Last year, when David Langer, MD, the chair of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, went skiing in Colorado, he never imagined he would end up with such a severe spinal injury that he would wake up on the slope completely unable to move.
"I don't exactly know what happened that day, but I think having a near-death experience opened me up to the importance of realizing that you only go through this once," Langer told Medscape Medical News.
Langer's brush with mortality prompted him to recalibrate. "A few months after my injury, I started meditating," he says. "After that experience, I realized that you never know when life might end.... I know that, in my own way, my worldview is different now."
Doctors aren't immune to injury. In fact, anywhere between 2% and 5% of physicians become ill or disabled during their careers, according to a British study. The whys are equally interesting:
Physicians may have an adrenaline-junkie personality and be interested in pursuing riskier hobbies and activities.
They tend to neglect their health.
Workplace injuries and accidents are common.
In addition, workplace violence in healthcare has risen every year since 2011, up 62%, according to the
