Residency Reflections Bruce A. Norback. M.D. 1972-76

In July 1972 I came directly from my two year stint as Chief of Aerospace Medicine at Edwards Air Force Base to Station 50 at the U as a first year neuro-resident. What a comedown. To be a grunt again, drawing blood, putting down NG tubes, etc. after having flown in high performance jet fighters the week before.

Since I had been at the U of M for medical school, resident sessions with Dr. A.B. Baker were only slightly less stressful. We had a good group of 12 residents in our class and got along well as we rotated through the U of M Hospital, the (old) HCGH, the (old) V.A. Hospital and Ramsey General Hospital during the first twelve months. Besides Dr. Baker, memorable staff people included the wry Dr. George Flora, the energetic Dr. Milt Atter, the calm and collected Dr. Milt Ettinger, the wild and crazy Dr. Manuel Ramirez, and the truly kind gentleman, Dr. Fernando Torres. Other notables included Dr. Art Klassen (the only man who could fall asleep in Todd Amphitheater and still not miss a word of the presentation), Glenda Christensen, R.N. (mother to us all), Dr. William Kennedy and his sidekick Rick Saheinen (who allowed us into the temple of EMG if we were good), Doctors Jim Zeese, David Webster, Kris Ansaari, Ron Cranford and others.

Call days at the county hospital were often hectic. I never did a day consult there since my name went into that old ledger book so many times during the night resulting in getting months ahead in the rotation. It did serve me well for my next 30 years at North Memorial Medical Center, also a Level I trauma hospital. I did not, however, miss giving up carotid sticks, especially those done at the HCGH “dark room” where single-plane Snachez-Perez X-Ray equipment was considered “state of the art.”

Second year went by in a blur of Peds, Path & Psych. As I started my last year, I was again on Station 50, this time as the new Chief Resident. Preston Harrison, the departing chief, just finishing up his residency, gave me the call beeper with this sage advice…” Son, after 3 months on this floor, you can go out and manage any Howard Johnson Motel in the country.”

Looking for a real job in 1975 got scary, so I did the natural thing and stayed at the U with Dr. Torres for a year until I got that sheepskin also. In my travels, it was amazing to me how many people were impressed with the fact that I had trained under Dr. A.B. Baker and some of them even knew about the “little black box.”

As I finished my EEG Fellowship, I had three whole days off before I started my first call weekend and my association with the Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology.

Three decades have passed since I left the University of MN where I experienced excellent training from dedicated teachers. Neurology is moving so fast and amazing new discoveries are just around the corner. The next generation of residents will have many exciting clinical breakthroughs and I hope they can overcome the financial and political problems that are now part of the medical corporate environment.