Andy Lamb is an internal medicine physician. He can be reached at Bugle Notes.
Dr. Lamb is a 1977 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a 1984 graduate of the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Medicine. He did his internal medicine training through the Army at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Augusta, GA, and has practiced for more than 30 years.
He has been involved in leadership at all levels to include as a senior executive physician leader in a hospital system. His passion is investing in, teaching, encouraging, and mentoring, especially our future health care providers and leaders.
In 2014, Dr. Lamb began writing monthly stories called Bugle Notes to the hospital medical staff he led as a way of helping to address the increasing problem of burnout among health care providers across this country. The stories were written to remind physicians and other providers that what they do is important, what they do makes a difference every day, and what they do is still a privilege. We all need to be reminded that we are valued and appreciated.
Since 2000, he has led 44 short term international medical missions to 8 countries for Global Health Outreach. He is an avid fly fisherman and also enjoys fly tying and fly rod building among many other interests.
Andy Lamb is an internal medicine physician. He can be reached at Bugle Notes.
Dr. Lamb is a 1977 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a 1984 graduate of the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Medicine. He did his internal medicine training through the Army at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Augusta, GA, and has practiced for more than 30 years.
He has been involved in leadership at all levels to include as a senior executive physician leader in a hospital system. His passion is investing in, teaching, encouraging, and mentoring, especially our future health care providers and leaders.
In 2014, Dr. Lamb began writing monthly stories called Bugle Notes to the hospital medical staff he led as a way of helping to address the increasing problem of burnout among health care providers across this country. The stories were written to remind physicians and other providers that what they do is important, what they do makes a difference every day, and what they do is still a privilege. We all need to be reminded that we are valued and appreciated.
Since 2000, he has led 44 short term international medical missions to 8 countries for Global Health Outreach. He is an avid fly fisherman and also enjoys fly tying and fly rod building among many other interests.
The hands were heavily stained black, the skin with severe eczematous changes, yet she did not mention them. She was a young mother who had come to the clinic to have her six-month-old baby boy seen by the “doctors from America.” I was the team leader of a faith-based medical team serving in the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania in Northwest Africa. We were there to provide primary …
As I was preparing for my next medical mission, I began to think about the word “minister.” Obviously from a religious standpoint, it has certain connotations, one of which is “to serve”. When you are ministering to someone’s needs, you are serving them.
This caused me to think of my dear friend in Nepal, Fahad. Fahad is a young Muslim physician with whom I had the privilege of serving and working …
A 2012 letter to Mr. Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
I am not sure why I feel so compelled to write you. You probably will not even see this email, but I still must do so. I am a 56-year-old Christian white male physician living in North Carolina. I am a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of Alabama School of …
During my 30 years in medicine, and especially as I began leading medical missions in 2005 to the poorest countries in the world, I have seen much need, tragedy, and heartbreak. It is overwhelming. Despite our best efforts medically to help, we fail. What do you do when all else fails? What do you do when someone has lost all hope and feels you have nothing else to offer?
