10 years ago,
I got a phone call that changed my life.
At the time, I was a cardiologist
at UCLA,
specializing in cardiac imaging techniques.
The call came from a veterinarian
at the Los Angeles Zoo
An elderly female chimpanzee
had woken up with a facial droop
and the veterinarians were worried that she had had a stroke
They asked if I could come to the zoo
and image the animal's heart
to look for a possible cardiac cause
now, to be clear
North American Zoos are staffed
by highly qualified, board certified veterinarians
who take outstanding care of animal patients
but occasionally, they do reach into the human medical community
particularly for some speciality consultation
and i was one of the lucky physicians
who was invited to help
I had a chance to rule out
a stroke in this chimpanzee
and make sure that this gorilla didn't have a torn aorta
Evaluate this macaw for a heart murmur
make sure that this californian sea lion's paracardium wasn't inflammed
and in this picture,
I'm listening to the heart of a lion
after a lifesaving collaborative procedure with veteranarians and physicians
we drained 700 cc's of fluid
from the sack in which
this lion's heart was contained
and this procedure,
which i have done on many human patients
was identical with the exception of that paw and that tail
now, most of the time
i was working at ucla medical center
with physicians, discussing
symptoms, and diagnoses and treatments
for my human patients
but some of the time
i was working at the Los Angeles Zoo with veteranarians
discussing symptoms, diagnoses and treatments
for their animal patients
and occasionally, on the very same day
i went on rounds at ucla medical center
and at the los angeles zoo
and here's what started coming
into very clear focus for me
physicians and veterinarians were essentially
taking care of the same disorders in their animal and human patients
congestive heart failutre, brain tumors,
lukemia, diabetes, arthritis, ALS
breast cancer,
even psychiatric symptoms like depression,
anxiety, compulsions, eating disoders
and self injury
now, I've got a confession to make
even though i studied comparative physiology and evolutionary biology,
as an undergrad,
i had even written my senior thesis on darwinian theory,
learning about the significant overlap between
the disorders of animals and humans
it came as a much needed wake up call for me
so i started wondering,
with all of these overlaps,
how was it that i had never
thought to ask a veteranarian
or consult the veterinary literature
for insights into one of my human patients?
why had i never, nor had any of my physicians friends
and colleagues, who i asked,
ever attended a veterinary conference?
for that matter, why was any of this a surprise?
i mean look, every single physicians
accepts some biological connection
between animals and huamns
every medication that we perscribe
or that we've taken ourselves
or we've given to our families
has first been tested on an animal
but there's something very different about
giving an animal a medication or a human disease
and the animal developing congestive heart failure
or diabetes or breats cancer on their own
now maybe some of the surprise
comes from the increasing
separation in our world
between the urban and the non-urban
you know, we hear about these city kids who
think that wool grows on trees
or that cheese comes from a plant
well today's human hospitals
are turning into increasingly
these gleaming cathedrals
of technology
and this creates a psychological
distance between the human patients who are being treated there
and animal patients who are living in oceans
and farms and jungles.
but i think there's an even deeper reason
physicians and scientists,
we accept intellectually that our species, homo sapiens
is merely one species, no more unique
or special than any other
but in our hearts, we don't completely BELIEVE THAT
I feel it myself when I'm listening to motzart
or looking at pictures of the Mars Rover
on my macbook
i feel that tug of human exceptionalism
even as i recognize the
scientifically isolating cost
of seeing ourselves as a
superior species apart
well, I'm trying these days
when i see a human patient now,
i always ask, "what do the animal doctors know about this problem
that I don't know?"
and "might i be taking better care
of my human patient if I saw them as a human animal patient?"