Application, Contact Info, OOC
May. 24th, 2011 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ieter_amumonPlayer Information
» Name: Ardruna
» Age: 26
» Journal:![[insanejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/ij-userinfo.gif)
mirisa_ardruna
» Contact: AIM: Mirisa Erato, email: ardruna@gmail.com
Deity Information
» Pantheon: Greek
» Deity: Asclepius
» Reference: http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Asklepios.html, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/asclepius.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
» Divine Family: {mother & father} Apollo and Koronis; {spouse} Epione; {siblings} Many, many half-siblings; {children} Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, Meditrina, Panacea, Aglaea, Machaon, Podaleirios and Telesphoros. Also Aratus, by Aristodama.
» Mythology: Asclepius was the son of the mortal princess Koronis by the god Apollo, and arguably one of the god’s most famous and favored sons.
While Asclepius was still being carried in his mother’s womb, Koronis fell in love with a mortal man named Ischys while Apollo was away. Upon discovering his lover’s infidelity, Apollo ordered Koronis to be put to death. However, Apollo rescued their unborn son just in the nick of time through a Caesarean birth, and thusly dubbed the child “Asclepius” (“to cut open”). Apollo then sent the boy to be fostered and educated by the centaur Chiron.
While a kind and gentle child, Asclepius was a bright student in many disciplines, including hunting, and especially gifted in the healing arts. He learned of surgery, drugs, healing herbs and other medicines, as well as love potions, incantations and similar mystic arts that could affect mind and body.
He married a woman named Epione, and with her had six daughters and three sons, who often served as their father’s assistants. Though he loved them all dearly, he was especially fond of his daughter Hygieia.
Asclepius was also favored by Athena, goddess of wisdom, and she gave him the blood of Medusa, the Gorgon slain by Perseus. While the blood from the left side of Medusa’s body was deadly poison, the blood from her right side was able to restore life to the dead. In some cases, it is said that his learning to use the blood of the snake-haired Gorgon also enabled him to have mastery over the healing powers of snakes themselves, and thus his symbol became the snake-entwined staff. Another version claims it happened while he was to heal Glaucus, and a snake came and entwined itself around his staff while he was in thought, and he subsequently killed it. Meanwhile, another serpent came, bearing a healing herb in its mouth which it used to restore the first serpent to life—an herb which Asclepius himself later used to similar effect with his patients. Still others claim that he received the serpent-bearing staff as a gift from his father, Apollo.
With his amazing skills and special, secret tools of medicine, Asclepius was able to cure nearly any patient he met—and his fame spread far and wide, particularly for his ability to restore the dead to life. Many of his patients and their families offered him gifts of gold or other goods in thanks, and soon, the proud Asclepius began to expect such payments in exchange for his services. In one instance, despite being happily married and the father of several children, he accepted a night with a woman named Aristodama as payment, and sired a son named Aratus with her. Even the goddess Artemis approached him to ask if he would resurrect one of her favored followers, Hippolytus—which he did.
It didn’t take long before Hades realized that, because of Asclepius’s gifts, he was being cheated out of souls, and he complained to Zeus about it. Zeus could not allow such a thing, especially when Asclepius was receiving payment for it, and he struck the healer down with his lightning bolt.
Once again, Apollo wasted no time coming to his son’s rescue. Apollo not only slew the Cyclopes who fashioned Zeus’s thunderbolt in retribution, but he also argued for all the good that Asclepius had brought to mankind. Although he did have to punish Apollo for his interference, Zeus relented and raised Asclepius from the dead, immortalizing him both as a god and with the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent-Bearer.
Character Information
» Played By: Steve Valentine
» Journal:ieter_amumon
» Current Name: Galen Alistair Oram
» Birthdate: 09/04/1977
» Height: 6'5"
» Distinguishing Marks: Has numerous piercings in each ear, also has pierced nipples and navel, though he doesn't always wear them. Also has a snake tattoo on his right forearm
» Family: {mother & father} Sheldon and Miranda Oram; {marital status/spouse} Divorced approximately 1 year/ex-wife Maureen Jacobs; {siblings} Roscoe Oram, Charlotte Edwards, Neil Oram, Sophia MacKinley, Elizabeth Marshall and Fiona Oram (aged 37, 35, 32, 29, 27 and 26, respectively); {children} Emily and Haley Oram (aged 6 and 4, respectively); {pets} 1 six-month-old royal banana python named Sunshine
» Occupation: Surgeon, instructor and researcher at a prominent teaching hospital.
