UNC School of Medicine - Tarhealer Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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8, 1988 Lord, I thank you for today. It is an exciting day, for today, somehow, I wil “become” a physician. When this day is done, I’ll be a doctor. A doctor - someone to whom people come for help, for comfort — someone who ma ' be responsible for whether they live or die. Lord, I’m not sure . . . Lord, I thank you for yesterday. Thank you for the call so clear and th( vision so bright to serve my fellow man through medicine. Remind me of thi purpose daily. I’m thankful for the strength and the discipline to persevere through many long nights of study and work. And for the ability and privilege to learn of the miraculous human body, I’m grateful. Thank you for the sup port of my family and friends who, in may ways, have worked harder anc sacrificed more than I have. I have not done it alone. And finally, I’m thankful for those who have gone before — the man pioneers of medicine, our professors, our teachers — who through the years have toiled and laid such a rich foundation on which to build. Such £ heritage strengthens and challenges me to be nothing less than a com passionate and competent physician. Lord, I pray for tomorrow. I pray for the patients I will care for, that man will be cured and that all will be comforted. May you ease their suffering Guard my family in the hours that I’m gone and may they share in the visior of my calling. Give them assurance of my love. Grant our profession insigh into the many problems we face so that every man and woman, boy and gir in all the world may have the care they need. And give us the wisdom tc conquer the diseases for which we presently have no cure — cancer, AIDS heart disease, Parkinson’s, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and so many more — so that the pain of the world may be diminished. And for our world, I pra for peace. Please lord, give us peace. And lastly Lord, I pray for myself. Make me strong, yet a servant. May I be conscientious, knowledgeable, and up-to-date while, at the same time compassionate, concerned, and genuine. Keep my motives pure. And if ever become too busy to care, take away the urgent things and replace them with the important things. And when I become a patient Lord, give me courage and someone who cares. May I be the kind of doctor I want to have. Lord, I know I don’t become a physician in a day. The job demands a more worthy and prepared servant. Instead, may I take this day to rest and cele- brate in the process of becoming. I have learned much. I have much tc learn. I have loved much. I have much to love. I have grown much. I have much to grow. Yesterday, I studied and served. Tomorrow, I will do the same. Only the responsibility will be greater. Lord, may I be worthy of the responsibility. Lord, may I be worthy to be a physician. Bobby Silver

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MARCH 23, 1988 L

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... If the title “Heroes of Medicine sounds to people in the class like iomething Dr. Thomas might say to you in surgery just before quizzing you n who discovered the thyroid gland or who first successfully treated hyper- )arathyroidism in the Southern Hemisphere during a fiscal crisis, well that’s luite reasonable because it is those kinds of people, the discovers of dis- ease, that we see as the heroes of medicine as we enter medical school. This, however, began to change as we progressed through the second ' ear of our training and we began to meet the great clinicians here in Chapel Hill. Doctors like Jim Bryan, William Blythe, and Hank Lesesne. These were )eople we could and still can emulate; these are real heroic figures. I think he most moving experience during my first two years of school here was one day in a class about how to deal with terminal illness. Dr. Bryan was discussing the case of a woman who had planned to come talk to our group ibout her terminal illness but had died the evening before. When a student isked how he really felt about his patient’s death, this man who had had lundreds of patients in similar circumstances in over 25 years of practicing medicine, was on the verge of tears and had to leave the room. Right then I ealized that clinicians like that, people with that much compassion and em- )athy for their patients, they were the heroes of medicine. But my impression of the heroes of medicine began to change as the third . ' ear of medical training began . . . This was due to some people we all met during the clinical years of medical school, the patients themselves. Pa- ients like ... These kinds of stories are fairly common in the hospital and really amaze me. They’re also fairly humbling as well. I think it’s of utmost importance that ye always keep in mind that whether we work 50 or 1 00 hours a week, that ve will never be the true heroes of medicine, for that role rightfully belongs o the patients themselves, whom it is our privilege to serve. Pete Dallort