“Tragedy.” “Disaster.” “Incompetence.”

Serious adverse events in healthcare create emotive news, inspire sympathy and anger, and can trigger sadness and frustration in healthcare providers.

Balancing the tendency to judge colleagues at the centre of such events is the more empathetic approach: “There, but for the grace of (insert your word), go I.”

We all have memories of near misses, blame for imperfections, regret for imperfections — even if we have never been involved in patient care tragedies.