A surgeon’s emotional Facebook post, in which he talks about the best and worst parts of his job, has gone viral.
You see, Dr. Michael P. La Quaglia is the Chief Paediatric Surgeon at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
During his 30-year career, he has performed countless operations and saved the lives of many children, but it is the five that he couldn’t save that he focuses on.
The heartbreaking post, which was uploaded to the ‘Humans Of New York’ Facebook page, reads: “The absolute best thing in the world that can happen to me is telling a parent that their child’s tumor is benign. I live for those moments.
“And the worst thing that can happen to me is telling a parent that I’ve lost their kid. It’s only happened to me five times in thirty years. And I’ve wanted to kill myself every single time.
“Those parents trusted me with their child. It’s a sacred trust and the ultimate responsibility is always mine. I lose sleep for days. I second-guess every decision I made. And every time I lose a child, I tell the parents: ‘I’d rather be dead than her.’ And I mean it.
“But I go to church every single day. And I think that I’m going to see those kids in a better place. And I’m going to tell them that I’m sorry. And hopefully they’ll say, ‘Forget it. Come on in.’”
What is even more moving is the response to it. As well as receiving almost 500,000 Likes, people also started to share their stories about Dr. La Quaglia under the post.
One wrote: “My most vivid memory of him is the night of my daughter’s first surgery. Dr. LaQuaglia got the tumor out but she clotted in a way he had never seen before. She was very, very sick and very close to death.
“He looked at me as I was trying to maintain my composure and welled up with genuine tears and said he wished it was him and he’d try everything to save her. And he did. He wanted to even stay by her bedside with her but the rest of them team wouldn’t let him.
“His tears will forever be etched into my memory, he truly got our pain. A year and three months out from that day, he still checks in every so often- always take phone calls or respond to emails about her care quickly whether it’s me or another doctor calling. He still treats her with the same love he did that first day [sic].”
Another recalled: “When Dr La Quaglia was taking my son in for surgery his words were ones we will never forget. ‘Behind these door your son is now my son.’ Those words put an ease over us. And hours later when surgery was complete he told us ‘start saving for college [sic].'”
Humans Of New York are currently aiming to raise $1 million for the cancer centre where he works. So far, they have raised over $872,000 which will go towards the fight against paediatric cancer.
