Download the free Audible app to start listening on your iOS or Android device. We dont spam! They have one thing in common being mocked by Will Flanary, an ophthalmologist known to millions in the medical world as Dr. In his first video to get more than 1 million views, posted that July, Flanary plays two roles: the flabbergasted patient saddled with a massive bill, and the unnervingly calm customer service representative explaining that if he had simply chosen an in-network doctor while he was unconscious, all of this could have been avoided. She knows the trauma of being a co-survivor and uses her experience to advocate for compassion for patients and their families. Paramahansa Yogananda, Written by: They claim their digital dynamic mimics real life. One of his most popular recent videos, which pokes fun at the latest CDC guidelines recommending shorter isolation periods for asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, has already garnered 6.4 million views on TikTok after the guidelines were widely criticized. Q: Do you ever get any flack from doctors? When we're faced with things in life beyond our control, whether you get sick or a family member gets sick or dies or has an accident, or a pandemic, we feel like control of our own lives is taken away from us, he explained. He described the diagnosis as 'really hard' - especially since he was healthy and athletic at the time and didn't see it coming - and he recalled everything 'crashing down on him.'. The paramedics broke down a door and carried Flanary, who is 6 foot 4, from his bed to a hardwood floor downstairs. "I remember being very tired and telling her, I'm so tired. "I feel so heard.". "It was such a powerful thing for me, and I saw the good it does for me and the people I do that trip with," he says. He then enrolled at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, where he discovered his interest in ophthalmology. Q&A with William A. Flanary, MD, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, provides a glimpse into his experience surviving cardiac arrest. Ankur Warikoo, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think, Written by: You cant tell jokes. That online conference is coming up Nov. 2-4 and allows you to participate in ACEP22 educational content from the comfort of your own home. The characters bounce off one another, either to illustrate some irksome aspect of medicine or simply to be the butt of a joke. Flanary is alive because his wife, Kristin, noticed his irregular breathing and performed CPR until an EMT could arrive and shock his heart back into regular function. But she knew he needed more help than she could give. Thankfully, his wife was able to perform CPR until the paramedics arrived and they were able to resuscitate him. 'The second time was much harder,' he admitted. "There are a lot of weird words in ophthalmology," Flanary says of his decision to riff on a glaukomflecken for his internet persona. Flanary, originally from Houston, has been a practicing comedian longer than hes had a medical license. His wife performed CPR on him for 10 minutes before paramedics arrived and resuscitated him. In the years since, Flanary has raised more than $50,000 for the organization. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that neurologist Anna Nordvig was among those who had reacted to Will Flanary's videos. Today, we're going to be doing a reaction video to Dr. Glaucomflecken's "Introducing the OB/GYN." Hi, I'm Doctor Rich, and my passion is to create silly videos you can watch and laugh. Honestly, it's surreal. Will Flanary, MD, is not a typical ophthalmologist. Power of Social Media with Family Physician Dr. Mike | Knock Knock, Hi! Glaucomflecken is a result of lens epithelial cell necrosis from the elevated IOP. It was a dark and empty chamber where no words were spoken or understood Those of us who have survived trauma need our healthcare providers to meet us in our Quiet Place. America to face a shortage of primary care physicians within a decade or so. "It was almost like stand-up in a way," he says. Im really good at finding my own testicular cancer! He laughed. This version has been corrected. There was an error saving your display name. "Your humor has helped me cope with a very grim time," wrote another fan. Ive gotten the most backlash from family medicine/primary care doctors. 121. It feels good to laugh. Medicine can be very hard, and I think really his type of humor keeps us humble. In 2014, after a transitional year in Chicago, the young family moved to Iowa City, where Flanary began his residency at the University of Iowa. And theres this prevailing notion that doctors cant show who they really are. Dr. Glaucomflecken hasn't responded to me and probably won't. Go ahead and share this so he gets the message. In the pre-op room before his second surgery, Kristin began looking for support groups for her husband. Dr. Glaucomflecken saved the day with just the right amount of humor and hitting the provided talking points to a T. Annie December 13th, 2022 Other This was really great, thank you so much. I saw, Oh theres a big appetite for this. ". 