The Bruce Campbell Interview

The Doctor Anonymous Show is proud to welcome Dr. Bruce Campbell to Show 36 on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. He is an ear, nose, and throat specialist (otolaryngologist) and author of the blog called Reflections In A Head Mirror. Here's a quote from his bio:

Bruce Campbell, MD, grew up in the Chicago area, graduating from Purdue University and Rush Medical College. He completed an otolaryngology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a head and neck surgery fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has been on the faculty at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin since 1987.

Even though this resume is pretty impressive, what really impresses me is the high quality posts that this guy writes. For example, here is one of Bruce's early posts simply entitled "Testimony:"

Several days each year, I teach high school health classes about smoking. The kids, no doubt, understand that a middle-aged physician is going to tell them that smoking is bad. As I begin, they are polite but disengaged. As I run through statistics about teen tobacco use, they look around, stifle yawns, and do their math homework. Then I show them videos I made of some of my patients.

One woman in her late 40’s had a recurrent cancer. She is lying in a hospital bed, gaunt, pale, and exhausted. She has a feeding tube in her nose. Her voice is hoarse and her movements deliberate. On the video, I ask her if she thinks her smoking had anything to do with her cancer. “Oh, definitely,” she responds. Then, spontaneously, she continues, “Every time I see someone smoking, I’d just like to tell them about me and how much I have suffered.” She takes a deep involuntary breath and begins to cry. I have watched the scene dozens of times and it still affects me.

As she wipes her eyes, the kids in the classroom are transfixed to the screen and absolutely silent. I honestly do not know if this woman, now long dead from her cancer, has had an impact on individual kids’ smoking behavior, but I like to think that her testimony has made a difference in at least a few of their lives.

I hope you're able to join us for the show, because we're going to have a great time. Following the interview with Bruce, I just be talking about stuff for the last 30 minutes of the show or so. Even feel free to call in, if you like. Check out the blog tomorrow for more details!