» Currently Residing In: Seattle, Washington
» Ability: He has an uncanny intuition when it comes to the health of the human body, enabling him to easily ferret out diagnoses and effective treatments, even when they are rare or unusual, and, while not a guaranteed cure-all, he can heal with just a touch.
» History: Asclepius has had few incarnations over the centuries.
In 997, Asclepius was reborn in Morocco as Muhsin ibn Hani' al-Nadir. There, he received one of the first formal degrees in medicine and was a practicing physician in a public hospital. He also had a reunion with a reborn Apollo during this lifetime, and they were close friends.
In his most recent incarnation, he was born as Galen Alistair Oram on September 4, 1977 in Scotland, the third of seven children. His parents were not wealthy, but they did everything they could to provide the best opportunities they were able to manage for their children. Being a middle child in a big family, young Galen was determined to find a way to distinguish himself from among his siblings, and though he tried a number of methods (including getting a fair number of piercings in his teenage years, only a few of which he still has), he did so most by being the best student he could be, and found himself to be especially good in math and science. He graduated from his secondary schooling at the top of his class.
His academic prowess paid off handsomely, and he was able to win multiple scholarships to Oxford, where he double-majored in biology and chemistry, though it wasn’t quite enough to cover all of his tuition costs. To help support himself, he got a job doing menial work at a local hospital, and was so enthralled with the things he saw and learned there that he knew his true calling was in medicine.
During his more experimental days as a collegiate youth, he also had a deep curiosity about more esoteric disciplines, and cultivated a great deal of knowledge about unusual, ancient and holistic methods of science and wellness from around the world.
It was also early in his college career when he met a fellow student and then-medical-school-hopeful named Dorian Cyrus, and the two young men became fast friends. As they were doing research together, they soon discovered they both were reborn gods--and it turned out that Dorian was Apollo reborn, and thus Galen/Asclepius's divine father. It was their treasured, shared secret, and the two remained very close friends from that day forward.
He was still in medical school when he met a young lady with whom he was quickly smitten. They married the summer after his graduation, and Dorian attended as the best man. Before long, they had a little girl whom they named Emily. Galen and his wife welcomed a second daughter, Haley, two years later.
Even while still a lowly intern, his uncanny talent within the medical field was drawing a great deal of attention, and his career was on a meteoric rise as one of the finest surgeons in Britain. He had a higher success rate with his patients than many other doctors with greater experience and skill, and was even able to solve many medical mysteries that stumped his peers. Despite his obvious ability, Galen drew a great deal of criticism from the medical community as he had a reputation for embracing alternative and experimental therapies and recommending them to his patients just as often as he did more standard procedures—but Galen didn’t mind. If anything, he seemed to revel in the attention, whether good or bad, and was quick to accept any opportunity to share his knowledge, often volunteering to speak and demonstrate at conferences and symposiums.
Although he dearly loved his wife and children, his work often kept him away from home, be it long hours at the hospital, on-call duties, or attending workshops and conferences. He came home one day to discover that his wife was having an affair with an American man who had been conducting research at Cambridge. The news was a harsh blow, and they divorced a few months later. He was even more devastated when his ex-wife was granted the custody of their young daughters, and then informed him they would be moving to the United States along with her paramour.
Not long afterward, he took a job at a prominent teaching hospital in Seattle in an effort to keep closer to his children, and so far has been thriving there as a practicing surgeon, but also participating in medical research and instructing new doctors.
» Personality: First and foremost, the reborn Asclepius is a kind and gentle soul at heart. He genuinely cares about people, and it is one of the reasons why he makes such a great doctor, since he takes the time to get to know his patients and make them feel at ease. He gives his patients all the care and consideration that he would want for a member of his own family, and refuses to take out malpractice insurance because both he and his patients know he will never, ever give less than his very best. He tends to be a soft touch, both with his hands and with his bedside manner. He can even be rather sentimental at times.
While he loves what he does and works hard at it, family is important to him too, and is as devoted a father to his two daughters as he can be. Although he tends to speak bitterly about his failed marriage if asked, he cannot bring himself to actually hate his ex-wife, and does his best to remain civil to her when they interact—for the sake of their girls, if nothing else. Generally, he tends to blame himself for what happened, and he has yet to show any interest in the possibility of remarriage.
As the son of Apollo (and decidedly a chip off the proverbial block), he does have an appreciation for culture and the arts, although he has only an average talent at best when it comes to things like music and poetry. He has learned to play a few instruments, but rarely practices them and generally prefers to be an audience member than a performer for such things. He occasionally indulges in archery and bowhunting for sport from time to time, but he takes pains to be sure to make use of as much of whatever he might kill as possible.
