Arnold Feltoon, M.D. Speech

 

Curriculum Vitae

Undergraduate Education: B.A. Muhlenberg College
ALlentown, Pennsylvania
June, 1975

Medical Education: Medico Cirujano
Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
December, 1979

Post-Graduate Education: Fifth Pathway Program
Rutgers Medical School
Camden, New Jersey
1980 - 1981

Resident, Emergency Medical Services
Mount Sinai Medical Center
Cleveland, Ohio
1981 - 1984

Chief Resident, 1983 - 1984

Medical Licensure: State of Ohio
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Board Certification: American Board of Emergency Medicine, 1989
Recertified 1999

ProfessionaL Fellow of the American College of Memberships Emergency Memberships: Physicians, 1989,
Renewed 2000

Northeast Ohio Society of Emergency Medicine
Board of Trustees 1992 - 1994, 1996 - 1998

National Association of EMS Physicians

Professional Experience Saint Alexis Hospital Medical Center
and Hospital Affiliations: Cleveland, Ohio
1984 - 1990

Medical Director, Emergency Services
Saint Alexis Hospital Medical Center
1987 - 1990

Community Hospital of Bedford
Bedford, Ohio
1984 - 1987

The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Cleveland, Ohio
1984 - 1993

Saint Vincent Charity Hospital
Cleveland, Ohio
1992 - 1996

Medina Hospital
Medina, Ohio (1998 - 2000)

Current Active Hospital Euclid Hospital
Affiliations: Euclid, Ohio

Hillcrest Hospital
Mayfield Heights, Ohio

Huron Hospital
East Cleveland, Ohio

South Pointe Hospital
Warrensville Heights, Ohio
EMS Medical Director
1994 to Present

Sagamore Hills Medical Center
Sagamore Hills, Ohio
Medical Director
1999 - present

Educational Affiliations: Affiliate Faculty, Preceptor
Physician Assistant Program
Cuyahoga Community College
1987 - 1990

Clinical Instructor, Emergency Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
School of Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio
1984 - 1986, 1991 - 1993

CORE Clinical Faculty
Ohio University of Osteopathic Medicine
1996 - 1999, 2000 - 2003

Instructor, Advanced Cardiac Life Support
American Heart Association

Instructor, Pediatric Advanced Life Support
American Heart Association

Graduate, Medical Course and Practicum
EMS Medical Directors
National Association of EMS Physicians, 1994

EMS Medical Director Bainbridge
(All Ohio Locations) Beachwood
Bedford Heights
Chesterland (1993 - 1995)
Macedonia
Maple Heights
Northfield Center
North Randall
Orange Village
Pepper Pike
Reminderville
Russell Township (1992 - 1995)
Solon
Twinsburg
University Heights (1992 - 1995)
Warrensville Heights
Woodmere

Alert EMS
Americare Ambulance (1995 - 1997)
Dover Lake Water Park
North Coast Ambulance Company (1998 - 2000)
Hamm Ambulance Company
Northfield Park Race Track
Six Flags of Ohio Amusement Park
Thistledown Race Track

Medical Director Beachwood Jail
Beachwood, Ohio
1997 to Present

Bedford Jail
Bedford, Ohio
2001

Bedford Heights Correctional Facility
Bedford Heights, Ohio
1995 to Present

Maple Heights Detention Center and Jail
Maple Heights, Ohio
Began January, 2002

Solon Correctional Facility
Solon, Ohio
1997 to Present

Appointments: Chairman, Region IX, State of Ohio
Regional Physicians Advisory Board
1995 to Present

Cuyahoga County EMS Advisory Board
1994 to Present
Executive Committee, 1996 to Present

Publications: Feltoon, Arnold and J. Glauser,
“Group B Streptococcal Meningitis in an
Intravenous Drug Abuser.”
Annals of Emergency Medicine,
September, 1994

Arnold Feltoon, M.D. Guest Speaker at the 2003-01 entering class

The joke goes something like – “What do they call the person who graduates from Harvard Medical School with the lowest GPA – “Doctor!” But I’m going to take it one step further – “What do they call a graduate of the Facultad de Medicina of the UAG who has completed all of the requirements for licensure to practice medicine in the States – “Doctor”.

