Amal Mattu on Lessons from The Princess Bride

Lessons Learned From A Career in

Emergency Medicine

Amal Mattu, MD, FAAEM, FACEPProfessor and Vice Chair

Department of Emergency MedicineUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine

Baltimore, Maryland

Lessons Learned From A Career in

Emergency Medicine

Lessons Learned From A Career in EM





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


• Death cannot stop true love…all it can do is delay it for a while


• Never get involved in a land war in Asia


• Inconcievable!!


• There’s not a lot of money in revenge


• People in masks cannot be trusted


• People in masks cannot be trusted


• Don’t mock people’s pain


• 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!





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 lifeDepends on you beingTender with the young,Compassionate with the aged,Sympathetic with the striving,And tolerant of the weak and strongBecause 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!





Thanks for all you do!

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Health & Medicine

Amal Mattu on Lessons from The Princess Bride