—Jay Kaplan, MD, FACEP

Life, Family, and Emergency Medicine

Dr. Medeiros chose emergency medicine specifically because of the challenging nature of the specialty. “I love the variety and acuity of emergency medicine—you never know what you’re going to get and it keeps you on your toes,” she said. “It’s one of the few specialties that gives the opportunity for true diagnostic medicine. I also enjoy working with underserved populations; many of these patients have nowhere else to go.”

Dr. Medeiros (left) and Dr. Kaplan at ACEP in Seattle; (Inset) Sarah’s parents in 1977.

During their reunion at ACEP13, Drs. Kaplan and Medeiros talked about family and life, but they also talked about the profession of medicine. The meeting was Dr. Medeiros’ first time at ACEP, and Dr. Kaplan had been a faculty member at the conference since 1995. Dr. Kaplan’s advice was to “look for a job or group that would make me happy,” Dr. Medeiros said. “He introduced me to people within his own group, CEP, and talked to me about things that were important to look for in choosing a group.”

Dr. Kaplan is an advocate for work-life balance, his presentation topic at ACEP 13. His suggestions to Dr. Medeiros were to find a place that is “both a family and a school,” he said, a place that can offer a supportive, team environment as well as an opportunity for growth. The other key, he said, is “you have to love what you do. A poet that I have spent some time with once asked of a friend of his, ‘Talk to me of exhaustion.’ And his friend said, ‘The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest; the antidote is wholeheartedness.’”

And so, in true Hollywood fashion, the story ends happily. The resident from California and the experienced physician who helped deliver her are back in touch, both working in emergency medicine and loving it, and both with a sense that the meeting was meant to happen.

“There are a few times in our lives when we experience the passage of time and when we experience our own mortality, not in a negative way but rather in a positive way,” Dr. Kaplan said. “This was one of those times.”

Video of Drs. Kaplan and Medeiros Meeting at ACEP13

Kimberly J. Retzlaff is a medical journalist based in Denver.