MEMBERS
DR . Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT DAN O ' BRIEN , MD
Aaron Burch
Dr . John Joseph O ’ Brien ’ s office was attached to their home on Long Island . His wife , Mary , worked as his nurse . They had five children , three boys and two girls .
It was the early 1960s . The Space Race was heating up . Patients filled up the O ’ Brien family ’ s driveway and shuffled in to the waiting room . There , a young Daniel O ’ Brien may have been waiting to take their blood pressures with a cardboard sphygmomanometer . “ I remember the positive response I got , pretending to take blood pressures ,” Dr . O ’ Brien recalled , guessing that he must have been around four or five years old . “ I was really struck by that energy .”
Medicine was omnipresent in the O ’ Brien household . It was talk at the dinner table . It was the smell of antiseptic when going to ask Dad a question . It was homework in the car while Dr . O ’ Brien made house calls .
Many of the families in that Long Island neighborhood were supported by the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation , the company responsible for building the Apollo missions ’ Lunar Lander . During a Cub Scouts trip , the young Dan O ’ Brien visited the Grumman facility where a warehouse floor was completely covered in various stages of assembly .
“ That was the future ,” he said . “ If you asked me then what I was going to do , I would have said aerospace . Because I knew that by the mid-80s , people would be living on Mars . It was such a fascinating career path . There was nothing we couldn ’ t do .”
Until the day man walked on the moon … Making a giant leap for mankind was ‘ mission accomplished ’ for the space program , but suddenly the demand for lunar landers vanished and many were laid off .
“ That had a big impact on me choosing a career ,” Dr . O ’ Brien said . “ People who had been comfortable middle class families were now filled with anxiety . If I became a physician , that wouldn ’ t happen to me or my family .”
Dr . O ’ Brien finished college at a breakneck pace of three years before attending New York Medical College , which he graduated from in 1981 . While attending school , he also took on side jobs as a respiratory therapist and EKG technician , and got his pilot ’ s license .
“ One of my roommates took me flying and I thought it was so cool . So , I got mine too . It ’ s surprisingly not that difficult . You solo after about 15 hours . There ’ s a fair amount of book work but , at some point , it just kind of clicks .”
After medical school , Dr . O ’ Brien completed a one year internal medicine internship at the Yale University School of Medicine , but he kept thinking about working in the emergency room . “ That was the area of greatest interest to me ,” he recalled . “ I was starting to read about a new emergency medicine specialty . It wasn ’ t recognized yet at Yale , but there were about 25 programs around the country . Louisville was one of them .”
Kentucky was a long way from home . Dr . O ’ Brien is quick to admit he ’ d never lived west of the Hudson River . “ But , I couldn ’ t see myself doing anything else . I felt the most satisfied when I was working in the ER and ICU .”
In the old Louisville General Hospital , Dr . O ’ Brien was interviewed for his residency by Dr . Donald Thomas , founder of the program . It was a far cry from the New England facilities where he ’ d trained to that point . “ I was struck by so many things . There were so many bright people working in the ER . In New England , the ER had not been a place of emphasis . Here , there was a brain trust . Then you go to the cafeteria and there ’ s no air conditioning , and they are serving fried bologna sandwiches . It was such a throwback , but in an odd way , it was all very attractive to me .”
Dr . O ’ Brien was only here for a two-year residency then , but it was a busy two years . In that time , the General Hospital migrated to the University of Louisville Hospital , so he spent half of his residency at each location . He also became one of a small team of doctors placed on rotation for helicopter duty , where he would
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 aaron . burch @ glms . org or call him at 736-6338 .
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