After a lifetime spent trying to stand out from the crowd (be it siblings, classmates or fellow doctors), he has a certain unorthodox side to him. He has mellowed quite a bit from his youthful rebellions, but he still is far more concerned with what he likes or thinks will work rather than what the status quo of society would ordinarily dictate.
He is not without his pride, however. He knows perfectly well that he is among the very brightest and best at what he does in the medical field—and he makes certain everyone else knows it too. Cocksure almost to a fault, he does not take kindly to anyone second-guessing him and he will rarely ask for help, even if he needs it. He does not back down from any challenge, even the seemingly-impossible cases. If there is a way to save a patient, he will do it, and the reasoning as to whether he does so out of genuine care for the patient or his own pride is often blurred.
Because of this, he hates to lose at just about anything he knows he's good at (and will frequently find himself in battles of one-upsmanship with anyone who claims to be better than he is when it comes to talent), but nowhere is this truer than in his work. Even though, logically, he knows he can’t save everyone who comes to him for treatment, he takes the loss of a patient under his care especially hard, and has been known to enter depressions for days on end if someone he is treating dies before they can be cured.
When he is feeling down, he doesn’t like to show it (lest he be accused of it interfering with his ability to do his job), and will often try to hide it under his typically-pleasant demeanor or deflect with humor. Most of the time, his sense of humor tends more toward the sly and witty, and he enjoys a well-timed wisecrack or two.
» Other Notes: Asclepius is decidedly straight in his orientation--he would either have to be exceptionally intoxicated or it would have to be a very special man for him to be attracted to a member of the same sex.
He knows English, Gaelic, Attic Greek and Latin.
He can drive, and his car is actually the one he owned in the UK--he had it brought over because he likes it, though it does earn him funny looks sometimes since the driver's seat is on the right.
Emily and Haley Oram will be regularly-appearing NPCs with the following PBs: Bailee Madison and Alina Chiara Foley, respectively. He has them every other weekend. Their birthdates are November 13, 2004 and September 15, 2006, respectively. Their heights are 4'2" and 3'5", respectively.
» Sample Journal: Among the great things about working at a teaching hospital are the stable hours, the renown, and the pay isn’t too shabby either. Among the downsides, however, are the hotshot medical students. Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh on them—I used to be one, after all. On the other hand, that’s exactly why I know just how bad they can be.
The other day, for instance, I was getting an early lunch, and I overhear this young chap from one of my classes telling someone on the kitchen staff to turn on the coolers, despite them being empty, just because “he was a doctor.” I couldn’t stop laughing after that, because I still can’t decide which was more inane: his request, or his reasoning. And to think that these are the future faces of medicine!
Well, they’re still young. With a bit of luck, I should be able to turn them into real doctors yet.
» Sample Log: “…now, I outline the risks so that you can make a fully-informed decision about what we’re going to be doing, Mrs. Johnson. But, let me assure you that this procedure is entirely routine, and that you have absolutely nothing to worry about.” Asclepius smiled kindly and gently touched the woman’s wizened hand. “You’ll be right back to your gardening and baking cookies for your grandchildren again before you know it. We’ll go ahead and schedule it for next Tuesday morning, then.” With that, he cheerily dismissed his patient and left the consultation room. He did have a procedure to perform in 20 minutes.
He was on his way toward Operating Room 3, when ran into one of his colleagues, Dr. Swanson, just outside in the hall—a young woman, just out of her residency.
“So, you aren't really going to be using that new procedure on Mr. Jensen, are you, Dr. Oram?” the other doctor asked.
“Sure. Why not?” Asclepius asked casually.
“Well… it’s just that… no one’s ever done it successfully before,” Dr. Swanson hedged.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s had plenty of success,” he said, dismissing her statement.
“But never before on a living human being,” she pointed out, “Never before when someone’s life was at stake.” He stopped.
“Listen,” Asclepius told her calmly but firmly, “I would never have even suggested it if I didn’t think it was not only possible, but viable. I personally know the doctors whose research made this procedure possible, have followed every single step of their work and double-checked it myself. I have outlined every possible risk and benefit to the patient and his family, and been perfectly clear that it is still considered highly experimental, and still he has agreed that this is probably our best option, all things considered. They trust me. You should too. I know what I’m doing. And besides…” He grinned at her as he headed off to go get prepped for the surgery. “…if anyone is going to go down in history for the first successful use of this treatment on a live patient, who better to do it than me?”
