Commencement Address Carroll University May 8, 2011 The Ginkgo ...

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I felt a failure that day, but I never forgot that leaf and tree and that it’s the principles and the process – it’s Ginkgo Think! That is why I have given each graduate a Ginkgo leaf in their programs today to symbolize that it’s the principles and process of thinking – Ginkgo Think – that is what will serve you well. The next four years here on this campus flew by – with teaching by many great professors like Dr. Ted Michaud, who I was so glad to see here today. I met many wonderful people and fellow students, including my dear wife of 38 years – Ann Shields Leighton – class of 1970. I worked like crazy and learned many great Gingko Think lessons. But like it is for you after today, it was now time for me to move on. Because of Drs. Christoph, Michaud, MacIntyre, Bayer and others encouraging me to stretch myself like the faculty has done for you, I got into medical school at Columbia University in New York City. Even more remarkable was that I was presented with a letter from an anonymous benefactor who said he would pay for the first three years of medical school on one condition – that someday, I would pay for all the medical school costs of a future medical student when I was able. Strangely enough, that letter was on stationery with a Ginkgo leaf imprint. Ginkgo lesson #2: If you had help to get here (and we all have), make it a habit to remember this special graduation day. Remember your struggles and when you are able, give monetary support to this university and to the students who follow you (and ask them to do the same). If we all did that, we really wouldn’t have to worry about keeping this special Carroll University here for the many next generations. The first years of medical school at Columbia were brutal. I worried the science and writing and teaching I learned on this campus might not be good enough compared to what my fellow students from Yale, Harvard, Swarthmore, Stanford and MIT had had. I was wrong again! – because I had been prepared to think. I had been prepared for the unexpected – I had Ginkgo Think. I learned many important lessons at Columbia, working with pioneers of medicine, many Nobel laureates, first cardiac catheterization, discovery of a virus that causes cancer, discovery of four base pairs of DNA and many other incredible things. There were so many special experiences, but one stands out as Ginkgo lesson #3: I was on a pediatric cancer assignment with a distinguished physician of the time, Dr. James Wolfe. We were asked to see a 3-year-old little girl with a big cancer growing out of her skull. It was the size of a baseball breaking through the skull. She was comatose, having jerking constant seizures. Her parents were in her room, quietly crying in despair. As we walked in, several nurses, a social worker and an ethicist asked us why were we there “That little girl doesn’t need you and she certainly doesn’t need any treatment. She needs to be left alone to die. It’s a hopeless situation.” “The parents have called us,” Dr. Wolfe replied. "We are here because the parents have asked us to be here." We pulled a curtain around the tiny helpless seizing child to examine her. Imprinted on that curtain was the Ginkgo leaf. As we talked with the parents, the parents were clear – do anything you can, anything to help our daughter, even if it helps for only a short period of time. Dr. Wolfe turned to me and said, “Well, Dan, what should we do Treat this child and be ready for the criticism which will surely follow, or do nothing” I looked up and saw that Ginkgo leaf on the curtain again. It seemed here that the principle was listen to the 2
parents who loved this child. The answer was treat. Dr. Wolfe wrote the order for the new chemotherapy called daunorubicin. The hospital staff fought him every step of the way. Committees met, lawsuits were threatened, nurses refused to give it, so we gave it ourselves. That’s what the Mom and Dad who loved this child so much wanted us to do. Three days later, like a miracle, the tumor had dramatically decreased in size, the child was up running around, alert and loving. “Great idea to treat the child," all the nurses and the rest of the hospital staff said. “We certainly did the right thing, didn’t we" So, Ginkgo lesson #3: the ethics demand that you listen to what the individual person wants (be guided by them), not what others think they should have. Or, if the person can’t speak for himself, listen to the people who love that individual person. You will never get it wrong. Solomon saw who didn’t want the baby cut in half! Over the years, I have been privileged to care for many people, to give many new anticancer agents – some that didn’t work and some that did work. Recently, our science has improved so there are more and more effective therapies with fewer and fewer side effects. There has been a decrease in the absolute number of cancer deaths in this country for the last four years. This is because of both early detection and improved treatment. At present, one in 20 Americans over the age of 20 are cancer survivors. Cancer is at least 200 different diseases and that is why it is such a tough adversary. But there are at least 30 of those 200 different types of cancer that can be totally cured. Overall, 68% of all patients (regardless of stage of cancer) can be cured – four times better than it was in 1971. Progress will continue to be made, but not fast enough for any of us. Graduates, I believe you will see all of the types of cancer cured in your lifetime. I have cared for many patients with all types of illnesses – helped many, and lost many. I have seen just about everything – pain, suffering, hope, hopelessness, caring, altruism, triumph. I have seen people in Haight-Ashbury with drug overdoses, jumpers off the Golden Gate Bridge – some who survived and many who didn’t – and even a mother of 18 who named her newborn number 19 that I delivered after me – Daniella because that newborn was a girl – all of these experiences, starting from this small liberal arts school in the Midwest called Carroll University. Graduates, who knows what you will experience! Patients have taught me how to live; they have taught me how to die. And they have taught me the last Gingko lesson #4: which is that you must concentrate on each individual person you meet, identify with them and try to help them in every way possible. A recent patient, Mrs. L., a delightful 78-year-old woman, came to see us with the following request. “I have tried every treatment possible against my cancer. Can you biopsy it Run some tests on it to see if there is anything that will work for me now I know I am near the end. I just want to make sure I am not missing something that could help me.” Mrs. L. wanted the new approach – precision personalized medicine. We biopsied Mrs. L.’s tumor and profiled it in detail, but did not find a target for a therapy that would help against her cancer. I had to deliver that disheartening news. But I told her what we could do is offer her the best possible personalized pain and symptom control. And that helped her – a lot. 3
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Commencement Address Carroll University May 8, 2011 The Ginkgo ...

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