Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Like the time in medical school when he was just learning how to deliver babies, and the nurses came rushing down the hall with a pregnant woman in tow. The baby's head and a hand had already emerged.
"Hurry up," they hollered, "you better come and catch the baby so you can get credit." In his rush toward the delivery room, he became so flummoxed he forgot to tie his scrubs securely.
Once inside the delivery room, he was forced to make a quick decision: catch the baby or lose his pants.
The nurses gaped at him, gaped at the baby and exclaimed: "Wow - It's a little boy!"
The way Shulman sees it, it is that kind of self-deprecating humor that is going to get physicians and patients through the great American health-care debate.
"Everybody is going through some discouraging times," he said. "I think it's stressing everybody out."
Shulman believes laughter should be in every physician's medical bag.
The Emory University School of Medicine professor has made a second career out of his stand-up comedy routine and his books.
One of them, "Doc Hollywood," the story of a would-be plastic surgeon who heads for big bucks in Hollywood only to get sidetracked in a small South Carolina town, was made into a movie starring Michael J. Fox.
Shulman, who was en route to Roanoke to speak Monday night to the Roanoke Valley Academy of Medicine when he was temporarily sidelined at the airport, expects filming to start this fall on another movie, based on his book "The Backyard Tribe."
That story focuses on an American doctor who goes on a weeklong medical mission to Kenya and finds a little girl in need of heart surgery. Her family doesn't want her to travel to America by herself, so the doctor hands over his American Express card and suggests they come along with her.
Weeks later, he goes to the airport to meet the little girl and finds that not only her family, but her entire tribe has come to the United States - on his credit card.
The tribe camps out in the doctor's backyard, making for some humorous cultural exchanges.
When Shulman addresses groups such as the Academy of Medicine, he pokes gentle fun at physicians, but he believes humor is one of the best therapies.
"I think humor, used appropriately, can be very effective," said Shulman, 48. "The types of humor that are most effective are the ones when you can basically make fun of yourself."
by CNB