Personal Data
Current
Mailing Address
Paul
Schnafield
Email: pschanfield@comcast.net
Present
Activity Status: Working
Tell
us about your community activities:
Volunteer at United Jewish fund council, J.C.C. Maccab, Games of St,
Paul, Bridge Club, Bike Group, Book club, Maimondes St. Paul Chairman
Family
Status: Married with 2 children
Professional Experience
What
path has your career taken since your residency? Include military
service, private practice, academic career, teaching and research
accomplishments.
Private
Practice in
Teaching
Family Practice residence
Teaching
UMN medical students
Mentoring
of Premedical Students
Stroke
Director St Johns NE
Residency Recollections
We
are interested in anecdotes and experiences from your residency years.
Include interactions among fellow residents and teaching staff.
Residency War story: A
fellow resident paged me stat to help him. He was trying to do a funduscopic
exam on a mentally and physically handicapped seizure patient, when her eye (a
real eye) slipped out of the orbit and was hanging there by the neurovascular
bundle. We were able to replace the eyeball back in the socket and her vision
returned shortly thereafter!
A.B. Baker story: He was quizzing the medical students as to why testing for proprioception
is not a reliable localizing sign longitudinally in the spinal cord. Many
neurophysiological answers were given by the students a
couple even were quite accurate (in my humble opinion), although none
were acceptable to the Master Neurologist, Dr. Baker.... His answer:
Proprioception is a poor longitudinal cord localizing sign because WE tell you
to check it only at the big toe. If it were more valuable, we would tell you to
also check it in the hand.
A.B. Baker story: He was rounding with Ms. Clipper and the chief resident when
they noted a lot of noise coming a patient room.
Shortly thereafter, a junior neurology resident came out of the room. Dr. Baker
glares at the resident and inquires about the situation. The junior resident,
somewhat nonchalantly and confidently announced that the patient was in the
throes of a pseudoseizure a hysterical generalized seizure, and she would be
fine. The professorial stare intensified. The silence became rather deafening.
After a time, Dr. Baker announced that in his entire career he had only
diagnosed hysterical generalized seizures correctly in one person. You know
what that person died of eventually, doctor? The junior resident, sweating and
stuttering, of course, indicated that he did not know... I tell you son, she
died of status epilepticus! Now get back into the patient room and tend to her
until her spell has passed.
Dr. George Flora charming,
clever and a gifted clinical neurologist and a most exceptional teacher.. . .but when it came time to publishing and doing research,
well....
Dr. Joe
Resch everyones (especially mine) favorite person and neurologist. He was the glue that held the Department of
Neurology together. He was second in command and seemed quite willing to remain
in the background, while ghost writing articles, papers and books. He was a
clean desk type of a person. He gave everyone a chance to succeed, a wonderful
mentor. Born to be a grandfather, and a lovable one at that.
Easy to underestimate despite being so smart, wise and savvy, as he was soft .
Residency war story: We had
admitted a schizophrenic, institutionalized patient to the neurology ward to
see if her were complex partial seizures. She was a large, rather mean looking
woman who would suddenly go into a trance-like state and start wandering about
the hospital. The nurses observed that if you stepped in front of her, she
would turn away and keep walking. With this knowledge, we were able to guide
her back to her room untouched, where she sat down and continued to stare trance-like,
straight ahead. She began to rock. A junior neurology resident (me) tried
unsuccessfully to engage her in conversation. So, I gently placed a pillow on
her lap and asked if she needed anything else... She suddenly leaped to her
feet, threw the pillow aside, grabbed me, pulled off my glasses, twisted them
until the lenses popped out, returned my damaged spectacles, sat down, and
announced that, one should interrupt me when I rocking. That said, she resumed rocking and staring straight ahead.
Dr. Milton Alter: The chief
of the
Additional Thoughts
Share your thoughts
regarding the changes in medicine since your residency. In your opinion,
is Neurology positioned well for the future?
Neurology as the world
turns: As a University of Minnesota neurology resident in the middle 1970s, I
was blessed with a wonderful training program - centered at the University, but
most importantly, allowing each resident to train also at two county hospitals
and an outstanding Veterans Hospital. As neurologists, we seem to be more
useful in the practice of medicine than I had ever imagined. Our job is a broad
one. We must diagnose with accuracy. We must guide the patients, their families
and the other health care providers in evaluation and treatment of many long
term problems. We are often there at the end of life, and therefore faced with
significant ethical issues and grieving families Today new challenge in the
training of residents, I believe, is to educate them in sub-specialization
skills required by the rapidly advancing neurological sciences, while
maintaining their interpersonal skills of listening to patients and families
and with them as people. How our training programs will guide us in this
difficult challenge will determine the future of clinical neurology. I believe
that clinical neurology was developed here in the Midwest, in