"USC Sucks, go to Real School, then buy a Real Car"

[American]

This will make you think...
Couldn't get into the 7-year programs at Brown (http://bimmer.roadfly.org/3series/messages/archive/msgsy1998w52/12497.html)

Northwestern, huh??? LOSER!!! USC Med-School Sucks. Only stupid, losers with low MCAT scores go there. The med school is in the worst part of East LA, every course is taught by underpaid lecturers (you'll see), the school is way overpriced at $40K a year (because if you can't get into any real med school, you're forced to pay blackmail tuition prices), and because the hospital is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the entire country, you will see some of the most disgusting "human" rejects and freaks in the history of medicine, Guiness-Book-of-World-Records Style. If you were not a LOSER and could get into Northwestern med-school you'd be in affluent and tony Chicago Loop performing breast exams on sexy, young single women of Scandinavian descent -- instead of crack addicted, illegal immigrants. Too sum up: A4 Sucks, nothing but an overpriced VW Passat, and you're a MORON and a LOSER. Have fun contracting AIDS Loser, because you'll have plenty of opportunities!!!

Brian
323i Sport, Xenon, Wood, CD and Real Med School, Ivy League undergrad.

[Ladewig]

The message is a lot funnier if you read the post that this guy is responding to.

n Reply to: USC Sucks, go to Real School, then buy a Real Car posted by Brian on December 29, 1998 at 16:21:22:

Coming out of high school, I had my choice of universities including several Ivy League schools. Instead I opted for USC's guaranteed 8 year medical program which accepts 35 a year with an average GPA of 4.0 and SAT of 1480; I was above average on both. So you and your Ivy League education can SUCK IT!!! I already have a BMW 325is and an Audi A4, mere appetizers for better cars to come.

IronMike "200 lbs of pure steel and sex appeal"

[Dr. Imago]

Yeah, but I'd be surprised if either of these kids are actually in said medical schools. If so, these are the rare types of students who fortunately only sparsely populate programs. Not-so-ironically, they also usually make the sloppiest, least liked, and poorest caliber students... as well as future doctors. Besides, everyone who's actually IN medical school or in the medical profession already knows these two truths: (1) the poorer the neighborhood, the worse the medical problems, the greater exposure to truly sick patients, and ultimately the better-learned the doctor, (2) no one gives a rat's behind where you went to undergrad med - it's all about what field you choose for your graduate medical education as well as where you do your residency. All medical students are pretty much on equal ground after four years of undergrad education - they really don't know anything yet!

And, that's the truth.

-TT

[Ladewig]

Aside: Third Twin, your avitar seems to be confusing The Caduceus of Hermes with the Staff of Asclepius. The former has two snakes and wings and the latter is a knotty tree limb with a single snake. Asclepius was the doctor.

[Dr. Imago]

Wow! Very observant, Laedwig. Actually, the AMA has posted a lot of press on this in the past because Hermes was considered to be a bit "sneaky" and, although the traditional caduceus (as in my avatar) has been the official symbol for the medical profession, some (including the AMA) have reverted to the Staff of Asclepius as you suggest. However, the latter has been historically used by veterinarians, an association I do not want to suggest and I generally don't care what the AMA thinks either (:p). Likewise, I'm not really personally vexed by the "naughty undercurrents" associated with the former as most observers (present company excluded) don't delve quite as deeply into the meanings as you have.

-TT

[Dr. Imago]

And, here's a link that discusses the "controversy"...

http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html

[American]

Originally posted by ThirdTwin
(1) the poorer the neighborhood, the worse the medical problems, the greater exposure to truly sick patients, and ultimately the better-learned the doctor...

So would one prefer an infantry triage unit over a constant line of MILFs you must advise to stay home and give bed rest to Timmy?

Your point is very well taken, I couldn't agree more. I'm just thinking of reality, I'm afraid, which is often the path of least resistance. And considering what East L.A. is made of, it's very easy not to care. Very REALLY easy....

[Ladewig]

And, here's a link that discusses the "controversy"...

http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html

How completely bizarre. That is the exact link I went to before posting to make sure I was spelling everything correctly.

So would one prefer an infantry triage unit over a constant line of MILFs you must advise to stay home and give bed rest to Timmy?

For hands on learning, it is the deep end of the pool; but you will know how to swim when you are done. Of course, the one skill that would not transfer back to civilian life would be military-style triage.

[Dr. Imago]

Originally posted by American
... it's very easy not to care. Very REALLY easy....

This is one of the hardest aspects of medicine. For example...

I am currently working in a Family Practice outpatient clinic as part of my current rotation in FP. Let's just say that this clinic isn't in the "high rent" district.

Yesterday, I saw two kids - ages 4 and 6 - who came in with their unemployed welfare mother. The boys also had twin fifteen month old sisters (who were at home with their dad), but between the two of them they had separate fathers. They were both on Risperdal for behavioral disturbances associated with aggressive tendencies. The older one wouldn't sit still as I tried to examine him. The younger one suffered from both enuresis and encopresis (you can look those up) and was soaking wet when I saw him. As I tried to examine him, he repeatedly tried to kick me and call me a "poo-poo head", all to the mother's giggling. I struggled through the interviews and exams, reported to my preceptor, and we came up with a plan.

