From teen drug user to long-term recovery to recovery advocate to medical school to suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Physicians are human and you will find plenty of doctors who use drugs. I know someone who climbed out of that hole. I dare anyone in that industry to contradict me.

It's terribly hypocritical to have denied this talented young woman a chance to have a brilliant career in the medical field. She had left the drugs behind. It's unbelievable that she was ostracized for mistakes she made as a teen. Seriously disappointing.

Medicine is an extremely stressful profession with long hours and little room for error. An error or lapse in judgment can cost a life. The stress could cause a relapse of the drug use and having accessibility to drugs as a physician can be tempting to a recovering addict who is forever in recovery and prone to relapse. When you put things in perspective, it is logical she would be turned down for a residency. It’s sad but too much at stake to take a chance on her. I wonder if anyone talked to her about her slim chances of finding a residency before she decided to go to medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Medical professionals who experience addiction often have to choose between treatment of their careers because of the ability to prescribe drugs. It happens to people mid-career as well.

These are the stories our preteens need to hear. Len Bias scared the crap out of me as a teen.

You know, you're not the first person to tell me that (Len Bias). It seems to have hit a certain generation of 1980s kids like a sternum punch. That he could go so easily was frightening. I've seen drug counsellors tell his story to kids even today.

My husband is 40 and never tried the (abundant, would have been free) cocaine at his college even one time because of Len Bias.

My husband is 51.
He originally was going to go to Virginia Tech, but he decided on the University of Maryland *because* he was such a Len Bias fan... he was incredible.

My husband started at Maryland 3 months after Len Bias graduated.

My husband experimented with drugs in high school, however after Len Bias died, he never touched another drug again THAT'S how profoundly affected he was.

These stories are so upsetting.

[Anonymous]

I went to HS with Leigh in Augusta. She dealt with issues like most teens but I couldn’t be more proud of how she turned her life around. Ironically you would think she would be the poster child for addiction recovery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And her choices, Orthopedics or Emergency Med are both difficult to match.

Had she gone the route of family medicine in possibly a more rural area she likely would have matched. Slog through residency and then move if you need to. Not kill yourself.

I feel sad for this woman and her family. Honestly, someone close to her should have recognized that this might not be the best path for someone with mental illness. But in our society we tell everyone they can become whatever they want, when that’s not always the best advice.

Orthopedics is a very tough choice. She should have known that was a no go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Medicine has always been very unforgiving of drug or alcohol use which makes sense given that physicians have incredible access to drugs. What happened to this girl is not unique.
The fact that she killed herself sadly supports medicine's decision not to train her. There are many people who attend medical school and can't complete residency training for a variety of reasons (addiction, financial, academic).
They go on to use their MD without doing a residency (research, pharmaceutical work , etc). These people have table their dreams, shift directions and make it work. They don't decided to end it all.

Also, given that she completed an internship year (first year of residency) means she was eligible to work as an attending MD ...

This. The bolded.

I hesitate to speak ill of the dead, but she did elegantly make their point for them.

This is so nasty.

This woman was not well, and was troubled, and you know what? There are plenty of successful practicing physicians who have similar mental issues.

I know of at least one highly successful physician who recently passed away from a drug overdose.

That doesn’t change that PP makes good points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an employer it’s just too much liability to have her in a situation where she has access to powerful drugs and holds patient lives in her hands. Orthopedic Surgery and ER were possibly among the worst choices for her.

Way too many addictive medications around in those fields. But I feel bad for anyone committing suicide.

[Anonymous]

I have a long term friend who flew through Cornell, scored perfect on MEDCATS , Chief resident etc etc. Very smart guy but mental illness. It was a lot of tough choices but he pivoted and now works in medicine in a different way. This woman’s advisors should have said something — and they probably did. But that doesn’t mean she listened. Suicide is never the right choice and I feel very bad for her and her family. But there are other ways to choose after a non match.

[Anonymous]

She was a drug addict. Of course I wouldn't admit her to my program. A relapse would be brutal, the accusations that she stole drugs from patients would fly, and the temptation to write her own scripts for drug use would be overwhelming.

Why didn't she choose something else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why medicine is full of privileged whites and increasingly Asian profession. There is no room for people from lower SES backgrounds many of whom are POC to make mistakes. I feel like richer parents can make these types of mistakes go away.

She was a drug addict with a 7-year prison record. How is that a 'mistake'?

[Anonymous]

No offense but her problem here is that she felt she deserved way too much. A result of the 'every kid gets a medal' parenting these days.

In March of 2020, after again failing to match for the third year into a residency program, she was completely devastated. In Leigh’s eyes, she would never secure a job in medicine at the level she aspired.

As plenty of people stated she could have gone for a less competitive residency which would not be entirely based on the distribution of painkillers and medical opoids that she had previously shown an addiction. Had she gone or tried to place outside of a major urban area she would have become a MD. Maybe a pediatrician or a general practitioner or a radiologist. Hell, becoming an addiction and recovery specialist would have been perfect.

She assumed she had to be Addison Shepard and would take no less.