#6 News Log: From Needle Stick to Cure for Hepatitis

Summary- If you were a doctor, what would you fear most? Losing a patient? Making a mistake risking malpractice rates to sky rocket? Or being pricked by an infected needle at work? Well, for many doctors it is becoming infected from a needle puncture on accident. Many have witnessed this take place and wonder what would happen if they were the one's in the situation. Everyday, doctors witness patients experiencing the excruciating process of marching toward death with hepatitis C and AIDS. Most lose hope and cannot resume habitual tasks done everyday of their lives for either fear of the past or complete loss of faith and credence. However, this was not the case for Dr. Douglas Dieterich. Dieterich was accidentally stuck by a needle contaminated by hepatitis C while working at a hospital as a third-year medical student. From that point on, Dr. Dieterich experienced enervating bouts of jaundice, fevers, and exhaustion. But Dr. Dieterich pushed through this disease and continued practicing medicine, soon becoming a national expert in hepatitis C. He has generated numerous clinical trials and drugs to counter the disease in order to better understand the virus. Now, he is cured of hepatitis C, thanks to a drug coalition he was involved in studying.
Dr. Dieterich is currently a professor at Mount Sinai Medical Center. "In the dark days of 1980s, I remember being really sick and thinking, 'Damn it. I hope I can help someone else before this virus gets me.' Now it looks like I can. I think it's the beginning of the end of hepatitis C, and that is one of the happiest statements I can make." In the end, thanks to Dr. Dieterich, we now have the tools to "start kicking some viral butt!"


My response?- After reading this article for the first time, i just thought to myself, this man never quit. He never lost faith even when life seemed to be fading away. He never showed signs of weakness, even when his disease was at its peak. And because of that determination and perseverance, Dr. Dieterich was able to muster up a cure for millions, including himself, infected with hepatitis C. Imagine your doctor informing you that you are infected with a life threatening disease that there is no cure for. Then someone, infected just like you, finds the cure because they were determined to save you first, even before themselves. Dr. Dieterich strongly emphasized the importance of finding this cure or at least an affective treatment before he himself, passed. What really became an eye-opener for me was that Dr. Dieterich had shown this perseverance in his past. He dreamed of always becoming a doctor, but was not accepted to medical school the first time around. In the end, he did not give up and luckily was accepted. Had he not been, this cure might not have come out for another several years. I highly admire Dr. Dieterich because I have always dreamed of becoming a doctor but I admit, school is not a breeze for me. I have to work very hard and sometimes the results do not reflect the effort exerted into what I do. But becoming a doctor is a dream I am extremely passionate about and would feel empty without at least attempting to give it a shot. The fact that Dr. Dieterich was not accepted to med school his first time around, made me think, well at least I have a second shot if plans go awry. As long as I have the determination and perseverance that Dr. Dieterich possessed, why can't I accomplish becoming a doctor? And look how he's contributed.
Now discussing the actual cure, I think Dr. Dieterich has shed light upon those infected with hepatitis C. Yes, it is a debilitating disease, and yes many treatments will not be affective. But we have the tools now; the tools that will cure a disease once labeled incurable. With this, doctors and researchers can unlock new treatments and cures for possibly the other forms of hepatitis. All in all, Dr. Dieterich's resiliency, miracle, and commitment has shed hope on a promising future for modern medicine.
      http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/from-needle-stick-to-cure-for-hepatitis/?ref=health