Chapter 02 : Residency Training and Trials
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Ewer covers his post medical school experiences, beginning with his Rotating Clinical Internship at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut (1970-1971). He talks about his work in internal medicine and pediatrics and tells anecdotes about medical education at that time.
Next, he notes that he undertook his Junior Residency at Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia (1972-1973). He then explains how he came to be fired from that position.
Identifier
EwerMS_01_20180524_C02
Publication Date
5-24-2018
City
Houston, Texas
Topics Covered
Professional Path; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Personal Background; Professional Path; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Obstacles, Challenges; Funny Stories; Formative Experiences; Discovery, Creativity and Innovation; Evolution of Career
Transcript
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, you were starting to talk about coming back to the States, and this was in 1970?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I came back in December of ’69, after graduation, and started an internship in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Tell me about that.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
And that was a 24 hours on, 12 off, and then you started again, or 36 on and 12 off. It was a hugely intensive training, and it was very good, although there were distractions. They also had a nursing school.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was your focus?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
The nurse.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm. And second to that was...? (laughs)
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
The baby she was feeding. And I took one look at her, with her striking red hair, holding this baby through the glass, and I thought, wow, wouldn’t it be nice if that was my baby? And then I married her, and we had three.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And is her name relevant?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Her name is relevant. (laughter) That’s Jane.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Jane, all right. And your babies’, now adults, names?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Steven is a cardiologist in Wisconsin, and he is the Head of Onco-cardiology at his facility. Second child is Gregory, and Gregory is a phenomenally talented violinist. And my third child is Karin, and Karin has been here as an employee must be approaching eight or nine years now, and she has worked in a number of different departments, and she is now in case management. And she’s also an attorney. So each one of my children has taken one of my careers.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s really cool. That’s very cool, yeah. Okay, so the red-haired love of your life. (laughs) What were your other interests at the time?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I did a lot of pediatrics, and I did a lot of internal medicine. I had done a rotation—I had done two rotations—during my third or fourth year at medical school, back in 1968. One was in obstetrics in Kentucky. And I’m not sure we should include this, but I’ll tell you the story. And I remember distinctly how the professor talked to me and asked me whether I knew anything about placenta previas. And with great confidence, I told him about how the placenta encroached upon the birth canal, and made it impossible for a delivery. And he said, “Well, today’s lesson is going to be about placenta previa.” And that was that, and he came back later on and said, “Oh, well, we have a couple patients who are ready to deliver. Would you go in and examine this patient?” To which I put my hand straight through the placenta previa, and I have never seen so much blood in my life, to which he was hysterically in laughter. The anesthesiologist was ready, everybody was ready, and they did an immediate C-section, and everybody was fine, except for the poor extern who probably turned the color of my lab coat. And he said, “I told you I would teach you about placenta previa. If you ever do that, you have two minutes to get the baby out.” This was how medicine was taught in the ’60s. This is a very different environment.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Different environment. I mean, because I have never had the experience of, obviously, intervening in a situation like that, what was it that you missed when you were manipulating this pregnant woman during the delivery?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I had no clue. And he knew I had no clue, and he knew I would put my hand through this, because he had everybody in place, scrubbed and ready, to teach me this lesson. Thank goodness the woman didn’t die, but if anybody did that now there would be hell to pay.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Absolutely. I mean, how did you react at the time, you know?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I don’t... I’m not sure I can answer that. I was totally in shock.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. I mean, the word that was coming into my mind was “traumatized,” if I’d gone through something like that. God.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Yeah, well, but there was a lot of this type of thing that happened. I mean, we became competent in gynecologic exams on anesthetized women who came in for dilatation and curettage, and they had no clue that six medical students would be examining them while they were under anesthesia, because that was in Europe. Medicine has changed tremendously in the 50 years since I was a medical student.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Incredible. So how did your interests continue to evolve, and what was your next move?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
My next move was to Virginia. I was in a very, very interesting program. I interviewed down there with a phenomenal cardiologist.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You know what? I don’t have that on my list of things. What year was this? Oh no, here it is, the Norfolk hospital.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Norfolk General Hospital.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yes, okay, gotcha, 1972-73.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Yes. Did it say I got fired?
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
No!
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I got fired.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Tell me... (laughs)
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Really?
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, it’s your interview. If you (laughs)—
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
It’s my interview. During that time, I still played a lot of music, and I was a section violinist at the Norfolk Symphony, and we opened up this beautiful, big, new concert hall. And in the first couple of concerts we had amazing performers. I mean, reads like a who’s who. Perlman performed and Ashkenazy performed and [Panerio?] performed, all of these great artists performed, and there’s me sitting in the violin section—first violin section, I might add—and there were a lot of representatives from the hospital. And we had a non-moonlighting clause, and when they realized that I was doing these other things, they kind of looked at me and found out that I was also occasionally moonlighting at a nursing home across the street.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, just for clarity, was this in Connecticut or in Virginia?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
In Virginia.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
In Virginia, okay. So, I’m sorry.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
And so I get called in, and I’m not sure the details of this are terribly important, but they’re fun. (laughter) And I don’t know what they expected, but there were attending physicians, and attorneys, and a chief of staff, where I was read the riot act, and that I was going to not get credit for the year, and I was going to get fired. And I asked whether I could ask a question. And I asked a question of my attending physician. I said, “You know, I had a really good rotation with you, and I thought it went really well, and now you have presented me with this document that basically says you wouldn’t trust me with your dog and I’m terrible.” And he said, “Yes.” And I said, “But that’s not my question. My question is: why were you so stupid as to leave the original evaluation in the file and change it, and who ordered or authorized you to change it? Because here are both, and you were too stupid to take the original one out of the file.” Well, at this point the attorneys got very, very concerned, escorted me out, and said, “We’ll give you credit for the year but now you have embarrassed everybody. We think it would be a good idea for you to leave.” And I needed a job in a rush, and that’s how I got on the Love Boat.
Recommended Citation
Ewer, Michael S. MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 02 : Residency Training and Trials" (2018). Interview Chapters. 804.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/804
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