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Lessons Learned From
A Career in Emergency
Medicine
Amal Mattu, MD, FAAEM, FACEP
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland
Lessons Learned From
A Career in Emergency
Medicine
Lessons Learned From
A Career in EM
Amal Mattu, MD, FAAEM, FACEP
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Amal Mattu, MD, FAAEM, FACEP
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Lessons Learned From
A Career in EM
EMERGENCY
DEPARTMENT
The Princess Bride vs. EM
• Fencing  stabbings
• Fighting  …fighting
• Torture  fingers and tubes in every orifice
• Revenge  fibromyalgia, dizzy, percocetopenia
• Giants  morbid obesity
• Monsters  neurosurgeons, orthopods
• Chases  finding admission beds
• Escapes  pts. leaving without being seen
• (True?) love  chlamydia, GC, trichomonas
• Miracles  bringing back the mostly-dead
Princess Bride Truisms
Princess Bride Truisms
• Death cannot stop true love…all it can
do is delay it for a while
Princess Bride Truisms
• Never get involved in a land war in Asia
Princess Bride Truisms
• Inconcievable!!
Princess Bride Truisms
• There’s not a lot of money in revenge
Princess Bride Truisms
• People in masks cannot be trusted
Princess Bride Truisms
• People in masks cannot be trusted
Princess Bride Truisms
• Don’t mock people’s pain
Princess Bride Truisms
• Chocolate coating makes it go down easier
My Favorite Princess Bride
Life Lessons For a Career
in Emergency Medicine
“He’s only mostly dead. Mostly
dead is still partly alive!”
Find the positives,
be an optimist!
“Be a Tigger, not an Eeyore.”
-- Randy Pausch
(1960 – 2008)
Find the positives,
be an optimist!
“Mine for gold, not dirt.”
-- Dale Carnegie (?)
(1888 – 1955)
Prepare to face the
6-fingered man
Prepare for the future…now!
Prepare for the future…now!
Prepare for the future…now!
Prepare for the future…now!
Prepare for the future…now!
Develop a resistance to
iocaine powder
Develop a resistance to
iocaine powder
“Who says life is fair?
Where is that written?”
“Who says life is fair?
Where is that written?”
“If you spend your time comparing yourself to
others you will become vain or bitter, for there
will always be greater and lesser persons than
yourself.”
–Desiderata
Beware the 3 hazards of
The Fire Swamp
The 3 hazards of
The Fire Swamp
The Flame Spurt
“How far you go in life
Depends on you being
Tender with the young,
Compassionate with the aged,
Sympathetic with the striving,
And tolerant of the weak and strong
Because someday in life…
You will have been all of these.”
-- George Washington Carver
(1864 – 1943)
Lightning Sand
Lightning Sand
Lightning Sand
• Mr. Miyagi: “Either
karate do, or karate
do not. Karate do
half-way  get
squished like
grape.”
Lightning Sand
• Mr. Miyagi: “Either
karate do, or karate
do not. Karate do
half-way  get
squished like
grape.”
• “Emergency
medicine, same
way!”
ROUS’s
ROUS’s
Boo! Boo! Boooo!
“You had love in your hands, and you
gave it up. You treated it like garbage!”
Treat those you love
well, and don’t let go
Treat those you love
well, and don’t let go
You are making a difference!
You are making a difference!
You are making a difference!
You are making a difference!
You are making a difference!
Thanks for all you do!
amalmattu@comcast.net

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Amal Mattu on Lessons from The Princess Bride