Dr. Mike Halberg

Monica, Henry, and I just returned from a great trip out to Portland, ME.

Aside from seeing the girls (meeting Milena!), we were out there to participate in Mike’s residency-graduation.  It was a great event – Mike won the “Resident Teacher of the Year” (<– may not be exactly right) award.  A great honor and the only award given to his class.  The highlight of the evening (for me) came after the following setup:

1. The head of the program (<– I think) was speaking about how some situations only result in a patient surviving when every decision is made correctly — at the correct time — in the correct sequence.  … and one of those situations occurred on a day when he and Dr. Mike Halberg were working the med-tent at a marathon.  On that day, a man who had just finished a half-marathon was “not feeling well”.  In reality, he was having a heart attack.  Mike recognized it, made all the right decisions, and saved the man’s life with chest compressions and AED.
2. He went on to talk about how the residents shouldn’t be discouraged by a lack of “thank yous” from patients.  The patients are often having the worst day of their life and may not be in any shape to deliver such a message.

At that point he invited up the “surprise speaker” – none other than the man who Mike had saved at that marathon.  It was an incredible speech as he not only expressed his thank-yous (and thank-yous to all the residents on behalf of the patients he was representing) but also listed some people who’s lives would be much different if a single mistake had been made: wife, children, grand children, and the list went on — powerful stuff.

Congratulations Mike!

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