One such scenario was in Haiti when the U.S. Navy called him aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson to perform brain surgery on a 12-year-old girl who had a piece of shrapnel embedded into her skull during the quake.

Upon examining her, Gupta could not clearly identify where the metal was because of other head injuries the girl had sustained. The ship had only a side-view X-ray machine available to him, so he made a judgment call.

He observed that the right side of her body was stronger than the left when he squeezed her hands, so the shrapnel was most likely on the right side, since that’s the side that controls the left side of the body.

That operation was a medical success, Gupta said, but he kept being reminded of the situation that the girl would be released into from surgery: her mother had died, her father was injured, and she would be living in destruction while the country recovered from the disaster.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the role of faith in healing

“You have to often ask yourself,” he went on, “When you’re covering these stories, when you’re talking about these things: what exactly are we hoping to achieve here? What exactly do we think the prospects are going to be for the people that we cover and the stories that we tell about them?”

In that particular case, Gupta elaborated after a follow-up question was posed by an audience member, the girl, named Kimberly, was graduating high school last he heard and she and her family are doing well—all things considered.

Outside of a few cases where he has been able to check up on people he has assisted, the toll of those unknown stories weighs on the journalist and doctor, who is also a husband and the father of three girls.

It gives him an appreciation for his family, whom he credits as being particularly supportive of his work, especially his wife.

While on a vacation that was meant to be a make-up for the trip he missed the year before because of a reporting job, a devastating tsunami hit Japan and reports of a potential nuclear meltdown came across the wire.

At first, Gupta felt guilty when he began to talk to his wife about leaving for Japan, but she had already seen the story on the news—and packed his bag for him. That sort of support, he continued, helps to keep him energized through difficult days and nights of reporting.

Gupta is driven to tell important stories. He even admitted to the audience that he almost didn’t make it to the presentation that evening because of the ongoing protests and violence in Haiti, which nearly called him away.

Not all of those important stories are as far afield as Haiti, Guinea, Iraq, or Japan. Others are right here in the United States.

After his presentation, Forum-goers posed questions ranging from vaccinations to researching psychedelics for the treatment of depression and PTSD, to government success and failure in healthcare, to the next generation of medical technologies, like CRISPR.

In particular, participants wanted to know the steps to take to improve their health tomorrow, and what things could be done to reduce healthcare costs.

Gupta’s answer to the first? Three words: “Cut out sugar.”

And the second? Work to reduce cases of preventable illnesses through healthy living, and make healthy food more affordable and available to the general public.

At the end of the evening, one last audience question was posed: “What question do you wish we had asked you?” Gupta took this time to talk about his work/life balance.

Today, he tries to include his family in his journey of medicine and media by talking to them about the places he’s been and the stories he’s covering. On Saturday night in Richmond, he brought The Forum along for the ride.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on dealing with moments where he couldn’t help people

“What a delight! Dr. Gupta was engaging, funny, self-disclosing and captured all my attention. From the start of his presentation, one could sense the depth and intelligence of this man.”

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