The breast-feeding medical student loses again

No surprise, she’s appealing the decision again. I think it’s time for to give it a rest:

Currier, who has a four-month-old daughter, must pass the exam before she can graduate and begin a residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital later this fall.
In a three-page opinion, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady said Currier could still find a way to expel her milk during the test or on regularly scheduled breaks.
“The plaintiff may take the test and pass, notwithstanding what she considers to be unfavorable conditions,” Brady wrote. “The plaintiff may delay the test, which is offered numerous times during the year, until she has finished her breast-feeding and the need to express milk.”

Comments

Anonymous
Just another kid with an IEP who thinks the world should accomodate her.
She knew the exam dates, she knew her underlying conditions, she presumably knows where babies come from, yet she chose to make all of these complications coincide.
One thing this article does not mention that earlier articles had is that she is in this situation also because she, though nearly a Harvard grad, was unsuccessful in taking the same exam before.
The purpose of such exit exams is to guarantee minimal student qualification. We would hope that unqualified students would not pass and would not go on to be practicing physicians. Could it be nothing more here than the exam process working exactly as it should, and this student is casting about for excuses to beat the exam’s intended fuction?
Anonymous
It always pisses me off when someone makes an excuse along the lines of ‘not testing well.’ By implication they state that my accomplishments were merely achieved through some unfair test taking skill, as opposed to my achieving success through actually knowing the material.
Knowing the subject matter well is a pretty damn good cure for most test taking problems.
Anonymous
She’s just milking the system for whatever it’s worth.
Anonymous
Her inclusion breaks up the homegeneity of the typical student body.
Anonymous
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10breast.html?ei=5090&en=606306f136b95f19&ex=1347076800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1190339991-hChH7w8sF4GWS/lEJuAUyg
Yep, flunked it in April before the kid. USMLE part 2 is a pretty simple exam, and any student who was even half awake during their clinical years who can remember to bring a #2 pencil (metaphorically speaking, as it’s all computer based now) can pass.
Anonymous
Oh come on. It is a one day exam. She can’t pump ahead of time for the day? She should take a long hard look at why she is in medical school because from this vantage she does not have what it takes to be a doc.
Anonymous
I saw this chick on Good Morning America yesterday as I was standing at a patient’s bedside. Geez. What an entitled titty baby. She should be ashamed of herself. Is the world supposed to come to a screeching halt just because she has a baby? I dunno, I’ve had three (and even…gasp…BREASTFED) and have found that, for the most part, life goes on.
Mike
anon 10:59
“milking it”
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Pun of the year!
Anonymous
No comment on whether she needs the extra time, but no, she can’t pump before the test. She’s not pumping milk to give to the child, but pumping to prevent engorgement. The baby is four months old, so her milk supply is probably still stuck in overdrive. There are real risks in going that long with no out-flow.
And I would support the same policy for any lactating man — it’s not a sex discrimination thing either way. And if someone on dialysis wanted to take the exam, I don’t think their sex should matter to that decision either.
Nick
Nice petty comments from the anonymous cowards.
I’m in my office taking a break from charting. I have ADHD and I need a break more often than most. I still do the work – but I may need a bit more time with the paperwork and more frequent breaks. I make up for this by working later and harder than most. That’s how I finished med school, got inducted into AOA, and finished in the top of my residency. It may take me longer, but I just stay longer to do it.
However, I will be the first to admit: while I am a competent doctor, I suck at charting. It will never be easy for me. It will always take me extra time – hence the reason I am still in my office at 8pm. Anything written like this is hard for me. But I can do it given the time. If I choose to use my free time to do so, that’s my option.
This young woman is no different. It really doesn’t matter how long it takes her to do the work, as long as she can do it and is willing to put that time in to do it. Its not as if having an extra hour on a test will somehow make the mechanism of action of cephalosporins or the differential diagnosis of dyspnea more clear. If you don’t know the information, you will fail the test. If you have a learning disability like dyslexia that makes you take twice the time to read however, that extra time may mean that you are able to show the knowledge that you have.
And personally I’d rather have a dyslexic physician than a malignantly entitled, self-important, cowardly troll who feels that no one with a disability merits a fair chance to succeed professionally.
Nick Gorton
lyn77
The fact that people are putting breast-feeding women in with people who have disabilities is ignorant and insensitive towards people who are actually disabled. This woman is NOT disabled. She chose to have a child; disabled people did not choose to be. People in work places do not need to be forced to accomodate breast-feeding mothers-the mothers need to work breast-feeding around their life and schedule or wait until a time when they are able to do other things. She fears engorgement? Fine then she may have to make the decision to become a doctor when her daughter is older.
Something like this makes women look bad. Women have been having babies since the beginning of time. There will always be women having babies all the time; should they all get special treatment? Give the professional world another reason to think women are weak and incapable of doing their jobs. None of us will be employed if the men hiring think we will be asking for special treatment later on if we decide to have a child.
Bottom line-I’ve known where babies come from since I was 7. I know that pregnancy may bring complications. So does a female medical student. Her body, her choice now she has to deal with being a mother the best way she can. The rest of us should not have to deal with it.
creativoice
the problem is that people are inherently selfish. and not just breastfeeding mother, but some of those with comments also.

The breast-feeding medical student loses again

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