What I know about Goljan

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
ndspider

ndspider

Lurk
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
162
Reaction score
0
Members don't see this ad.
Goljan
Aka "Papi"
Has ADD
Has Internal Hemorrhoids
Lost intrinsic muscles in hand "but thats another story"
Farts in front of lab-techs (thx juice box)
Drives a civic (doctor jay)
And changed his pants to the "brown ones" (doctor jay)
Loves starbucks... it's his only luxury (arsenic)



Goljan’s Mother
Has a noncommunicating hydrocephalus
Has dementia
Is urinary incontinent
Misdiagnozed with a B12 def (thx idiopathic)


And the list will go on as I listen
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
he miraculously recovered from ALS ... hence the loss of intrinsic muscles of the hand
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dara678 said:
he miraculously recovered from ALS ... hence the loss of intrinsic muscles of the hand
Click to expand...

Man, I could go on for days.

Out of all the wonderful, beautiful knowledge this man gave me, I find it amazing that the thing I will likely carry with me til the end is the fact that he thinks he had ALS and was cured.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Idiopathic said:
Man, I could go on for days.

Out of all the wonderful, beautiful knowledge this man gave me, I find it amazing that the thing I will likely carry with me til the end is the fact that he thinks he had ALS and was cured.
Click to expand...


Why would you say such a thing? Lack of empirical evidence to prove that the wasting was in fact from ALS? Lack of faith that there is anything beyond human intervention in the outcome of your patients?

I don't even know the man personally but I can tell you that Dr. Goljan sees the world in which we live through the lens of supernaturalism. Science today is bent on naturalism because the supernatural is not observable and certainly not repeatable. Though the world view that Dr. Goljan holds makes him vulnerable, I can tell you with certainty that he lives each day with meaning and that he'll have joy throughout his years that simply can't be understood through the naturalistic mindset. You really won't find people who are more 'real' human beings than are supernaturalists because they've so often been in circumstances in which they've been absolutely broken and dependent on something greater than themselves. Such dependency causes a certain liberation from the chains of pride and selfishness that continually prevent us from living life the way we were intended to live it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hudsontc said:
Why would you say such a thing? Lack of empirical evidence to prove that the wasting was in fact from ALS? Lack of faith that there is anything beyond human intervention in the outcome of your patients?

I don't even know the man personally but I can tell you that Dr. Goljan sees the world in which we live through the lens of supernaturalism. Science today is bent on naturalism because the supernatural is not observable and certainly not repeatable. Though the world view that Dr. Goljan holds makes him vulnerable, I can tell you with certainty that he lives each day with meaning and that he'll have joy throughout his years that simply can't be understood through the naturalistic mindset. You really won't find people who are more 'real' human beings than are supernaturalists because they've so often been in circumstances in which they've been absolutely broken and dependent on something greater than themselves. Such dependency causes a certain liberation from the chains of pride and selfishness that continually prevent us from living life the way we were intended to live it.
Click to expand...

I wont argue spirituality with you.

I will argue that he was not cured from ALS, and that he, in fact, never had ALS. We are talking about a neurolgical condition with a sketchy clinical diagnosis. Is it more likely to believe that he had and was cured from ALS or that he never had it to begin with.

Think horses, not zebras...

edit: and I do know him personally.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You will never be able to say. You can't prove it one way or another.
But consider this: Suppose a pt presents with signs & symptoms completely pathognomonic of an invariably terminal illness and then he completely recovers. You can either say he was cured from that illness or you can say he got some new, exceedingly rare (or maybe even never described before) disease that has exactly the same presentation but opposite prognosis (perhaps you can even be able to determine it's mechanism...and get a NEJM article out).
Either way, it was explainable scientifically. But that's not the point. If everbody, pt and his docs alike were convinced 100% the illness was fatal, and there is remission, won't that appear to them as a miracle (particurarly if the pt has prayed for a good outcome)? I don't see why everyone thinks that miracles always have to constitute something physically impossible. To me they are just highly improbable events and "coincidences" that occur subsequent to a particular person's communication with God.
So dismissing Goljan or any Christian, for that matter, as a fool is based on assumptions that can't be proved and is thus non-scientific.
ps: ndspider, I don't think anyone's intersted in reading your offensive comments. Besides, what makes you think you are better than a DO student?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
xjacob said:
So dismissing Goljan or any Christian, for that matter, as a fool is based on assumptions that can't be proved and is thus non-scientific
Click to expand...

Just as long as you realize that my dismissal of this isolated incident has nothing to do with anyones faith. One can believe in something completely and still be wrong.

We are also not talking about a disease with pathognomonic signs, we are talking about a very vague presentation of a disease diagnosed almost exclusively on clinical symptoms. Why is my interpretation of this so insulting to you two? Because since hes a Christian I must be attacking his faith? Please. I just dont believe he had ALS and was cured, Im not saying it couldn't happen.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Idiopathic said:
Just as long as you realize that my dismissal of this isolated incident has nothing to do with anyones faith. One can believe in something completely and still be wrong.

