His Dr. Glaucomflecken alter ego has been a balm, not only for his colleagues, patients, and a pandemic-weary public, but also for himself. His early work was squarely in the lingua franca of the platform: short, comedic videos synced to popular songs. How Dr Glaucomflecken Overcame Death to Get Internet Laughs, ED Doc Fired for COVID Tweets Talks to Biden, Returns to Job, Med Student's Cardiac Crisis a COVID-Era Medical Mystery, 'You Are the Heroes,' Comedians Tell Clinicians. This resonates with a lot of people.. Flanary still doesnt know what caused his heart to stop beating. So Dr. Glaucomflecken is an ophthalmologist and he hilariously makes fun of all other specialties. They cant be funny. His Dr. Glaucomflecken alter ego has been a balm, not only for his colleagues, patients, and a pandemic-weary public, but also for himself. OK, OK, send me all your consults, he told the audience. Lillian Gissen For Dailymail.Com. Since then, it has evolved to incorporate satire of the US healthcare system, academic publishing, and the interpersonal conflicts that are pervasive in the medical system. In February alone, Dr Glaucomflecken released nine installments of his ongoing 60-second video series, in which a hapless medical student is thrown into the deep end by various specialists,. Product type. I dont know if the specialty makes the personality or the personality is drawn to the specialty, its a chicken or egg kind of thing. Orthopedic doctors are bros who love the gym. Flanary is alive because his wife, Kristin, noticed his irregular breathing and performed CPR until an EMT could arrive and shock his heart back into regular function. "I wasn't really looking for a boyfriend or anything at the time," Kristin recalls. In closing, she asked the audience to pay attention to the families of patients, the ones who are walking through the trauma alongside them. He does this very clever combination of explaining some complex things clearly and humorously, Tworek said. Becoming a partner in his own practice changed the risk calculus. [2] Biography [ edit] "What I post, what I say, what I advocate for, has a little more weight behind it." My "Dr. Glaucomflecken" alter ego began as a creative outlet to tell painfully specific ophthalmology jokes and to cope with my own health challenges. That's my name.". Its just been a very serious field. From $25.00. Oregon ophthalmologist Will Flanary, better known in social media circles as his comedic alter ego Dr. Glaucomflecken, recounted his May near-death cardiac arrest experience and the heroic efforts of the 9-1-1 dispatcher, Flanary's wife, and the responding EMS crew who worked to revive him. Download the free Audible app to start listening on your iOS or Android device. TikTok video from Dr. Glaucomflecken (@drglaucomflecken). To contain his mess, Kristin made him a Glauc-Tok Prop Box, where he keeps everything from costume elements to his children's discarded toys. "He doesn't want people to feel bad for him, he doesn't want to wear his heart on his sleeve." A short format, very easy to edit and shoot, and it would work on my schedule. Many people with loved ones in the hospital become "forgotten patients" or "co-survivors," she says, using terms developed by healthcare outcomes researchers Kirstie Haywood, PhD, and Katie Dainty, PhD. "It was the dispatcher that I spoke to who recognized what was going on," Kristin says. Its my coping mechanism. Kristin talked about how they are building a new version of normal, healing themselves with medicine, humor, advocacy. Sometimes Ill still have to do some research, so Ill get on Reddit message boards and read what people love about being a neurologist or a cardiologist, so Ill get a lot from that. Hes also starting to think bigger. I checked it out and it seemed perfect, Flanary said. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. The criticism that rankles Flanary most is that his humor is "unprofessional." I am Lady Glock Flecking. Read our privacy policy for more info. At this point, I feel back to normal. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Dr. Glaucomflecken lists . Ciara Conlon, Written by: "And then I remember getting to know him and going, 'Oh crap.' She wrote about her experience in the Journal of Cardiac Failure. After surgery to remove the cancer, they were ready to move forward. Morning Forecast The evenings are for family, and a standing commitment to make dinner for his wife and two daughters. For nonmedical personnel, Flanarys videos give insight and a few tips in dealing with a world most only see from the patient side. Q: I watched some reaction videos from doctors. [Not matching] is a really difficult thing to deal with, and Im able to put it through a lens of humor. His wife performed CPR on him for 10 minutes before paramedics arrived and resuscitated him. There was an error saving your display name. I had this bad thing happen, I made it through, and now Im OK. What means more to me is that Im able to reach out to the public using my platform to create some meaningful change, and also sing the praises of my amazing partner. Social media is a great way to show that side, because you can reach a big audience and it shows the public that we have things that suck about our job or that we hate health care, and it allows the general public to relate to us, and thats something thats been missing for a long, long time. A: I never get backlash from surgeons. Theres the warm but disconcertingly studious pediatrician, the charmingly alarmist dermatologist, the meatheaded orthopedic surgeon, and Jonathan, the loyal medical scribe whose dedication borders on sociopathy. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. This is such a neat way for your fans to support your awesome comedy work, which the world needs more of! Then, the surprise bills arrived accumulating charges for out-of-network care he received in the depths of his health crisis. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. It really did kick off with the insurance problems, Flanary said. And it feels good to be laughing with someone that knows what youre going through and knows the things that have been happening inside your own head that you havent put out into words.