The Greatest Impact Of Practicing Medicine

After sustaining a knee injury that required for surgical intervention while in high school, I struggled with recurring ailments throughout my intercollegiate career. It was not until my father, who is an Osteopathic physician, was performing manipulation on me did we begin to diagnose the potential causes. The issue was muscle imbalance and limited flexibility in certain areas of my body that was shifting majority of my weight onto my knees while performing certain movements. This went unnoticed by physicians because while performing examinations the scope was concentrated on the immediate areas around my knee. With the knowledge I obtained through manipulation I have been able to treat my knee ailments by strengthening and lengthening muscles throughout my body. Having this experience helped solidify that if I am to be the physician I aspire to be, it is imperative to be trained in this form of medicine.

Truthfully, as an undergraduate I knew very little about the osteopathic profession. In 2013, however, I began working as a medical scribe with Dr. Ghaffari-Greene, DO, in the Sibley ER and she opened my eyes to the beauty of osteopathic medicine. Thanks to Dr. Ghaffari-Greene, and a number of other osteopathic physicians in the ER, I have come to understand what osteopathic medicine is all about. Three years after my first exposure to the osteopathic profession, I continue to be motivated to become an osteopathic physician for many reasons. These include the following:

The following words by Aristotle, “Whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, resonate deeply with my personality. As a human and future physician, I believe one must learn to look at the whole picture of any situation instead of dwelling on certain parts. Since the age of seven, I have been attracted to the field of osteopathy. I grew up in a small town, where there were not a lot of doctors in the area. Whenever I went to visit a doctor there was at least one to two hour wait. While waiting for the doctor, I noticed how people’s facial expression and muscle would slightly relax after visiting the doctor’s office, even if it was for less than five minutes. Even though not all patients received good news, they seemed a bit relaxed after knowing what their next step of treatment will be. As long as I can remember I wanted to be the reason behind someone’s relaxed face or smile by providing everything possible within my power.

These topics and my interactions with clinicians in our lab have driven my interest for pursuing the specific area of orthopedics. From back injuries, Tommy John surgeries, broken feet, and a prosthetic leg, my family has also had a lot of experience on the patient side of this specialty. The chance to rehabilitate athletes, such as my loved ones, is appealing, but I know that these injuries are not exclusive to this population, and my true passion lies in the opportunity to rehabilitate individuals in underserved populations. My time in Guatemala and Nicaragua has really grown my heart for people living in the impoverished countries of Central America. My first mission trip there largely contributed to my passions for becoming a doctor and since high school, my career goals have been aimed at building the skills necessary to serve those communities. Eventually, I would love to be able to marry my interests in global health and orthopedics, and incorporate my biomedical engineering background, to contribute to research aimed at optimizing care and medical technologies in low-resource settings. As the leader in global orthopedic initiatives, UCSF and the prospect of working with the Institute for Global Orthopedics and Traumatology stand out

The field of Bioethics has developed over the past thirty years as a product of

Audie Leon Murphy was born on June 20, 1924 near Kingston, Texas, one of twelve children born to Emmett Berry Murphy and Josie Bell (Killian) Murphy (Simpson, n.d.). The Murphy family was a group of poor sharecroppers of Irish descent and Audie had to begin working at an early age to help support his family. Audie attended grade school in Celeste, Texas until the age of twelve, when his father abandoned the family in 1936. With less than a fifth grade education, Murphy left school and went to work full time as a farm laborer, hunter, store clerk and gas station attendant to support his family (Smith, 1960, p. 1). Audie might have lived the rest of his life as a lower income civilian if the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Harbor.

For as long as I could remember, I have seen my father rushing to the hospital in a white coat, answering pagers in the middle of important family conversations and attending night calls even in the most terrible weather. I had always wondered; what could be so important that it belittles every other responsibility in his life. It was only after many years of anguish and protests that it finally made sense to me. This defining moment of realization occurred when I first met a patient in his office. I saw how the gratitude in the patient’s eyes can provide a sense of fulfillment that triumphs all other feelings in the universe. It was human life that was most important. Being a doctor does not make you a mere healer but also gives you the responsibility of a caregiver. I had never felt more proud of my father and that was the day I felt the urge to relive this feeling many times over. It was there in that moment that I decided to pursue a career in medicine.

