New York University School of Medicine - Medical Yearbook (New York, NY)

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. .- .,,. . .- -V. . - ' ' ' ' na. -. ' Nw... ... - - .t. .- .. ,- ---- 1 1 :,::z-v.',- T. -,. ,e::1.r.:lL:.:::::t:--L.-..-frefigzg.-1:-1 , e , -N -. -- ,J --11,-1-.--: - .:- 2' 1. -- xf.::,L5'!i:'1 S11LI 1-1-1-f---'- '-n 'A ' Z- ' - rkfaivei - .1-is :.::'ef,:si,.-K-:ssg-hzs:-m,ff.a:sz.smss:. -- -- - 1- ' -' , o o On Institutions Called Hospitals Our first two years were spent in the relative comfort and security of the Medical Science Building, going to lectures, studying in the libra- ry, slicing up various orders of phyla and plating out endless numbers of petri dishes in intermi- nable lab sessions. Bellevue, University, Veterans Administration were just names, elements of a different mathematical set, places with no ap- parent connection to what we were doing or were expected to be doing. To be sure, there were contacts with this other world even then. Clinical correlation took us to the hospital week- ly tthough we appreciated it more as a departure from the dreary routine of pre-clinical life than as an introduction to the hospitalj, and physical diagnosis afforded us the opportunity for uncer- tainty and fear in the clinical setting as we intro- duced ourselves to the patient prior to our first history and physical. But we were simply tempo- rary intruders in the sphere of hospitals and medical practice. Our reality was 690 MSB, the room where we could smoke cigarettes and stretch out and let our minds deteriorate, and where we spent more and more time as dissec- tions became more and more tedious. Our real- ity was Classroom B the first year and Classroom A the second. Gur reality was the Wyckoff Stu- dent Lounge. The third year tand the fourth along with itj changed all that. By pushing us south across 30th street, it forced us to come to terms with the heretofore alien world of the hospital. How, or indeed whether, we adjusted to this is not clear. What is clear is that we began to see the hospital as a rather imprecise interaction between its physical plant, its patients, and its staff and stu- dents. Bellevue, University, Veterans Administra- tion became real entities, and the sum of our participation in them became our medigal school experience. Yet each offered us a differ- ent modus operandi, and our perceptions were accordingly unique to each hospital. University was an old acquaintance. We had in essence already been patients in its ground floor appendage known as the Student Health Service for admission physicals several years back. And hadn't most of us been in to see Dr. Ruoff con- vinced that gg infectious mono slide would yield Reed-Sternberg cells or fearful that in our complaints some cause for sigmoidoscopy might be found? But UH was more. It was a private hospital, the only one in our program. It was the Great White Tower for patients from Westchester, Connecticut, and Murray Hill. Uni- versity was where the faculty sent their patients. And where a patient's chief complaint might just as easily be idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis tat least that's what his private doctor had told himj as tiredness on exertion or swelling of the legs. 'University was where it probably -ii worth meeting the daughters of mothers who Had a daughter for you. It was where rounds could be conducted without ever seeing the patients just by stopping at each name plate near each door. University was ape- diatric floor so filled with familial dysautonomia patients that a work-up protocol for this condi- tion was available, an obstetrics wing where our reception as third year clerks ranged from disint- erest to disgust, and an operating suite run with the efficiency of a Pentagon war room where we got our moment in the sun with the cardiover- sion paddles. University was where all the lab slips had spaces with dollar signs in them. It was 4 +2 +14 H4 Sh-+iifi+frk1iiiii+iSi1zlEsi!s .+tsx+ 14-uhm ff him: ff u+.+iss+mmll1.:1.s.....zm. in nm :sm Q i Wiz t i Q 1.7,EQZ?Z:g22'5E:gL':::27:1:txt-:::.::.r::1:4-vzaw.-:-:..L-.+ Q-du- 4. 4 ,. IH. A - . - Q r . A ,, . L?,,2,A,,4,.,i,, lt.-gli- , -.-.-...-,..- 1-- 3 z,.1:,,::1,..,-.1 -'4s,:,.q!-E'-,-Ig52.2 --,i'f5.,2?1i4I,5t5-,,:.,,,35 ,.,'4,,,.-.,,.,,, ,dz 'i..,35i,,: - x vp. M - - l , V 1 3 Q vim! 'Q W-A H... . . . . , , . - - ., .,- . - . ., 1- .--..-...-.... ' f - --'- '- -V ---- VA. . -.... . .. ..... -Q .. ..4'eS'!.,1r,. !.!. . .,,, -V Q X3 J I ,.5+'ix.:nxx. nqydi. --. -M