199 per month after 30-day trial. I continued making content through the pandemic, a sudden cardiac arrest, and dozens of reports of people sleeping in their contact lenses with disastrous consequences. "That's kind of the way it works with me with humor.. You can also listen on any Alexa-enabled device. It kept me moving.". While Kristin credits the hospital with saving her husband's life, she says she often felt overlooked and dismissed by those providing the care. In Germany, your oral-practical exam to graduate from med school includes each a professor/examiner from internal medicine, surgery, a specialty of your choice and a wildcard specialty. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. He practices in Oregon City, Oregon and lives in Portland, Oregon. It actually allows us to be compassionate, she said in an interview. The second time around was a little bit more difficult, just physically and mentally and emotionally and I needed something to help me cope with the fact that I had already had cancer twice and I was only at that point 29-years-old, he said. Is Homeostasis a Joke to You Shirt. But I still know what comedy is. But Flanary had no illusions that the world wanted to hear self-serious rants from a private-practice physician in the Pacific Northwest, so he made his points the best way he knew how: making up characters and writing jokes at their expense. According to reports, only one to two per cent of testicular cancer survivors develop it again in the other testicle - but he was unfortunately one of those survivors. Q: Who was your biggest champion during that time? Merchandise is in development, and hes plotting a way to translate what works on TikTok into a longer-form episodic format. We need them to find their way into that dark chamber, light a candle and fill it with words that build a bridge for us to walk out.. Dr. Flanary is an ophthalmologist who specializes in satirizing the medical field with hilarious social media skits. He sipped from his diet coke while showing off his skin-tight, belly-baring cycling jersey with matching bike helmet and sunglasses. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Community Guidelines | KRDO Jobs | FCC Applications |, KRDO FCC Public File | KRDO FCC Applications, Breaking News In his fourth year of med school, after an "awful" vascular surgery rotation where he was on his feet for hours at a time, draped in lead, Flanary took an ophthalmology elective. We dont spam! The audience was rapt as they listened to her 911 phone call. There are many YouTube reaction videos from doctors on Flanarys assessments of their character such as trauma surgeon David Hindin and neurosurgeon Martin Rutkowski who say the portrayals are spot-on. From his home in Portland, Ore., Flanary, who served as the Yale Medical School commencement speaker this year, talked about finding humor in the everyday, what he hears from other doctors and his side hack as a Cameo star. I've also learned that no matter what, none of you will ever learn how to use a slit lamp correctly., After the initial laughs, the Glaucomfleckens walked the audience through their incredible story. "I went the much easier route of becoming a doctor." Theres the lackadaisical emergency medicine doctor, eternally clad in cycling gear. Thats effectively a personality loves to sit down.. After a three-day ICU stay, Flanary would be fitted with a temporary defibrillator, undergo surgery to get a permanent one, and most important for his comedy navigate the hellish reality of American health insurance. So Dr. Glaucomflecken is an ophthalmologist and he hilariously makes fun of all other specialties. Today, we're going to do something a little different we're going to do a reaction video to one of the most popular TikTok/YouTube videos on social media: Dr. Glaucomflecken. Related videos. After surgery to remove the cancer, they were ready to move forward. 23.1K Likes, 784 Comments. The question is just how big his audience might be and whether what works online can translate to another medium. Its just been a very serious field. But your video focused on the students who dont match, and how theyll be okay. And besides, even if it all blows up, he still gets to be a doctor. As Dr Glaucomflecken's popularity has grown, so has his prop inventory. Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey. You know, youre just going to spiral and its gonna affect your real life outside of the internet, he said. That has gotten a lot better, but it took a few weeks to get there. with the Glaucomfleckens. My entire medical workup was normal. 