» Name: Ardruna
» Age: 26
» Journal:
mirisa_ardruna» Contact: AIM: Mirisa Erato, email: ardruna@gmail.com
Deity Information
» Pantheon: Greek
» Deity: Asclepius
» Reference: http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Asklepios.html, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/asclepius.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
» Divine Family: {mother & father} Apollo and Koronis; {spouse} Epione; {siblings} Many, many half-siblings; {children} Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, Meditrina, Panacea, Aglaea, Machaon, Podaleirios and Telesphoros. Also Aratus, by Aristodama.
» Mythology: Asclepius was the son of the mortal princess Koronis by the god Apollo, and arguably one of the god’s most famous and favored sons.
While Asclepius was still being carried in his mother’s womb, Koronis fell in love with a mortal man named Ischys while Apollo was away. Upon discovering his lover’s infidelity, Apollo ordered Koronis to be put to death. However, Apollo rescued their unborn son just in the nick of time through a Caesarean birth, and thusly dubbed the child “Asclepius” (“to cut open”). Apollo then sent the boy to be fostered and educated by the centaur Chiron.
While a kind and gentle child, Asclepius was a bright student in many disciplines, including hunting, and especially gifted in the healing arts. He learned of surgery, drugs, healing herbs and other medicines, as well as love potions, incantations and similar mystic arts that could affect mind and body.
He married a woman named Epione, and with her had six daughters and three sons, who often served as their father’s assistants. Though he loved them all dearly, he was especially fond of his daughter Hygieia.
Asclepius was also favored by Athena, goddess of wisdom, and she gave him the blood of Medusa, the Gorgon slain by Perseus. While the blood from the left side of Medusa’s body was deadly poison, the blood from her right side was able to restore life to the dead. In some cases, it is said that his learning to use the blood of the snake-haired Gorgon also enabled him to have mastery over the healing powers of snakes themselves, and thus his symbol became the snake-entwined staff. Another version claims it happened while he was to heal Glaucus, and a snake came and entwined itself around his staff while he was in thought, and he subsequently killed it. Meanwhile, another serpent came, bearing a healing herb in its mouth which it used to restore the first serpent to life—an herb which Asclepius himself later used to similar effect with his patients. Still others claim that he received the serpent-bearing staff as a gift from his father, Apollo.
With his amazing skills and special, secret tools of medicine, Asclepius was able to cure nearly any patient he met—and his fame spread far and wide, particularly for his ability to restore the dead to life. Many of his patients and their families offered him gifts of gold or other goods in thanks, and soon, the proud Asclepius began to expect such payments in exchange for his services. In one instance, despite being happily married and the father of several children, he accepted a night with a woman named Aristodama as payment, and sired a son named Aratus with her. Even the goddess Artemis approached him to ask if he would resurrect one of her favored followers, Hippolytus—which he did.
It didn’t take long before Hades realized that, because of Asclepius’s gifts, he was being cheated out of souls, and he complained to Zeus about it. Zeus could not allow such a thing, especially when Asclepius was receiving payment for it, and he struck the healer down with his lightning bolt.
Once again, Apollo wasted no time coming to his son’s rescue. Apollo not only slew the Cyclopes who fashioned Zeus’s thunderbolt in retribution, but he also argued for all the good that Asclepius had brought to mankind. Although he did have to punish Apollo for his interference, Zeus relented and raised Asclepius from the dead, immortalizing him both as a god and with the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent-Bearer.
Character Information
» Played By: Steve Valentine
» Journal:
ieter_amumon» Current Name: Galen Alistair Oram
» Birthdate: 09/04/1977
» Height: 6'5"
» Distinguishing Marks: Has numerous piercings in each ear, also has pierced nipples and navel, though he doesn't always wear them. Also has a snake tattoo on his right forearm
» Family: {mother & father} Sheldon and Miranda Oram; {marital status/spouse} Divorced approximately 1 year/ex-wife Maureen Jacobs; {siblings} Roscoe Oram, Charlotte Edwards, Neil Oram, Sophia MacKinley, Elizabeth Marshall and Fiona Oram (aged 37, 35, 32, 29, 27 and 26, respectively); {children} Emily and Haley Oram (aged 6 and 4, respectively); {pets} 1 six-month-old royal banana python named Sunshine
» Occupation: Surgeon, instructor and researcher at a prominent teaching hospital.