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. During his third year of medical school, he discovered a lump in his testicle. He made a full recovery. Sometimes its a sarcastic look at coronavirus guidelines, an insiders view of the medical hierarchy (nurses are the true rulers) or the expensive world of peer-review publishing. That's part of why Dr Glaucomflecken started out as an anonymous account. In February alone, Dr Glaucomflecken released nine installments of his ongoing 60-second video series, in which a hapless medical student is thrown into the deep end by various specialists, from an elbow-patched psychiatrist to a mountain-biking emergency medicine doctor. Flanary says he never considered comedy a realistic career option. Please check and try again. My mom kicked me out of her 6th grade language arts class. This is my life with aphasia. He was diagnosed the first time in his third year of medical school and then a second time in his third year of residency, he said. We still dont know the cause. But he uses his platform as speaker and comedian Dr. Glaucomflecken (@DGlaucomflecken) to spotlight how CPR saves lives in emergencies. As Dr Glaucomflecken's popularity has grown, so has his prop inventory. At the hospital, doctors put him into therapeutic hypothermia. "Nobody really likes a nag," Kristin says. The second time around wasn't quite so easy. But mainly, the young, mellow-voiced doctor focuses on the strong personalities involved in everyday medical practice. Telling jokes helped me to navigate the challenges of living as a cancer patient in my 20s. Even as my pursuit of a medical career took me to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, I continued to do stand-up comedy when I wasnt learning the Krebs cycle or other things that med students learn that I dont really remember. People want the opposite. Get started by signing in with your Amazon account, Based on your location you have been directed to audible.in. His prognosis was good, but this would change their lives forever. A: I dont think of myself as a survivor, really. The audience was rapt as they listened to her 911 phone call. "You get that dopamine rush.". Many members had tears in their eyes as they gave her a longstanding ovation for her lifesaving efforts. He grew up in Houston, the son of a teacher and an engineer. Each got a few thousand views and some enthusiastic comments, but Flanarys ascent to TikTok stardom would come only after a brush with death. Dr. Glaucomflecken's real name is Will Flanary. Since then, it has evolved to incorporate satire of the US healthcare system, academic publishing, and the interpersonal conflicts that are pervasive in the medical system. "It was exhausting," Kristin recalls. "William Flanary" redirects here. What is included with my Audible Premium Plus membership? In the clip, he issues a reminder to his fellow viewers, "Health insurance companies don't care about you. Medical school can be brutal, and its making many of us suicidal. But I still know what comedy is. And lets go ahead and get you a COVID vaccine, Flanary, posing as the doctor, concludes. I always make sure that the object of ridicule is clear, Flanary said. Flanary suffered a form of cardiac arrest called ventricular fibrillation, in which the hearts lower chambers flutter erratically, cutting off the flow of blood to the rest of the body. All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright 1994-2023 by WebMD LLC. Three days later, he woke up in an ICU bed, recovering from a cardiac arrest. I can be pretty specific with different areas of medicine and create this world of, honestly, pretty dysfunctional people. People want their doctors to seem like real people who are relatable.. 'The second time was much harder,' he admitted. And the outsized response taught him that a little righteous indignation can go a long way with an audience. Q: What did you think when you learned you had a cardiac arrest? He then enrolled at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, where he discovered his interest in ophthalmology. (Heres his iconic take on the EM residency interview.) After he recovered again, their family was dealt another blow when Kristin awoke in the middle of the night to find her husband unresponsive, breathing irregularly and making strange noises. He then had surgery to remove the testicle that had the tumor on it. It meant that he would have to go on hormone replacement therapy for the rest of his life." How may I assist you today? "It's crazy some of the things we do." David Goggins, Written by: Flanary says the videos have taken him to a place he never expected, and hell continue doing it as long as his audience still watches and he continues to enjoy it. Although he says he is careful to protect his patients and the vulnerable information they share with him, Flanary ultimately believes that sharing parts of himself from the sick to the slapstick will benefit everyone. Hello and welcome to Knock-Knock. I could attack all these topics that Id been discussing on Twitter just with boring words, but now I could approach it in a different way and do something new.. Its been a little bit surprising how popular the characters are its taken on a life of its own. He'll do it all under the guise of his signature, top hat-wearing ophthalmoscope. That's where he met his wife, Kristin, now 36 and the communications manager for the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Iowa. In 2012, they had their first child. Q: Why do you think its become such a hit, particularly for people outside the medical world? A doctor who who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and survived cancer twice has become a viral TikTok star, after sharing hilarious stories about his health woes in an attempt to raise awareness among others. "What delights me to no end is people who think my actual name is Dr Glaucomflecken," Flanary says. But she explained that she needed him to listen to it because she needed someone to live in that space with her. Ankur Warikoo, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think, Written by: And each submits to a few minutes of Jungian analysis, care of the staff psychiatrist. [5][7], According to Robert D. Putnam and Cline Gounder, comedians like Flanary are "leveraging irony and exaggeration to expose the ills of the American healthcare system and the lunacy of global COVID vaccine inequity."[9]. Dr. Glaucomflecken (@DGlaucomflecken) December 21, 2018 Uncompensated nurse time would make it more like 40 years. 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