DS(16) unexpectedly felt faint watching brain surgery clip. Now thinks his plans to study medicine are over. Any advice from medical people please

[ScottishG]

DS(16) is a non complaining, non squeamish sort. Tends to take most things in his stride. He is seriously considering studying medicine. I have watched many pretty gory medical documentaries and shows with him and he is very interested and not put off by surgery, blood etc. Quite the opposite . The more gory the better!
He has come home from school quite worried. In a psychology lesson a clip of brain surgery was shown. He knew it was being shown and had no worries and found it interesting. Apparently, part way through he started feeling "weird" Everything he describes sounds like he was close to fainting and his friends noticed he was very pale. He avoided watching any more of the clip and put his head on the desk but didn't feel properly better until after having a snack at break time. He now thinks he might not be able to be a doctor because of this, particularly as it was so unexpected. Can any medical people advise please? Are all doctors, nurses etc totally unaffected by gore or is it sometimes an issue? I think he also found the experience unpleasant as has never felt faint before and wants to avoid it happening again.

Tell your DS not to worry.
Very common for students to flake at med school- working with cadavers where that’s offered, but also routine practicals- and I’ve worked with doctors who still have stuff that gives them the sweaty palms 30 years in - but by that point they’re able to compartmentalise and get on with the job without it affecting them.
Bless him! Tell him not to worry.

more graded exposure?

I'm not a medic, but lived with several at university. I remember them saying that several people on their course had bad reactions to some degree on encountering their cadavers for the first time, but they all got used to it quickly enough and no-one dropped out.

He’s 16.
He sounds rather anxious /Over thinking. I’d explore that

I think it’s probably one of those things you get used to in time. If he’s really determined to study medicine he shouldn’t let it put him off.

Have either you or he read ‘This is going to hurt’? It’s a brilliantly hilarious and heartbreaking diary of a junior doctor in the NHS (I’m not the author btw).

Tell him not to worry.
I’m a midwife - seen plenty of students faint. You somehow get used to seeing invasive medical procedures and stop feeling like that. He’ll be fine!

Very common! Tell him not to worry. I fainted and was physically sick on my first day of work experience at a vet centre as a teen. Now I happily spend my adult days in the operating theatre! We also have a lot of work exp students fainting, they're usually ok by day 2!

What had he eaten and drunk that day? Could be he was feeling faint due to low blood sugar etc and the subject matter of the video was a coincidence.

He felt faint and then ate something and felt better. Sounds more coincidence than actual fear of the clip. Sounds like he hadn't eaten enough that day.

Get him to one night eat his dinner, then a while after dinner watch another clip of a surgery. See how he feels then. Bet he'll be fine.

He’ll be fine- I’m a final year medical student and everyone I know has had ‘bleargh’ moments. I had to leg it out of a ward round a couple of years ago because I thought I was going to faint looking at someone’s abdominal wound. Also not usually squeamish but something about it got me (plus in fairness I was about seven weeks pregnant and deeply nauseous). And one person actually fainted in our first dissection session. If he watches it again and has the same reaction then he should possibly rule out neurosurgery- but that still leave a fairly big range of medical career options!

HCP here but not a doctor. Don’t worry about it. View it as a useful thing that has happened - he had found something he might be squeamish about (as PP say, perhaps he was tired / hungry etc).

I used to be a bit squeamish. I watched as many medical tv shows (both dramas and documentaries that I could get my hands on). Lots of different operations, traumas etc. Once I was ok with them I watched them while eating so got even less squeamish. By the time I started university I was pretty much ok.

FWIW, lots of doctors are squeamish about certain things. They just avoid those specialities! Neurosurgery is one of my specialties I could never do!

Fainting / feeling faint is very common .

I'm a vet, not a doctor, but there are parallels. I had several classmates pass out in anatomy (dissection) classes. They still made fine vets. I sometimes feel queasy watching things on TV, but I am fine 'in the flesh' (pun intended).

He will be fine and certainly shouldn't give up on the basis on one brain surgery video.

I also think it was low blood sugar - he's watched similar things before and been ok, and he felt better after eating.
My sister fainted her first time in surgery - heat, lack of ventilation, long time standing still in a mask etc. She still managed to qualify as a medic! He will be fine.
Interest will overcome squeamishness! (But I still diagnose low blood sugar over squeamishness!)

How much had he eaten that day?

Has he had intrusive memories of the film?

If he is worried, reassure him that there are specialties in medicine that do not require exposure to gore - psychiatry and radiology among them.

But also remind him that there is no shame in changing his mind about medicine and that you and his family are not invested in that for him.

It was fairly common when I worked in a hospital for the staff to have a particular specialism they struggled with. Mine was eyes!

SIL is a doctor and she said that she has felt sick/faint/ill at the sight of some injuries in A and E. Doctors are only human and something will make them cringe at some point in their careers.
Tell him not to worry. Nothing to feel anxious about.

Don't panic - he'll be fine! Even if squeamishness becomes a real problem for him there are plenty of jobs in medicine that need no exposure to blood/guts/actual patients. (DOI - fainted multiple times as a student (with a very specific trigger) - am now an anaesthetics/ICU doc).

Surgeon here . Surgery involving the face /head and hands are two of the two most common triggers for feeling uncomfortable with surgical medical things as they are what humanise a patient IYSWIM. We’ve all been there! Tell him not to worry !

I know a dentist that faints observing surgical treatments but is completely fine when carrying them out herself, apparently it’s quite normal when you are “not in control”.

I can’t watch certain things, but I can do them. I nearly fainted watching some injections as a student, but I can give them no bother. It’s totally different.

Thank you so much for your thoughts. Really useful and reassuring and I will make sure ds reads them. To answer a couple of questions - I agree that low blood sugar might be an issue, although he ate his usual decent sized breakfast this morning. He has always needed very regular food or feels a bit out of sorts (same as his father and grandfather) but generally is fine between breakfast and breaktime at school.
Very reassuring to hear that medics sometimes have things they find a bit more "challenging" I think it's important ds realises this and accepts it's ok not to be ok sometimes. He does tend to set pretty high standards for himself.
Fortunately, I don't think neurosurgery interests him hugely. He thinks he might like paediatric or emergency medicine but who knows what path he will take in the future.

I had a nurse today who told me she faints if she has to watch someone perform a blood test, yet if she does it herself, she's absolutely fine. Stuff like this is more common than you'd think.

I think the harder thing to manage for him will be getting regular food when on duty.

He will have to load his locker up with protein bars!

Olympicsrock - that's an interesting point about surgery on head/face/hands and really makes sense.
This discussion has reminded me that my medic friend from uni who appeared not to have any squeamishness, discovered that she couldn't deal with draining blood from underneath injured toenails! She said it made her physically back out of a patient's cubicle.