» Currently Residing In: Seattle, Washington
» Ability: He has an uncanny intuition when it comes to the health of the human body, enabling him to easily ferret out diagnoses and effective treatments, even when they are rare or unusual, and, while not a guaranteed cure-all, he can heal with just a touch.
» History: Asclepius has had few incarnations over the centuries.
In 997, Asclepius was reborn in Morocco as Muhsin ibn Hani' al-Nadir. There, he received one of the first formal degrees in medicine and was a practicing physician in a public hospital. He also had a reunion with a reborn Apollo during this lifetime, and they were close friends.
In his most recent incarnation, he was born as Galen Alistair Oram on September 4, 1977 in Scotland, the third of seven children. His parents were not wealthy, but they did everything they could to provide the best opportunities they were able to manage for their children. Being a middle child in a big family, young Galen was determined to find a way to distinguish himself from among his siblings, and though he tried a number of methods (including getting a fair number of piercings in his teenage years, only a few of which he still has), he did so most by being the best student he could be, and found himself to be especially good in math and science. He graduated from his secondary schooling at the top of his class.
His academic prowess paid off handsomely, and he was able to win multiple scholarships to Oxford, where he double-majored in biology and chemistry, though it wasn’t quite enough to cover all of his tuition costs. To help support himself, he got a job doing menial work at a local hospital, and was so enthralled with the things he saw and learned there that he knew his true calling was in medicine.
During his more experimental days as a collegiate youth, he also had a deep curiosity about more esoteric disciplines, and cultivated a great deal of knowledge about unusual, ancient and holistic methods of science and wellness from around the world.
It was also early in his college career when he met a fellow student and then-medical-school-hopeful named Dorian Cyrus, and the two young men became fast friends. As they were doing research together, they soon discovered they both were reborn gods--and it turned out that Dorian was Apollo reborn, and thus Galen/Asclepius's divine father. It was their treasured, shared secret, and the two remained very close friends from that day forward.
He was still in medical school when he met a young lady with whom he was quickly smitten. They married the summer after his graduation, and Dorian attended as the best man. Before long, they had a little girl whom they named Emily. Galen and his wife welcomed a second daughter, Haley, two years later.
Even while still a lowly intern, his uncanny talent within the medical field was drawing a great deal of attention, and his career was on a meteoric rise as one of the finest surgeons in Britain. He had a higher success rate with his patients than many other doctors with greater experience and skill, and was even able to solve many medical mysteries that stumped his peers. Despite his obvious ability, Galen drew a great deal of criticism from the medical community as he had a reputation for embracing alternative and experimental therapies and recommending them to his patients just as often as he did more standard procedures—but Galen didn’t mind. If anything, he seemed to revel in the attention, whether good or bad, and was quick to accept any opportunity to share his knowledge, often volunteering to speak and demonstrate at conferences and symposiums.
Although he dearly loved his wife and children, his work often kept him away from home, be it long hours at the hospital, on-call duties, or attending workshops and conferences. He came home one day to discover that his wife was having an affair with an American man who had been conducting research at Cambridge. The news was a harsh blow, and they divorced a few months later. He was even more devastated when his ex-wife was granted the custody of their young daughters, and then informed him they would be moving to the United States along with her paramour.
Not long afterward, he took a job at a prominent teaching hospital in Seattle in an effort to keep closer to his children, and so far has been thriving there as a practicing surgeon, but also participating in medical research and instructing new doctors.
» Personality: First and foremost, the reborn Asclepius is a kind and gentle soul at heart. He genuinely cares about people, and it is one of the reasons why he makes such a great doctor, since he takes the time to get to know his patients and make them feel at ease. He gives his patients all the care and consideration that he would want for a member of his own family, and refuses to take out malpractice insurance because both he and his patients know he will never, ever give less than his very best. He tends to be a soft touch, both with his hands and with his bedside manner. He can even be rather sentimental at times.
While he loves what he does and works hard at it, family is important to him too, and is as devoted a father to his two daughters as he can be. Although he tends to speak bitterly about his failed marriage if asked, he cannot bring himself to actually hate his ex-wife, and does his best to remain civil to her when they interact—for the sake of their girls, if nothing else. Generally, he tends to blame himself for what happened, and he has yet to show any interest in the possibility of remarriage.
As the son of Apollo (and decidedly a chip off the proverbial block), he does have an appreciation for culture and the arts, although he has only an average talent at best when it comes to things like music and poetry. He has learned to play a few instruments, but rarely practices them and generally prefers to be an audience member than a performer for such things. He occasionally indulges in archery and bowhunting for sport from time to time, but he takes pains to be sure to make use of as much of whatever he might kill as possible.