In the 1880’s, America began seeing the first Japanese immigrants arrive in the Pacific Northwest. The Japanese came to this country searching for a better life. Many hoped to begin a new life in America where they could raise their families. There were others who came here merely to earn and save money only to return to Japan later on. The Japanese people who began their lives in America experienced little racism and discrimination, that is, before December 7th, 1941 when the country of Japan bombed the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After this event, the Japanese-American people’s lives would change dramatically.

And that we will remember the words of the poet, Maya Angelou that people will forget what you did but people will not forget how you made them feel. I hope that all these years of training will help us to think not only like physicians but also like human beings because the practice of Medicine is a challenging but deeply rewarding art with which we can make positive differences in the lives of our patients and their loved

Heading into the postwar era, they found comfort in forming tight-knit communities that preserved cultural traditions. In 1991, a community also raised funds for a “$10 million cultural center in Ontario to honor those relocated or interned” (Mercier 4). Internment showed America how strong-willed and resilient Japanese Americans are, but it further reinforced the deeply rooted racism that is present. One of the better ways to look at the negative impacts internment has had on the American racial landscape, is to look at a state of the U.S. that did not participate in internment for the most part; Hawaii. Japanese Americans in Hawaii were not consolidated into camps, and during World War 2, many of them made “exemplary contributions in the form of volunteer soldiers and war workers” (Robinson, 2). This is just one example of how Japanese Americans could have contributed to the war effort and community development if they were not interned in the other states. Not only could they have helped during the war, but racial relations would not have been strained to the extent they are

I was at ease because I was in the best hands when my father sat me up on a table to wrap my sprained ankle after a reckless fall in gymnastics. He lectured me while handing me crutches and pulling me back onto my feet. “You have to take it easy until it heals,” he said as he continued to demonstrate how to properly apply my own bandages, ice my ankle and safely walk. This occurrence was not something new to me. Growing up, I was often inspired by the struggles my father underwent as an Asian immigrant fighting to open his own primary care clinic in America. However this gave me the freedom to interact directly with patients to educated people on how to promote their health and the steps to take in order to recover and return to their original lifestyles. My father’s influence and tenacious work ethic instilled in me the dedication to provide the best care possible throughout all my experiences and cultivated my desire to become an occupational therapist.

Mobility grants opportunity and lifelong experiences through the gift of exploration and independence. Without autonomy of movement in one’s life, there are struggles accompanied by frustration do to the lack of freedom and ability. It is an orthopedic surgeon’s job to bring function to one’s life even if they have never been granted movement without restraint before. Orthopedic surgeons receive patients whose freedom of movement have been compromised and then return it back to them. Orthopedic surgeons give immeasurable opportunities and life experiences back to their patients because of their perseverance and commitment to their patients and careers.

born in oakland, california, i am a nisei (second generation japanese), yet a citizen of the united states all the same. i have only attended public schools. when i left high school, i tried to enter the united states army, but i was refused because of medical reasons. after this, i entered a training program for a career in welding and metalworking. upon completion of this, i got a job working in a shipyard. my work was kept under surveillance because we were constructing ships as a war effort for the navy. i enjoyed my work, had many friends, and saved enough money to begin paying off a house. i was visiting my girlfriend when the attack on pearl harbor struck. the

I arrived at Fort Bragg’s Womack Army Medical Center in 2015, after graduating at the top of my training class as an Orthopedic Specialist, ready to assist Orthopedic Surgeons and PA. The doctors I work with everyday have been great professionals and mentors. The knowledge and clinical experience they’ve provided me has

Coming from a low-income family, I will be the first generation to attend graduate school. I originally became interested in Podiatry in my teens because of a very important incident in my life. My father was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes and my grandmother suffers from rheumatoid arthritis in her feet. At the age of seven, after my parent’s divorce, I went and lived with my grandmother.