The plastic patient never dies

Life support training day today. I thought it was very generous, that when we were practising various scenarios with the mannequins - cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, septic shock - the plastic patient always survives. It’s a lovely feeling, saving fake people’s lives...but it does make me think that in the real world, it will come as a shock when the majority of patients’ hearts don’t start again, after stopping beating. Or when their lungs don’t work again, after stopping breathing. You can follow all the protocols in the world, but you can’t make someone’s life as we know it last forever. Maybe that’s better news than we often think.