In his …
July 2, 1973, is a day etched forever in my mind. A day I remember as if it happened yesterday even though 47 years have passed. A day I thought would never come and then, when it did, would never end. It was the day I entered West Point as a 17-year-old kid with big dreams to “become an Airborne, Ranger, Infantryman and lead men in combat.” That was my …
It was dark as we entered a crumbling stone building, a one-room 15’ x 15’ structure. No electricity, no running water, no amenities, we assume “we all have.” I was leading a medical team to the poorest country in Europe, Moldova, a country I had come to know and love well. The team had finished a busy day in the clinic. Before going to dinner, I wanted to make a …
The old man sat at the front of the drift boat as it swayed gently, anchored at the river’s edge. The guide sat behind him, making final preparations for the day’s float downriver. The man had fly fished for nearly 40 years; he even tied his own flies and made fly rods such was his love for it. Age and unwelcomed health problems, though, were slowly bringing an end to …
I am sitting in a hospital room in Birmingham, Alabama. My 87-year-old father lies in a bed, frail, thin, and weak. This once physically strong and imposing man is a shell of who he was, of who he will always be in my mind – a larger-than-life Ranger infantry officer. A man who served two combat tours in Vietnam – my hero. I, too, wanted to be like him. That …
You are 19 years old, standing in the mud and mire that are the trenches of World War I. You are cold, hungry, filthy, emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. You stare straight ahead, eyes vacant, not revealing deep inside you a visceral fear that defies description; a fear that only those who have faced the horror of combat know. This is your reality. You know what awaits when the order …
When I turned 60, it was a weird feeling, something I had not experienced with previous birthdays. I remember thinking, “SIXTY! Am I really 60?” Where did the time go? Looking back, I realize how much of it I had “wished away.” We all can fall into this trap. There are life challenges to overcome and tasks to complete to reach our ultimate dream. Suddenly, though, we realize that the best …
The flames flicker, tantalizingly reaching upward, and I sit mesmerized. How many times have I sat by my backyard fire pit and watched this ageless dance? I think; I meditate; I pray. A cigar and bourbon often accompany me. I especially love to stand by it while the snow falls, enveloping me in all its beauty. The memories are many, and they are good.
My sons are with me around the …
They were migrant workers in the Central Valley of California. She was expecting her first child when she first crossed the border illegally with her husband only a few weeks before. Most everyone working beside them had done the same, the majority from Mexico, as they were, but some from Central America. The “Coyotes” were always busy in their mercenary work. They were all desperate for a “better life,” the …
I rarely cried growing up. The time I remember most, I was twelve. I was pitching in the semifinals of the Tennessee State Dixie Youth Baseball tournament to qualify for its equivalent of the Little League World Series. In the first inning, I gave up a walk and two hits, including a three-run home run.
However, in the next five innings, I pitched hitless, scoreless ball striking out 15 batters total. …
In the book The Insanity of God, the writer had been an American missionary to Somalia during the late 1980s through early ’90s. This was a time when there was no place on earth with greater needs, hardships, suffering, and dying. It truly was hell on Earth. The missionary and his small team risked their lives with every trip into this most desolate of places where there was no order, …
I was 17 and a senior on the football team. It was the third game of the season. “Speedy” was our star halfback. The place Alabama, the year 1972, and Speedy was Black. Our high school was well integrated for the time because of its proximity to a military post. The majority of the schools against which we competed, though, were still largely segregated. Skin color defined who you were …
I once spoke at a leadership forum on opioid abuse. I was asked to speak about the role of hospital systems in addressing this important issue. As I thought about what I would say, I realized there was very little I could add. The crisis is epidemic, and hospitals are ill-prepared to do anything proactive. It is that overwhelming. Leading medical missions, I learned an important lesson that …
I have seen great leadership and bad leadership. As a leader, I have also made my share of mistakes, and I am sure I will make more. When I do, I will immediately take ownership of it, learn from it, and do all I can not to make the same mistake. However, there will be times I may not recognize my failure, as can happen with any leader. This points …
“There will be a knock at the door,” says Rene, an El Salvadoran pastor and my close friend, “and they will say, ‘Give us your daughter, or we will kill you and your family.’”
He continues: “Gangs control many of the villages. They are in the schools; they are in this school! If the leader sees a girl that he likes, no matter her age, he sends members of his gang …
He stood silently. His eyes fixed on us, immaculately dressed in a dark three-piece suit adorned with a gold watch and chain, hair meticulously groomed, a brightly colored bow tie centered perfectly on a freshly starched white shirt, wire collar stays in place, black wing-tip shoes glistening. Gold cuff links and military-like, sharply creased pants, with just a subtle break of the cuff on the shoe tops, completed the picture. …
She began telling me the same “sob story,” but this time, I looked at her and coldly said, “Mrs. _____, you are going home. I don’t care what you have to say; you are leaving today. I need the bed for someone else.” She began crying. I walked out without saying another word and wrote the discharge order. The Intern with me said the words that I will always remember, …
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