Brion Randolph: Curiosity Saves The Cats
Hi everyone, I'm Ben Lillie and welcome to the Story Collider where we bring you true personal stories about science. This week’s story is from Brion Randolph. It was recorded in March 2016 at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia as the part of the Atlanta Science Festival.
So, it all started with the cat's meow, and who would have ever thought that 6 little kittens in the box would have change my life and put me into a career of science.
So, when I was in 9th grade, I was surrounded by science -- my mother was a science teacher, and all of her friends were science teachers. So, I kind of had cool science projects going through school. And, I worked at the local veterinarian office. And working at that office, I would come in on the weekends, and I was the one that, you
know, would have to, basically, clean the stalls, you know, scoop the poop and all that good stuff, you know. Really exciting job. And I walk in, one day, and on the stoop, there is this box, and inside of that box were 6 little kittens. So I took them inside with me, and I put them in one of the kennels, and then the next day when the veterinarian came in, I shared with him that I found these kittens and what do we do with them? He said, "You know, normally, what we'll do is
we'll send them over to the pound, and they either get adopted or get euthanized at some point." And I said, "I don't like that idea," I said, "what else can we do?" So, we came up with an idea, you know, me in this whole science project stuff, you know. I wanted to have another cool science project, and so we came up with this idea that we would take those kittens, we would put each one in a different kennel, and we would feed them different types of food. So, we had like Wal-Mart brand and Purina and science diet that he sold at his office, you know, that was the superior food. So, we did that, and he taught me things like how you determine a healthy kitten that growing like it should. So, we weight the cats, we looked at their coat quality, we looked at blood work, and long story short I ended up as a 9th grader putting together a book that big where I wrote up this
project, and did a science project that took me all the way to the state finals, and to the South Carolina Junior Academy of Science where I got to do my first oral presentation. And of course, I was nervous about all of that, but man what an experience! Because who knew that that then would lead to later in life all the things that I do, all the presentations, and so for all that I get to do. So I knew at that point, something in science would be good, and than I ran into this
excellent math teacher, who really just got me excited about math and started to participating in some of the clubs in the school – one of the engineering clubs in particular. We got to go on field trips, and we went to VC summer power plant, and we went to savanna river plant. And I thought it was kind of cool, we were going to all these
nuclear plants, but they can't tell you anything about it. Because it is a secret. So, I decided to go in a nuclear engineering. So, I went University of Tennessee and majored in nuclear engineering, and I'm going through this curriculum which is really focused on,
you know, how do you make nuclear power, also about waste management, and things like that. And this physician comes over to us one day and gives us a lecture about physics behind medical imaging. And a lot of that had to do with like PET scans and CT scans and all of the different imaging that they do in people who has cancer, for example. And so, the interesting thing about that is that approached him and he said, "why don't you come over here and just volunteer?" What I did not know is there was an ulterio motive here. But I went over, and I volunteered with him, and in the department he
started putting me with -- he did 2 things he put me with one of PhD scientist -- and then
he also -- who was doing a lot of algorithms and calculations and things which would just write up my ally. But he also put me with the technicians who were doing the scans. And so one of the things that I noticed is that they have a lot of papers they filed out. You know. They calculate all of these things, and they fill out these forms, and than they give to the doctor, and then the doctor would somehow make a decision on what to do with a patient based on all these calculations they did. And I said their kind of engineering going "Really? Hand calculations? I mean you know there are excel spread sheets, there is macros you can do." So, you know I took all of that, and made these spread sheets and macros, so that the text would plug in the values, and it would speed out this report for them that they can just give it to the doctor. And they just thought that that was amazing. So, the trade off was they let me seeing patients with them. And so I started learning how to do bone scans and how to do PET scans from a technician perspective. And one day I remember that I was doing a bone scan with the tech, the tech stepped out the room, and the guy on the table goes, "hey, hey kid, hey, want to try some shine" And so you know I kind of looked at him "Excuse me? Excuse me. I was in Tennessee." So, he goes, "Moon shine, you know moon shine, my body is