So, why should I care? Here's a welfare mother, with severe psychological problems herself raising two boys, on heavy anti-psychotic medications, and twin girls, who showed absolutely no ability to discipline or even the remotest insight into her psychosocial situation. The father, a bi-polar sufferer himself, was at home and she verbalized to me that she was on the verge of kicking him out. Although we didn't have time to address it at this visit, the mother also looked as if she was again pregnant.

Here's why I care...

You basically have two innocent little boys who were, by no choice of their own, born into this situation. It is already clear that they have almost zero positive parental guidance and very little emotional support. They have no chance for a meaningful existence on the path they are on. The younger one has had the toilet problems since infancy, and none of the doctors he's seen so far have intervened or even cared.

The mother (at the age of 28) may be a lost cause, although she is going for counseling. But, if I don't care enough to try to refer these boys into a program that may be able to help them - apart from the poor models the parents are currently providing - what are they likely to grow up to be? More of a drain on society.

Am I naive enough to think that the prognosis is good, that the mother will follow-through on the treatments, and that there's a good chance that these kids will grow into being productive members of society? Of course not. But, if I dismiss them as such now, they'll never have a chance. It is important that I care enough - and separate myself from my own biases and prejudices - to give them a chance. Otherwise, they absolutely will turn out as I expect, and just as the other doctors who've seen them to this point expect.

To me, this is far more important than groping some attractive MILF under the guise of a routine breast exam. I want to make a difference, even if my ratio is only ever 1:1000 or worse. At least when my time has come, I'll know I tried. But, to each his own. There are people in my class who care only about the "fringe benefits", whatever they may be, of becoming a doctor.

So, I guess to answer your question... yes, I would rather be in the "infantry triage unit" over some line of MILFs waiting to be felt-up by some narcissistic physician who really only cares how fat his wallet is. But, that's just me.

-TT

[American]

Originally posted by ThirdTwin


So, I guess to answer your question... yes, I would rather be in the "infantry triage unit" over some line of MILFs waiting to be felt-up by some narcissistic physician who really only cares how fat his wallet is. But, that's just me.

Me too. I don't know what is wrong with us.


As for those 2 kids, if there were something you could do for them, then that would be great. Realistically, you can bet your money that no matter what you try, they will be the same punks who stab you and carjack your wife's SUV when they are 17, and probably get away with it because politics protects their worthless lives over yours.

[_Q_]

Originally posted by ThirdTwin
I want to make a difference, even if my ratio is only ever 1:1000 or worse. At least when my time has come, I'll know I tried.ThirdTwin,

Good for you!

Have you read the short story The Mountain to Mohammed by Nancy Kress? I read it in Nebula Awards 28 (edited by James Morrow), but it's probably available in other collections as well.

Without giving much away, it involves a physician trying to "make a difference" under adverse circumstances.


_Q_

[Matabiri]

Originally posted by American


So would one prefer an infantry triage unit over a constant line of MILFs you must advise to stay home and give bed rest to Timmy?



I have a couple of friends who managed to get a placement in a hospital in Kenya, miles from anywhere. They carried out procedures they wouldn't have been allowed near as medical students in Britain, and saw conditions they wouldn't have seen here, because they were among the only people there.

So I'd agree with this, though it does depend whether you want to be a "good" doctor or a rich doctor...

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by American

And considering what East L.A. is made of, it's very easy not to care. Very REALLY easy....

Sir, Sir, I know. Sir, there are people there.

[sickstan]

Originally posted by ThirdTwin
So, I guess to answer your question... yes, I would rather be in the "infantry triage unit" over some line of MILFs waiting to be felt-up by some narcissistic physician who really only cares how fat his wallet is. But, that's just me.

Where's that? Gimme an application!

Seriously, I don't think I could work with a bunch of lonely trophy wives coming in for botox and toady conversation. Nothing excites me more than interesting diagnoses or injuries at the very edge of what I can handle. I bet you guys didn't suspect, but I like to be right. I especially like being right when others were wrong. Like that time some woman was being treated by her private doctor with clindamycin for herpetic whitlow.

About public aid medicine -- it takes a special kind of person to do it. I don't think I can handle it, because the constant injustice of neglected kids, drug abuse, and underfunded, helpless foster parents wears on me. It kills me to see a public aid person come in wearing expensive jewelry and clothes, every nail and hair done up to perfection, when a working poor person complains she doesn't have money for clothes let alone healthful foods to control her gestational diabetes. I'm weary just writing this...

And about this BMW Rock&Roll doctor? I knew one of 'em. He sucked. Everybody hated him. What a loser.

PS: I drive a '94 Camry LE.

[Suddenly]

Don't they have a school for doctors that care about money more than helping people? What do they call that?

Oh, yeah, I remember now.

Law School


That's it. Nevermind. Carry on...