Dear Dr. Hemant Bhatt Sir
I am extremely grateful to SBCF for the opportunity to attend observerships in the US. I write this hoping to give a glimpse of what I experienced during my rotation at TPMG Heart and Vascular Center, Virginia with Dr. Mrugesh Soni.
On the first day of my UCSE, when I entered Dr. Soni’s office, he welcomed me and stood up to shake my hand. I wasn’t expecting this at all because of being used to the formal culture of Indian medical institutions. As it was my first rotation, I was a little nervous, but he was so warm and amiable that it completely vanished. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Dr. Soni is impressive in every way or that he is one of the few very cool people I have ever met in my life. The patient flow at his hospital is voluminous. My colleague Dr. Meet Patel and I saw patients of diverse cardiac pathologies, cultures, and socioeconomic strata. This gave us exposure to varied circumstances that could arise while practicing. Dr. Soni’s patients love him. I knew that being meticulous at taking history is important, but he made me realize that gently cutting off the patient to move the flow of interaction towards a more relevant area is equally crucial. I have learned a lot about patient communication from him. He always reiterated that completely relying on lab tests is not prudent, rather a thorough history taking and physical examination will open a lot more doors for you to reach the correct diagnosis.
He is an interventional cardiologist, and so on top of us getting to see him interact with patients with cardiovascular diseases, we got to see him perform Intra-arterial catheterization. Now, for all the people who haven’t been in a cath lab before and have a shadowing experience coming up with him, let me tell you guys, you are in for an absolute treat. We watched a master at work. Good music playing while he performs, added to the escapade. It amazed us that there are very few cardiologists in the US who perform cath from the left side and he is one of them. After each procedure, he would discuss the case with us while showing us the X-ray images on the monitor. This was just so awe-inspiring. We saw ECGs, Stress Tests, 2D Echocardiograms, and a Transesophageal Echocardiogram as well. We would eagerly wait to discuss the case after the procedure was done because he would make us look at it in a way that revolutionized our thinking patterns. I especially loved our discussions of basic concepts of cardiology and cardiac-related pharmacology.
Dr. Soni’s rapport with his staff and technicians is also something I hope to achieve when I practice medicine in the future. With the environment he has created, he doesn’t have colleagues working with him, rather they are friends and family. They were as affable towards us as he and were also quite involved with our learning process there. Hence, I would also like to thank Courtney, Mrs. Julie, Christina, Kelsey, Brandy, Heather, Valerie, Shateece, and Mark.
Every time he made us meet someone in the hospital, he would introduce us as “upcoming hotshot doctors”. This was incredibly uplifting. I am quite certain of the fact that every residency applicant who is going to shadow Dr. Soni is going to have a marvelous time. Dr. Soni told us that “always keep cordial relations with your nurses or they would make your life a living hell” and “never take shortcuts in life”. These words of wisdom are going to stay with me forever. I cannot thank Dr. Soni enough. He is truly motivational and a great role model. We came looking for an experience but are moving forward with a beautiful memory.
I am forever in your debt, Hemant Sir. I aim to make Shivani and you proud. SBCF is truly doing phenomenal work