Miracles, Medicine, and Me

One day while walking down our street, a young man was sitting in a tree with a BB gun and decided to use me for target practice! Unfortunately, I was sitting in my left eye and fell to the ground in pain. I ran home and I told my dad that I rock from my passing car hit me in my eye. This was a very good lie because if I had told my dad that I was shot, you might’ve heard the young man I was taken to a hospital in New Orleans and placed flat on my back for eight days. I had a significant hemorrhage and was treated with ice packs and bedrest. Doctor Finkelstein was the attending ophthalmologist who cared for me and decided I should not go home with my sister and brother so I was sent to my grandmother‘s house for the next three months. my mom had to take me for weekly visits and traveled on the Sri car. She didn’t drive. In Metairie I attended Saint Catherine of Sienna grammar school until the fifth grade. Although my dad was a top insurance agent, he longed to go back into the grocery business where he had been raised. I returned to Mater Delarosa Rosa grammar, school for the seventh and eighth grade, which were taught by the Christian Brothers. I attended Dallas high school on St.Charles Avenue. We had great teachers and coaches and I was able to play Junior varsity football, but became the Waterboy for the varsity. When I was a junior in high school, I went to work at a giant supermarket on the airline highway in Metairie known as Schwegmans supermarket. I had a cousin, Joseph Briuglio, who was a pharmacist, and I was prepared to be a pharmacist. At that time, the pharmacist was located upstairs in a small room, where he dispense medication’s the pharmacist name was Nick Accardo, which I will never forget.! Mr. Ricardo placed his hand on my shoulder and told me “you don’t have to be a pharmacist, you can be a doctor”. It’s amazing how our Lord puts individuals in your life! In high school I had a great biology teacher, Mr. Felix Gaudin who taught several classes at one time using a video camera manned by the students. I recall telling him I wanted to be a physician. Mr.Gaudin responded“if you ever learn to speak English“. In Wallens, we don’t speak English. We speak yat talk ! years later, after becoming a physician, I reminded Mr. Gaudin of our conversation:“Mr. Gaudin I made it through medical school, but I never learned English”. We both had a great laugh. One of my classmates, Walter Bacino was the quarterback of our football team, and he was no dumb. Jock! I recall Walter making the highest grade in science and later becoming a PhD physicist and a major in the military until his retirement. Lesson learned, you cannot judge a book by its cover or how a person speaks! After high school I attended Loyola University in New Orleans. We had very good teachers and the premedicine curriculum required us to take 21 hours a semester! They had a bar biology department was John Mullahy SJ, known as “the bear of Bobet hall”. we took physics and biochemistry along with the other premade courses. When I attended LSU medical school, we took anatomy and biochemistry in the same semester, which became a disaster! You would have to spend eight or more hours in anatomy and then have to take biochemistry the next day! I recall 21 of my classmates failed biochemistry, and the only place to go for the make up was Minnesota! Later they changed the curriculum back to having those studies in two separate semesters. I was very fortunate to have had the background from biochemistry in college. There was one of the courses needed to graduate from Loyola, which was a one hour course on a Friday afternoon at 4 o’clock! We were required to read 100 pages a week and the name of the book was” the history of science by George Sarton”. This was father Mullahy’s method to read out uncommitted students. Another story I recall from Loyola was from our Bank chemistry teacher, Anthony DiMaggio, speaking about pellagra common a disease caused by vitamin B deficiency. This was rampant across the United States in the early 20th century, but uncommon in the New Orleans area due to the presence of two common foods, red beans, and Morton’s! Our students from out of state asked “what’s a Merliton”? I also recall the average grade in that one hour Friday afternoon class was less than 50%! I was very fortunate to be admitted to the LSU school of medicine in New Orleans. The other medical school was Tulane medical school. LSU medical school was founded in 1931 by then Governor of Louisiana, Huey P Long. He was a powerful politician who was later assassinated in 1935 in a state capital by a physician, doctor Carl Weiss, whose father-in-law was a political anime of you Long. It was later determined that you Long was hit by a bullet by his bodyguards! He died three days later and 42 years of age. It was reported that one of the bullets nicked his kidney and he died from the loss of blood. At that time of his shooting, no one checked his urine for blood! Several doctors from New Orleans and driving up from New Orleans, most notably, Dr. Rudolph Matas, who was lighter known as a father of vascular surgery. He was a founding member of the American association for thoracic surgery. On their way to the state capital they were notified that senator you belong was stable and didn’t need to come to the hospital. at that time, there were no major highways to the state capital in Baton Rouge. Later in 1965 LSU health sciences was founded in Shreveport Louisiana. Many of my classmates came from north Louisiana before this medical school was founded. I graduated from LSU medical school in 1971 and decided to become an obstetrician gynecologist. Where else can you bring one patient into the hospital and get two out! Obstetrics was considered 90% boredom and 10% sheer terror! When I entered my residency program in 1971, Tulane university had no first year residents! We had the privilege of delivering 6000 babies at charity Hospital that year, as well as staffing other hospitals in other parts of the state! I recall spending Christmas in Alexandria, Louisiana! In New Orleans, we worked every other day on call as well as in Baton Rouge, and Lafayette, Louisiana. One of my great mentors in medicine was Abe Micksl md, head of our department of Obstetrics and Gynecology!Abe had immigrated from Lebanon as a young man at eight years of age and grew up in Macomb, Mississippi. A was a very talented athlete who made played football for LSU. Governor.Huey Long was a huge football fan and literally took Abe to LSU to play football. Abe could’ve played professional football but wanted to become a doctor Dr. Mickal never boasted about his football talents! I recall being in a case presentation after being on call the night before and was falling asleep!Abe just looked at me and smiled. We had many great teachers at LSU medical school, who also contributed to medical education and research. One of the earliest studies was the Bogalusa heart study which contributed to the awareness of the earliest changes in the cardiovascular system of young people who had died of other illnesses or accidents. The postmortem examination reveal changes in the vascular system at an early age. This study was led by Dr. Gerald Berenson, a pediatric cardiologist. This study identified cardiovascular changes from early childhood through 30 years of age, which contributed to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and brain health! This pioneer study founded by NIH Grants shaped guidelines and policies, worldwide! This emphasized for such conditions as obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol in children.