After a lifetime spent trying to stand out from the crowd (be it siblings, classmates or fellow doctors), he has a certain unorthodox side to him. He has mellowed quite a bit from his youthful rebellions, but he still is far more concerned with what he likes or thinks will work rather than what the status quo of society would ordinarily dictate.
He is not without his pride, however. He knows perfectly well that he is among the very brightest and best at what he does in the medical field—and he makes certain everyone else knows it too. Cocksure almost to a fault, he does not take kindly to anyone second-guessing him and he will rarely ask for help, even if he needs it. He does not back down from any challenge, even the seemingly-impossible cases. If there is a way to save a patient, he will do it, and the reasoning as to whether he does so out of genuine care for the patient or his own pride is often blurred.
Because of this, he hates to lose at just about anything he knows he's good at (and will frequently find himself in battles of one-upsmanship with anyone who claims to be better than he is when it comes to talent), but nowhere is this truer than in his work. Even though, logically, he knows he can’t save everyone who comes to him for treatment, he takes the loss of a patient under his care especially hard, and has been known to enter depressions for days on end if someone he is treating dies before they can be cured.
When he is feeling down, he doesn’t like to show it (lest he be accused of it interfering with his ability to do his job), and will often try to hide it under his typically-pleasant demeanor or deflect with humor. Most of the time, his sense of humor tends more toward the sly and witty, and he enjoys a well-timed wisecrack or two.
» Other Notes: Asclepius is decidedly straight in his orientation--he would either have to be exceptionally intoxicated or it would have to be a very special man for him to be attracted to a member of the same sex.
He knows English, Gaelic, Attic Greek and Latin.
He can drive, and his car is actually the one he owned in the UK--he had it brought over because he likes it, though it does earn him funny looks sometimes since the driver's seat is on the right.
Emily and Haley Oram will be regularly-appearing NPCs with the following PBs: Bailee Madison and Alina Chiara Foley, respectively. He has them every other weekend. Their birthdates are November 13, 2004 and September 15, 2006, respectively. Their heights are 4'2" and 3'5", respectively.
» Sample Journal: Among the great things about working at a teaching hospital are the stable hours, the renown, and the pay isn’t too shabby either. Among the downsides, however, are the hotshot medical students. Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh on them—I used to be one, after all. On the other hand, that’s exactly why I know just how bad they can be.
The other day, for instance, I was getting an early lunch, and I overhear this young chap from one of my classes telling someone on the kitchen staff to turn on the coolers, despite them being empty, just because “he was a doctor.” I couldn’t stop laughing after that, because I still can’t decide which was more inane: his request, or his reasoning. And to think that these are the future faces of medicine!
Well, they’re still young. With a bit of luck, I should be able to turn them into real doctors yet.
» Sample Log: “…now, I outline the risks so that you can make a fully-informed decision about what we’re going to be doing, Mrs. Johnson. But, let me assure you that this procedure is entirely routine, and that you have absolutely nothing to worry about.” Asclepius smiled kindly and gently touched the woman’s wizened hand. “You’ll be right back to your gardening and baking cookies for your grandchildren again before you know it. We’ll go ahead and schedule it for next Tuesday morning, then.” With that, he cheerily dismissed his patient and left the consultation room. He did have a procedure to perform in 20 minutes.
He was on his way toward Operating Room 3, when ran into one of his colleagues, Dr. Swanson, just outside in the hall—a young woman, just out of her residency.
“So, you aren't really going to be using that new procedure on Mr. Jensen, are you, Dr. Oram?” the other doctor asked.
“Sure. Why not?” Asclepius asked casually.
“Well… it’s just that… no one’s ever done it successfully before,” Dr. Swanson hedged.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s had plenty of success,” he said, dismissing her statement.
“But never before on a living human being,” she pointed out, “Never before when someone’s life was at stake.” He stopped.
“Listen,” Asclepius told her calmly but firmly, “I would never have even suggested it if I didn’t think it was not only possible, but viable. I personally know the doctors whose research made this procedure possible, have followed every single step of their work and double-checked it myself. I have outlined every possible risk and benefit to the patient and his family, and been perfectly clear that it is still considered highly experimental, and still he has agreed that this is probably our best option, all things considered. They trust me. You should too. I know what I’m doing. And besides…” He grinned at her as he headed off to go get prepped for the surgery. “…if anyone is going to go down in history for the first successful use of this treatment on a live patient, who better to do it than me?”