2023 Glaucomflecken | Web design by Edge One Media | Privacy Policy. If youre not familiar with the Glaucomfleckens, their actual names are Will and Kristin Flanary. While attending Texas Tech, he met his wife, Kristin. Like many things involving TikTok, the Dr. Glaucomflecken phenomenon was born out of boredom. He also skewers emergency medicine and surgeons, but says he is careful around practices that are more sensitive or do not get the respect they deserve, like primary care doctors and pediatrics. They dont like the portrayal of the some of them as overworked, underpaid sympathetic figure, always doing some sort of fellowship. Emergency room doctors savor adrenaline and bike helmets. Dr. Joseph Murphy, Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection. Thankfully, Will was able to remove the testicle through surgery and was fully cured. Koral Dasgupta. Flanary says the videos have taken him to a place he never expected, and hell continue doing it as long as his audience still watches and he continues to enjoy it. Grant Cardone, Written by: Since 2016 he has become well known for making and uploading medical satire skits on Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Related videos. Morning Forecast Product type. [5][7], According to Robert D. Putnam and Cline Gounder, comedians like Flanary are "leveraging irony and exaggeration to expose the ills of the American healthcare system and the lunacy of global COVID vaccine inequity."[9]. On May 11, 2020, William A. Flanary, MD, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, went to bed like every other night. As most of the humor on Fun Friday, this is funny and also heartbreaking. In February alone, Dr Glaucomflecken released nine installments of his ongoing 60-second video series, in which a hapless medical student is thrown into the deep end by various specialists,. It didnt go well. TORONTO (CTV Network) By the time Dr. Will Flanary was 29-years-old, he had already survived cancer twice. It was my coping mechanism. "That's all we have.". His pandemic content on vaccinations have garnered the most negative response but he tries not to pay too much attention to the angry comments and messages, he says. If the later one would have been ophtho for me, I would have dropped out and painted clay doves for a living until I die. If the IOP remains elevated long enough, glaucomatous optic neuropathy may occur, resulting in primary angle closure glaucoma. How Dr Glaucomflecken Overcame Death to Get Internet Laughs, ED Doc Fired for COVID Tweets Talks to Biden, Returns to Job, Med Student's Cardiac Crisis a COVID-Era Medical Mystery, 'You Are the Heroes,' Comedians Tell Clinicians. Private events across all areas of medicine. At home, "it kind of felt like 50 First Dates for the first few days," Kristin says, as Will's memory improved. But its a minority most people are just fine with it. The trauma surgeon laughed really hard at the part where the surgeon tells the medical student hes mad at the student for not being psychic. A roundup of STAT's top stories of the day. , updated I may be retired. Together and individually, we use our social media presence, impactful writing, creative endeavors, and multimedia keynote speaking to promote humanity, and a healthy sense of humor, in healthcare. [7], Since 2017, Flanary has raised money for the non-profit organization First Descents, which provides outdoor experiences to young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer. These are things medical students have experienced, that residents have experienced its all relatable.. Get app. I feel like I can just try these things and see where it takes me.. After all, you got an ophthalmologist to come in on a Saturday!, I've learned a lot about emergency medicine and the role you play in your communities, really acting as a safety net for society. She performed 10 minutes of CPR before EMS finally arrived. ", He began to develop a personal coda for how to conduct himself online. 16:10 GMT 26 Nov 2021 I could attack all these topics that Id been discussing on Twitter just with boring words, but now I could approach it in a different way and do something new.. He and his wife shared two kids at the time, and they weren't sure if they wanted more. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer twice the first time was when he was in his fourth year of medical school at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and the second time while he was in his third year of residency at the University of Iowa. 'I use comedy to cope with my own health issues. Three days later, he woke up in an ICU bed, recovering from a cardiac arrest. In 2010, when he was 25 years old, Will was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Three days later, he woke up in an ICU bed, recovering from a cardiac arrest. Written by: 3h Replying to @mkarolian and @DGlaucomflecken Spring 2020, aka early Covid, tiny @LGlaucomflecken rocked the CPR, so he's to educate & entertain us still 5 Honestly, its surreal, Flanary told CTV National News in a video interview from his home in Portland, Ore. Flanary had been doing stand-up comedy intermittently since high school, but always wanted to go into medicine. It was also while he was a medical student at the Geisel School of Medicine that he was first diagnosed with testicular cancer (specifically, a highly curable stage 1a seminoma) at the age of 25. Then all of a sudden, it just comes crashing down on you.'. Theres the warm but disconcertingly studious pediatrician, the charmingly alarmist dermatologist, the meatheaded orthopedic surgeon, and Jonathan, the loyal medical scribe whose dedication borders on sociopathy. We love taking breaks. By this point, he and his wife had two children. "It was exhausting," Kristin recalls. 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