Please help Wheelchair MD(wannabe)

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wheely

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Hi,
After my med school interviews late last year I got into a car accident and have lost the use of my legs. Since then I have been accepted to medical school on the east coast. Legally I know the school cannot rescind my acceptance but I am wondering is there a place in medicine for a wheelchair bound doctor. I know I will do fine in the first two years but how difficult will it be to do rotations such as surgery and ob-gyn? I talked to officials at some medical schools and they said that they have had doctors in wheelchairs graduate before. After graduating one of the individuals went into psychiatry. But I would like help from people who are doing their rotations or have done them. How difficult will the rotations and residency be for an individual like me? Please be brutally honest about my rotation and residency prospects that will help me more than empty encouragement. And also please suggest specialties I could go into (Radiology, Psychiatry, Pathology) so I can balance what I am interested in with my physical abilities. Sorry for the long post, I really want to be a doctor but want to temper my dreams with reality. Thanks in advance for the opinions and good luck to you guys.

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Wow. Words cannot convey my feelings after reading your post. Wow. I really admire your courage. I'm sorry about the accident.

I think you are right, Surgery and Ob_Gyn will be the toughest for you. However, I think it is indeed doable. In surgery, a lot of time a student just retracts tissue or bowel for the surgeon. I'm thinking that the
less involved procedures like lumpectomies or hernia repair would be no problemo. Also, laparoscopic stuff should be no problem. I'm wondering about the more involved stuff... Sometimes there just isn't enough room around the OR table. Any transplant, bypass, AAA repair or trauma is involved, and space is at a premium. However, as a med student you aren't going to
be doing much during these procedures, so it might not matter.
For example, during my 2 weeks in CardioThoracic surgery, I stitched *zero*, retracted *zero*, and got pimped *infinity*.

Ob_Gyn is another tough one. Actually, for speculum exams you'll be fine. You'll probably even be fine during routine Labor and Delivery. C-setions can get a bit frenzied, so I don't know how that will go.

The other clerkships should be better.

I really think that you can do more in medicine than you can't do.
I really see no reason why you couldn't be a Family Doc, a Pediatrician, an Internist, a Neurologist, or any of the Internal Medicine or Pediatric subspecialties. (I'm anticipating many people here at SDN will disagree with this last point....)

Residency will be the real test, though. You'll have to convince a residency director that you can make it through his/her program.



Best of luck man. I'm rooting for you.
 
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Wheely,
I haven't started med school so I don't have any sage advice. I just wanted to say I couldn't feel more deeply for your dilemma. I wish you the best... I think you should go for it, because the worst you could do is not succeed. The real tragedy would be in not trying.

Peace~Doc ;)
 
Back in '89 I was doing sort of an undergraduate psychology internship with Indian Health Service in Anadarko, OK. While I was there, I met a 3rd year medical student doing a rotation there too. I believe he was a DO student, but I'm not sure. He was an incredible guy, and I believe he probably became an excellent doctor. A few years prior to that, he had been hit by a drunk driver (American) on the 4th of July while in Australia. I believe he had been surfing that day....ironic?? Anyway....he was paralyzed from the chest down. I'm sure there were issues that he had to work out to make it through medical school, but at the time he seemed to be doing quite well. That's all I know.... I tried to find an e-mail address for him recently, and through the AMA website, I found out that he is practicing in New Jersey.

Peace~
Digginit
 
I agree with others - it wont be easy, but you can do it. I know that my school has several physicians who are scooter or wheelchair bound - maybe for the particularly difficult subjects, you could be paired with an attending who is also wheelchair bound - or maybe with someone of short stature. That way, the OR table would be lower - even low enough for you to help. Or they could get you a chair that raises and lowers (not wheeled).

Talk to your office of equal opportunity and diversity (or whatever its called there) and they will help you find out about accomodations that are possible. I know that one of the 2nd years here has achondroplasia, and he seems to be doing just fine with everything (not rotations yet, obviously, but...).

That being said, despite allthe good intentions, you will be discriminated against. You will have to fight to do all that you are capable of doing - or they will guess what you can do and they will underestimate. YOu will have to keep people from coddling you.

Good luck, and dont give up your dream.

Star
 
Many years ago, I remember seeing a documentary of some sort. There was a surgeon who had become wheelchair bound as a result of an accident. He subsequenetly became a hand surgeon, becuase that's pretty much always done sitting down. He had worked out a way to scrub and then wheel himself into the OR (put sterile gloves on his wet hands to get into the OR, hard on the hands but kept him from having to have someone wheel him into the OR.)

I bet with some creativity and some internet research, you'll be able to work out a way to pass those rotations.

I like your spirit. I know a lot of people who decompensate and whine and moan when much less worse things happen to them. In fact, many people like that are med students. Hopefully, your classmates will learn from you.

BTW, my brother had to be treated by a GI doc inpt many years ago. THe GI doc covering that weekend was wheelchair bound. I don't know any of the details or when he lost use of his legs, but you could manage to do just about anything if you want to bad enough.
 
