Theme: Prenatal Diagnosis

Medical Uncertainty: What the data says vs. what is going to happen with this particular baby.

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Medical Uncertainty: What the data says vs. what is going to happen with this particular baby.

A perinatal palliative care MD and Neonatalogist stresses that each baby is different. Data helps predict but we can’t predict where in the data this baby will fall. “It is an imperfect journey. If we knew the right thing to do, we’d do it all the time. … You have to look at this baby, talk to this surgeon, talk to that surgeon. And so, maybe in that equation we would choose the wrong thing, it’s possible. Not because we’re flawed as individuals, but the complexity of this care is such that you’re bound to get it wrong. And a lot of the time we get it right because people are bright and everyone wants to do the right thing, and we’re going to think about it 10 times before we actually do it.”