It’s hard to believe that so many years have passed since I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. I was part way through college as a psychology major when I realized that there was nothing else I wanted to do. I wasn’t accepted to medical school in the States, so I found myself facing the alternatives. I could pursue a Master’s degree, though I didn’t know in what; I could take a review course for the MCAT’s and try again; or I could consider a foreign medical school. My college pre-med advisor told me to find another career, and not even consider a foreign school. Not to be deterred, I considered schools in Belgium, the Philippines, and Mexico. Eventually I found myself in a different country where I was told I could not drink the water, and I couldn’t even speak the language. But I was told that I could still become a doctor. The decision to come down here and study medicine has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I must tell you that this is the first time I have been invited to the school to address the students. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know I was coming until Friday afternoon. When the Alumni office called and extended the invitation after their scheduled speaker had to cancel, I thought to myself that this is too strange of an opportunity to turn down. I thought about what I should tell you. I’m not here to impress you with my credentials – I don’t think they’re that impressive anyway. I’m not here as a paid spokesperson for the UAG. I’m not here to tell you that being here is the best thing since sliced bread. And I’m not here to tell you that my four years of study here were carefree and without frustration.

The memories I have of my studies here include following a strict dress code, limits on the length of my hair and moustache, having attendance taken daily, hearing only Spanish even if the entire class were Americans and the instructor could speak English, having to find our own patients to examine for physical diagnosis classes, seeing the sign on the hospital stating that students and children were not allowed to enter, failing a final exam and knowing that if I didn’t pass the retake I would be the only American in Guadalajara the following semester while my classmates were doing clinical rotations in the States.

My memories also include becoming proficient in a new language, warm weather all year round, working together with my fellow students instead of feeling like each student was trying to outdo the next for a better class rank, studying more efficiently and more successfully than I ever did in college, seeing a patient with leprosy, buying my medical books at home because we used the same books here, spending my fourth year and the Fifth Pathway year in a US hospital and feeling like I was well prepared, seeing classmates be accepted to residencies at prestigious hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic or the Mayo Clinic, and going home once it was all over and being a doctor.

One never knows where the turns in life’s paths will take us. It’s ironic that when I applied to medical schools, I only applied to Osteopathic programs – I wasn’t accepted to any of them. So, after finishing my studies at the UAG and completing a residency in emergency medicine, I now find myself as faculty in an osteopathic teaching hospital with our own emergency medicine residents. I was surprised to find out recently that our hospital’s language bank does not list anyone who speaks Spanish. Although our hospital does not see many Latinos, we still have Spanish speaking patients from time to time. As recently as this past Saturday I was paged to the E.R. to do a telephone medical consult on a Mexican patient, as there was no one else who could communicate with him.

I was approached a few years ago to become the medical director at one of our local community’s jails. Little did I know that the jail would be used not only by many of the local communities, but also by the U.S. Marshals and the Immigration Department. I have sick call every week and some of the 10 to 20 inmates I see are Latinos who do not speak English. Interviewing them is just like being back here in the Guad.

A last example of an opportunity that presented itself only because I studied here and learned Spanish was when I received a phone call from a paramedic friend of mine shortly after Hurricane Mitch pummeled Central America in 1998. Another paramedic who was a friend of his had gone down to Honduras to see if he could offer help. He found a need, returned to the States to find other volunteers, so he asked his rock-climbing paramedic friend to join him. They needed a Spanish speaking doctor to head this small team, and thus I was called. I was given the opportunity to travel to Honduras for 2 weeks as the head of the Equipo Medico de Cleveland, the “Medical Team of Cleveland”, a rag-tag outfit consisting of 2 paramedics and a doc, none of whom had ever done this type of work before. Since my buddies were rock climbers, we touted ourselves as a group who could be helicoptered into a secluded area and be self-sufficient if needed. Luckily we didn’t have to be quite so rustic, but we were sent into a rural area to do medical screenings and to one of the Bay Islands off the coast to help the only doctor on the island who, by this time, some 6 weeks after the hurricane, was completely overwhelmed. Had I not chosen to study medicine here, that phone call would never have been made to me.
In my experience, the students who have been in a more trying environment are the students who stand out. If you want to be a doctor so badly that you’re willing to travel to a foreign country and learn a new language to do so, you have the drive and determination to succeed.

We had students from a new Osteopathic school rotating through our department and these students were more driven and better prepared, at least the first few years, since they felt like they had something to prove coming from a new school.

For a few years after my own medical school graduation I would have people ask me why I went to a foreign medical school. I answered them honestly that I wasn’t accepted in the States. I can’t even remember now when the last time that question was asked of me. The school is not important – the graduate is.