The Calling
by
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"Is that all?" I said. "No. I’m glad you reminded me. This office will be your guidance and information center. If you have any questions or need anything, anything at all, do come in, or call. Here is the number. Do you know how to use the telephone? A lot of people have difficulty with it at first. "No, I haven’t tried to use it yet," I said, "but I have some questions." I was stunned, thinking, "What kind of casually run place is this?" And I was sinking fast. "No medical school bulletin?" I thought. "No tuition payment at registration, no course descriptions, no building location map, no housing office, no meal plans, no course textbook list, no bookstore? Just show your name, show a degree from some college and some proof of having had pre medical courses and you’re in medical school? That can’t be. How did these schools get such a good reputation?" I remembered that a Swiss Professor had just got the Nobel Prize in medicine, which, of course, I couldn’t understand. "I’d better think of getting out of here before I used up my GI Bill for nothing," I thought. " Did you say you had some questions?" She said. "Do I have questions," I thought, "my God, where do I start? " "Do you have a medical school bulletin?" I thought there would be a good place to start and so, I took out the list that Jay gave me and looked at it. What he wrote was, "Find out when the courses start, anatomy, histology, physiology. I’ll tell you where they’re given." "Tell me, again, what is a medical school bulletin, she asked. "All the Americans ask about that." "It’s a catalog, Mlle, it tells what courses are required and gives a description of each course and who teaches it." "Do you need such a thing? Everyone knows what the first year medical school courses are. They are the same all over the world. They are anatomy, histology and physiology. Here, the Professor teaches them, himself, personally. You’ll know his name the first time you meet him, if you don’t already know it. As for course descriptions, they, too, are the same all over the world. Anatomy has not changed since Vesalius. It’s the same for the other courses, all updated, of course. "Is there a list of textbooks? You have to have a list of textbooks," I said, nervously. "Not an actual list, but you’ll get some textbook titles from the Professor. It depends on what language you speak. "What language?" "Of course. In physiology, for instance, I think Professor Frisch recommends Best and Taylor, or Starling for the Americans. They’re both in English." "What textbook does he use? I mean, to teach from." Professor Frisch’s first language is German. You’d be lost using a German text." She saw that I was not assuaged. Suddenly, she seemed to understand. I saw that she was holding back a smile. "Your pre-clinical examination will be on physiology. If you don’t know Professor Frisch’s exact words, but you know physiology, you will do well.
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About the Book
After World War II, Irving Radich, an eager, fun loving but self involved young man goes to medical school in Switzerland where the curriculum is in French. Although he can barely read his acceptance letter, he persists, wanting to fulfill what he believes to be his calling. His first stop is Paris where he meets an army deserter and foolishly involves himself in a black market currency exchange. In Grenoble, he learns French and mistakes friendliness for a sexual invitation. Through his encounters with professors, patients and women whose values are different from his own he slowly matures. While at school colorful professors teach him lessons in life along with the art of medicine. The enthusiasm of his appealing and eccentric fellow students Stanley, the genius, Mike, the dealer, Tzuri, the fanatic and Ben, the born surgeon, further fire his passion for his chosen field, while the reader learns some simple basic medicine along the way. After many humorous and heartwarming adventures, fulfills his dream and returns home, now a healer. As an intern in the emergency room, he discovers that life depends as much on the human qualities he has developed as on the knowledge he has gained.
About the Author
Dr. Rettek has been writing fictionalized accounts of his adventures seemingly forever. He identifies with Marco Polo who also wanted to tell about the wonders of his many rich and varied experiences. He wrote Myron’s World, a collection of short stories about a 12-year-old child growing up in the Great Depression. It describes a life shared by millions of first generation Americans who created their own values as they struggled in a world for which they were ill prepared For over twenty years Dr. Rettek was involved with people at their most open and vulnerable moments as a family practitioner, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His experiences led him to write articles for Private Practice, a publication for doctors, including How I Found An Old Cure For New Problems. When the Air Force was recruiting physicians he joined as a Reservist and was trained in Aerospace Medicine. His trouble shooting assignments included bases in the United States and Europe. When he retired as Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, he was the oldest crewmember on flying status with prior WW II service. More recently, his longstanding involvement with art developed into a screenplay, Molly and the Wine Dark Sea, about love, loyalty and the entrapments of art dealership. Interested in photography he wrote a three-act play, Valentine, a supposal about the life of Eugene Atget who, for many, was the greatest photographer that ever lived. He has also written a small volume of poetry and a manual, Bring God Into Your Life, a simple ‘how to’ approach to God, meant for people with a limited religious background. Pending publication is a book dealing with the concept, Kingdom of Heaven as it changed throughout the ages. It includes the time of separation of Christianity from Judaism. He and his wife, Susan, a jewelry designer, live in New York by the sea where they enjoy their children and grandchildren and continue to celebrate the ordinary in their lives.