make it up in the hills, but shhh.. You can't tell anyone about that". He was like, "I got some out in the truck if you want to try it." So, I didn’t try it, but long story short is later that day I started going to the tumor boards and things at the hospital, and this man's case came up, it turn out he had metastatic prostate cancer. And that's why he was getting a
bone scan, and it was kind of cool for me because you know they are talking all of the doctor talk about this patient, and what they are going to do. And I'm thinking, "I bet they don't know, he makes a moon shine." So, that kind of hit home with me because I started
thinking, "man, really it's kind of cool to understand how that machine works, but it would be even cooler to be able to put that man story together with the machine." And so I sat down one day with Dr. Smith and I told him that -- you know -- my experience and how I enjoyed all of these things. And he kind of looked at me and said,"You know, you are turning to the dark side, right?" And I didn't quite understand it, but
what he was telling me was that I really wanted to do medicine, and be able to put it all that together. And so, I took that from him and stayed, and did my masters degree, he set on my thesis committee with me, and eventually, then ended up applying and going to a medical school. So, then I get into medical school, and I'm going through these rotations, and I think, well naturally nuclear engineering than I should probably be radiation oncologist, right? So, I do bunch of rotation in radiation oncologist, and it was okay, I mean, I enjoyed it. But then I got in my medicine rotation, and I had this resident that was
absolutely amazing, I mean he just taught you everything, and he seemed like he knew everything. And in medicine the cool things don’t really happen in the day, it's at night. So, as a medical student you didn’t have to take call at that time, but I decided I would
because I would learn more. And so I stayed the night, and they didn't even have call room for me to really stay in, so I had to makeshift little cot that I made. And then every time he got called out for something in ER or whatever I went with him. Well, one night while I was with him on call, he asked me to go in and check on a certain patient; and this
was a guy who had been in a hospital for about a week or so, and we are at the VA hospital, and he had lungs cancer, and he was pretty sick. And so, I just sat there when I went to check on him, he asked me to sit down for a minute, and I sat down, and I kind of talk to him for a while, and I don’t remember his whole story, but what I do remember is that he told me you know that "I would really like to just go outside. I haven't left this room in like over a week." And I said "okay" you know I'm naive, I'm medical student "yeah, we 'll do that." So I go out and tell the nurses there, and they like "" no, you won’t do that. This man has IV and antibiotics, he needs oxygen, we can't do that." So, I was persistent though. Over the next few days I kept approaching different nurses and asking them if they would help me out and take this man outside. And so finally, I found one nurse who agreed, and so we got him on a wheelchair, and we rolled him outside to the
front of the VA hospital. And much to our surprise, he stands up on his own, turns and looks at the American flag, gives it a salute and sits back down in a chair and says, "That's all I needed." So we took him back inside, and the next morning he dies. But that moment told me I needed to be an oncologist because what’ve I realized was that
I could help someone no matter what their situation was. And so today I get to give cures to cancer, I get to look at new drugs through research, and sometimes I just get to hold someone's hand. Sometimes I have to see them take that last breath, but I know their story, and I've been there with. So, science for me has brought hope, and the ability to deliver hope every day to people that I encounter. And whether it's rescuing 6 kittens or whether it's giving out a new cure or simply a salute. That's what science means to me.
Thank you.
Applause
That was Brion Randolph. Brion is currently the Chief of Medical Oncology at Cancer
Treatment Centers of America in Union, GA. He joins CTCA as a medical oncologist and
hematologist when hospital opened in August, 2012, and he is now a Chief of Medical
Oncology. He also serves as Medical Director of Hematological Oncology. Randolph
lives in Union with his wife and 2 children. He has passion for music and a performing
arts, and as a drum major he had the opportunity to lead the UT band in 1993 in inaugural
parade for Bill Clinton.
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