disabled med students

[bluewheels]

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Hi,
I am an undergrad theology major. I have been interested in being a doctor since I was six. In some way, I want to combined medicine and ministry together. Here is where things get sticky. I have cerebral Palsy CP and use a wheelchair. Anything I should know before applying to med school?
Sincerely,
Angela

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by bluewheels
Hi,
I am an undergrad theology major. I have been interested in being a doctor since I was six. In some way, I want to combined medicine and ministry together. Here is where things get sticky. I have cerebral Palsy CP and use a wheelchair. Anything I should know before applying to med school?
Sincerely,
Angela

Angela,

As long as you can perform the basic physical exam, the only major obstacles are your determination and perseverance. When I attended Johns Hopkins, there were two physically challenged students. One student was confined to a mechanized wheel chair. At first glance, people would think that it's not possible for her to complete medical school, but she did. It must have been very difficult.

You will probably need to defend your goals and don't let the ADCOMs break you down. You will need to prove to them that you are able to fulfill the manual tasks and can endure the training of being a physician. If you're confined to a wheel chair, then I think any surgical sub-speciality will be difficult. Otherwise, there are dozens of specialities where physically challenged individuals can do well.

 

[surge]

Hey Angela, welcome 🙂


Optho_mudphud is absolutely right. I know of several people in similar situations. There's a guy at Yale who is graduating this year (he is a paraplegic). I also heard rumors on the interview trail from one of the administrators about a person that entered an MD/PhD program although he was legally blind.

Either way, each medschool publishes the 'technical competency requirements' or something to that effect. While they can vary, they all state that you must be able to do basic communication, preform a physical exam, etc. using REASONABLE assistance/accomodation. Clearly, using a wheelchair falls under reasonable assistance, and should present no problem (on paper). As far as your condition goes, if you don't mind me asking (feel free to PM me if you'd like), are your hand/arm motor skills affected?
Of course, none of us here need to tell you that it will be hard, but that's a far cry from impossible. I agree that if you are truly motivated and dedicated, you can become a doctor.

In addition, it clearly gives you a perspective few of us will ever have. You have probably experienced medicine on a completely different level, and I'm sure it has, in a lot of ways, strenghtened your desire to become a physician. I'm sure you would bring qualities to this side of the bed rail often needed in the profession.
Go for it!

Out of curiosity, what year are you in? Also, how do you see yourself bringing together ministry and the practice of medicine? Are you interested in an MD/PhD program?

 

[Brewster]

I have seen/worked with a few attendings with physical disabilities, including CP.

So, yes, it is absolutely possible.

Go for it.

 

[md_student10021]

So long as you pass the "technical requirements," you should be ok; I guess that depends on the severity of your disability.

Requiring a wheelchair, in itself, should be no problem. I'd worry more about getting good grades and a high MCAT score.

best of luck.

 

[tuckp]

Surge, you are right about the legally blind MD/PhD student. The student I met is well into his PhD years, working in Xray crystallography, and very successful.

Angela, I say go for it, and good luck!

 

[phar]

Originally posted by bluewheels
Hi,
I am an undergrad theology major. I have been interested in being a doctor since I was six. In some way, I want to combined medicine and ministry together. Here is where things get sticky. I have cerebral Palsy CP and use a wheelchair. Anything I should know before applying to med school?
Sincerely,
Angela

It seems like it is your first post. May i say, welcome to SDN. 😉
It seems like you have a big heart by doing both ministry and medicine. On that note, i think you make a good canditate for becoming a doctor. So, go for it!!!!

 

[bluewheels]

Thanks everyone

My Dx is "Mild spastic CP." Yeah, I know it is probably longer than that, but that is what I bothered to find out. CP is <b>boring</b> to me. I have found that many kids with medical problems want to be doctors, but are not really that interested in their own illness or disability.

Anyway,my Hand motor-skills are somewhat affected. I write and type slower than most people and very fine motor skills are hard. However, in science classes I do most of the labs because my partners gross out. LOL. At first, they always insist, "I might hurt myself or something." After the first incision, they decide I can use the scalpel if I want.

I am in my third yr. at a Bible College that was supposed to get WASC accredit two yrs ago... so i plan to transfer next term to a Christian University. This will make me have to catch up a year, mostly likely. Oh well, at least I won't keep hearing, "next year is it."🙄

Medically, My major interest is Cystic Fibrosis. Currently, I am building two websites for PWCF. One is a ministry site for adults. The other attempts to explain CF (genetics and everything)to kids. Niether are up yet.

