It was there that he learned about
the opportunities in Alaska from a
roommate who had trained there.
The roommate had worked in a
hospital with 25 beds, in a place
where to get there you have to take
a plane.
The thought of practicing there
was tempting to Flynn, who said
his goal was to practice medicine
in rural areas, seeing as how he
himself came from a small town in
Kentucky.
Going to a more remote area also
allowed him to focus on two areas
he enjoyed, internal medicine and
pediatrics. He explained that the
medical system is set up where a
person has to specialize in one area
only.
But the Michigan hospital was so
large he was able to experience a
little bit of everything, which helped
him in the path forward.
Flynn worked in two major areas
of Alaska. In Anchorage, he focused
on adults and did all inpatient
work. When he went to Nome, 70
percent of his cases were outpatient
pediatrics patients, and the rest
he consulted on emergency room
cases.
“It’s been very rewarding,” he
said, but still, he felt like it was time
to come back to Kentucky.
His ultimate goal, he said, was to
work in Somerset, but for now he
will be working in Elizabethtown.
“I don’t know what the future
holds, to be honest,” he said.
That is for both his career and the
path of the coronavirus.
He said he feels like the crisis
will be ongoing until a vaccine is
developed, and according to people
in the medical community that he
trusts, that could be another 12 to
18 months.
He does feel like things such as
businesses will start opening up
before then, maybe in four to six
weeks.
He simply asks others to keep stay
hopeful.
“Hope is something we always
need to keep in mind,” he said.
As many have said before him,
history tends to repeat itself, but
while others mean such things as
the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918,
Flynn means what comes afterward
– the ability to recover from
extreme events.
“People in the U.S. will bounce
back. We will get stronger together,”
he said.
“When this is over, there’s hope
that as a community and a nation
we will be better. There will be sad
moments, but we will bounce back.”
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