DR. WHO?
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
ELIOT THOMPSON, MD
Aaron Burch
B
eing a pediatrician, musician, husband and father can be a
workout, but Dr. Eliot Thompson learned a valuable lesson
from his own dad years ago, which helped him through
some of the most hectic days of his life.
Dr. Leroy Thompson was an OB/GYN for many years, delivering
babies through long hours and late nights in a private practice, but he
rarely complained, even after coming home from 3 a.m. deliveries.
“I used to ask my dad, ‘How do you do it? Aren’t you tired?’
recalled the younger Dr. Thompson. “And he told me, ‘You’re as
tired as you think you are.’ He convinced me that perseverance was
human nature. So I decided from that lesson I could do anything
I set my mind to.”
That mindset has been with Dr. Thompson for years as he’s
navigated the worlds of medicine and music. He’s spent most of his
life here in Louisville after moving from Nashville as a baby, graduating from Ballard High School in 1984 and then enrolling at the
University of Louisville to study biology before pursuing medicine.
“When I was in college was the only time I got pushed to the
limits of being tired,” Dr. Thompson thought back. “I pledged Kappa
Alpha Psi and that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I
kept a little clock in my backpack, and I’d go in the bathroom to
take 18 minute naps between classes because that was all the time
I could get for sleep. But, when I got to medical school and they
wanted me to stay up all night…piece of cake.”
At medical school, Dr. Thompson knew there were two professions he just didn’t want. The first was work as an OB/GYN, often
thinking back to the crazy schedule his dad had kept. The other was
pediatrics. His father had shared a waiting room with a pediatrician,
and crying children were of no interest to him.
“It’s funny that the two things I enjoyed the most in school were
pediatrics and OB,” Dr. Thompson laughed. “When you deliver a
baby, everyone’s so happy and excited. It’s an amazing feeling. And,
pediatrics is really cool, because you get to watch kids grow up.
You’re really a part of people’s families. So I changed my mind on
those without a doubt.”
At U of L, Dr. Thompson was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar
and was active in the Student National Medical Association as well
as the American Medical Student Association. In 1992, he finished
medical school and remained with U of L for the pediatric residency
program.
During residency, Dr. Thompson spent nearly six months at the
Neonatal Intensive Care Units at Kosair Children’s Hospital and
University Hospital.
“It was a wonderful place to be,” he recalled. “For better or worse,
that time made me extremely confident because everything was
strictly regimented. I knew what to do, when and how to do it. I
always had attendings looking over my shoulder, which is great for
a young resident who thinks he knows everything.”
Dr. Thompson remembered one day in the PICU, when a patient
was going downhill, he saw they met the criteria for a central line
and asked the nurses to begin prep. “The nurses were smart enough
to go grab an attending and say, ‘Doctor, you have a resident about
to put a central line in.’ All of a sudden, the doctor shows up and
says, ‘Hey Eliot, what are you doing?’ I told him, and he said, ‘Okay,
well, that’s the right thing to do, but you can’t do it by yourself. ‘I
said, ‘Ohhhh!…’” Those little moments would soon make him a
better physician.
Dr. Thompson spent almost six months in a row in the NICU
(continued on page 38)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’s member spotlight section, Dr. Who? In the interest of simply
getting to know each other as a society of colleagues, we’ll be highlighting random GLMS physicians on a
regular basis. If you would like to recommend any GLMS physician member to the Editorial Board for this
section, please e-mail [email protected] or call him at 736-6338.
MAY 2016
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