Tale of a Displaced Resident

I was in New York City on August 28, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I left after my landlord told me that “The One” that New Orleans had feared for so long was coming. It sounded like a perfect time to catch up with my friends in New York City, which I had moved from 2 months earlier. I just had started my training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Louisiana State University. The hurricane arrived and left as fast as it had come. The next thing I knew, I found myself watching the Big Easy slowly sinking on television and live Internet broadcasting. While Charity and University Hospitals were flooding, I was desperately trying to contact my colleagues to ensure that they were safe. I knew that I could not do anything to help them, but it was what I needed to do for peace of mind. All 14 of my friends were accounted for, except Tim. Timothy Mountcastle is my chief resident at LSU. Nice guy. He took me under his wing when I first moved to New Orleans. Tim, in his adventurous nature, decided that it would be an interesting idea to “ride the hurricane.” After countless hours spent in front of my computer trying to figure what would happen with New Orleans, it became apparent that I needed to do something to ensure the continuity of my training. Communicating with Dr. Dupin, my program director, was difficult and intermittent, because he had evacuated New Orleans and made Houston his temporary home. I then decided to seek help from my friends in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Dr. Lester Silver, whom I had known from my previous training, offered his help and provided me with good advice. And then there was Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez. I meet Dr. Rodriguez in 2003 at a meeting in Montreal, my hometown. I had heard many great things about him from a common friend, but had never had a chance to meet him. I thought it would be nice to take him out for dinner and show him around the city. I had a great time. I think he did too. He knew I was applying for a residency position in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Expressing his gratitude for the evening, he left me with this: “Listen, if you ever need something, let me know. I’ll help you out.” We kept in touch intermittently through e-mail. Little did he know at that moment that I would take him up on his offer 2 years later. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Even though I had only known Dr. Rodriguez for a short period of time, I decided to get in touch with him. He kept the promise he had made a few years earlier in Canada. Less than 24 hours later, I was driving to Baltimore to attend grand rounds at Johns Hopkins. I was welcomed with open arms by Dr. Rodriguez, Dr. Paul Manson, Dr. Nelson Goldberg, and their team as well as all the residents from the Johns Hopkins–University of Maryland plastic surgery program. It felt like home from the beginning. That same day, I met with Dr. Freischlag, chair of surgery, and she expressed her full support. I became involved in their academic program while Dr. Dupin was working out the details to allow his resident to do an away rotation. On October 1st, my rotation officially began and, once again, I was a plastic surgery resident and an integral member of the team at this world-renown institution. These following 3 months were wonderful from an academic standpoint, despite the uncertainty with my training program. Not only was I able to learn from experts in their field, but most importantly I made long-lasting friendships with many residents and attending physicians. Drs. Rodriguez, Manson, Goldberg, and Freischlag extended their kindness and generosity to me during these hard times. I will be forever grateful. We found Tim 6 days after the hurricane. He had kayaked his way out of his apartment to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and had been taking care of patients for several days. He was eventually evacuated to Houston, where he had started to pick up the pieces of his life, as the rest of us had been trying to do.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.