What draws generation after generation into medicine? Several Southern California doctors reveal just how and why their family trees are firmly planted in the medical field. Compelling role models and mutual understanding of the demands are just the start. A family tradition in medicine is based on love.
Satinder Swaroop, MD, didn't really nudge his children toward medicine as a career, but he didn't exactly dissuade them either. Instead, he received the highest compliment a physician--and a father--can receive. His son and his daughter admired his example enough to follow in his footsteps.
With his wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law all sharing his line of work, Dr. Swaroop, a Fountain Valley cardiologist, isn't alone in having a family full of MDs. Physicians across Southern California watched their parents or grandparents helping sick people get better and decided to join the profession themselves. Or they watched their own sons and daughters transform from wide-eyed copycats, donning plastic toy stethoscopes and scribbling important "prescriptions," into colleagues.
What draws generation after generation into a field cynics find new problems with every day? For one thing, the reality that medicine is still honorable, important and respected. Years spent observing someone working long hours in difficult circumstances to make a difference in patients' lives, for another. Other times, it's the strong desire to make the family proud and carry on a meaningful tradition. Most important, medicine's draw is the opportunity to heal, just like it was for the first physician in the family.
Venzila Swaroop, MD, Satinder's wife, knows that well. As a young girl in Mumbai, India, she witnessed a lot of malnutrition and infectious diseases in children. "That was primarily responsible for my decision to choose pediatrics as a specialty," she says. More than most physicians, she had to struggle to get her degree. "I was discouraged a lot, as my dad in particular seemed to feel that the medical profession was not a good one for women." Those objections were certainly not part of the picture when her own daughter, Asha, chose to become a physician as well.
For the Swaroop family members in medicine, collaboration is key. "We seem to enjoy a lot of mini discussions at family get-togethers," Venzila says. "Our children have also consulted us often when they have an interesting or difficult case. I guess they do not mind asking for advice from the old folks--and I am happy to share my perspective from the old school." Now, none of the Swaroops actually work together as physicians. Venzila has retired from active practice, but does volunteer as needed in her husband's office. Even so, they have attended some medical conferences together.
Son Raj Swaroop, MD, is an internist; his wife, Bindu Kota Swaroop, MD, is an internal medicine resident. "From a professional perspective, it's great to be able to quickly generate informal second, third and even fourth opinions from trustworthy sources on difficult cases," he says. "From a personal perspective, we enjoy being able to relate to the work the others do and know that they appreciate how difficult and also how rewarding our profession can be. Although we don't like when it happens, we can understand and accept that sometimes our work will intrude into our family time." Further, Raj says there was never any question that he'd be a physician. "We learned from the example set by our parents that being a doctor can be a fulfilling and satisfying life."
Of course, Raj's parents also pointed out that being a doctor can be tough. "They knew going into it that there will be times when patients die," Satinder explains. "They also knew the number of hours on evenings and weekends that you have to spend away from home. And on the business side, it was clear to them that there is too much involvement by third parties. But at the end of the day, you have to balance things. Other professions have frustrations, too--but not nearly as much personal satisfaction." Dr. Satinder Swaroop became president of the Orange County Medical Association this month.
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Sometimes the reasons behind a family tradition are obscured by the passage of time, and other times they are abundantly clear to the newest family members. Mercie DiGangi is a third-year medical student and the daughter of Steve Tarzynski, MD, MPH, chief of pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente, West Los Angeles, and the granddaughter of Marian S. Tarzynski, MD, a retired internist living in Chicago. DiGangi underwent life-saving emergency surgery shortly after being born and, although she couldn't possibly have remembered it, she imagined herself as a doctor as soon as she could talk.
Indeed, her proud father says, she colored a picture of herself as a doctor when she was 4. "It was a real calling for her," Dr. Tarzynski says. "She's always been drawn to it." Now she's deciding whether to pursue general surgery, pediatrics or obstetrics/ gynecology. "I'm so proud to have such big and talented footsteps to follow in," DiGangi says. "There's more than just the tradition of medicine being passed on. It's a way of life and a thought process."
Dr. Tarzynski couldn't be happier about DiGangi's path. "I know a lot of doctors try to talk their children out of medicine; I don't think that's right," he says. "There's always been somebody hassling doctors, and that's not going to change. But if you love medicine, you love it." He remembers learning to love medicine by watching his father. "He would take me on rounds. And he used to talk about his cases around the dinner table. He never pressured me. He just showed me what it was like."
The senior Dr. Tarzynski remembers those conversations, too. "We talked about how doctors help and what medicine can do besides pills and shots," he says. "We talked about the personal relationships doctors have with patients as we try to help them recover from illnesses. Steve in particular became more and more interested in my practice."
The elder Dr. Tarzynski learned his love of medicine the hard way: He saw firsthand how it saves lives. "I was 11 years old when my father had a heart attack. He had to have injections, so I learned how to give him shots. I was participating in my father's care, and it made me feel very proud," he says. And speaking of proud, when the first doctor in the family heard that the latest had been accepted into medical school, he says, "the buttons just popped off my shirt."
