Chapter 03: Two Years on the “Love Boat” and Reflections on a Dissertation
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Description
Dr. Ewer begins this chapter by noting that he needed a job in a hurry after being let go and found a position as a staff physician (1972 – 1974) on a Princess Cruises ship (which served as a model for the ship in the television series, the Love Boat).
He tells several stories from his work on the ship and also comments on how this position expanded his medical practice: he set up a water potability testing lab and an ICU on board the ship. He talks about the success of these ventures and notes that the water potability studies were his first bona fide academic pursuit. He explains that he technically received both and MD and a PhD in medical school, he does not count his brief dissertation as true research, even though he made a discovery considered significant.
He also notes that the ICU was established primarily to treat older patients and explains that he had worked in a nursing home earlier in his career to pay for flying lessons.
Identifier
EwerMS_01_20180524_C03
Publication Date
5-24-2018
City
Houston, Texas
Topics Covered
Professional Path; The Researcher; Evolution of Career; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; 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 and Success; Evolution of Career
Transcript
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
(laughs) So... How did that come about, though? And just because not everybody listening will understand what the Love Boat is and all that, so maybe you can just set the scene about the Love Boat.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Okay. I called—I was in contact with somebody from medical school—and I said, “Oh, something really bad happened. (laughs) I got fired.” And he said, “Oh, well, you can have my job. I’m about to resign. Meet me in New York next week.” So I met him in New York, and there is this beautiful, gorgeous, brand new ship, 500 feet of pure luxury. So he introduced me onboard, and they interviewed me, and they said, “Okay, well, you start next week.”
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, was this really called the Love Boat, or was it named something else?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
No, it was originally called the Island Venture, and after—I mean, I was on it for a year, and then I got married during that time, and then Jane actually came on as my nurse, and we spent the second year onboard.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And just for the record, this Island Venture and all the—
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Then became the Island Princess, because Princess Cruises took it over.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And this became the model for the ship that was on The Love Boat, the TV show.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
And then there were two ships, the Island Princess and the Pacific Princess, that became the models for the Love Boat. And I was on it for two years, and then I moonlighted as a ship’s doctor for probably ten years after that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So, you know, did you get upset about getting fired? And—
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Oh, I’m sure I got... But I was so pleased with the fact that I didn’t change it. I’ve often thought that if I had shown up there and said, “I’m so sorry,” and cried, and done everything I was supposed to do, they probably would’ve said, “Okay, we’ll give you another chance,” but I was so angry at them falsifying these documents that I was not going to let them get away with it. And oh, by the way, there’s a postscript to this. Twenty-five years later I get a letter from the Eastern Virginia Medical School saying they’ve gone through their records, and I’m the most-published diplomat of their program, and would I give a keynote address?
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
(laughs) Okay, so what was your response to that?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I said I had a previous engagement, which was true, and I wrote a tongue-in-cheek, full of double entendre, about how not only did they play a pivotal part in my education, they also provided the impetus for me to move on at a crucial time, and directed me to seek opportunities that resulted, finally, in my winding up at the Cancer Center. (laughs) I don’t know whether they read it or not, but it was a very... If they had read it and nobody knew the history, they would have said that was a very nice thing to say.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yes. Well, and you got some stuff off your chest, too, which is always good.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I mean, by that time it didn’t matter.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
It didn’t really matter, yeah. Well, tell me about the Love Boat experience. What were the high points for you? And did you learn anything?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Well, you know, they had a television series about it, and they couldn’t tell the half. (laughter)
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, okay. Well, is there any part of that other half you can tell?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
[Yes, we had the sporadic case of venereal disease on board, and we got to be quite proficient at doing Gram stains.] [Redacted]
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
[Redacted] There was a bomb scare. That was one of the earlier bomb scares there were. But, I mean, to think back that our radio room still did a lot of communication by Morse Code back in the early ’70s—this was ’72-74. But the fact that I had studied in Europe, and the fact that the European training was a little more comprehensive, to take care of minor surgical things, and dental problems, and everything else, actually made me a pretty good candidate for that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And you had mentioned earlier that the role you served on the ship was actually the model for the ship’s doctor on the television series.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I make that assumption because I was interviewed by the producers. And I think the guy who played the part also had some similar—some characteristic resemblance to me.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s pretty cool.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
So that was kind of interesting.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What did you learn from it as a medical practice?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Oh... One of the things that I did during that time was I went back and I got a diploma in tropical diseases.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, I saw that on your record, and wow! (laughs)
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
