Episode 2065: WHAT WAS I THINKING...by Simon Gelman - a podcast by Ric Bratton

from 2021-01-28T21:15:48

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WHAT WAS I THINKING... by Simon Gelman

Simon Gelman started to think about writing a book seventeen years ago, at the end of his chairmanship. Initially, he saw quite a few obstacles. His hesitations were related to his lack of knowledge of the English language, lack of knowledge of American culture, and lack (rather a complete absence) of experience in writing nonmedical text. Over the years, the conceived idea was maturing, and the question of whether writing the book or not gradually converted into how to write it. Gelman managed to overcome the uncertainties and decided just to tell the story.

The first chapter of the book is a memoir. However, it is written as a retrospective analysis of the thoughts Gelman had and actions he chose at different periods of his life. The following chapters address certain subjects like how to be a chairman of an academic medical department, relationships between doctors and patients, socialism and capitalism, and anti-Semitism.

These chapters describe Gelman's views and how they changed over time, affected by his maturing and life in three different countries (Soviet Union, Israel, and United States) with very different social structures and cultures.

A few of Gelman's friends who read the first drafts of this book were saying that these chapters that describe his changing views on the subjects can be helpful to understand many different, often not-well-justified actions in human lives. The book does not suggest what should be done in one or another circumstance. It rather tells the story of how and why the decisions (right or wrong) were made depending on the background and acquired knowledge.

The author, Simon Gelman, was born in 1936 in the Soviet Union, Leningrad. When World War II started, he was 5 years old. The first part of his life was in the Soviet Union until age 38. During that time, he graduated high school, finished medical school, was sent to work in the northeast European part of the Soviet Union for almost three years. There he was exposed to the life of quite a few former prisoners of Soviet concentration camps. This affected his life for many years to come. When détente between the Soviet Union and the West was established in the early 1970’s and immigration from the Soviet Union to the free world started, he and his family immigrated to Israel. Then, three years later, he was recruited from Israel to the United States. He finished a residency in anesthesiology in 1979 at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and became a chairman at that department in 1989. In 1992 he was recruited as a chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He stepped down from the chairmanship 10 years later at age 66. At present time he continues working as a full-time faculty member. He stopped clinical work at age 79.

He was President of the Society of Academic Anesthesia Chairs, of Morton Society, of Academy of Mentors in Anesthesiology and held other positions within different organizations in the specialty. He has more than 200 publications and more than 150 visiting professorships, including more than two dozen of named lectures. He has been an editor of major anesthesiology journals and remain an editor of two. He is an honorary member of Israeli Society of Anesthesiologists and Australian and New Zealand College of Anesthetists. He has a named fellowship and named lectureship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and two endowed chairs in his name: one in the University of Alabama in Birmingham and another at Harvard Medical School.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Was-Thinking-Simon-Gelman/dp/1647013003/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1607557028&sr=1-1
http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/drsgelman.mp3


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