cargo hopeful

How to become a doctor for real

ouch!

Learflyer

I actually believed Tony. It feels like my wife cheated on me or something. This internet is creepy sometimes....

Mateo303

Great post RXS. This forum needed a dose of non-fiction after the many posts that were creating an unrealistic and incomplete view of what it is to be a Physician.

Just like aviation it's a long hard road with plenty of sacrifice, personal and financial. Any real doctor will be quick to share that side of the story even if they do love their job.

cargo hopeful

Hey Learflyer and dd89, I feel you guys man, I was so disappointed, not that I was being led by someone who claimed to be something that he isn’t but that I wasn’t astute enough to figure it out myself. I too had aspirations of practicing medicine at one point in my life but I withdrew because I’d be doing solely for financial reasons and wouldn’t be completely satisfied.

I should have double checked what Tony was spewing on here because after 9/11 he would have started med school in 2002 and wouldn’t finish until 2006. And residency is at a minimum 3 years so he should be finishing his 2nd year residency and starting his 3rd late this year. I just never followed up on it. I feel kind of foolish about it. Oh well…

For shame… (shaking my head left to right)

Cubdriver

Your timeline assumes he was not already accepted to med school by 9/11, which I do not think he ever said anything about that. He may come back on here and claim that he was already done with the MCAT and accepted to a med school by 9/11 and was perhaps ready for his first semester by Sept. 2001. It seems compressed, but it still seems workable to me. I could have missed something and I have been only half-following TM's posts over the months, but if he got hired at a clinic last year I still think it could have happened.

I will say this though, he failed to even begin to come up with a plausible answer to my rebuttal of his misuse of the article on doctors that are negative here. I personally do not care if he is real or not, but he tends to make high-flying statements without backing them up. All real doctors are trained in statistics and know how to do empirical research- I was in a premed curriculum at one point so I know. One can only take it as disingenuous that he will not use his knowledge to support his claims if he is a real doctor.

Mateo303

I fixed what you wrote.

RXS676

Yes, he did. He was facing layoff from American Eagle after 9/11, so he was working as an airline pilot until at least then. You can't work as an airline pilot until 9/11 and start med school the same year. He claims to have went to LSU; according to the LSU medical school website, their program starts in August, as most medical schools do. In addition he also said that he was hospitalized with double pneumonia AFTER 9/11, and it was that hospitalization that was partly responsible for him wanting to be a doctor. Even if he had started applications prior to 9/11, there is no way he could have started medical school until 2002.

And that's IF he was already fully prepared to apply as of the application process beinning in fall of 2001. But he also said that as of 9/11 he had taken only a few online science courses. Which is inconsistent with having taken the MCAT prior to 9/11, a statement he made AFTER i questioned his timeline. It is also inconsistent with being able to pull together an application by November of 2001 for enrolling is medical school in 2002.

RXS676

AND even if he HAD started medical school in 2001, he would not be finished with even the shortest residency until summer of 2008. He was claiming to be making 300K and having a "payor base" as early as March of 2008.

Cubdriver

It's a pretty fishy timeline and his responses to challenges are disingenuous as well. Maybe DE should attempt to take him up on his offer to visit!

RXS676

I have heard of some cases where people have gotten jobs after medical school without a residency. For example I believe you can get a job doing research with the National Institutes for Health with only an MD and without a residency.

It doesn't pay 300K though. And TM has specifically mentioned treating patients in the ER.

I have never assumed he was a fraud, and I still would be open to hearing an explanation. As I have said many times, I have made my assumptions and the limitations of my knowledge clear. I am open to being corrected. Maybe there's something I don't know or understand. Maybe he was exaggerating to make his point (something that we're all guilty of from time to time), and I think we would all appreciate that to be cleared up.