life. It just seemed like the right thing to do, and I think it was as important for us as it was to the doctor.

This makes me think about how people react in times of crisis. That doctor, with great speed and correctness. And my wife, who revealed herself to be a person of great resolve and decision, someone who always fought to make sure our baby got exactly the care he needed.

It’s important to remember that the good people in the world vastly outnumber the bad.