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1928 - Little dam victim, thought unidentified & buried in SCV, actually ID'd & buried in Chatsworth [story]
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Commentary by Gene Dorio, M.D.
| Sunday, Jun 26, 2016

genedorioGrowing up in a family that emphasized education, I had trouble staying on mark, because I wanted to be a baseball player. At age 11, though, I underwent surgery on my left leg, as doctors thought I might have osteogenic sarcoma. The tumor was removed and benign, so my leg was not amputated.

The overnight stay in the hospital influenced the rest of my life. From the nurses and doctors I realized the extraordinary skill needed to provide compassion and encouragement to an athletic, yet dismayed, 11-year-old. With that inspiration, I signed my first baseball contract at age 15 (actually, my parents signed it), and I played until I was 26, when I went to medical school.

Becoming a physician requires intellectual agility intertwining book-learned material with hands-on training. Therefore, admitting medical schools developed prerequisites to sort out the best and brightest usually through grades and test scores (MCATs).

Surviving this gauntlet might be motivated by an inherent goal to serve mankind, or even an overnight stay in the hospital. Unfortunately, it sometimes comes from mamas’ and papas’ desires for their babies to fulfill parental dreams.

You’ve heard stories of the proud mom glowing, “My son, the neurosurgeon.” Now, neurosurgeons operate six hours in the middle of the night to save a patient’s life but are denied payment from insurance companies if an “i” isn’t dotted or a “t” isn’t crossed.

The public’s overall perception of physicians is doctors driving fancy cars and living in mansions. Certainly some do, but let me surprise you. Others are barely surviving economically, as their profession has been taken over by business.

I’m not writing to make you feel sorry for doctors, but their troubles and losses impact a vital healthcare resource separating many Americans from life and death.

Those mamas and papas knew a career in medicine for their babies meant always having a job, financial stability, intellectual responsibility, and independent decision making. So some were pushed, even at 11 years old, to strive for good grades, going to prestigious universities, and aiming for high MCAT scores.

Unfortunately, the game plan didn’t work. Doctors now don’t make medical decisions; business people do. Job satisfaction among doctors is at an all-time low. Paperwork inundates every physician’s desk; medical education debt takes decades to pay off; job security no longer exists as “performance metrics” grade time, not quality; physician suicide rates are up; and as a doctor, you are now a commodity being used and manipulated for your medical degree to make money for the business people who are in charge.

Don’t believe me? Just ask your physician, or their mama and papa.

Your doctor visit is now 10 minutes; you get whisked out of the hospital to a nursing home even when you are still sick; medical bills are impossible to understand; you are nickel-and-dimed for drugs and “not covered” care; and before you know it, your trusted physician has retired or quit, and you must find a new one.

And for you mamas and papas, your babies are under stress and not happy. They are forced to make business instead of medical decisions contrary to their Hippocratic oath and change jobs constantly, picking up their families and moving (sometimes away from you).

So if you have an 11-year-old, why put him or her through the demands of being a doctor?

Instead, let ‘em grow up to be cowboys and cowgirls and such.

 

Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D., is a housecall geriatric physician on staff at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and has been engaged as an advocate in many community activities. The views expressed in this column as his alone.

 

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5 Comments

  1. Jessie Larmon says:

    Depressing, but true. Our healthcare system is broken. I wanted to be a Dr when I was a child. Life interfered with the master plan, and I settled on teaching instead. The same stuff can be said about being a teacher today. It’s a sad world when those who enter careers that used to be the hallmark of humanitarianism, intellect and trusted independent decision-making are now forced to practice under individuals and corporations who only know how to bean-counters. Not much chance anymore to any financial reward for pursuing intense education, making a commitment to life-long learning and it must be terribly frustrating to not be allowed to actually give full treatment to your patients.

  2. Clarice L Griffith says:

    This is so true, and it is so sad. Would I care if my doctor who is highly educated and continues to be educated live in a mansion or drive a fancy car? NO!!! They earned it!!! Unfortunately, America think we need to fix everything. Taking away the management of care and insurance from the doctors to big insurance industries like Blue Cross, CVS, Kaiser really has helped hasn’t it? Doctors education is so costly these people aren’t in it for the money! They are in it to help people! This is more than we can say for our elected political officials who have less education, get paid more, more perks, less days working… Teachers are in the same boat as Doctors. I wonder what would happen if they all decided not to show up to work for 2 weeks…

  3. Bless You doctor for telling the truth!!!!

  4. Linda says:

    Totally frustrating for doctors such as yourself. Excellently written article!

  5. Abigail says:

    This is a travesty and it is completely true. It is all about that fight for equality and the giant corporations bottom line. Well folks these doctors and teachers paid for their own education and worked their tails off so they deserve to be financially rewarded. The people who sit on their butts and don’t should not be equal financially. The money hungry profit making, decision making, corporations riding the coattails of hardworking doctors and teachers is a crime! Thank you for such a well written article speaking the cold truth. I don’t want my son to grow up to be a doctor or teacher and that is just sad!

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