Lois Lee, MD, MPH, works in Children’s Emergency Department Injury Prevention Program

As a physician, there are certain patients’ stories that stay with you long after you’ve treated them. The dog days of summer remind me of when I was a resident and treated a teenager who nearly drowned in a lake. The patient survived, but only after suffering severe brain damage. He was part of a larger group of kids who went to a nearby lake to escape the heat and blow off some steam, but one of them couldn’t swim well and got in trouble. My patient saw him struggling and bound out into the deep waters to help. …