We are also not talking about a disease with pathognomonic signs, we are talking about a very vague presentation of a disease diagnosed almost exclusively on clinical symptoms. Why is my interpretation of this so insulting to you two? Because since hes a Christian I must be attacking his faith? Please. I just dont believe he had ALS and was cured, Im not saying it couldn't happen.
Click to expand...

Point taken.
I agree that ALS Dx is a vague one and that if on the boards I got "Pt is diagnosed as having ALS but then his Sx go away. What does he have?" I'd check "He was misdiagnosed and has...um...G-B Sx...or whatever presents like that"
Then again, keep in mind that Goljan is a pathologist, so he's likely to have "a little" more experience than an average 2nd year medical student...so I'd trust his judgement more than mine in terms of both diagnosis and prognosis.
We'd have to know more about his Hx, to merit any further discussion of odds. Anyway, I just think any attempts to "prove" or "disprove" miracles, or religion, are very dangerous.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
xjacob said:
Point taken.
I agree that ALS Dx is a vague one and that if on the boards I got "Pt is diagnosed as having ALS but then his Sx go away. What does he have?" I'd check "He was misdiagnosed and has...um...G-B Sx...or whatever presents like that"
Then again, keep in mind that Goljan is a pathologist, so he's likely to have "a little" more experience than an average 2nd year medical student...so I'd trust his judgement more than mine in terms of both diagnosis and prognosis.
We'd have to know more about his Hx, to merit any further discussion of odds. Anyway, I just think any attempts to "prove" or "disprove" miracles, or religion, are very dangerous.
Click to expand...

I also think its dangerouse to assume that because someone is a person of faith, that their description of events or accounts or suppositions of what happened should be accepted as fact just because of that faith.

Its very easy to say that so-and-so's "faith cured her", etc. which is fine, but you can bet that many people with stronger faith have experienced the same setback and have not overcome it. what do we say about those people...that their faith wasnt strong enough?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sure - but I never said that. I don't know what cured Goljan or what disease he had, for that matter. I am just saying that if someone thinks he/she was cured from some disease it does not necessarily imply he/she is crazy. If you listen to Goljan's 40+ hours of lectures about medicine and believe his judgment on 1000s of diseases, why is it such a problem to accept his judgment on a particular medical case, which happens to be his ALS?
Whether or not this is due to "divine intervention" is another story - I am not arguing anything here.

ps: I think that anyone who believes that health is proportional to someone's faith is crazy. That would mean that religion is just a form of helthcare 🙂 Perhaps those people that say that are missing the point.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ndspider said:
Goljan
Has ADD
Has Internal Hemorrhoids
Lost intrinsic muscles in hand "but thats another story"



Goljan’s Mother
Has a noncommunicating hydrocephalus
Has dementia
Is urinary incontinent
Misdiagnozed with a B12 def (thx idiopathic)


And the list will go on as I listen
Click to expand...


he also once ripped a big one right in front of a lab tech.... and made her blush
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ndspider said:
Goljan
Has ADD
Has Internal Hemorrhoids
Lost intrinsic muscles in hand "but thats another story"



Goljan’s Mother
Has a noncommunicating hydrocephalus
Has dementia
Is urinary incontinent
Misdiagnozed with a B12 def (thx idiopathic)


And the list will go on as I listen
Click to expand...

goljan loves starbucks. its his only luxury. :laugh:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I know that he is a professor who understands that with a *WELL-MADE* exam, high student scores do NOT mean that the test was too easy - it merely means that the students were taught well and that the exam properly evaluated their knowledge of the subject.

😍 😍 😍 Hoo-ray for Goljan! 😍 😍 😍
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So I'm listening to the audios and I just came across the part about the ALS healing miracle.. typed it in google, and had a laugh reading through this old ass thread it pulled up :laugh: good stuff :laugh:👍 I love this dude.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How does this dude NOT have his own article on wikipedia yet? Someone fix that ... hell I'll do it in 2 months after I finish taking Step.. dude is hilarious
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

pigsinacloth
Anyone know what % correct you need to pass comlex?
Replies
1
Views
3K
NDcienporciento100
N
amogha chetla
  • Question Question
What are the best Divine Intervention episodes (specifically) to watch before my Step 1 exam, I might be taking it possibly in a couple months?
Replies
0
Views
1K
amogha chetla
amogha chetla
B
COMLEX Hello i failed Comlex Step 1 three times and dismissed from the university. I am thinking of changing my career to investment banking.
Replies
0
Views
1K
badwalj
B
M
Am I ready for COMLEX 1?
Replies
2
Views
2K
FarmerToDoctor
F
L
Step 1 Monday, how should I spend my last days? Am I “ready”?
Replies
0
Views
3K
Latteandaprayer
L
Top