When an active-shooter alert swept across her hospital campus, oncologist and educator Dr. Beatrice Preti found herself experiencing a level of fear she’d never encountered in medicine before, even after years of caring for patients with life-limiting diagnoses.

In this conversation, Dr. Preti reflects on that day, how it reshaped her understanding of vulnerability, and the surprising parallels it revealed between crisis, uncertainty, and the emotional experience of being a patient.