when I was a really young kid I wanted
to be a clown
circus clown but then when I was in
about third grade I had a blood clot
under the toenail that was unbelievably
painful and the local general
practitioner numbed up my foot took off
the toenail
I got instant relief and I instantly
decided that that was the sort of
profession I wanted to do I wanted to
help people in that medical scientific
way most people are not reminded on a
weekly or monthly basis that our lives
are so fragile and light and can
disappear so easily even as difficult it
is I actually enjoy that aspect of
neurosurgery being reminded that how
each of us is going to have a final day
on this planet and nobody wants to to
feel like they wasted any more of it
than they have to always interesting to
meet new people to hear about their
medical history and their problem and
try to figure it out in a way that no
one else has so it’s nice to see
patients that come back that are doing
well and are grateful it’s a challenge
to see the patients that come back and
their result isn’t what what either of
us had hoped for and to try to figure
out a way to change that
I went to Columbia knowing that I wanted
to go into medicine I said I’m not going
to be chemistry major I’m going to be a
philosophy major these days so much of
my life is consumed by Science and
Technology math to have had that time of
study humanities was really enriching
I think the hardest thing is delivering
bad news telling people’s families that
their young loved one has died from a
brain hemorrhage from an aneurysm all of
those kind of things there we don’t
really have a science a technology and
neurosurgery to fix and to be able to
draw strength and solace both for myself
seeing patients back in clinic and
hearing about how their lives are going
how much better they are how grateful
they are you know share it a lot of hugs
and and and they don’t feeling like my
my life really has a purpose you know
usually when I’m driving away from the
hospital
I think about how fortunate I and my
family are compared to so many of my
patients in the hospital at that moment
I know that no one’s no one’s health
lasts forever
it’s it’s always a time-limited
commodity it’s a very useful kind of
viewpoint to to make sure I try to get the most out of my life
to be a clown
circus clown but then when I was in
about third grade I had a blood clot
under the toenail that was unbelievably
painful and the local general
practitioner numbed up my foot took off
the toenail
I got instant relief and I instantly
decided that that was the sort of
profession I wanted to do I wanted to
help people in that medical scientific
way most people are not reminded on a
weekly or monthly basis that our lives
are so fragile and light and can
disappear so easily even as difficult it
is I actually enjoy that aspect of
neurosurgery being reminded that how
each of us is going to have a final day
on this planet and nobody wants to to
feel like they wasted any more of it
than they have to always interesting to
meet new people to hear about their
medical history and their problem and
try to figure it out in a way that no
one else has so it’s nice to see
patients that come back that are doing
well and are grateful it’s a challenge
to see the patients that come back and
their result isn’t what what either of
us had hoped for and to try to figure
out a way to change that
I went to Columbia knowing that I wanted
to go into medicine I said I’m not going
to be chemistry major I’m going to be a
philosophy major these days so much of
my life is consumed by Science and
Technology math to have had that time of
study humanities was really enriching
I think the hardest thing is delivering
bad news telling people’s families that
their young loved one has died from a
brain hemorrhage from an aneurysm all of
those kind of things there we don’t
really have a science a technology and
neurosurgery to fix and to be able to
draw strength and solace both for myself
seeing patients back in clinic and
hearing about how their lives are going
how much better they are how grateful
they are you know share it a lot of hugs
and and and they don’t feeling like my
my life really has a purpose you know
usually when I’m driving away from the
hospital
I think about how fortunate I and my
family are compared to so many of my
patients in the hospital at that moment
I know that no one’s no one’s health
lasts forever
it’s it’s always a time-limited
commodity it’s a very useful kind of
viewpoint to to make sure I try to get the most out of my life
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