“After reading Dick Karl’s article ‘The Practiced Art of Airline Safety’ in the October issue, it becomes obvious that the best way to instantly improve the safety of flying and the medical profession is to ban Dick Karl from practicing either of them. I would not want him performing surgery on my open chest or any other body part while he casually daydreams about flying. As for flying with or anywhere near him, I wonder if he might be thinking the following while on an instrument approach to minimums in the mountains at night: ‘I wonder what ever happened to the guy I operated on the other … zzzzzz.’ ” So reads a letter to Flying by Tom Stark of Alachua, Florida. He wasn’t the only one.
You may be wondering what I could have written to elicit such a scolding. Well, I admitted to thinking about the commonality of surgery and flying while closing a patient’s chest after an esophageal resection. Though I spend most of my time practicing surgery, a week earlier I had spent four great days with fellow columnist Les Abend as he plied his trade as an airline captain. The trip had been very much on my mind and I remarked as to how far medicine has to go in order to become as safe as the airlines. No doubt Mr. Stark and others have never had a stray thought while at work, but I have, as countless readers now know.
