1. Please share your most interesting case with a patient.
When I was a fourth year medical student, I had the opportunity to do an eight week elective at a rural mission hospital in Cameroon. During my time there, I saw many interesting cases but one of the most memorable case of all was this one afternoon, I was called to do a surgical assist on a young teenage girl who was presenting the symptoms of a bowel obstruction. The general surgeon at the time was a really amazing lady who had served there for many years. As we started the surgery, she shared to me that many times here, bowel obstructions were due to parasitic infections but even she was surprised as to what we found when we did the surgery. Inside this little girl’s intestine was such a tangled mass of wiggling ascaris worms that we took out multiple kidney basins full. I remember counting afterwards and it was well over one hundred. This is a sight I will long remember.
2. What is the best advice you were given during your time in medical school that has had a lasting impact on your practice?
Some meaningful advice given to myself by a couple of my preceptors that has had a lasting impact is to “never forget the privilege bestowed on us in being a physician”. I think it’s easy to get bogged down and frustrated with daily practice, but reflecting back on these words has helped me at the end of a busy day. Patients will often share with us the most intimate details of their own life stories and we, as physicians, have a rare opportunity to enter into this space. This opportunity also carries the responsibility to always be present for them, to do our best to meet them at the point where they are in their life journey and to help them as best we can.
3. What are you doing currently/working on/interested in that is helping to impact our local medical community and/or local patients?
Currently in our community, along with Dr. Kami Dhillon and Dr. Ursula Luitingh as physician colleagues, as well as the amazing PCN Division and Fraser Health Staff, we are in our third year of implementing the primary care network in our community. Ridge Meadows is a PCN Wave One Community and with this, we have been able to bring many new services to our area. We have currently hired nine allied health staff including: counsellors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and dieticians which are now housed in a team based care model in the new Wellness Center. These added resources are really helping, not only the family practitioners in our community, but also our specialists that have unattached patients who can refer into these services for their patients. Along with this, with the PCN, we’ve managed to recruit seven new primary care practitioners, including both family doctors and nurse practitioners, who are helping to increase attachment in the community for patients that don’t have a family doctor.
4. What is some advice or wisdom you would like to share with your medical staff peers, or any new physicians joining our community?
I would just encourage everyone to get involved in your local physician community. Whether through the MSA, the Engagement Society, or through the Division of Family Practice, I believe the relationships that you can build through such involvement will not only help you in your day to day practice of caring for your patients, but certainly will also contribute to your own personal satisfaction as well as your own wellness.