Because that’s not how or why we do things.

I’m going to use my gunshot analogy to illustrate my point. In Jurassic World, a veterinary doctor raced to remove the bullet from a dinosaur and it miraculously came back to life when she reached the bullet and removed it.

We rarely remove bullets. Why? Because bullets aren’t the problem gunshot wounds. The big gaping hole is, and the torn apart vasculature is. If the surgeon removed the bullet it wouldn’t solve anything; it would just cause further destruction in the anatomical structure. The surgery isn’t to remove the bullet; its to fix the hole.

This baby’s food is red. There’s a minor infectious process going on. The concern isn’t the splinter itself; it’s the infection. Going in and traumatizing the tissue with tweezers isn’t going to solve the infection. It’s just further injuring the skin. Instead, you can go home and soak the foot in iodine to soften the skin and encourage the splinter to come out. And antibiotics are prescribed to treat the infection.

The discernment about whether to do something invasive or more conservative is why we have doctors.