Episode 211 - Exhale: Hope, Healing and Life in Transplant

“My religion was ambition and achievement. It took a long time for me to realize I wasn’t the one saving their lives. I was a small part of that. I was the hand of a greater being.” – Dr. David Weill

For 20 years, Dr. David Weill kept with him a list of names of people who were in dire need of lung transplants. As the Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford University Medical Center, he led a team of 55-60 people and was in charge of the care plan for transplant patients, assessing their psychological chances for survival and matching them with organs as they became available. Life and death seemed to be in his hands and losing a patient seemed to him like a personal failure. In this episode Dr. Weill tells the story of how he rode the emotional rollercoaster and evolved from arrogance to authenticity as he loosened his hold on control and awakened to the presence of higher power working through him. When he left the front lines of the hospital, he started Weill Consulting Group, which focuses on improving the delivery of pulmonary, ICU, and transplant care. His riveting memoir, Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant, rawly and authentically depicts his fascinating life journey. Here are some of the things we talked about:

• The job of a transplant director

• Learning from transplant patients

• The ego’s addiction to control (i.e. ‘control enthusiasts)

• Insights gained from reading the Bible cover to cover

• The humanity of doctors and the loss of the soul in medicine

• The prevalence of post-covid confusion

• The need for systemic change (government, healthcare, etc.) to come from the grassroots level

• Writing as a way to process life

• Telling the truth and not pretending

• The importance of connection

Exhale: Hope, Healing and Life in Transplant

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Dr. David Weill