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<\/a>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAFP<\/strong><\/p>\nDoctor Curmudgeon\u00ae had intended to sleep quite late on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
But a familiar swishing awakened her. The welcoming sound that accompanied the appearance of Dr. Cranky Wangshaw Vesalius-Steinberger.<\/p>\n
For those of you who may not be aware of Doctor Curmudgeon’s ancestors, she has a Great-Great-Great …Grandmother by the name of Cranky Wangshaw Vesalius-Steinberger, M.D.<\/p>\n
Dr. Cranky (as she was referred to by her colleagues and patients) was a famous physician in her era. Her husband, the equally prominent, Dr. Yevgeny Vesalius-Steinberger had served in the war with Dr. Watson. As Dr. Yevgeny Vesalius-Steinberger was deeply involved in medical research (and that is a tale to be told at a later time), Dr. Cranky became the physician for Sherlock Holmes when Dr. Watson was away on his many travels.<\/p>\n
Occasionally, Dr. Cranky would visit her granddaughter, Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae in attempts to keep her focused and to stop her grandchild from whining and complaining.<\/p>\n
“You think that you have had a difficult path to becoming a physician? Really?”<\/p>\n
Sitting up a bit straighter, Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae responded with the only possible answer, “I guess it wasn’t that hard.’<\/p>\n
Leaning closer to her granddaughter, Dr. Cranky made sure that the curmudgeon’s eyes were open and that she was listening.<\/p>\n
“Well, child,” Dr. Cranky continued. “Let me tell you about a colleague of mine. Although she practiced across the pond as do you, I was quite aware of her. Her name was Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler…such an extraordinary woman.”<\/p>\n
Doctor Curmudgeon actually got out of bed and seated herself next to her grandmother on the little settee in her bedroom.<\/p>\n
“Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was a remarkable woman. She was born in 1831 in your state of Delaware. My compeer, Dr. Crumpler, did not only have to fight sexism, but she was a Black woman. You can only imagine the difficulties that this brilliant woman faced in being accepted into medical school and into her profession.”<\/p>\n
“Wow!” was Doctor Curmudgeon’s\u00ae perceptive comment.<\/p>\n
Dr. Cranky smiled, “Yes, wow, my dear descendant. It was difficult enough for a black man to be accepted into medical school…but a woman….wow, indeed!”<\/p>\n
As Dr. Cranky rose to leave, she patted her granddaughter’s messy head and said, “So the next time you start your whining and obsessing about the difficulties of being a physician today, remember Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler who had to face sexism and racism while she practiced medicine with strength, intelligence, skill and managed to write a book on the medical care of women and children.<\/p>\n
I leave you this time with two quotes from Dr. Crumpler’s book: ‘A Book of Medical Discourses:<\/p>\n
“I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.”<\/p>\n
I deem it expedient to speak only of what I know and to which I can testify.”<\/p>\n
Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/p>\n
SERMO www.sermo.com<\/a> \u201ctalk real world medicine\u201d<\/p>\n
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