Inspirational Quotes
... by famous people with learning disabilities or differences
Learning Disability - Dr. Epstein
My physician once commented - "you have to be a brain to be a brain
doctor", that is, neurologist. Dr. Epstein was a neurosurgeon. Besides becoming a world famous pioneer in brain stem and spinal cord surgery,
he was also a pioneer in helping to make hospitals less frightening, "healing environments" for children and their families.
He also wrote this very inspiring book about the lessons his patients taught him
on how to live life to its fullest: 'If I Get to Five - What Children Can Teach Us about Courage and Character' - Fred Epstein, M.D., and Joshua Horwitz
Fred J. Epstein, 68, Pediatric Neurosurgeon
By DOUGLAS MARTIN, New York Times
Published: July 12, 2006
For all his popularity, Dr. Epstein as a boy suffered what he later characterized as learning disabilities. He told Greenwich Time that he read slowly, had trouble making sense of numbers and wrote the letter 'e' backward.
"I was told that I couldn't go to medical school, that I couldn't be a doctor," he said.
But he said he studied many more hours than other students and graduated from New York University and New York Medical College. He did his internship and surgical residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. He did his neurosurgical residency at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center, while serving in the Army reserves.
In 1983, he was named professor of neurosurgery at N.Y.U. and two years later director of the division of pediatric neurosurgery. It was there that he saw the resemblance of operable tumors in the cerebellum and, until then, inoperable ones in the brain stem.
Dr. Epstein (pioneer in pediatric neurosurgery and patient-friendly facilities):
[quote - Copyright © 2004 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.]
"When I was in my early years (first through fifth grade) learning disabilities were an unknown
entity. Those of us that had these problems were simply viewed as unintelligent, and from my
perspective the greatest sadness was that we viewed ourselves the same way."
-- Dr. Epstein
5 - Charles Schwab »
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