it takes an exceptional person to become a great physician or scientist but
excellence in medicine requires relationships that connect and that's
why at Weill Cornell we place a special focus on mentoring it's the foundation
of the best patient care and the next big discoveries that emphasis starts
here in the dean's office and I am very proud of the results
it's a scary journey to be sick you're in a world of total unknown you just
know that something's happening to your body that is always serviced you and
suddenly somebody saying your hearts in trouble your brains in trouble your
kidneys in trouble your hips and trouble you have cancer those are big things to
hear I've had a kidney transplant cataract surgery a hip replacement
breast cancer august 2013 I had a stroke at 1:27 in the afternoon at Macy's and i
don't want another one
I've been in actors for 45 years working all over the country and regional
theater but also working Broadway off-broadway television film I've done
a lot of Shakespeare that's my favorite I think about what I've done and I could
no more do it right now than fly I would really like to go back to work I don't
quite know what that means yet it may be on a simpler form I just don't quite know what that is
For a while my first fear after the stroke was what will I get
back what have I lost I'm not working now my work is my recovery
friends always say to me you've come such a long way but I don't see it's how
it feels inside it's different I'm vulnerable you know I'm so vulnerable I
could be I could tip over any minute fall down be knocked into feel a little
dizzy and sometimes it's a bit of a struggle to speak it what's the worst
feeling but not to be seen not to be acknowledged if you don't feel seen you
feel invisible when I was in the hospital I've had to tell a surgeon come
in out of that doorway and come over here this bed and speak to me I'm not a
number I'm a person with a name in a history and a life it's been suddenly
dramatically interrupted as I know it I have three major doctors connected to
Weill Cornell my nephrologist is dr. David sewer my neurologist is dr. halina
white and my internist is dr. Keith lascala that's great that's actually
really nice especially the students can prepare and eat they know when it's
coming so they dikin dr. lascala also runs the lead program at Weill Cornell
it's a program where a patient is assigned to a group of medical students
and they come with you to some of your appointments and participate in them
so that they can understand more and more the relationship between
doctor-patient and what goes on in that room
it's not you the doctor over there and me over here it's more we're meeting in
the middle and we're partners my instinct at Weill Cornell is that
they're receiving tremendous support that they really care about what kind of
doctors leave isn't there thank you so much well yes certainly but dr. Lou
Scalia he really cares about his students as individuals and what kind of
a doctor are they producing sure no point vibe not just a memory machine
who's learning which obviously that's terribly um what's you think they're
going to come out real human beings so proud of them to go into this field and
why that makes me so emotional but to want to help us hey thank you for
teaching me such a young age very special people I don't know what takes
you to that but god bless them for doing