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?"