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A1 a check cashing service that was always either the doctors cafeteria It was the tunnel with ' .k,V' , T lx W - . . . .. . . . . ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' - ' Pic i V iffy I - If if' S ' ' ' 1 - II ll ' Phi. wi Wim I wt Ct. Mui Sm Huuih lt. hmm i M N ll UH hu was a pin m It wash llells Ml 'fav Hi Uri 'li P395 N WEN lil hir Sllbllli mate dotwf ex2f!i00' 0' nawww gwghrers 0' iou.' ll rv wilhwl CW' gpg at earl' iw WZS 3 r9Ul0n0mla r INS Candi s 'W W' dlSllll' newnmm we 11 Wllele 3 Cafdioveg hem, Ir WHS closed or out of cash. Most vividly, though, Uni- versity was men washing and waxing every cor- ner of every floor, at every moment every day. Veterans Administration was somewhat less familiar. But whether it was during neurology or surgery clerkships, subinternships or fourth-year electives, nearly all of us had at one time or an- other walked through the swinging doors to be confronted on the way to the elevator by the President's photograph. VA was six elevators in a row going up when you wanted to go down. VA was the second floor canteen, the home of ter- rific discounts on shaving cream and shirts where cigarettes were 26 cents per pack. VA was the doctors and the many well patients eating together in the cafeteria, but it was also too many veterans in wheelchairs minus their limb tsl. VA was also where the depressing reality of chronic progressive neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis was brought home to us. VA was the odd child at NYU. lt was legally part of the medical center and struggling to become a full part, yet it remained an outpost geographi- cally and temperamentally. VA was a force which NYU somehow did not completely grasp. Bellevue. Above all there was Bellevue. Belle- vue was a city, a world, a universe unto itself. Each of us has a hundred stories about Bellevue, and we shall probably make up hundreds more after we leave. And all of them will be true. lf they didn't happen to us, they did for soon willy happen to others. Bellevue was our third year. Bellevue was quaint pages such as Anyone speaking Roumanian please report to the AES stat, and The F and C cars are out of service. Please use the I and K cars instead. It was the EW alive and bustling at 4:00 a.m. Bellevue was a continuous struggle trying to get free lunches in its collection of cats. It was the F-2 dressing of- fice. Bellevue was the male and female prison wards. Bellevue was Bel-Snack. It was IMCU that magic land where we sent many of our pa- tients and from where they periodically returned as they spiked minor temps. Bellevue was the Arturo's Pizza man bringing a pizza into the deli- very room during a delivery! It was finding the back stairs up to the 5th Floor Obstetrics wing and the Ob-Cyn offices. Bellevue was 4 o'cIock tea in the L-2 Surgery Library, and liver rounds in the A-1 Lounge. It was the Surgery on-call room. lt was being awakened at 5:00 a.m. after one hour of sleep by the phone ringing and being asked to come check a to keep open IV that had infiltrated. Bellevue was Saturday mornings with Dr. Farber. Bellevue was being second as- sistant in the O.R. It was trying to read urine sediments on the microscope in the A-1 student lab. Bellevue was Q.C.s, Q.T.s, and A.O.T.s. Bellevue was three chapels. It was the Well-Baby Clinic. lt was Central Chemistry, originators of the term QNS and Lab Accident. Bellevue was seven thousand telephone extensions. Belle- vue was the cirrhotic patient with tattoos over his entire body, including faith, hope, and char- ity on his genitals. It was the octogenarian woman with only one tooth speaking only Polish who came into the hospital because her hus- band was admitted and she had no other place to stay. Bellevue was all her patients, nearly all poor, many not speaking or understanding Eng- lish, most requiring medical care, and all need- ing understanding and help. Bellevue was our joking about these patients, frequently being condescending, but very happy when they thanked us in their own small ways and when they left healthier than when they arrived. Belle- vue was all these things, it was anything at all, and it was everything- to us. I .- , ... -.- 5 .1!-.. ., -- 1 I