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A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

theatlantic.com

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Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#31

Post by heyjudy »

geoka9 wrote: post #24
klyrs wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear, a surgeon killed my dad. My dad's surgery was scheduled immediately after the surgeon returned from Australia -- he drove straight from a 30-hour flight to the surgery ward. His scalpel slipped and nicked a chyle duct, which took another half-dozen surgeries to correct. Sure, the cancer was gonna kill him, but spending 3 months in ICU probably took years away from us. I can't imagine the surgeon's hubris in…

I suspect in some professions hubris is so important that people who tend to be humble simply don't make it in them. For example, Chuck Yeager complained about the arrogance of test pilots and I've heard a couple of times surgeons comparing themselves to fighter pilots. The difference, of course, is pilots kill themselves while surgeons kill their patients. I'm so sorry about your dad.

A drunk, alcoholic US Navy surgeon gave my grandmother a radical hysterectomy instead of an appendectomy, involuntarily sterilizing her. She had my father first, at least.

It's also pertinent to recall that surgeons evolved with and into the medical field from surgeon-barbers... yes, the people who give shaves and cut hair also used to cut into people.

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#32

Post by kcon »

mscasts wrote: post #4

Interesting legend, tried to search for him on youtube and other places but nothing showed up. I'm not saying this man can't rap, but how can you call that being a legend if there isn't a single recording? Nowhere in the article is there a link or an embed to an example of his legendary rap.

> Like a true underground star, he shunned mainstream success. He did appear in a documentary about Leimert Park, not as a novelty act, but as a regular member of the crew.

I believe this is the documentary the article refers to: http://www.leimertparkmovie.com

There's a preview clip on that website that I believe shows him rapping as Dr. Flow: http://www.leimertparkmovie.com/media/06RonCarringtononThurs...

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#34

Post by ilikehurdles »

klyrs wrote: post #20
carlob wrote: post #12

> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking…

I swear, a surgeon killed my dad. My dad's surgery was scheduled immediately after the surgeon returned from Australia -- he drove straight from a 30-hour flight to the surgery ward. His scalpel slipped and nicked a chyle duct, which took another half-dozen surgeries to correct. Sure, the cancer was gonna kill him, but spending 3 months in ICU probably took years away from us. I can't imagine the surgeon's hubris in…

Individual practitioners are usually aware of the dangers of sleep deprivation. The problem is they have very few options when it comes to controlling their own hours and most of those "top ranked" hospitals are often among the most notorious for having these toxic working conditions. Medical residents are also forced to go through these conditions almost as a form of hazing, justified only by attendings who "also had to go through it, so why shouldn't you?". The whole culture of medical training and hospital administration is corrupt and toxic.

For a part of the program that I'm familiar with, a rotating fellow will be expected to be the sole physician of that specialty on-call for the entire weekend for 3 hospitals in a large US city. Then, on Monday it's back to work again at 6 AM. If it's a busy weekend, good luck getting more than 1-3 hours of a sleep a night during that time.

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#35

Post by pbhjpbhj »

leesec wrote: post #17
carlob wrote: post #12

> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking…

Some doctors don't have a choice. My brother was on call this weekend and got called in Friday night at 10 P.M. and Saturday night at 2 A.M., then had to be back to work at 7 A.M. Sunday. Obviously sleep deprived, but there's nothing he specifically could do. This needs to change at an institutional level.

Under EU legislation (Working Time Directive?) you have to be allowed an 11 hour break period in each 24 hours, not sure how that works with doctors?

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#36

Post by pfranz »

leesec wrote: post #17
carlob wrote: post #12

> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking…

Some doctors don't have a choice. My brother was on call this weekend and got called in Friday night at 10 P.M. and Saturday night at 2 A.M., then had to be back to work at 7 A.M. Sunday. Obviously sleep deprived, but there's nothing he specifically could do. This needs to change at an institutional level.

I know there are some huge culture differences from surgeons, doctors, and nurses so I don't mean to conflate them. But I remember hearing that longer nurse shifts had better patient outcomes because so much was lost in handoffs between shifts. There was a study formalizing shift handoffs and patient outcomes improved significantly (I think it did beat out longer shifts, but I'm not sure).

I've been to specialists offices who had a rotating practice where you saw whoever was in that day. You still usually had a primary person you saw for scheduled appointments. I still think patients prefer dealing with a single person and am sure things get lost in doctor's notes or even if you make a phone call to the original doctor.

Medical training seems to promote normalizing very long work ours and sleep deprivation. I know I've heard about law suits trying to point out the egregiousness of it. Long shifts and being on call 24/7 definitely simplifies staffing. I was in a tech support department that went from 40hr support to 24/7 and it was significantly more challenging to manage.

I hope we can improve things because it seems almost inhumane in how we treat medical professionals as well as patients.

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#38

Post by nosequel »

For all the people saying it is fake unless there is a video on Youtube, pay attention to the dates in the article. Though clearly there were camcorders in 2000, not many people just carried them around. Some people did art, rap, music, sports, etc. just to do it, they didn't need to record it to satisfy their vanity for likes and comments.

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#39

Post by pfranz »

kitcar wrote: post #16
carlob wrote: post #12

> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking…

Many experts feel they have the right to ignore other experts in their field. It's scary how some doctors pick and choose the research findings to reinforce their perspectives, regardless if it's fact based.

I very much agree with this from what I've seen. I do think it's a bit of an odd situation (I'm not trying to defend sleep deprivation here). Patients often choose doctors because of things specific to them and generally seem to reject the commoditization of things (seeing whichever doctor your insurance tells you or whoever is on call that day). Me, being fairly young and only really seeing a doctor when I need a physical or have an annual exam, I don't care. My mom, who sees a doctor more regularly and has a closer relationships with her specialists has more strong opinions.

I also remember hearing from a vet student that their mentor used older techniques, medications, and practices for certain things, but because he had used them for decades were way more comfortable using them than newer techniques (which can some times be more idiot proof, but less nuanced). That student was convinced it was better than if he had stayed up to date and used modern practices.

Similarly, I remember hearing about aviators relying on automated controls so much that they're less capable in emergency situations. I'm not sure what you can do about that. Ideally, in aggregate passengers are safer overall.

Re: A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend

#40

Post by nwallin »

carlob wrote: post #12

> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking…

Doctors are trained to believe that sleep deprivation isn't something that affects good doctors. During their residency, doctors routinely work 24 hour shifts. This goes back to William Halsted, who for all intents and purposes invented modern medical training at Hopkins. Halsted managed his always-on work ethic with his cocaine addiction, and drove his residents to the same extremes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/the-phantom-mena...

> Of course, the overworked, sleep-deprived doctor valiantly saving lives is an archetype that is deeply rooted in the culture of physician training, not to mention television hospital dramas. William Halsted, the first chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins in the 1890s and a founder of modern medical training, required his residents to be on call 362 days a year (only later was it revealed that Halsted fueled his manic work ethic with cocaine), and for the next 100 years the attitude of the medical establishment was more or less the same. Doctors, influenced by their own residency experiences, often see hospital hazing as the most effective way to learn the practice of medicine.

It's bullshit, it's killing patients, it's ruining lives, everyone knows about it, yet no one does anything, because "it's the way we've always done it". If a doctor has been awake longer than 18 hours, and a patient dies on the table, they should be charged with manslaughter, traditions be damned.

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