Google and baby infants
Usually I write about serious work issues. Today I have found another serious issue, although it is not connected with work directly, it is connected with Google and with life.
In Google Friends Newsletter I found this article about Howard and Melissa of Boca Raton, Florida, who had to take their one month boy to hospital and doctors found serious thing: his hemoglobin level dropped really low from 14 to 7 and docs wanted to undertake blood transfusion right away. This operation is very risky for small babies and Howard was worried. He took is cell phone and searched Google for [hemoglobin "premature infant"] and found a report citing that this is totally normal in first month and no transfusion is necessary.
He shared his findings with docs and they took some time to do more research on the topic and found that indeed he was right so they didn't have to do any transfusion.
Now the boy is totally perfect.
What strikes me about this story are two aspects:
1. Imagine how much power to change things we get these days because of technology. Something like this would be totally impossible even 10 years ago. Really information matters, but what matters more is your ability to work with the information and that is something we all should be constantly learning and something that should be taught at school as a priority !
2. The docs - I understand that no one can know everything and the informations are discovered so fast these days that there might be totally new and striking info found every day.
I was really suprised by the attitude that doctors took. They went, researched and admitted that they have done something wrong and were able to apply new findings into their "routine" and thus change their paradigma about this subject. All of it based on the ability of one pacient to work with information.
This is really unusual for the doctors. They have always been like these "knowledge icons" and everybody respected that position. "If the doctor says so. It is so."
It is great that these days anyone has this simple reach of information just at your hand and you can actually help them to learn new stuff and check on their diagnosis.
We are seeing some incredible and really fascinating stuff. Just have to keep on going and don't forget that technology is just tool. What matters is the way we use it, which is determined by our thoughts and morals !
