Tragedy happens to all of us at some point in our lives. It’s just a fact of life. From divorce to the death of a loved one, we will all experience emotionally painful things in our lives. In many circumstances tragedy can derail us in our professional lives and send us into a spiraling, out-of-control, negative state that is sometimes difficult to recover from. By understanding a few coping strategies and how to employ them within the framework of our busy professional lives, we can put tragedy in perspective and even create our own “personal tragedy crusade.” What I mean by this is the “positive” we intend to practice in the world to, in a sense, use our own tragedies to better the lives of others. What I have learned about how to prevent tragedy from destroying your career I learned the hard way. My goal is to share my painful story and offer some practical advice on how to deal with tragedies that may arise in your own life. The central take home message that I think it’s crucial to state is that your career can wait until you heal. Your projects, your lectures, your commitments…they can all wait. People who love and support you will understand that you need time to be with friends and family. In fact, I will go a step further and say that you should dump all of your commitments. Get out of lectures, pull out of committees, and cancel travel. Free yourself to allow healing. Believe me, learn from my mistakes. People who love and care about you will understand, and that is what matters. By sharing the story of my mother, I hope in some small way I can help others start the healing process and prioritise when tragedy befalls them.

2. tragedies
• trauma video

3. Life is Tragic

5. 2005

8. beach

9. wife and kids

10. wife and kids

12. Mike Winters

13. 3am phone call

14. Altered
Bradycardic
Confused
Pacemaker ICU

15. case description

16. Driving to Tennessee

17. in the ICU

19. csf pus

21. Hospital CourseHospital Course

24. Today

25. What I
Remember

26. What I Went Through
• pic of train derailment
The Derailment

27. I Hated Patients!

29. Project Stumbling

30. Bitter
Bitter

31. Effect on
Patient Care?

32. Empathy Exhaustion

33. G
r
i
e
f

37. • pic

39. Mistakes
I Made

40. Friends

41. end of life care

42. Dissociated

43. Allow the Process to
Complete

45. Advice

46. Healing
Healing

51. Crusade for the Cause

54. Plan for the Future

55. Take time off

56. Dump your projects

58. Ten Resilience Factors
Fostering optimism
Facing fearMoral compass
Religion & Spirituality
Attracting and giving social support
Imitating resilient role models
Physical Training
Mental & Emotional Training
Enhancing cognitive and emotional flexibility
Finding meaning, purpose, and growth
Finding meaning, purpose, and growth