When prospective medical students attend the Career Mentoring Series lecture on Monday, Feb. 15, they’ll receive both an invitation and a warning.
“It is the greatest job in the world, but some days it can be the worst job in the world,” said Dr. Blair P. Grubb, Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at The University of Toledo. “I implant pacemakers and defibrillators, which is a type of surgery, and it’s really cool to play the hero. It’s really cool to walk out and say, ‘Ma’am, I saved your husband.’ But one of these days, you have to play the villain.”
Grubb
The title of Grubb’s talk comes from the song “Truckin’” by the Grateful Dead, one of his son’s favorite bands. His son, Alex, is a third-year medical student at the Cleveland Clinic, and Grubb gave a similar talk there recently.
Grubb earned a degree in biologic sciences from the University of Maryland in Baltimore County and the doctor of medicine from the Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic. He completed his residency at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where he also was chief resident.
He completed a fellowship in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology at Pennsylvania State University, and today Grubb leads the Electrophysiology Program as well as the Syncope and Autonomic Disorders Clinic at UTMC. He sees patients from all over the United States and the world, and has helped develop the field of autonomics, pioneering many of the diagnostic and treatment modalities that are in common use.
“If you’re not willing and ready to, in some ways, let medicine become your life — then don’t do it,” Grubb said.
He compares a life in medicine to his experiences being a parent: “You enter parenthood with the knowledge that in doing so it will become your life. And it will be a tremendous, lifelong sacrifice, but it will be worth it to you. There is no reward without sacrifice.”
