Why Young People are Leaving the Country of Their Parents
Italy: The Nation That crushes Its Young. (NYT, Oct 30, 2013) Italy Breaks Your Heart. (NYT, Oct 26, 2013) These two recent articles published in the New York Times captured my attention. They both comment on the exodus of Italian young people, particularly males, and their travel to France, England and for more lucky ones […]
A Path to Become a Surgeon
It is necessary that a surgeon should have a temperate and moderate disposition. That he should have well-formed hands, long slender fingers, a strong body, not inclined to tremble and with all his members trained to the capable fulfillment of the wishes of his mind. He should be of deep intelligence and of a simple, […]
So, Is Surgery an Art or a Science?
The practice of medicine is a thinker’s art, the practice of surgery is a plumber’s. Martin H. Fischer, obviously a medical doctor This was a picture I grew up with in my Medical School. I saw medical specialists as a group of intellectuals discussing patient’s problems in the doctor’s lounge, and surgeons talking in the […]
How to Be Appreciated, and not Flattered
“The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One comes from the heart out, the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned”. Dale Carnegie When I was Chief of Staff in my hospital, we had an unusual run of bad luck with […]
How to best train resident doctors
On March 4th 1984, they admitted college freshman Libby Zion to the New York hospital with high fever and agitation. Despite efforts of medical intern, medical resident and attending physician, she died the next day. Her father, a prominent NY lawyer and journalist Sidney Zion, was obviously devastated. The death raised the issue of the inadequate […]
