Chancellor McRaven speaks to UTSW graduates

well thank you very much president Podolski senator hutchison region Hall Provost Fitz Dean's distinguished faculty and most importantly the graduates of 2015 it is indeed a pleasure for me to be here tonight to celebrate this wonderful moment in your life from the time I was a little boy my mother longed for me to be a doctor but somehow along the way destiny had a different path for me and while I know that my mother would have been proud of my military career I'm certain that she would rather have had me wearing a white coat than a camouflage uniform and right now she is looking down from heaven wondering what her son could possibly pass on to such a distinguished group of medical school graduates well I was wondering the same thing myself but it occurred to me that I've spent a lot of time around doctors am i nearly six decades of life as with many in the audience I have seen or experienced just about every ailment disease trauma or heartbreak there is to know as a young boy I had all the usual childhood complications broken arms busted ankles fractures and lacerations an array of mumps measles and chickenpox as a young adult I saw loved ones ravaged by cancer heart disease and dementia as a middle-aged man I was badly injured and know the pain of the long road of rehabilitation during the Wars of the past 13 years I have seen combat hospitals filled with amputees burn and blast victims and I have seen many a good men die on operating tables but in my 60 years I have also seen disease eradicated the crippled walk again the heartless given new life and the hopeless cured so today if I may be so bold I would like to give you some advice as you head off into your chosen profession advice based on almost 60 years of being on the other side of Medicine then that matters most the patient I hope that this advice applies equally to those who search for the cures those that administer the medicine or those who hold the lives of patients in their as a patient I want my doctor to be smarter than I am I want them filled with knowledge and I want them to understand how to use that knowledge to confront the challenges before them I want to see their diploma I want to know that they were dedicated enough strong enough and intelligent enough to make it through Medical School having great knowledge and knowing how to use that knowledge is what separates you from me and you from your patient it is why not everyone can become a doctor some of us are just not smart enough it is why doctors are in such demand and why you are so highly respected your life must be a constant undertaking to learn more to hone your skills to improve your craft to assure your patients that the answers they seek are within your grasp you will never have all the answers but you should never stop searching studying asking demanding and passing on that knowledge that you do have as a patient you had better be smarter than I am as a patient my doctor must be in command at all times and command of themselves and command of the people around them and in command of me you must walk with a swagger you must smile with great ease you should never look tired you must never get frustrated no matter how bad your day has gone no matter how bad your day has gone or what your personal life may be dealing with when you walk into that small sterile office or step onto the floor of the ICU you must do it as if you have done it a thousand times before you must be in command of everything that surrounds you nothing gives a patient more comfort than the belief that their doctor is well prepared and cocksure of themselves as a doctor you should always be in command of everything around you as a doctor you must listen to your patients listen carefully after the first Gulf War I had a friend who began to have short-term memory loss and then he struggled with his coordination and stamina some doctors continuously dismissed the symptoms of psychosomatic some accused my friend of being a malingerer they couldn't accept the fact that his problems were real statistical analysis of other soldiers under the same conditions didn't bear it out finally after considerable time he was diagnosed with a new disability Gulf War Syndrome a very real very debilitating disease brought about we believe by the pollutants spewed out from the eco-terrorism unleashed by saddam hussein treatment ensued and my friends condition improved some problems are not in the book learn to listen to your prays patience and trust them when they tell you they are sick they may be wrong at times but they will appreciate it when you listen as a doctor you must have faith faith in your own skills but also faith in something greater than those skills you must recognize that you alone are not the sole arbiter of life and death to believe so is to be terribly terribly naive and time caring for patients will show you just how limited your knowledge and your skills can sometimes be several years ago I was a military hospital in Landstuhl Germany one of my seals have been shot 15 times during a closed-end firefight in Iraq before in the ICU I talked to the attending nurse she was a hard-nosed battle-ax who had seen her share of soldiers pass through on stool knowing my seals and dire straits I asked about his condition she glanced down at the floor tears welled up in her eyes and she said I have seen hundreds of soldiers pass through this hospital but I have never seen a man shot so many times and she paused and he's going to make it I thanked her for all that she and the doctors had done to save his life she looked at me shook her head and smiled we had nothing to do with it even the most hard hearted of patients want their doctors to believe in something greater than themselves for patients know that all the skill in the world cannot replace the mystery of what sometimes separates life from death have faith and it will take you far as a doctor you must give every patient hope no matter how small or how dramatic the problem every patient wants to believe they will be better and only you can tell them that five years ago I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia I was in Afghanistan at the time fighting a tough battle against the Taliban the initial assessment was that I needed to return to the states to have my spleen removed and begin chemotherapy the doctor who detected the cancer made it clear to me that my life was about to change that I should