The Brain and All That Makes Us Human (with Dr. Jay Wellons)

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pediatric neurosurgeons manage some of the most complex diseases in children, operating on the delicate and precious organ that makes us essentially human. Dr. Jay Wellons is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the author of All That Moves Us, a memoir that offers an intimate and gripping account of the triumphs, terrors, joys, and pathos he encounters on a daily basis. In this episode, Dr. Wellons joins us to discuss his path to neurosurgery by way of English literature and family medicine, his faith as an anchor amidst his challenging work, and reflections on what the human dramas involving the most vulnerable children he has cared for has taught him about resilience, courage, and grace under pressure.

In this episode, you will hear about:

A discussion of the range of procedures pediatric neurosurgeons perform - 1:58
How a fascination with neuroanatomy drew Dr. Wellons into neurosurgery, and how his literary studies have impacted his patient care - 3:58
The origin of Dr. Wellons’ book All That Moves Us and his experiences with a personal health crisis - 8:59
What it is like to operate on one of the most intricate and delicate parts of the human body - 18:00
How Dr. Wellons deals with the weight of unsuccessful procedures, and how he carries on - 27:51
Forming relationships with the families of very young and often very ill patients - 31:12
A discussion of spiritual faith and its place in the life of a surgeon who sees so much tragedy - 35:27
Dr. Wellons’ advice to students, trainees, and clinicians on how to stay connected and hopeful in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges - 40:52

Dr. Wellons is the author of a book All That Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His Young Patients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience, as well as the article “How the Summer Camp Doctor Earned His Stripes ” for Garden & Gun magazine.

You can follow Dr. Jay Wellons on Twitter @JayWellons5

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.4	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:04.8	And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.9	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.2	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?
0:23.2	What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare,
0:33.1	from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a
0:37.6	career's worth of harder and wisdom.
0:40.3	Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that
0:44.0	are by turns heartbreaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.4	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.9	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of
0:57.8	life's biggest questions.
0:58.8	Pediatric neurosurgeons manage some of the most complex illnesses in the hospital, operating
1:08.6	on a delicate and precious organ that makes us essentially human.
1:12.6	Our guest today, Dr. J. Wellens, is chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at
1:17.2	Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the author of All That Moves Us, a memoir that
1:22.7	offers an intimate and gripping account of the triumphs, terrors, joys, and pathos he
1:27.9	encounters on a daily basis.
1:30.5	In this episode, our conversation traverses richly diverse and surprising terrain, from
	...

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