The brilliant water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 is out of immediate news lately, but hardly out of mind of all of us, especially those who work a loud shout away from the splashdown area. And looking at the interview with Captain Sullenberger, one cannot help but admire, and it with utmost admiration that I say, “It was such an allopathic thing to do!” Indeed, where a homeopathic approach would have required the Captain to flap his arms or to ask his passengers to face backwards and belch; where a public health approach would have requred him to fill out an environmental impact statement on the way down; where a holistic approach would have demanded that he address his passengers’ feelings with greater sensitivity and at length, and where a naturopathic practitioner would bemoan the fate of homogenized geese and claim the accident a just consequence for violating their airspace — Captain Sullenberger said, “Brace for impact”, and proceeded to execute a perfect, textbook dead stick water landing, using sound aerodynamic principles and skills honed by years of practice. And, to top it off, he checked, twice, to see to it that everyone escaped alive. And then he did not see what the big deal was about a guy doing his job. If there is a better metaphor for what medicine needs to emulate, I have not seen it. Not since Nine Eleven, anyway.

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