accept my fate and prepare for life outside the military a life of painful chemo hair loss and fatigue she gave me no hope that things would be would be better undeterred by her prognosis my wife and I came to Texas and met with a world-class oncologist while waiting in the small sterile room for our first meeting the door swung open and a loud boisterous ruddy-faced man walked in introduced himself and hugged me and I am NOT a hugger he sat down looked at my blood work and quickly told my wife that she didn't need to get a new boyfriend something else will kill him before this does he told her in light of the early earlier diagnosis my wife was stunned by the proclamation she asked the doctor well should he eat more fruits and vegetables no he said well should he exercise more no not really well should he drink less alcohol oh god no I quickly jumped in and said can I go back to Afghanistan and he said as long as you don't get shot soon after the visit I did go back to Afghanistan and spent the next five years continuing to serve in the military I like to think that in that time my service resulted in hundreds of lives saved all because one man gave me hope because one man healed me of my greatest malady fear above all else's doctors you must give your patients hope even under the most dire of conditions hope can heal hope surpasses all our understanding hope is the medicine that gives smiles to the forlorn faith to the disenchanted and life to the dying give your patients hope as a doctor every patient wants you to be a healer no matter what the affliction they expected as a doctor you can cure them there's a great scene in the original Star Trek TV series where Captain James T Kirk played by William Shatner and dr. Leonard McCoy played by DeForest Kelley on an alien planet they've encountered a species that is made of rock and mortar at one point in the episode the alien made of rock is dying and Kirk turns to McCoy and says bones you've got to do something McCoy looks at the rock alien and the frustration says dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a bricklayer and then Kirk responds you're a healer and he's your patient heal him someday you will have to be that bricklayer ill-equipped to solve the problem other than the fact that you are the doctor and all the pharmaceuticals all the genome therapy and all the bioinformatics will not help you it will take a hug a handshake a smile or the right words at the right time to heal the afflicted and make them right again as a patient a good doctor must know how to heal not just the body but the mind and the spirit learn to heal to be a great doctor you must have strength in times of great anguish life is filled with difficult moments most of those times we must pass through alone but there will be times when you the doctor must provide the shoulder to cry on the chest to lean against the strong arm to hold up the faint of heart you must be the rock when even the toughest of men and women lose the strength to hold on years ago one of my men was killed in a motorcycle accident it was the day before Thanksgiving and his family had all arrived to celebrate the holiday the doctor who had attended the young man had to make the fateful call to notify the parents I remember that the doctor was young but somehow mature beyond his years a month later I received a letter from the father of the young man who had died he thanked me for all the support the SEAL team had provided his family during this difficult time and then he wrote with great affection and with great respect about the doctor who had made that very difficult call he told me that even across the three thousand miles that separated Norfolk from San Diego he could feel the doctors strength through the telephone and as a father it gave him the strength to carry on those times will come when you have to deliver bad news it will not always be life and death but it will always have consequences to your patients be strong as a doctor you must have compassion and surprisingly enough I believe this may actually be the hardest of all traits necessary for success I have seen that the daily pressures on a doctor spirits can be crushing whether it is treating teenage acne fixing broken bones are doing a heart transplant it is easier for most doctors not to get emotionally involved even the smallest of ailments when multiplied a thousand times can be debilitating to an attending physician but small or large you must reach into your heart and show the compassion that is so necessary for patient care and in some cases for those that the patient leaves behind some of years ago two of my men were medevacked to the combat hospital in Bagram Afghanistan both men had sustained gunshot wounds through the chest the doctor worked valiantly to save the first man cracking his chest open searching for and sealing up the damaged arteries but to no avail the seal died on the operating table the doctor rushed into the next room and once again worked feverishly to save the second man but again the injured man's wounds were too severe and he succumbed I watched as the doctor leaned against the wall sunk to the blood-soaked floor and wept surprisingly enough in that moment in that moment of great tragedy and sacrifice I saw all that was good and decent and honorable about the profession in that moment I understood why each of you worked so hard studied so long and suffered so much to earn the title in that moment I knew exactly why my mother wanted me to be a doctor you may never have a moment like that and in many ways I hope you do not but regardless of your specialty you will have a thousand little moments that change the lives of the patients under your care a thousand moments to restore their faith a thousand moments to give them hope a thousand moments to heal their wounds and show them the love and compassion that every great doctor must possess and that first moment begins right here and right now because for now and evermore you will be the doctor to the graduating class of 2015 I congratulate you and wish you the very best of luck in your years ahead go make a difference in the world thank you very much you

Channel: UTSWMed

Views: 284,258

Rating: 4.8608694 out of 5

Keywords: University Of Texas System (Educational Institution), UT Southwesten Medical Center, William H. McRaven (Military Person), commencement, graduation, Class of 2015

Id: CiNSZCiCtuM

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2015