Saturday, September 03, 2005

Back from P-town

I'm back from my rotation in radiology down in Peoria. It was a great experience and I'm really impressed with the residency program and would love to go there. The faculty are distinguished and a forward-thinking group (interventional radiologists with their own clinic?) and they have a dominant position in the hospital as far as turf goes, which means that the surgeons (thoracic or vascular) and cardiologists don't steal all the interesting cases. It is a busy hospital and the support staff and services are just great. It would be perfect if only the cafeteria's guiding philosophy wasn't "it's not good eatin' til it's dead and fried".

These past few days have been dwarfed by the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. I didn't watch much news while at my rotation and just watched about an hour of coverage now and am just shocked by the living conditions of the refugees. The violent crimes being committed are almost as shocking - it is in this setting that one truly begins to understand the Quran's injunction that whosoever kills a person unjustly, it is as if he has killed all of humanity. At the same time, I've heard stories of hospital staff in New Orleans taking turns to ventilate patients by hand when they lost power - and this reminds me of the other half of that verse in the Qur'an, that whoever saves a life, it is like he has saved all of humanity. Examples of both evil and nobility are rampant in New Orleans...certainly my prayers are with the sick and displaced, may Allah replace their hardship with ease and grant the sick cure that leaves behind no illness.

I don't get much of a break in my schedule - start a cardiology rotation at Cook County on Monday. Will probably have to spend the weekend reviewing cardiac pathophysiology and finalizing my application for residency programs. Busy times for this fool...

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