5.9.2021.1

Howie and I were walking on the New Haven Green one sunny day. He was a premed student, and I was a sophomore chemistry major.

We noticed a small crowd of people on the other side of the Green, and went over to see what was going on. There was a middle-aged guy on the ground twitching. Everyone was transfixed.

Howie very calmly bent down and put his hand on the man’s neck, feeling for his pulse. Then he just stayed there for a minute watching him. The man gradually stopped twitching. “Has anyone called an ambulance?” Howie asked. There was one on the way. We left.

Sometime after that I received an invitation to apply to an accelerated medical school program. After much uncertainty, I ended up starting medical school at the beginning of my senior year, on the same day that Howie started medical school at Yale.

I had never wanted to become a doctor. However, after I did commit to medical school, I decided that I wanted to be able to save the life of someone who had collapsed on the street. I therefore became an anesthesiologist. Howie became an expert in cancer prevention and public health.

What impressed me the most about my brother that day was not anything that he did, but his stance and his demeanor. Even as a premed student, Howie was already a doctor. He was ready to deal with whatever problem arose, and his sense of calm radiated out to the entire group of people there, and to his patient. He inspired me to become a doctor.

I told Howie this story last year. He said simply “Oh yeah, I didn’t really do anything” in his typical self-effacing manner.

So modesty is another quality that he is modeling, a good lesson for me.