Full Circle from Residency

July 13, 2020 was my first day of continuity clinic at my new residency at UC San Diego. I was pretty nervous. I had gotten so comfortable at my continuity clinic in Cleveland, OH and I knew the routine there well. This new clinic served a totally different population of patients. The faculty members, the staff, and the residents were all new faces to me.

The very first patient I met in San Diego in my resident clinic was Mr. G. He had a lot of health challenges and was a complex first patient. He had just been discharged from the hospital. He had heart failure, COPD, diabetes, and cancer. When my faculty member asked how soon I'd want him to follow-up with me again, I proposed "2 or 3 months." My faculty member knew better. She said, "No, I think you should see him in one month. He's pretty sick." So that's what I did.

About once a month for the remainder of my residency I saw Mr. G and tried my best to keep him out of the hospital. I was not always successful, and he did get hospitalized several more times that year. In my effort to keep him out of the hospital, I got to know his home health nurse well. The nurse and I would talk periodically by phone so that I could make sure our patient had everything he needed at home to do well.

Toward the end of residency I handed off Mr. G to one of our faculty members in the primary care clinic. I felt he was getting too complex for a new intern to try to manage. I graduated in July 2021 and that's the last I thought I would hear of Mr. G.

Today my personal phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, but a San Diego area code. I answered and it was the home health nurse I had gotten to know. He said "Hey Dr. Savage, I'm the nurse who helped you take care of Mr. G last year. The one who recently passed away..." In that moment I knew exactly who he was talking about and it took me back to July 13, 2020 when I met Mr. G for the first time. I was so sad for his loss.

The nurse said he called not to update me on Mr. G (he assumed I knew this already), but instead to ask for my advice. He told me that his partner had been recently diagnosed with CLL (a chronic leukemia), and he wondered if I could suggest some hematologists at UCSD. I did so gladly and I wished his partner and him all the best.

It's amazing how small the world seems sometimes. Also, this reminded me that you never know how you'll touch someone's life through your actions. It may take a long time for those actions to come full circle. In this case, the diligence I put into helping one of my patients a year ago allowed me to form a relationship that allowed me to help someone else today. I am so thankful for that.