Transcript
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (0:00)
Welcome to Chasing Life. Today's guest is Dr. Bobby McComilla. He is a practicing head and neck surgeon. He is also president elect of the American Medical association, which is the largest professional organization for physicians in the country. They have more than 270,000 members. But perhaps most importantly for today's conversation, Bobby is an old friend. I've known him since the early 1990s, when we were both medical students at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Bobby McComilla (0:27)
You and I would be in the reading room studying for half an hour, then we'd go downstairs to the refreshment area and hang out there for an hour, go back up and study. So the ratio of studying to hanging out downstairs was less than ideal for learning.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (0:40)
But recently, I got the kind of news that you never want to get, especially from an old friend. Here's what happened. A few months ago, Bobby was at an AMA conference giving a speech, something he does all the time. And partway through it, something really strange happened. The words were coming out of his mouth, but they didn't make any sense.
Dr. Bobby McComilla (1:03)
It was more than gibberish, but it didn't come together as a sentence. And somebody actually stood up and said, you know, we're having a hard time understanding you now.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (1:13)
This wasn't nerves. I mean, Bobby was in a room full of friends and colleagues. Some of the doctors were immediately worried that maybe Bobby was having a stroke.
Dr. Bobby McComilla (1:22)
They've heard me give speeches, and they've never heard me sort of mess it up like that.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (1:28)
No surprise, he got checked out, and an MRI revealed the problem. A glioma. A primary brain tumor, 8 cm in size, and it was located in his left medial temporal lobe. Not too long after the diagnosis, Bobby wrote to me. He and we had a long chat. He wanted to talk. And he also asked if maybe he could come on the podcast to talk about what had happened to him. Of course, my answer was an immediate yes. And I realized something like the good doctor he is, Bobby had been chronicling the whole experience. He even had a Google folder that he called Tumor Reflections. When I read these reflections, I found them to be so poignant and so instructive as well. I thought there were some really valuable lessons in there. And today I wanted him to unpack some of those reflections. Some of them are about the diagnosis and the science and the treatment, but a lot of it was about what it's really like for someone to be diagnosed with a brain tumor, what it's like for him, what it's like for his family, what it's like when the doctor becomes the patient, he also wanted to talk about health care. And I can tell you without a doubt, this experience being diagnosed with a brain tumor has made him think about healthcare in an entirely different way. And I think it's really gonna inform his role as the president of the American Medical Association. So today we get a chance to talk about all of that, a really personal story with really profound meaning. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, and this is chasing life. So when Bobby and I conceived this idea, we decided that we should talk twice. Once before his operation to remove the tumor, and once again, assuming all went well after the good news, I'll tell you right away, all did go well. The first time we spoke was in December, just two days before his operation. We started by just chit chatting, like old friends do. Then I asked him, what is it like to be told that you have a brain tumor and what does it mean to face the unknown? Even as a physician yourself?