From the National Football League to the Study of Otolaryngology
Filed in Professional Schools on March 14, 2017
Samkon Gado is in his second year of a five-year residency in otolaryngology at Saint Louis University after completing his medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina. Otolaryngology is the technical term for an ear, nose and throat physician.
The career path of this Nigerian immigrant, who came to the United States at the age of 9, is even more remarkable given the fact that he spent six years in the National Football League before he entered medical school. After playing professional football, the rigors of academic medicine came as something of a shock. “The first year was like nothing I ever experienced,” Dr. Gado said. “The old axiom held true. It felt like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. The sheer volume of the work was amazing.”
Dr. Gado hopes to return to Nigeria. There are 250 otolaryngologists in a country of 200 million people. In comparison, “there are 75 otolaryngology residents at Saint Louis University and Washington University alone” at the current time, Dr. Gado said.
“It felt like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. The sheer volume of the work was amazing.” And it finally is paying off. Powerful imagery.