Heart Talk: How First Principles Systemic thinking saved my SON from critical health crisis

Setting the stage

I am a FIRST Principles Systemic thinking guy who has been creating, building & nurturing world class lovable products that GROW. 

Never in my wildest dream did I think this skill of mine would save my SON from a critical health crisis. 

As a parent, I am wired to PROTECT, NUTURE and GROW my sons. I have two and this story is about my younger one. 

The Opening,

COVID-19, quarantine and being isolated has not been easy. To change the scenery, We decided to spend time in CHN instead of continuing to be in BLR. 

Grand parents, uncles, aunts and cousins made the experience pleasant. My sons were happy and we decided to play along. 

After a hard game of badminton, kids chose to indulge in snacking. The usual suspects, cream bun, ice cream and chocolate was the target. 

After their indulgence, the young one start showing signs of discomfort in the morning. 

We changed the diet to curd rice and liquid to ease the abdominal pain and reached out to our trusted doc at BLR. This trusted DOC of ours has been seeing the younger one from time he was born. He gave a couple of meds but things were not looking up. 

The younger one’s fluid intake started reducing drastically and things were moving quickly to a critical condition. To add to this, he began vomiting anything that was given to him. His discomfort grew with every passing moment. 

The diagnosis,

Trusted doc had two hypothesis, one being a severe case of food poisoning. The second, unlikely but wanted to make that the abdominal organs are ok. 

The reason for the second was the elder one, who indulged on a similar scale in snacking was ok. So an ultra sound scan was suggested.

Crisis 1:

We rushed the younger one to the nearest hospital, one that we knew for sure is COVID safe. The doc who checked the younger one mentioned, this could be appendix, major organ inflammation. Wanted to put him on a drip diet right away. 

I stopped the doc to question, I told her about the detailed conversation we have had with our trusted doc. I mentioned that he did not share the same diagnosis that she gave. She immediately asked us to go to a particular scan centre and told us repeatedly to not go anywhere else. This scan center’s rating was 3.5 stars and not many reviews were encouraging about this centre. The insistence of the DOC to this centre that does not share a good review was concerning. 

To mitigate this, I also got the top scan centre as per google maps. More than 1,700 reviews. 4+ star rating. A positive review where most of the comments appreciated the radiologist genuineness to help was coming through. Whereas the previous centre was all about making money. 

All this was data and any premature conclusions would severely put son’s health condition further at risk. 

Scan center 1:

The moment we reached the reception, I was informed the doc has made a call and the cost would be 8K for the scan. I asked WHY? and informed the price seems high. The staff were taken aback and said ok. Pre-scan is 4K want to go for that. I questioned on how accurate would pre-scan be? They said it’s fairly accurate. I said it’s my son’s health I don’t want to take a chance. Their response was, more money .. more clarity. 

This made things clear that the reviews were not bogus. The scan centre interest was business and nothing else. As I walked away, the one at reception said, 3K .. we can get this done. This was not a scan centre where I would risk my son’s diagnosis. You are just a walking cash that they would like to pocket using fear, discounts and packages. 

Scan center 2:

1,100/-. Billing done in 2 mins. The process was explained. Questions were patiently answered. 

I had a detailed conversation with the radiologist and explained in detail the story. She listened and immediately asked for my sone. She acknowledged the sense of time and brought in a sense of emergency. The doc however did a patient scan for 10 mins. Looked and revoked at the organs. She immediately confirmed after looking and re-looking that this is a clear case of food poisoning. Gave us the report almost immediately. 

Crisis 2:

Going back to that hospital did not make sense. For obvious reasons of MISTRUST. It was clear that this is bacterial food poisoning.

We sent the scans to our trusted doc.He immediately asked us to start on the antibiotics. He was confident that after the first dose of antibiotic the younger one will recover. 

With so much chaos. Our extended family chipped in and wanted to support. Which I am extremely grateful for. One of suggestions was to go a nearby clinic and show the report and the younger one before starting antibiotics. The Dr comes in with rave reviews and a huge support from our local family here. 

Upon examination, he recommended drips. The catch was to go to the hospitals that he consults. So that paediatric support is possible if needed. 

He gave us 30 mins to decide and mentioned the situation already looks grim. That 30 mins was nothing short of chaos and panic. None of us had the complete data and information in hand to decide on the next steps. 

While I am faced with this type of situation all the time in product building where hard decisions are to made with incomplete data. You got to trust your GUT and take a LEAP of FAITH. But this was my SON. The situation was worsening. 

The moment - the look in the eye

I looked eye to eye with my partner, my love of my life and told her. My GUT says to trust our trusted doctor and go with the antibiotics. I have a feeling he will recover. We discussed about the tonality of the Dr and way panic and fear was used to influence our decisions. We reflected on numerous instances in our past where our trusted Doc came through. We also factored what the radiologist, who with a kind heart wanted the best for my son. 

DARK (K)NIGHT OF THE SOUL:

We took the leap of FAITH, we gave the younger one the anti-biotic. We were with him the entire night. He caught glimpses of sleep. We didn’t. He tossed and turned. We kept ourselves in a space of hope and healing that he would come through. 

By choosing this, we did what was best for our son. We saw the clear underlying business like approach on hospital and docs. All this while keeping the foundation strong and rooted in first principles systemic thinking. Looking at the motivations, their triggers while being aware of our vulnerable space. 

LIGHT AT the END:

I am happy to report that YOUNGER one is doing fine. He is back to his cheerful self. Our trusted doc came through.

First principles systemic thinking & GUT came through. It was a moment where we said NO to fear mongering. No to panic decisions and BIG YES to trusting us as parents who are always looking to PROTECT, NURTURE and GROW our kids all time. 

Curtains close

First Principles systemic thinking is a life skill. Numerical, Patterns, Spatial, Logical thinking and leading with your gut is a life skill. It might help you in ways that you may never fathom but that should never stop you in always getting BETTER and BETTER.

This skill might help YOU, might help your family, might help the products you build or might even help in making the world a better place.

#leadership #firstprinciples #product #heart #parenting #gut