And being on the ship—and I didn’t know how long I was going to be on the ship. I thought, that’s a hole in my knowledge. But I set up a water potability testing lab onboard, and I set up an intensive care unit onboard, and that had never been done on a passenger ship, to my knowledge. And—
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why was there a need for those things?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Well, water potability, even now, is a huge problem, and we wanted to be proactive about water testing. And it was interesting because the CDC said, “You can’t do that onboard a ship.” And I said, “I’m doing it.” And they sent some samples that they had analyzed, and that had certain bacteria in them, to us to see whether they would accept my reports, because otherwise we had to bring water samples to the laboratories in either Miami or in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And so we did the water testing, and the water testing that we performed—I trained the nurses to perform it, and I initially performed it—was so close to their ideal that we became the reference lab for San Juan, because their results were not all that great, and they were fudged, probably. So we actually received samples of the water from some of the islands where the ship docked, and the CDC asked us to check them, because sending the stuff created a time delay, and water testing should be done for bacteriological purposes rather sooner than later. So we developed quite a reputation, and this was my first real academic pursuit in this country after publishing the doctoral thesis. I never claimed the PhD from my medical school. I mean, I got two diplomas. One was a practitioner of the healing of arts, which is kind of like the MD, and the other was a doctor of medicine. And while some people came back to the United States and said, “Oh, I’m an MD PhD,” I never felt that was right.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So the nature of the dissertation, you said it was on an ophthalmological question.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Yeah, on the early embryological development of the eye.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. And so did that involve any kind of laboratory or clinical—
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Microscopic review of human embryos.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Mm-hmm. But you didn’t really consider that, you know, academic or research in the way that you—
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Oh, it was clearly research, but was that really something that I could claim a PhD for? And I said no, I’m not going to. I never want it questioned later on, and I just didn’t call it. But it’s there, it’s in the record, and it became a cited article. I was very surprised that it became such a cited article.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the discovery that you made that became so important?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Certain of the muscles that are involved in the contraction of the iris were thought to arise from certain layers of the embryo. Embryo has three layers. And all the muscles in the body are derived from one of the layers. And these muscle cells were thought to be the only muscles in the human body that were derived from a different layer. And I saw and photographed embryos where we could see the muscle migrating from where all the other muscles in the body came from, and that kind of changed how people looked a little bit at the embryology of the eye, and it was sufficiently intriguing that a major journal picked it up, published it. I mean, if you say, “Well, was this your doctoral thesis?” Yes. “Well, how long was it?” Well, it was three pages. (laughter) Okay, well, it was enough to have three pages of some relevance. But I never claimed a PhD, at least at that time. I claim one now.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. I can understand. I can understand that. So you mentioned there’s setting up the intensive care unit onboard the ship, too. What was the need for that?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Our passengers were frequently older passengers, and there was the usual type of problems of older people. And so I suggested to management that we have a monitor and a defibrillator onboard, and we discussed it, and we said, “Well, why don’t we put it in the medical center, rather than portable? Transport people quickly, because it’s all fairly close.” And we turned the sick bay into a functional intensive care unit, where we were able to provide some level of support.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, you had mentioned that one of your forbidden moonlighting jobs was at an elder care facility?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Nursing home, yeah.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, so why had you done some work there, and what was the name of the facility?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I think they were called Medi Centers of America, or just Medi Centers. It’s probably of no relevance anymore, but it more likely had something to do with the fact that they were paying me and the hospital was paying me very little, and I had this other passion that I developed for flying airplanes.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Really? How did you...? Why?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Always wanted to fly airplanes, so I took flying lessons.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, cool!
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Yeah.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So how far did you get? How many hours did you clock?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
Now?
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, at that point. Did you go all the way to being licensed and all that good stuff?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
No, I almost got my license, but I didn’t quite get my license. I got my license, actually, while I was on the ship. I got my license in Long Beach, California, on Saturday afternoon, when the ship was in port, and I took my flying test.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So are you kind of a daredevil?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
No.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why did you want to fly? What did that...?
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
I liked it.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You liked it, okay.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
It was fun.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. How neat.
Michael S. Ewer, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA:
So I got my pilot’s license at that time. Some very controversial flights I took. I’ll get to that in a moment. And...
Recommended Citation
Ewer, Michael S. MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 03: Two Years on the “Love Boat” and Reflections on a Dissertation" (2018). Interview Chapters. 805.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/805
Conditions Governing Access
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