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10 years ago,

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I got a phone call
that changed my life.

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At the time, I was
a cardiologist

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at UCLA,

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specializing in cardiac imaging techniques.

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The call came from a veterinarian

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at the Los Angeles Zoo

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An elderly female chimpanzee

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had woken up with a facial droop

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and the veterinarians were worried
that she had had a stroke

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They asked if I could come 
to the zoo

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and image the animal's heart

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to look for a possible cardiac cause

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now, to be clear

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North American Zoos are staffed

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by highly qualified, board certified veterinarians

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who take outstanding care of animal patients

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but occasionally, they do reach into the human medical community

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particularly for some speciality consultation

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and i was one of the lucky physicians

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who was invited to help

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I had a chance to rule out

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a stroke in this chimpanzee

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and make sure that this gorilla 
didn't have a torn aorta

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Evaluate this macaw for a heart murmur

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make sure that this californian sea lion's
paracardium wasn't inflammed

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and in this picture,

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I'm listening to the heart of a lion

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after a lifesaving collaborative procedure with 
veteranarians and physicians

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we drained 700 cc's of fluid

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from the sack in which

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this lion's heart was contained

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and this procedure,

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which i have done on many human patients

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was identical with the exception of that paw and that tail

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now, most of the time

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i was working at ucla medical center

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with physicians, discussing

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symptoms, and diagnoses and treatments

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for my human patients

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but some of the time

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i was working at the 
Los Angeles Zoo with veteranarians

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discussing symptoms, diagnoses and treatments

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for their animal patients

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and occasionally, on the very same day

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i went on rounds at ucla medical center

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and at the los angeles zoo

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and here's what started coming

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into very clear focus for me

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physicians and veterinarians were essentially

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taking care of the same disorders in their animal and human patients

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congestive heart failutre, brain tumors,

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lukemia, diabetes, arthritis, ALS

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breast cancer,

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even psychiatric symptoms like depression,

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anxiety, compulsions, eating disoders

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and self injury

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now, I've got a confession to make

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even though i studied comparative physiology
and evolutionary biology,

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as an undergrad,

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i had even written my senior thesis
on darwinian theory,

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learning about the significant 
overlap between

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the disorders of animals and humans

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it came as a much needed wake up call for me

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so i started wondering,

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with all of these overlaps,

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how was it that i had never

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thought to ask a veteranarian

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or consult the veterinary literature

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for insights into one 
of my human patients?


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why had i never, nor 
had any of my physicians friends

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and colleagues, who i asked,

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ever attended a veterinary conference?

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for that matter, why was any of this a surprise?

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i mean look, every single physicians

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accepts some biological connection

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between animals and huamns

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every medication that we perscribe

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or that we've taken ourselves

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or we've given to our families

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has first been tested on an animal

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but there's something very different about

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giving an animal a medication or a human disease

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and the animal developing congestive heart failure

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or diabetes or breats cancer on their own

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now maybe some of the surprise

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comes from the increasing

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separation in our world

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between the urban and the non-urban

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you know, we hear about these city kids who

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think that wool grows on trees

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or that cheese comes from a plant

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well today's human hospitals

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are turning into increasingly

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these gleaming cathedrals

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of technology

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and this creates a psychological

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distance between the human
patients who are being treated there

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and animal patients who
are living in oceans

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and farms and jungles.

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but i think there's an even deeper reason

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physicians and scientists,

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we accept intellectually that our species, 
homo sapiens

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is merely one species, no more unique

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or special than any other

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but in our hearts, we don't completely BELIEVE THAT

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I feel it myself when I'm listening to motzart

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or looking at pictures of
the Mars Rover

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on my macbook

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i feel that tug of human exceptionalism

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even as i recognize the

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scientifically isolating cost

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of seeing ourselves as a

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superior species apart

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well, I'm trying these days

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when i see a human patient now,

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i always ask, "what do the animal
doctors know about this problem

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that I don't know?"

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and "might i be taking better care

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of my human patient if I saw
them as a human animal patient?"

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here are a few examples of the kind
of exciting connections


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that this kind of thinking 
has led me to

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fear induced heart fialure

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around the year 2000,

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human cardiologists discovered
emotionally induced heart failure

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it was described in a gambling father 
who had lost his life's savings

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with the roll of a dice

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in a bride who had 
been left at the alter

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but it turns out that this 
"new human diagnosis"

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was neither new, nor
was it uniquely human

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veteranarians had been diagnosing

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treating, and even preventing emotinally

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induced symptoms in animals

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ranging from monkeys to flamingos

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to deer to rabits

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since the 1970s

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how many human lives might have been saved

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if this veterinary knowledge had been

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put into the hands of ER docs and cardiologists?

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self injury

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some human patients harm themselves

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some pluck out patches of hair

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others actually cut themselves

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some animal patients also harm themselves