So who hasn't heard any medical miracles about someone who shouldn't be alive and well, but against all odds, is alive and/or well? Who hasn't heard at least a million medical miracle stories?
Some doctor told so-and-so that he/she would never walk/sit/hear/sing/laugh/bowl again. But somehow learns to walk/sit/hear/sing/laugh/bowl again despite it all. Sounds like a good Lifetime original movie.
Then there is the "doctor told me I only had three months to live. But it has been six years and I am still alive!"
Sometimes it's stories about how there was no cure, yet somehow the doctor's love for patient found a way.
And against all odds? Well odds are some of the paraplegics will walk again. Does that mean that the X% that do are miracle cases? God forsook the others? It is not a miracle when someone wins the lottery; it's called chance: someone is going to win just like someone is going to recover from their infirmity.
If modern medicine performs better than promised, I guess that makes it a miracle. We hear about so many quaint miracles occurring every day. It sounds like modern medicine is generally better than society is giving it credit for.
I am starting to see a pattern here. How often do you hear that the doctor gave a patient a year to live but died in a week? How often do you hear, "you will totally for sure walk again," but then they never do? Maybe people just don't repeat those stores (at least not in the Reader's Digest), but from my experience, complaining gets around better than anything.
I think doctors do this on purpose. Probably without realizing it. The term in the service industry is "under promise, over deliver." And that is exactly what they do. Or doctors are just incompetent when it comes to estimating recovery times (I hope incompetence is not a synonym for miraculous).
They could be doing it so people are pleasantly surprised. Or they want patients to prove doctors wrong (AKA give it their best go!).
Except I think they have other motivations, namely, malpractice insurance. This way doctors are saving their own buttocks from getting sued for overpromising and underdelivering.
Oh the miracle of malpractice insurance.
Underpromising health recovery is just a mass produced service of the medical profession. They could almost squeeze some miracles out in a factory into tiny little jars labeled Medical Miracle Whip. Yummy! I know the news channels would buy it in bulk wholesale.
Or maybe we only call these recoveries miracles because usually people just die and the miracle recipients are the lucky few chosen for angelic intervention. Maybe they won the angel lottery.
Wow. I just realized I am the most cynical person alive.
Yet against all odds I can learn to believe in miracles too! Now that would make a great Christmas special (especially if you throw in a fat man with a beard and red coat to believe in). But alas it is July so Christmas miracles are a way off.
What about Christmas in July miracles?
ReplyDeleteMy brother was told he'd never walk again; he did. And quadriplegics have an even smaller percentage of walking than do paraplegics. I don't think the doctors had anything to do with that--that was a miracle.
ReplyDelete(You're kind of a jerk, btw.)
(I still like you.)
Amanda, Christmas in July miracles are the worst. Bah humbug.
ReplyDeleteCamilla, you can't hate me for this one because Rachel agreed with me. But I feel bad anyway. I hate doctots. That was the point.
It sounds...err...reads like you may be using Gambler's Fallacy in your analysis of miracles. Probabilities have no memory, so just because paraplegics have X% chance of recovery, that does not mean that X% of paraplegics will recover; probabilities do not guarantee results. Thus, when a paraplegic recovers despite overwhelming probabilities favoring the contrary, people may view the recovery as a "miracle"--especially since neither medicine nor statistics had any "power" to bring about such a result.
ReplyDeleteIn a broad sense then, I guess "miracle" simply suggests an observable manifestation of God's power. In that sense, death and non-recovery can also be considered miracles. It all depends on how observers interpret the phenomena and reconcile their observations with a correct understanding of God. Hence, those who know God well tend to see more miracles than those who do not (Moroni 7:37-38).
Peace.
It is a fallacy but not the gambler's fallacy. Probably just an assumption that because X number of people were healed in the past means we should expect it again.
ReplyDelete