March 30 is National Doctors Day. It was proclaimed by President George Bush on that very day back in 1991. The President said it's important to recognize our nation's physicians because medicine is a special calling chosen only by people who understand the immense responsibility it entails. Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Ravindra Joshi at Trinity Health explained that special calling and why he chose to be a doctor. (nats) "Hi Amanda, I am Dr. Joshi. What brings you here today?" Dr. Joshi is an orthopedic surgeon, which is something he said he was just meant to do. (Dr. Ravindra Joshi/Orthopedic Surgeon, Trinity Health) "I was in construction, I liked to build things and all that stuff. But then I realized there was no human factor involved in building. There's no healing involved and I said, 'you know I think it's better to go into medicine.' " He said he loves having the ability to help people change their lives. (Dr. Joshi) "I had a patient who was an 85-year-old lady. She came with her four daughters in my office and they said, 'my mom can't even walk. She's in a wheelchair.' So we evaluated her and decided to replace both knees and both hips. A few months later, one of the daughters I met her in the mall and she tells me, 'I can't find my mother,' she's now everywhere. Walking everywhere, taking her car, going to her friends playing cards. Her quality of life was so improved and not only did the patient get better, but the whole family could feel the happiness in their mother." With stories like that, he said that makes his job easy. (Dr. Joshi) "There is really no hard part. Really, we work very hard but the joy we get by seeing the patients getting better, it means nothing. You know when you're working hard it doesn't make me feel that I'm spending so many hours working here. The hardest job is I think, why are there only 24 hours in a day? I wish there were more hours in a day." (nats) "Just keep me posted. And if anything gets worse you call me." Dr. Joshi said he studied cardiac surgery and neurosurgery, but he stressed how much he took to orthopedics because of how much he could help people improve their over all quality of life. Source