As far as med-school goes, my first choice would be Iowa. So, if anyone has info about that school, I would really appreciate it if you could pass it down my direction.
Thanks,
Angela

 

[phar]

Hey angela, i am not really familiar with the Iowa Medical schools. However, iowa has only two medical schools....university of iowa and demois(wrong spelling) college of osteopathic medicine. Go to the pre-allopathic or pre-osteopathic and i am sure there are some iowa students who roam around those forums.


You might also want to consider nebraska medical schools(in omaha) since they are right on the border with western Iowa. Creighton is a great school but they rejected me though . Also, unmc is an excellent school(they accepted me but i rejected them ) . It seems like you are interested in research...then creighton might be better. Unmc is highly ranked for primary care and they have a great cancer research institute(i think it is called eppley something). Omaha is a great city and council bluffs, iowa is more like a suburban of Omaha. So, you are not far at all from Iowa.

Hope that helps.

 

[bluewheels]

iowa U has a great CF team. Also, UNC but I don't think they are as open to disabled students from what I have read. I am not really sure if I want to do research or specialize in Peds pulmenlogy or something else CF related. I need to get in touch with a few CF clinics and find out all of my options.So, this is yet another summer project lol. thanks for your feedback though.🙂

 

[FZISHN]

posted by phar-

It seems like it is your first post. May i say, welcome to SDN.
It seems like you have a big heart by doing both ministry and medicine. On that note, i think you make a good canditate for becoming a doctor. So, go for it!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty ironic statement from a guy who blatantly lied at medical school admission interviews.

 

[phar]

Originally posted by FZISHN
posted by phar-

It seems like it is your first post. May i say, welcome to SDN.
It seems like you have a big heart by doing both ministry and medicine. On that note, i think you make a good canditate for becoming a doctor. So, go for it!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty ironic statement from a guy who blatantly lied at medical school admission interviews.

Hey bluewheels..watch out for geeks like FZISHN on SDN

 

[FZISHN]

Hey Phar-

Glad to see what your Harvard education bought you. I haven't heard the word 'geek' uttered by anyone since junior high school. And you use the word so many times in your 342 posts.

Your parents (real and fake) must be proud.

 

[jmed]

O...kaaaaay.... and now for something completely different....

Originally posted by bluewheels
iowa U has a great CF team. Also, UNC but I don't think they are as open to disabled students from what I have read.

hey bluewheels- I can't say if UNC is particularly open to disabled students, however at the MSTP interview weekend I attended at the end of January I met one of the other candidates who was in a motorized wheelchair and accompanied by an assistant. I am not sure if the adcom knew the extent of her disability, but they did invite her to interview in spite of it.

I did talk with Pam Davis during my visit, who is a Duke MD-PhD doing lots of very interesting CF research. Good luck to you!

 

[surge]

Originally posted by bluewheels
iowa U has a great CF team. Also, UNC but I don't think they are as open to disabled students from what I have read. I am not really sure if I want to do research or specialize in Peds pulmenlogy or something else CF related. I need to get in touch with a few CF clinics and find out all of my options.So, this is yet another summer project lol. thanks for your feedback though.🙂

Hey, phar and FZISHN, please take it somewhere else 🙄


Anyway, bw, U of Iowa is one of the premier research institutions in the country. It's true that they may not have such a ring to the name, but world-class research goes on there. Similarly, they have a very good medical school, as well as an MD/PhD program (well funded and organized). I go to school in Iowa (small liberal arts school), and UofI has a great reputation. Iowa City is also a pretty cool college town. Optho_mudphud on this board is an MD/PhD who is doing his residency at Iowa, so maybe he can contribute.

Out of curiosity, may I ask whether you have any specific reasons for your interest in CF? I ask because of my personal experiences.

 

[bluewheels]

Originally posted by surge



, how do you see yourself bringing together ministry and the practice of medicine?

Well I think ministry is <a href="http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=1249" target=_new>Diakonos</a> which is very different than most people think of it. I think it wrong to say "be blessed and well" and do nothing to make it happen.

Eventually, I would like to set up a ministry that would take some presure off CF families. maybe help with Rx costs or allow parents some lessure time be having trained ppl avaible to stay with kids for a few hours. That is my biggest dream

Overall, I believe that ppl won't believe there is a God if they have great physical needs that go unmet. You would be surpised how more open people are if their know you are trying to met their felt needs first.

one time, I was on a short term mission team, in mexico. I met a young boy who was mad at god because his grandfather had just died. He was not open to hearing how much God loved him etc. However, for whatever reason he kept coming down to where our team was building houses.

About five days into our week stay, he came and told me that the night before had been awful. He didn't feel good and his mom was upset that he would keep bringing it up, when he knew there was nothing she could do. It was cool, I got to give him some of the children's tylnol from my first aid kit. He was impressed and said he had seen it on TV. After that he was suddenly asking me if I helped him because God wanted me too.