I definitely think it can be done. You are much more aware than I of the difficulties that you will encounter, but you will undoubtedly face difficulty in whatever you choose to do. If you really want to do medicine, then I see no reason not to go for it. Surgery will be the hardest rotation. However, as a student you are not important to the case and honestly learn little from scrubbing that you could not learn in a book. There are plenty of cases that can be viewed on a TV screen. Rounding with your teams on all services may be difficult because they are always in a hurry and take the stairs. However, you could obviously just meet them via elevator.

As far as what career choices would be open to you, I can't think of any that would not. Surgical fields would seem to be the hardest to work around, but if you actually love it that much it could be done. Anything non-surgical would be no problem. At our school the Chairman of Neurology is wheelchair bound. Obtaining a residency may also be unfairly more difficult, however I think (hope) that most chairman are reasonable these days and it would not be that big of a deal.

Best of luck to you and be confident that you can do it as we all are here.
 
Hats off to you! With a great attitude like yours, you can do anything--I mean it, anything you set your mind to. Having done most of the rotations in 3rd year, the only rotation I think would be difficult is surgery, and that's 'cause the OR nurses are notoriously sticklers about the sterile field, and it would be really hard to keep a wheelchair sterile. But I'm sure that they can work something else out for you, for example, you can do the stitching in the end of the operation when all the other surgeons are out of the way.
Otherwise, all other rotations are fair game--your hands, eyes, ears, and brain are all you need to do a history, physical exam, diagnosis and treatment.

Best of luck to you.
 
One of my interviewers at UTMB in Galveston Texas lost the use of his legs and was had to use a wheelchair. However, he is still a practicing Orthopedic Surgeon and teaches others how to do procedures.

Keep up your good attitude and I am sure that you will do great!
 
I would like to thank all of you who have contributed your opinions...............it feels good to know that there are going to be wonderful people like you guys in the healthcare field..............................I am going to go ahead with medical school and see what happens.............once again thankyou and good luck to you guys in the pursuit of your dreams. :)
 
hey, i am sorry about your accident. I think you can do really well in the clinical setting even with your condition. during my family medicine preceptor last year i stayed with a guy who was wheelchair bound after an ATV accident and he was a first year in medical school who was able to do a lot of things like water his own lawn and take care of many things around the house (i was just sitting inside watching television as soon as i got back. I think he is really interested in intervential cardiology from what i heard. you should go for whatever you are interested in.
 
This might be of interest to you...
it is a new kind of wheel chair that actually can "stand" up and climb stairs, yet is actually smaller than a conventional wheel chair. Its expensive.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/285231.asp
 
If you are interested in finding out more about the wheelchair invented by Dean Kamen feel free to PM me. I have a very good friend who is an engineer at DEKA (Dean Kamen's company) and works on the project.
 
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There is an ER doc in Wichita, KS, that lost the use of his legs in a tractor accident (fitting for someone from kansas, right?) In anycase, he uses one of those wheelchairs that stands up and is still able to run codes and everything else. Good luck. You've got more tenacity than I do. You'll kick some @$$
 
It absolutely is possible. A few months ago on my rotation I worked with a 4th year medical student from another local medical school doing her externship. She is quadraplegic and she has already matched into Family Practice residency program. She suffered a car accident and was entirely wheelchair-bound for the entirety of her medical school. During her surgery clerkship, she told me she was exempt from scrubbing in and retracting but was present in the OR for laproscopic cases. However, her student duties on that rotation is the same as everyone else, like writing notes, presenting patients, taking call nights, taking the end of service shelf and oral test, etc. Other than having to stand 8 hours a day, she still did it all. And on OB rotation she still managed to catch a baby. So work hard, it wont be as bad as you think, and before you know it, you will be an MD just like you originally planned.
 
I think you mean she was a "Paraplegic". A quadraplegic would not have use of any of their limbs.
 
Originally posted by sleep deprived
I think you mean she was a "Paraplegic". A quadraplegic would not have use of any of their limbs.

Yup, typo on my part.
 
If you are interested in finding out more about the wheelchair invented by Dean Kamen feel free to PM me. I have a very good friend who is an engineer at DEKA (Dean Kamen's company) and works on the project.

Woah thats actually awesome! Mr. Kamen is one epic engineer and has also invented a very effective device that supplies clean water to impoverished countries. I have high respect for him and his inventions and was wondering if you could elaborate on how your friend got to work at DEKA? Like what was his major and perhaps extracurriculars. Anythings cool though ty
 
Woah thats actually awesome! Mr. Kamen is one epic engineer and has also invented a very effective device that supplies clean water to impoverished countries. I have high respect for him and his inventions and was wondering if you could elaborate on how your friend got to work at DEKA? Like what was his major and perhaps extracurriculars. Anythings cool though ty
You are responding to an 11 year old post.
 
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