Michael G. LaMar, MD, KTJ, USN-Ret.

I graduated from the U of AZ Honor’s Program with a degree in Philosophy in 1984. If memory serves, I won the award for the most outstanding thesis that year. Go Irish!

In the Fall of 1984, I matriculated into the College of Medicine and graduated with my MD in 1989. For those of you doing the math, that is one extra year. I was in a roll-over auto accident just before school started and went half-time during my first year while I recovered from the injuries.

After graduation, I began an internship in Internal Medicine in Los Angeles at a UCLA affiliate program. I met my wife the first day of internship. We’ve been together as a couple since December of that year.

I left Internal Medicine because it did not fit me. I completed a residency in Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai in 1992. I worked as a primary care Pediatrician in locum positions.

I decided that primary care was too sedate for me. I knew Intensive Care was more to my liking but it left little room for a wife and family. I decided to return to my roots and trained in Emergency Medicine.

I had started Medical School wanting to go into Emergency Medicine. It was the field I had cut-my-teeth on as a medic in the Navy and I liked it. I had been talked out of it by some well intentioned faculty while I was a student. Their/my bad.

I had planned to live in a small town and concentrate on seeing sick kids in the ED. I grandfathered into Forensics in hopes that it would improve my technical skills and allow me to assist the legal system in putting away child abusers.

Unfortunately, my wife developed some serious medical problems and I was forced to take a job in a large urban area where she could get the care she needed, and still needs. I live out on the hills above the USMC base at Miramar and commute 30 minutes to work. It is less urban.

I work 36 to 40 hours each week in the ED. The population is mostly Geriatric and Baby-Boomer. My job is to try and rescue them from the consequences of a lifetime of inappropriate choices. I am still seeing kids, which helps me guard against cynicism.

I have married “above my station” as we Irish like to say. I married a former Swedish Olympian and model who graduated first in her class from UCLA Medical School. We have a 15 year-old son who is a third degree black-belt, a champion Irish dancer and runs the hurdles on the Varsity track team as a freshman, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. And he got his mother’s good looks as well. I tell him I want to come back as him in my next life.

We had a second son who went back to God after six months with us. We were then blessed with twin girls. They are 12 years-old and the equal of their brother on every front except that they do not enjoy a team sport; which is strange considering that they are both tomboys.

I am now nearly ready to retire. The hospital has adopted a new computer system that is consuming provider time on all levels. Nurses, doctors and technical staff now spend the majority of their time staring at LCD’s and filling in data points that some insurance company or governmental agency insists we supply.

I now do my entire old job, about 25% of the nurse’s job, all of the ward clerk’s job and soon, the entire billing clerk’s job. So what used to take five minutes to do with a pen and a Dictaphone, now takes 45 minutes on a computer. I am now more a data entry clerk and much less a physician.

It leave’s me less time to do what is the real art in Medicine, i.e., finding common ground and establishing a bond with the patient. It is the reason I will retire as soon as possible.

When I retire I will seek out an NGO that needs a physician to just see sick folks without all the nonsense that now consumes much of a doctor’s time in the American system. I’ll visit far-off lands, meet interesting people and do my best to ameliorate their suffering.

You know, the reason I chose this profession in the first place, i.e., to heal or ameliorate the suffering of mankind.

Best of Luck!

Michael G. LaMar, MD, KTJ, USN-Ret.
BA- Philosophy- Summa Cum Laude-Honors
BS- Biology-Summa Cum Laude
MD-1989
Boarded: Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Forensics
Awards: Military, academic and civil awards upon request