The link below to this powerful article by Dr Kenneth Weinberg in the NY Times is well worth the read. It should remind all that the call to be a physician is life long and does not ever end. Even when a doctor has put down their stethoscope or scalpel the desire to understand more fully the workings and failings of human health remain. The desire to continue to learn remains. The desire to educate their fellows about what they know remains constant. Most doctors I have ever met fit that mold. The tragedy is that in the current modern health care climate, we are losing more and more talented, dedicated physicians, and fewer and fewer are seeking to fulfill that calling. We must reinvigorate medical education and expand opportunities for American sons and daughters to enter medical school. That mission is long overdue . . . obi jo
Always a Doctor, Even in the Dying of the Light
“Kenny, I want you to see something.”
As he spoke, my father pulled up a corner of the bandage on his right forearm. I watched a BB-size rent in his skin glisten and begin to bleed.
“Now feel my blood,” he told me. “It’s cold.”
I looked at his face and then back at his arm, unsure how to proceed. The limb was bruised and discolored, damaged by countless needle sticks and transfusions.
We were sitting in the bedroom of his house in Florida. I’d flown down the day before, Sunday, after my mother called to say it appeared that his longstanding, dangerously low blood counts were finally bringing his life to an end . . .
read more of this moving story in the NY Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/
health/views/14case.html?ref=views