Autumn 2002
Dr. Kumar was now working in Trauma and orthopaedics in a DGH in the North east of England. He was not interested in a career in Orthopaedics but had to do this six months to satisfy criteria to write the finals of MRCS before he can embark on cardiothoracic training. He had taken time out from cardiothoracic surgery after a forgetful few months in a Manchester cardiothoracic centre. It was his second winter in UK and he went through severe low moods not realising that this was just SAD(seasonal affective disorder). Dr. Kumar grew up in the tropics where sunshine was guaranteed every day apart from the peak monsoon weeks. He did not know then that Manchester was the wettest and gloomiest city in England. He also did not know that he was going to end up becoming a Mancunian or Salfordian in a few years time.
Spring 2003
Dr. Kumar was working as a clinical fellow in Emergency Medicine in a University teaching hospital in east London. Towards the end of his orthopaedic job Kumar went for two interviews in London. One was a clinical fellow in cardiothoracic surgery and the other was in Emergency Medicine. He did not get the job in cardiothoracic surgery and little did he know then that he was going through one of the biggest cross roads in his life. He still thought he was only flirting with Emergency Medicine whilst still in love with cardiothoracic surgery. This is where he met some individuals who will go on to change his whole view of medicine in general and emergency medicine in particular. First there was the big daddy Alistair Wilson, a remarkable emergency physician who enjoyed the whole range of emergency medicine from leading the trauma team to pulling out fish bones from the throat. He was a walking encyclopedia of actual clinical emergency medicine. Then there was Tim Coates, a great academic who taught many emergency physicians how traumatic cardiac arrests are a completely different beast to medical cardiac arrest and why it was important to keep the acute physicians away from them. Then there was Helen Cugnoni, a mother like person who actually took time to speak to her juniors to find out how they were doing. There were many other persons and it would take a separate blog just to mention each and everyone of them including our own president elect Katherine Henderson.
Spring 2004
Dr. Kumar was working in a DGH which liked to think of itself as a University Hospital in east London. This was an impoverished borough which was home to the most cosmopolitan community. My son attended a preschool here where there were kids from at least 30 different countries. It was a complete eye opener. The best thing about living and working in this part of London was not missing Chennai. All he had to do was walk down the high street in East Ham to buy the latest Anantha Vikatan, Kumutham ( both popular Tamil weeklies)and the latest movie releases. In fact East Ham felt so much like Chennai that occasionally I would see a native English person and wonder what that foreigner was doing there! Then there was the Mahalakshmi temple, Murugan temple and even Indian music in one of the bars. He still remembers fondly the old Hindi songs a beautiful singer sang in one of the bars. Anyhow soon the year was coming to and end and it was time to think about settling down somewhere where he can afford a home and good schooling for his son. And that is what brought him back to Manchester for the second time. This time a beautiful town in Greater Manchester famous for its markets and surrounding hills. Dr. Kumar never realised he is never going to leave Manchester this time around. Or will he.................
Dr. Kumar did not choose emergency medicine as career. He likes to think emergency medicine choose him. He realised very early that this was thankless job. There was always plenty to do and nobody ever is happy to see or hear from you because you bring more work for them. However this is one specialty when you get the balance between work and life right you could actually enjoy it for a long time. Dr. Kumar sees a lot of disgruntled and disillusioned emergency physicians. They are present in all cadres from the junior most trainee to the senior most consultants. He thinks this is one of the less talked about problems in emergency medicine. He has worked with senior emergency physicians who have authored books and held prestigious college positions who go around discouraging young doctors from emergency medicine. This is a problem very few emergency physicians will openly acknowledge. I think it is about time more emergency physicians talk more openly about times when they feel disillusioned with work and what they have done to cope with it and find the mojo back. I hope the president elect of our college takes this up as one of her key projects during her tenure.
Photo below shows one of Dr. Kumar's favourite buskers in front of one of the iconic bars in Manchester.
