Challenge accepted.
Kanye West, the Michelangelo of our generation, said it best with, “For me to say I wasn’t a genius, I would just be lying to you and to myself.” Although Kanye West and the field of emergency medicine have been around for about the same time, both have had a profound impact on myself and the physician I hope to be in the future. It's this creative genius character that Kanye describes, a trait I feel I strongly possess, that has attracted me to the field of emergency medicine. Out-of-the-box problem solving is a necessary trait to be successful in this field and many of my mentors would agree, such as Dr. Dre. Just a few weeks ago when I was playing a charity golf tournament at Harvard University with the chair, a man collapsed on the green. Carefully placing my club on the ground as to not count for a stroke, I rushed over to the victim. Unresponsive and quickly turning blue, my right brain became dominant and I successfully performed a cricothyrotomy usually only a golf tee and plastic straw. The patient obviously survived and in light of his gratitude, has bequeathed his beautiful swimsuit model daughter to me. Without this inventive imagination, the man would be dead.
Innovative ideas are behind the studies that reinforce the concept of evidence-based medicine. It requires someone to think outside of the lines and to strive for excellence. While describing all of the ways I have saved someone's life or correctly diagnosed them would exceed the space allotted for the personal statement, I leave you with one more example. While scuba diving near the Great Barrier Reef, the divemaster and I were looking for buried treasure in an old shipwreck. Unfortunately, the divemaster panicked when we opened a door and saw a school of hammerhead sharks. He rushed to the surface without emergency stops and quickly started showing signs of decompression sickness. To save the stranger's life, I summoned a small whale while waiting for the Coast Guard to come airlift him to a decompression chamber. I singlehandedly placed the divemaster inside the whale's mouth and held the blowhole shut as to keep air inside. With the self-made hyperbaric chamber in place, the divemaster hovered in between life and death. A few days later after he came to, the divemaster thanked me profusely for saving my life on Good Morning America.
The fast pace and ever-changing environment attract me to the field of emergency medicine. I believe my unique problem-solving skills and quick thinking are traits that will enable me to be the best emergency physician to walk the earth. With these experiences, I can identify with Kanye when he said, "I am God's vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I'll never be able to see myself perform live."
